Category Archives: Photography

Photography

Ring in the New Year by recycling your old photo gear

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It is time to clean out the closet.

I was handed this ultimatum.

My wife wants to know why does one person with 2 hands have 4 camera bodies? More importantly, if I want to buy more gear, I had better make room. Can you tell this 2nd argument was the one that convinced me?

These days there are so many ways to recycle your older gear.

Some camera retailers like BHPhoto will buy your old gear. Most have a online form you can click to choose the make and model number, accessories you may have like batteries, strap, software bundled.

Analog photo gear above can be bought for a fraction of what it cost. My collection of cameras are all still functioning. I've been known to loan them out to worthy students who are enrolled in my BW film class.

I happen to have the first generation Canon 1D (4 Megapixel) DSLR.

After I complete the online form, I get a dollar amount that BH Photo will pay me for it.

Don’t expect to get a lot for your used equipment especially if they have been 3 generations of your particular body.

The more of these OEM (original equipment manufacturer) you have the better the price you will get. After you populate their online form with the info, their website will spit out a quote which you can expect them to pay if you want to proceed with the sale. In the long run it’s better than having it sit around and gather dust.

Even if your gear is old and doesn’t work, some websites will actually pay you to ship to them and they will recycle it for you especially.

I have an non-functioning Powerbook G3 400Mhz laptop that is laying around, so I headed over to Gazelle.com to see what it was worth.

Nada.

They did offer to pay postage for shipping to them so they can recycle it for me.

What do you guys have in the way of old gear?

Your closets full yet? Do you just have a big house with lots of room? Maybe you have a very understanding packrat significant other.

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Peter Phun Photography

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Photography

Lighting & location can boost your sales

Larry Cooper of Bullhead City, AZ, was a vendor at the Hillside Art Fair in Norco, California. I was intrigued with his wood sculpting and ‘turnings’. I was especially drawn to how the light just emphasized his craftsmanship.

Whenever I’m walking a marketplace, swap meet or a place that sells art, I’m always paying very careful attention to the lighting.

Take for instance these carvings that caught my eye when I was browsing the aisles of the Hillside Farm Art Fair in the city of Norco recently.

I was walking between 2 wooden structures when these little carvings jumped out at me practically saying, “Psst!  Over here! Take my picture!”

The artist who made these may not be able to articulate why exactly he comes back year after year to the same booth to sell and why he does
so well.

But yours truly will let you in on his secret. Continue reading Lighting & location can boost your sales →

Photography

Selling your pictures and turning pro

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A reunion of sorts with my former students Jina Jani and Mary Hamer

Recently I visited with 2 former students who have begun their journey towards becoming professional photographers.

Mary Hamer and Jina Jani are good friends but I believe their competitiveness spurs each other on, much in the same way as when I worked amongst 20 other photographers at the newspaper.

Though Mary and Jina both shoot events, portraits and fine art, they have very distinct tastes.

I caught up with them at an Arts & Crafts fair at the Hillside Farm in the city of Norco.

While in my class, they were highly motivated to learn and they never missed class.

Continue reading Selling your pictures and turning pro →

Photography

Meet Valérie Berta Torales Part 2

In Part 1, I introduced my friend Valérie. In this 2nd installment, I asked her the following:
Q. Can you give me some background about where you went to school, when you arrived here in the US?

A.I was born and grew up on the French Riviera, studied English in Paris, France (Masters degree,) then came over in 1989 as a teaching assistant at the University of Georgia in Athens (REM heydays, glorious times…!) and on to the University of Missouri in Columbia, where I got another Masters degree (little good do they do me now) in Photojournalism

Continue reading Meet Valérie Berta Torales Part 2 →