The Girls of Black Diamond

I have recently been trying to find a podcast about photography that
is not just two people with cameras talking for an hour but one that
actually has some substance….

I think I finally found one that is pretty good… more intended for
the intermediate to advanced shooter – but they hit on all sorts of
items:

In the latest episode they talk about RAW – and the commentary by
Mikkel Aaland, author of Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the
Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge, I found
pretty useful…

Might be worth a read or if you like podcasts – its worth a listen…

http://twipphoto.com/index.php/archives/229#more-229

I would love to hear some discussion about RAW workflow here since
the release of Lightroom and now the latest beta of Lightroom 2.0 –
if people are using it etc…

I think many of us photographers have seen the huge increase in online portfolio sites and ways to get your name out… But do they work?

I have so many online portfolios I do not even know where my stuff is anymore and I have to say this is a bad thing. How do you balance time allotment vs. shooting? Is it more important to shoot or market yourself?

Where does this insanity end?

So for the quick list I know I have some kind of portfolio at the following places:

Definitely the longest one I have had is OneModelplace.com – Not free thou
Modelmayhem.com  – Free and liked by many photographers

Then I have to worry about my site and then my soon to open members site:

www.blackdiamondproductions.net
www.blackdiamondmodels.com
www.girlsofblackdiamond.com

I think I need a lot more people working for me than just me…… and that’s just to keep this stuff straight on a day to day basis.

How do you cope? Let me know!

So this portion of the site is slowly growing and changing as I go…. I have had several requests to talk more about how to become a photographer in the Glamour market. As I have said in the past I am by far not a "pro" but more of an advanced amatuar. "Pro" is a person who makes money shooting…. I am clearly not that..just ask my bank account.. as in most cases I hope to make enough to pay for equipment let alone buy a yaght and drink umbrella drinks on the islands.

That said this week we will begin the trek to attempt to cover the basics…..

So rule number one for this site is there are going to be photos of beautiful nude girls here… sorry its a glamour photo site… its what both we as photographers do and what the great models we work with do… I will not get into a huge debate on the topic of nudity but my take is that the site is not password protected so all images displayed to the public will be covered in some way as to not make them "porn".. Ah porn another debate not worth having right now…. maybe later thou… We can let the models answer that when we start posting the interveiws with the girls we work with – I think most will be amazed as to the answers.

So to sum it up… the photo of Lux Kassidy above is an example of the type of photos you will see here. And please no comments that she is not topless, or that little diamonds on her nipples does not make it kid safe etc. I am a huge beliver that you can see more nudity than that on regular TV or in a copy of most magazines these days, and more power to you if you have any pay channels….

(soapbox over)

On to photogrpahy… The plan is to have a photo edit explanation and some tips each week. But more than likely there will be much more than that. This week we are going to start with tips for the Nikon D100 – Yes its 3 generations old and yes I still use it but remember the budget minded aspect we are going for here… So there will be an entire new section about D100 Tips and Tricks on a seperate page of this site by later this week…And yes I want a D300…

Actually seeing I am running out of time to type this evening… let me do this… I will post the Nikon D100 Page tonight and then write up the Lux shot tomorrow to get it out to everyone. I get alot of questions about the how behind the why I do edit photos the way i do and I will happily talk about that here if anyone wants to hear the reasons…

Photo Tips….. For the photographers out there that are looking to get into the glamour business I am happy to help however I can. I have spent most of the past four years learning about and developing my style of photography and also have learned the hard way all the legal and other issues that can go right along with the glamour and photography world in general. Feel free to email or post questions and I will do my best to at minimum give my opinions and maybe save you some money and time…learning from my mistakes.