Ivite to China/Me/Humanitarian/Critique

--
Hi...

I love this forum. It always makes me drool!

Ok, here the thing. I have been photographing things for a couple of years now, and have just started to share my photography. I live in China currently, and have had some opportunity present itself.

My friend is in the red cross and works in remote regions to try to help deliver water, and he mentioned that they think they would like a documentary photographer... and thats were I may come in. On the same day I happened to meet another lady that works with some other organazations doing domething similiar with leopard colonies, and she wanted the same thing.

So I am pretty excited. I would live this to be my break. My web site is far from being published, however I have gotten a halfway working gallary on it, and have posted like 100 or so pictures.

They are not my best samples, imho, however they are somewhat documentary in nature, and I am working like a mad man to get all the photography online...I have not yet to post the ones I really like yet...

but as I do I makr them with cool if you want to do a search on that...

So why am I writting you guys ? Well I just wanted to know if you could keep checking over the next days as I continue to update it and let me know if you think I have a Chance...

I have no idea what to charge them, and am pretty excited.

so if you can stand the clutter and spelling errors which run rampant and have time to browse http://www.thecenterofthenet.com --> a tiny gallery

I would be very thankful! Or you could go directly to the gallery at http://www.thecenterofthenet.com/4images/

I know a large amount of the posted ictures are at night with a flash, and the others with an overcast sky... but the ones I will post over the next days should get better.

I use a:

Cannon d30
and sigma 28-70 with a cracked lense seal andsmude impossible to clean
a tripod, monopod, ibm 1 gig...

I had more once, but got extorted in northern China and have a small chinese salary which makes buying new stuff very hard : )

But I remember what is was like when I had my camera taken.. I am happy to get that back.. I cant complain..

But any tips on shooting overcast skies with that camera setup , specifically metering (spot center waited) tips and wb settings very appreciated...

I have to say I dream about some lenses... but hey... I cant wait..

I look forward to your replies and vusits!
And your advice to the future development if things move forward!

Sincerely,
Robert

But no replies...

I added a gallery of American homeless pictures that I hope are somewhat provocative investigative like...
I am continuing to add more pictures untill I pass out : )
This is seriously the first time I have really shared my photography//

So, i just wanted to know from the people that shoot for a living, if it looks like I am makking progress on my photography..
?

I guess I am looking for reassurance that I have demonstrated some quality enought pictures that would be worthy of me doing the documentary photography for a small fee as mentioned in my earlier post...
Thanks for your time-
Robert Eaton

Arrggh....

Can someone tell me if mmy photograpy just completely sucks, or does everone just hate repling to anything I post????

Thanks for your time

I don't have many comments on documentary photography since I have no experience with it. But I will talk about some of the other issues you mentioned.

As far as shooting in overcast days, The only thing I try to do is to avoid getting the sky in any of my shots. Typically in an overcast day, I find that the sky is several stops brighter than anything else and will almost always be blown out and have almost no detail in it. So I try not to include the sky in any of my shots on overcast days.

As far as metering is concerned, if I'm in a rush, I'll meter off of my hand to get a rough idea of the settings. I'll switch to manual, take a shot, check the histogram, then adjust the exposure and retake the shot. If its an overcast day, once you get the exposure set, you shouldn't have to change it again.

For white balancing, the cheapest, most cost effective, reliable method is to buy a Kodak Gray card. I don't know if you can buy this in China, but in the U.S. it costs about $10 - $20. If you don't have one available, a styrofoam cup, placed over the lens, works reasonably well.

Joo

Robert Eaton said:

--
Hi...

I love this forum. It always makes me drool!

Ok, here the thing. I have been photographing things for a couple
of years now, and have just started to share my photography. I live
in China currently, and have had some opportunity present itself.

My friend is in the red cross and works in remote regions to try to
help deliver water, and he mentioned that they think they would
like a documentary photographer... and thats were I may come in. On
the same day I happened to meet another lady that works with some
other organazations doing domething similiar with leopard colonies,
and she wanted the same thing.

So I am pretty excited. I would live this to be my break. My web
site is far from being published, however I have gotten a halfway
working gallary on it, and have posted like 100 or so pictures.

They are not my best samples, imho, however they are somewhat
documentary in nature, and I am working like a mad man to get all
the photography online...I have not yet to post the ones I really
like yet...

but as I do I makr them with cool if you want to do a search on
that...

So why am I writting you guys ? Well I just wanted to know if you
could keep checking over the next days as I continue to update it
and let me know if you think I have a Chance...

I have no idea what to charge them, and am pretty excited.

so if you can stand the clutter and spelling errors which run
rampant and have time to browse http://www.thecenterofthenet.com --> a
tiny gallery
I would be very thankful! Or you could go directly to the gallery
at http://www.thecenterofthenet.com/4images/

I know a large amount of the posted ictures are at night with a
flash, and the others with an overcast sky... but the ones I will
post over the next days should get better.

I use a:

Cannon d30
and sigma 28-70 with a cracked lense seal andsmude impossible to clean
a tripod, monopod, ibm 1 gig...

I had more once, but got extorted in northern China and have a
small chinese salary which makes buying new stuff very hard : )

But I remember what is was like when I had my camera taken.. I am
happy to get that back.. I cant complain..

But any tips on shooting overcast skies with that camera setup ,
specifically metering (spot center waited) tips and wb settings
very appreciated...

I have to say I dream about some lenses... but hey... I cant wait..

I look forward to your replies and vusits!
And your advice to the future development if things move forward!

Sincerely,
Robert

Click to expand...

--

• Maybe one day I'll take a decent picture. In the meantime, I'll blame the equipment.
• http://www.pbase.com/jchung/portfolio

Robert,

You may not remember me, but I met you and your fiancee in Nanning last June, at the MacDonalds. At the time, I think you were still missing your D30, glad you got it back.

Your photos, to my eye, have something to them. The first suggestion I have is to work on the presentation of them. Your web site tends to be a bit broad in scope to allow people to focus on the images, so I would put them on pages without the frame and maybe work the the organization and text. It would go a long way to have a complete narrative for each group. And spend a bit more time fixing typos and spelling, it does matter.

Your effort encourages me to put up some of my shots, both from Nanning and Guangzhou in June and Hong Kong and Shenzhen in November. I'll be in China again in March, but way north in Xining.

Hope you get those two opportunities to photograph, I wish I had someone willing to pay me to photograph China.

John

I’m really no one to talk. What I preach and what I practice are two different things.

http://www.pbase.com/vinke/chiayi
http://www.pbase.com/vinke/hong_kong&page=18

However, i might recommend the following:

always have a clearly defined subject…make sure you know how you want to portray your subject and that your project objectives are clear and concise.

concentrate more on your subject. For example, let's say, hypothetically, that your subject is a street merchant selling vegetables...take several photographs of the merchant doing what they do, ie, talking to customers, cleaning vegetables, organizing vegetables, collecting money from customers, etc.

and get in CLOSER to your subject to eliminate some of the clutter and distraction in the background and peripheral areas. Be somewhere close to F 4.0 – 5.0 range. ISO up to get better shots utilizing natural light. Try to avoid flash. D30 you can ISO to 800 or 1000?

get several CLOSE shots of items that are indicative of your subject...ie, vegetables, baskets, cash register, vehicle that transports produce, etc.

try working in the daytime: early morning and dusk.

Try never to include the gray, washed out sky.

Robert Eaton said:

--
Hi...

I love this forum. It always makes me drool!

Ok, here the thing. I have been photographing things for a couple
of years now, and have just started to share my photography. I live
in China currently, and have had some opportunity present itself.

My friend is in the red cross and works in remote regions to try to
help deliver water, and he mentioned that they think they would
like a documentary photographer... and thats were I may come in. On
the same day I happened to meet another lady that works with some
other organazations doing domething similiar with leopard colonies,
and she wanted the same thing.

So I am pretty excited. I would live this to be my break. My web
site is far from being published, however I have gotten a halfway
working gallary on it, and have posted like 100 or so pictures.

They are not my best samples, imho, however they are somewhat
documentary in nature, and I am working like a mad man to get all
the photography online...I have not yet to post the ones I really
like yet...

but as I do I makr them with cool if you want to do a search on
that...

So why am I writting you guys ? Well I just wanted to know if you
could keep checking over the next days as I continue to update it
and let me know if you think I have a Chance...

I have no idea what to charge them, and am pretty excited.

so if you can stand the clutter and spelling errors which run
rampant and have time to browse http://www.thecenterofthenet.com --> a
tiny gallery
I would be very thankful! Or you could go directly to the gallery
at http://www.thecenterofthenet.com/4images/

I know a large amount of the posted ictures are at night with a
flash, and the others with an overcast sky... but the ones I will
post over the next days should get better.

I use a:

Cannon d30
and sigma 28-70 with a cracked lense seal andsmude impossible to clean
a tripod, monopod, ibm 1 gig...

I had more once, but got extorted in northern China and have a
small chinese salary which makes buying new stuff very hard : )

But I remember what is was like when I had my camera taken.. I am
happy to get that back.. I cant complain..

But any tips on shooting overcast skies with that camera setup ,
specifically metering (spot center waited) tips and wb settings
very appreciated...

I have to say I dream about some lenses... but hey... I cant wait..

I look forward to your replies and vusits!
And your advice to the future development if things move forward!

Sincerely,
Robert

Click to expand...

http://www.pbase.com/vinke/taipei&page=2

Robert Eaton said:

--
Hi...

I love this forum. It always makes me drool!

Ok, here the thing. I have been photographing things for a couple
of years now, and have just started to share my photography. I live
in China currently, and have had some opportunity present itself.

My friend is in the red cross and works in remote regions to try to
help deliver water, and he mentioned that they think they would
like a documentary photographer... and thats were I may come in. On
the same day I happened to meet another lady that works with some
other organazations doing domething similiar with leopard colonies,
and she wanted the same thing.

So I am pretty excited. I would live this to be my break. My web
site is far from being published, however I have gotten a halfway
working gallary on it, and have posted like 100 or so pictures.

They are not my best samples, imho, however they are somewhat
documentary in nature, and I am working like a mad man to get all
the photography online...I have not yet to post the ones I really
like yet...

but as I do I makr them with cool if you want to do a search on
that...

So why am I writting you guys ? Well I just wanted to know if you
could keep checking over the next days as I continue to update it
and let me know if you think I have a Chance...

I have no idea what to charge them, and am pretty excited.

so if you can stand the clutter and spelling errors which run
rampant and have time to browse http://www.thecenterofthenet.com --> a
tiny gallery
I would be very thankful! Or you could go directly to the gallery
at http://www.thecenterofthenet.com/4images/

I know a large amount of the posted ictures are at night with a
flash, and the others with an overcast sky... but the ones I will
post over the next days should get better.

I use a:

Cannon d30
and sigma 28-70 with a cracked lense seal andsmude impossible to clean
a tripod, monopod, ibm 1 gig...

I had more once, but got extorted in northern China and have a
small chinese salary which makes buying new stuff very hard : )

But I remember what is was like when I had my camera taken.. I am
happy to get that back.. I cant complain..

But any tips on shooting overcast skies with that camera setup ,
specifically metering (spot center waited) tips and wb settings
very appreciated...

I have to say I dream about some lenses... but hey... I cant wait..

I look forward to your replies and vusits!
And your advice to the future development if things move forward!

Sincerely,
Robert

Click to expand...

Hi Robert,

Your pictures are really nice and I remember some of mines from my trip to your contry in 98. There's a lot to do there and especially with images we can't get in here (Europe nin my case)...
Lovely, thank you!

OLIVIER

John Finnan said:

Robert,

You may not remember me, but I met you and your fiancee in Nanning
last June, at the MacDonalds. At the time, I think you were still
missing your D30, glad you got it back.

Click to expand...

Hey... where you the guy with the D60, Iomega 1gb mocrodrive, and 16-3x L? If so yeah I remember you... I hope you had a good trip.. You were from Arizona , right?? i hope things worked out pretty good. Yeah a lot has happened since we ran into you... we successfully delivered our unpermitted baby, and after much husseling I was able to get my camera , tripod, and monopod , and lens back from the people that were extorting me in hubei. They had destroyed my shutter... but fortunately I became friends with one of the few cannon repair techs in the city of wuhan... she fixed my camera and then brought it by train to me here in Nanning. After being without it for so many monthse with such great photographic oppurtunity in China I can say it was ver very very awsome to get it back.

John Finnan said:

Your photos, to my eye, have something to them. The first
suggestion I have is to work on the presentation of them. Your web
site tends to be a bit broad in scope to allow people to focus on
the images, so I would put them on pages without the frame and
maybe work the the organization and text. It would go a long way to
have a complete narrative for each group. And spend a bit more time
fixing typos and spelling, it does matter.

Click to expand...

Hey You are not ssposed to be looking at my site yet Actually you are totally right about the layout typos thing. I am eons away from were I would like my layout to be, and I have just barely got the php gallery stuff installed on my site. I have had so little time to customise the layout in the gallery part. I will totally hit that are really hard when I havve time. And the same goes with the typos. I have this terrible intermittantly working keyboard to supplement my already error prone typing skills.

Since I have gotten the gallery php running I have been soending every ounce of my time sifting through all the pictures I have stored locally to get them on my sites gallery database...

Sadly every other thing in my life is on standbye.... sleep, etc etc.. (except for my baby) I wanted to ask the people here what they thought of the pictures, as that is my ownly concern now.... Later Iwill care about everything you rightfully mentioned....

John Finnan said:

Your effort encourages me to put up some of my shots, both from
Nanning and Guangzhou in June and Hong Kong and Shenzhen in
November.

Click to expand...

Hey that would be great! I love looking at other peoples pictures from China, and seeing how they catch their perspective of it... Id love to hear about your Chinese experiance.

I'll be in China again in March, but way north in Xining.

Hey that should be quite different then down here... enjoy it!

John Finnan said:

Hope you get those two opportunities to photograph, I wish I had
someone willing to pay me to photograph China.

John

Click to expand...

eah .. I keep pinching myself.. I dont know anything about any monetary aspect of it.. but nevertheless I love the oppurtunity....
--

It is great to hear from you... and what a coincedence to meet you for the second time, this time in the dpreview forum : )

Thanks for your time visiting my site and looking at everything.. I really appreciate your critique, and it was good talkiing to you again-

Robert

Joo said:

I don't have many comments on documentary photography since I have
no experience with it. But I will talk about some of the other
issues you mentioned.

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for your reply!

Joo said:

As far as shooting in overcast days, The only thing I try to do is
to avoid getting the sky in any of my shots. Typically in an
overcast day, I find that the sky is several stops brighter than
anything else and will almost always be blown out and have almost
no detail in it. So I try not to include the sky in any of my shots
on overcast days.

Click to expand...

Yeah I hate that.... I have attepted to dodge and burn with photoshop.. bu thats not the funnest... I wiol try to think about avoiding the sky... but that totally sucked to have overcast sky durring my whole countryside shoot...

Joo said:

As far as metering is concerned, if I'm in a rush, I'll meter off
of my hand to get a rough idea of the settings. I'll switch to
manual, take a shot, check the histogram, then adjust the exposure
and retake the shot. If its an overcast day, once you get the
exposure set, you shouldn't have to change it again.

Click to expand...

I was thinking more specifically about the center weighted, average, oter jog dial selecion on he d30... I ardl sdjust it bt am always crious to rather or not I am using it correctly...

Joo said:

For white balancing, the cheapest, most cost effective, reliable
method is to buy a Kodak Gray card. I don't know if you can buy
this in China, but in the U.S. it costs about $10 - $20. If you
don't have one available, a styrofoam cup, placed over the lens,
works reasonably well.

Joo

Click to expand...

Do you always set the white balance? i have always left it to AWB, and then tweaked stuff in photoshop.... Is it the same effect as using the card, cup, b adjusting the saturation and color balance in ps?

Thanks for your reply...

BTW I checked out your site and cool pictures!

See my commment there...

Robert

mayday said:

I?m really no one to talk. What I preach and what I practice
are two different things.

http://www.pbase.com/vinke/chiayi
http://www.pbase.com/vinke/hong_kong&page=18

Click to expand...

Hey---

Very cool pictures..!
Some of the first I have ever seen from taiwan...

vinke said:

However, i might recommend the following:

always have a clearly defined subject?make sure you know how
you want to portray your subject and that your project objectives
are clear and concise.

Click to expand...

Yeah.. your right... I am trying to do that more in my head lately... It seems more often than not I ralise what I wanted to shoot by going throught the images of wwhats missing...

vinke said:

concentrate more on your subject. For example, let's say,
hypothetically, that your subject is a street merchant selling
vegetables...take several photographs of the merchant doing what
they do, ie, talking to customers, cleaning vegetables, organizing
vegetables, collecting money from customers, etc.

Click to expand...

Totally...

vinke said:

and get in CLOSER to your subject to eliminate some of the clutter
and distraction in the background and peripheral areas.

Click to expand...

Thats what vince was saying.... I was thinking of that too... althought sometimes I like to get the background in there..

Be

vinke said:

somewhere close to F 4.0 ? 5.0 range.

Click to expand...

Sou you mean llike close, or cropped close, without going for a shallow depth of field?

ISO up to get better

vinke said:

shots utilizing natural light. Try to avoid flash. D30 you can ISO
to 800 or 1000?

Click to expand...

1000, but it is soooo grainy! 00 is the safest non grain one... I dream of hafving like the 50mm 1.4 so I could get low light shots. I agree with the flash. i hate using it actually... and everytime I put it on I hink... well if i just had the 1.4..... ...

vinke said:

get several CLOSE shots of items that are indicative of your
subject...ie, vegetables, baskets, cash register, vehicle that
transports produce, etc.

Click to expand...

Good point... I will conciously focus on that..

vinke said:

try working in the daytime: early morning and dusk.

Click to expand...

The best! I am trying to be more disiplined in that area. Dusk lighting is awsome..

vinke said:

Try never to include the gray, washed out sky.

Click to expand...

That kills me with everything all the time....

Thanks for your good points and your time!

i enjoyed your pictures!

Robert

olivier peresse said:

Hi Robert,
Your pictures are really nice and I remember some of mines from my
trip to your contry in 98. There's a lot to do there and especially
with images we can't get in here (Europe nin my case)...
Lovely, thank you!

OLIVIER

Click to expand...

--

Thank you so much for your reply! I am so happy that you enjoyed them. I hope you can find your way back to China one day... and if no ack to my gallery where I will always ry to u up new pic...thanks!

Robert

I didn't realize they live in colonies.

Zidar
Alaska
--
It's not about stuff.
http://www.pbase.com/zidar

keep trying and you'll be fine.
as is so often said, photography is a journey, not a destination.....

--
------------------------------

if you take the time to do something urgent, make sure it is important .............................

Robert Eaton said:

Joo said:

I don't have many comments on documentary photography since I have
no experience with it. But I will talk about some of the other
issues you mentioned.

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for your reply!

ROBERT EATON said:

As far as shooting in overcast days, The only thing I try to do is
to avoid getting the sky in any of my shots. Typically in an
overcast day, I find that the sky is several stops brighter than
anything else and will almost always be blown out and have almost
no detail in it. So I try not to include the sky in any of my shots
on overcast days.

Click to expand...

Yeah I hate that.... I have attepted to dodge and burn with
photoshop.. bu thats not the funnest... I wiol try to think about
avoiding the sky... but that totally sucked to have overcast sky
durring my whole countryside shoot...

ROBERT EATON said:

As far as metering is concerned, if I'm in a rush, I'll meter off
of my hand to get a rough idea of the settings. I'll switch to
manual, take a shot, check the histogram, then adjust the exposure
and retake the shot. If its an overcast day, once you get the
exposure set, you shouldn't have to change it again.

Click to expand...

I was thinking more specifically about the center weighted,
average, oter jog dial selecion on he d30... I ardl sdjust it bt am
always crious to rather or not I am using it correctly...

Click to expand...

The thing is, if you use manual mode, you don't have to worry so much about the metering modes. The only time I don't use manual is if the lighting is changing often while I'm shooting. such as if the the sun is going behind the clouds and coming out behind the clouds often. Then I have to worry about the metering modes because I'll have hte camera set to either shutter priority or aperture priority.

ROBERT EATON said:

ROBERT EATON said:

For white balancing, the cheapest, most cost effective, reliable
method is to buy a Kodak Gray card. I don't know if you can buy
this in China, but in the U.S. it costs about $10 - $20. If you
don't have one available, a styrofoam cup, placed over the lens,
works reasonably well.

Joo

Click to expand...

Do you always set the white balance? i have always left it to AWB,
and then tweaked stuff in photoshop.... Is it the same effect as
using the card, cup, b adjusting the saturation and color balance
in ps?

Click to expand...

I white balance almost all the time. But, like setting the exposure in manual mode, you usually only have to set the white balance once and then leave it for the rest of the shots. You'll have to set teh white balance again when your lighting changes. The more you get right while you are taking the photo, the less you have to do in post processing. For me, using AWB and correcting in post processing is not the same as setting the white balance when you take the shot. I find its more difficult for me to get the colors right in post processing when I'm shooting with AWB, so I end up spending a lot more time trying to fix it.

ROBERT EATON said:

Thanks for your reply...

BTW I checked out your site and cool pictures!

See my commment there...

Robert

Click to expand...

--

• Maybe one day I'll take a decent picture. In the meantime, I'll blame the equipment.
• http://www.pbase.com/jchung/portfolio