Between-The-Lenz

Monday, December 17, 2012 0 comments

The Indiegogo campaign for the graphic novel "Behind These Eyes" is underway (Guy Anthony De Marco, Peter Wacks, and Chaz Kemp). Please consider donating and picking up a reward or two.

http://www.indiegogo.com/VillainousPressBTE

Behind These Eyes Graphic Novel

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Sunday, May 20, 2012 0 comments

Ever have one of those days?

Recently my oldest daughter went through her continuation. For those that aren’t familiar with that term, it’s when middle school students “graduate” from middle school to high school.

Of course as a dad I was beaming with pride with all the awards she won, her GPA and of course how beautiful she looked. yep, I was a proud dad.

I wasn’t so proud of the photos I took though, hardly any of them turned out worth a darn! Exposure and shutter was fine but they were all fuzzy. I couldn’t get a still shot to save my life, even with a tripod! GRRRR! Baring teeth smile

Here is an example,

my camera has a really small video screen and the eyepiece is not that great especially for those of use who wear glasses. This one was taken using the screen. It also doesn’t have the motion feature that most of the newer cameras have these days.

I had to run it through DeBlurMyImage which is a neat little program and does well for its intended purpose. Unfortunately It can leave a lot of noise in the picture. It’s also not quite strong enough to handle severe blur. I like to process the images in RAW format but I have to convert it to jpeg to use DeBlurMyImage which to me, takes away some of the “pop” RAW can offer.

So I spent the evening taking pictures of my daughters continuation and getting more and more frustrated at the results. This is a one time event and I’m blowing it. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get a good shot. Finally, close to the end of the ceremony I gave up. I had headed to the back to get a picture of her walking down the isle. I was set up in a really good spot, out of the way of the kids and not being intrusive to other parents back there.

When the kids started down the isle, almost every single parent, sibling and relative in the building crowded the end of the isle that even the kids themselves couldn’t get through. Parents were stopping their kids right at the end to do pictures and would make them hold up the line for up to 10 minutes. I was not only offended by this but felt bad for the kids as I’m sure they wanted to get out of there and over to the dance. Steaming mad

I was able to get some decent shots but not to my liking or expectations.

This was one of the only ones that turned out decent and my wife and I wasn’t ready. What can you do, you have good days and you have bad days, this day was just one of those days.

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Sunday, January 15, 2012 Customer Service, Financial, Professional 0 comments

Customer Service…It’s a dying art

I’m not a professional photographer or claim to be one nor do I get paid or charge for any photography I do. The simple act of doing it and that someone thinks I’m good enough that they trust me with their photos is more than enough payment for me. I get to practice and get better and they may get some really decent pictures out of the deal for free. I set the expectations early by informing them I’m not a pro and there is a very good chance that none of the pictures will turn out well and see if they still want me to do them. The answer is usually yes as they know I’ll work with them after the shoot to help make it right.

Recently I had a bad experience with a local professional photographer who has been in the area for well, as long as I can remember. (I’m 42) During the spring I coached kid’s soccer and the local photographer was there for picture day. He had an exclusive contract with the soccer organization to provide pictures. They’ve used him in the past so it was a long standing relationship. We dropped the $40 some bucks down on a small package, got the pictures taken and then waited for them to be done.

Once they arrived we were surprised to see that my daughters name was spelled incorrectly. She had a boys name. “Ok, no big deal.” we thought and headed over to the studio to see about getting them corrected. No one was there so we called and left a message. No response. We called again and got ahold of someone in the office and they said they would correct it and call us back when they were done. We never heard a word from them.

6 months later, my daughter is playing youth basketball and the photographer was doing the portraits again. perfect time to see about getting her soccer pictures fixed. I took the originals and said that we need these fixed before we buy any more and have been waiting for months for a call back from you. The response I got was “What's wrong with it?” (as he looked at the photo.) I had to point out to him that the subject is female (quite obviously one at that) and the name they printed was male.

Nothing more was said, he got their cart full of photos, found the corrected one and handed it to me. No “I apologize about that".” or “We’re sorry we didn’t get back to you sooner.” no attempt to reconcile the customer relationship. this to me was the same as “We are the only photography source in the area, you will bow down to us and you will use our services and like it!” maybe in their arrogance they forgot that there is another photography studio in town or that people are buying their own photography equipment and doing their own work. It’s attitudes like that that drive me to purchasing my own equipment and doing it myself. Heck, I’ll do it for free which hopefully will put a ding into that business’ profits. Maybe then they will gain some humility and realize that the customer relationship is key to their livelihood.