# Photography website



## sarahhearn

Hey all! I am trying to get my photography out there and not sure where to begin... so i figured I would start here. If you could please look at my website, let me know your thoughts and pass the website along? I plan on more in the future with the web site so there will be more (like a store, etc). 

Thanks 

My Photography - Home


let me know your thoughts!


~Sarah


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## Majeed Badizadegan

Oh sure, we'll just pass the website along because we care so much about you. 

How about you introduce yourself and contribute to this forum before you come blatantly plugging yourself? There's an idea. 

In the meantime, I Can't stress this point enough: Some people care. 

Que countdown to thread removal....


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## janineh

Maybe start with learning how to take professional photos...


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## sarahhearn

Rotanimod said:


> Oh sure, we'll just pass the website along because we care so much about you.
> 
> How about you introduce yourself and contribute to this forum before you come blatantly plugging yourself? There's an idea.
> 
> In the meantime, I Can't stress this point enough: No one cares.
> 
> Que countdown to thread removal....



Well, maybe if you looked to see that i JUST JOINED... that I haven't even had a few minutes to join in and talk with everyone. I didnt know that this site was filled with a bunch of rude people. MY MISTAKE. I guess maybe i will need to be rude to all of your posts to work my way in... monkey see monkey do... 
PS: nice big words, just so you know (and I can't stress this enough) NO ONE CARES.

oh and before you make yourself look like a douche, maybe give people a chance to join in... you know... longer than an hour. People do sleep and people are busy. Maybe I had time to post real quick and then come back later in the day to make time for everyone else. Nice going.

Oh and if you couldn't tell... my name introduces itself.


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## sarahhearn

janineh said:


> Maybe start with learning how to take professional photos...




Nice constructive criticism.


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## ronlane

sarahhearn said:


> let me know your thoughts and pass the website along?



Sarah,

You did say ask for people's thoughts, you got it. Also, pass the website along is something that is a little pushy for someone that is new here. You come to a forum about photography to market yourself and your website. May I ask who you think hangs out at this forum? Without knowing you they are not going to recommend you to someone. That doesn't even count the fact or the number of photographers on this forum that don't have enough time to market their own business and website.

Sorry if it seems rude but those are the facts.


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## rexbobcat

I do have to agree in a less snarky way.

Your photos are average. 

I'm confused as whether you are marketing yourself as a photograph enthusiast or a professional.you talk about selling your photos but then you go on to say you're a beginner...


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## SCraig

Sorry but we see this every day or so.  Someone joins, their first (and sometimes last) post is something along the lines of "Please look at / "Like" my web site / Facebook page and tell me how great I am!"  And then there are the once-weekly "I just entered a contest and would appreciate it if you would vote for me" first posts.  After a while it really starts to wear thin and you were the victim of today.

Another thought, this area of the forum is called the "Professional Gallery".  Don't you think that perhaps it's just a little bit pretentious for a beginning photographer to put their first post in a forum area entitled "Professional Gallery"?

Take it easy.  Make yourself at home, but at the same time try to blend in before throwing another forum at us.

Oh, and I did look at your photos.  My advice would be to learn a LOT about light, shadow, and composition.


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## gsgary

I had a quick look and i was not blown away, portraits very badly lite, landscapes were just mountains with trees in front, i'm sorry but you have a long way to go before  
"You are out there"


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## sapper6fd

Another warm welcome for a new member who is a soon to be member of another forum.... Some times the level of arrogance here makes me shake my head.

How about some constructive criticism? How about not blasting someone on their first post to the point where they feel like they have been raped for asking a question. They dont know what the forums are like here, nor do they know how many posts like this come from new members.

Why not just bypass the thread if you dont like what has been posted?


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## cgipson1

If you want to improve.. you should post some photos here for C&C.

This one for instance...

http://www.sarahhearnphotography.com/uploads/1/3/4/3/13439492/3169616_orig.jpg

  Excessively YELLOW.. the contrasty lighting looks terrible, The highlights are totally blown out in several places, DOF should have been deeper, You should NEVER shoot down on a subject as it implies domination / submissiveness... get on their level, and a ugly contrasty background. It is also too tightly framed resulting in a unattractive cropping of head and arms.


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## tirediron

Okay, to start with, WHERE ARE YOU?  On the off chance I did want to hire you, I have no idea if you're in Tennessee or Timbuctou!  Next, you need to get a "real" website.  Nothing screams "Wannabe" like a free website.  They're cheap, spend the <$10/month.  Now, on to the important stuff... the pictures.  Why do I have the sneaking suspicion your "About me" shot was taken by you holding a camera?  It's noisy, the WB is off and it looks like you put NO thought into it.  This is the single most important picture on your website.  You need to project to potential clients, a confindent, skilled and professional manner.  If you cant' do a good self-port, spend the $200 a professional will charge and get one taken.

Your image galleries in general seem weak to me.  They're not bad, but they're not where they need to be.  You have lots of centred compositions, tilted horizons, WB in general seems wayyy off...  few, stronger images are much better than a flood of mediocre or poor images.


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## tirediron

janineh said:


> Maybe start with learning how to take professional photos...


*If you're going to make a statement like, then please back it up with some guidance on how to acheive the recommended goal.  There's NO VALUE in telling someone to improve without telling them how to do it.
*


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## GooniesNeverSayDie11

Do not put the cart before the horse. Learn to take quality photos before trying to expand and make money. You will get a lot further that way. In this day and age, it is very easy to have lofty dreams and attain all sorts of easy tech goodies. (a website, a twitter, a facebook, an etsy page selling your art etc. ) At the end of the day, if your images are rubbish, you are just fooling yourself as well as any potential customers.

_"The difference between a professional photographer and an amateur photographer is the size of the their waste basket."_

Don't confuse this quote to mean that the amateur has more crap to throw away. It is in fact the opposite. The professional has the larger waste basket because they know when a shot is crap as opposed to when a shot is actually worth something.


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## pixmedic

I don't generally click on links to view peoples pictures, but given the quick and visceral reaction to this post, I decided to take a look. 
Your portraits need a lot of work. i noticed on most of them you have very harsh shadowing and need fill flash, or more even lighting conditions, the exposure on most of them is poor. there are a lot of highlights blown out, and the composition seems a bit haphazard on many of them, like they are just random snapshots of people wherever they just happened to be. Your wildlife shots appeared to be much better than your people shots, and I saw much better lighting in that area. 
Iphone shots? not sure what the market is for that on a page you wish to market on a professional level. but if you can sell them, go for it. 
definitely get a better "about me" picture taken. the one you have appears to be an Iphone self portrait with harsh flash lighting, and you are far too pretty to be represented as a professional (or at all) by such a poor photo. your landscape section seemed a little bland, like they were just random shots of places with very few actually catching my attention, but again, they were better exposed than your people portraits. the Yosemite shots were much more compelling to me, and seemed well exposed, and well picked locations. I didn't care much for the flower shots, but thats just my personal taste. I didn't see much in the way of focus issues, so that's a good start.


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## gsgary

sapper6fd said:
			
		

> Another warm welcome for a new member who is a soon to be member of another forum.... Some times the level of arrogance here makes me shake my head.
> 
> How about some constructive criticism? How about not blasting someone on their first post to the point where they feel like they have been raped for asking a question. They don&#146;t know what the forums are like here, nor do they know how many posts like this come from new members.
> 
> Why not just bypass the thread if you don&#146;t like what has been posted?



If they posted photos we would be able to but i dont see any do you


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## sapper6fd

gsgary said:


> sapper6fd said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Another warm welcome for a new member who is a soon to be member of another forum.... Some times the level of arrogance here makes me shake my head.
> 
> How about some constructive criticism? How about not blasting someone on their first post to the point where they feel like they have been raped for asking a question. They dont know what the forums are like here, nor do they know how many posts like this come from new members.
> 
> Why not just bypass the thread if you dont like what has been posted?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If they posted photos we would be able to but i dont see any do you
Click to expand...


The point of my post is on how he was treated. Not what he did or didnt provide. He posts a question, everyone blasts him coming into the thread guns blazing.  The only person who treated him with any sort of respect of dignity was Rexbocat gsgary and cgipson1 and pixmedic.


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## tirediron

gsgary said:


> sapper6fd said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Another warm welcome for a new member who is a soon to be member of another forum.... Some times the level of arrogance here makes me shake my head.
> 
> How about some constructive criticism? How about not blasting someone on their first post to the point where they feel like they have been raped for asking a question. They dont know what the forums are like here, nor do they know how many posts like this come from new members.
> 
> Why not just bypass the thread if you dont like what has been posted?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If they posted photos we would be able to but i dont see any do you
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with offering C&C on the website as a whole....


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## Bitter Jeweler

It's good to have dreams.


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## fotomumma09

sapper6fd said:


> Why not just bypass the thread if you dont like what has been posted?



^^ this

Sarah, 
Welcome to TPF! I checked out your website and think you are off to a good start. You have some shots that I am sure you are very proud of. To be honest none of them appear to be professional quality. The good thing is if you have a desire to learn and grow and a passion for photography you can build on what you already have! I would like to encourage you to stick around as there is a lot of information (stickies with great tutorials). Believe it or not there are some people on TPF who genuinely like helping others as long as they have a willingness to learn! Try not to feel deflated but keep at it! Rudeness and belittling is never an appropriate form of honestly so just ignore it.

Dannielle


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## swiftparkour94

To some of the people on here, stop being such snobs in regards to his gallery/website. Why can't you just get along, give constructive criticism, and leave him with your best input? Were all human and make mistakes, just chill out. You aren't making yourselves look any better and I'm sure you've been in his place before too. Sheesh, just a bunch of spoiled brats behind their monitor or the typical 'professional' that can only be mean because he's just SO too good for everyone!


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## pixmedic

swiftparkour94 said:


> To some of the people on here, stop being such snobs in regards to his gallery/website. Why can't you just get along, give constructive criticism, and leave him with your best input? Were all human and make mistakes, just chill out. You aren't making yourselves look any better and I'm sure you've been in his place before too. Sheesh, just a bunch of spoiled brats behind their monitor or the typical 'professional' that can only be mean because he's just SO too good for everyone!



i guess the "About Me" photo was worse than I thought if you mistook the OP for a guy...


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## gsgary

fotomumma09 said:
			
		

> ^^ this
> 
> Sarah,
> Welcome to TPF! I checked out your website and think you are off to a good start. You have some shots that I am sure you are very proud of. To be honest none of them appear to be professional quality. The good thing is if you have a desire to learn and grow and a passion for photography you can build on what you already have! I would like to encourage you to stick around as there is a lot of information (stickies with great tutorials). Believe it or not there are some people on TPF who genuinely like helping others as long as they have a willingness to learn! Try not to feel deflated but keep at it! Rudeness and belittling is never an appropriate form of honestly so just ignore it.
> 
> Dannielle



Have you been drinking ?


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## tirediron

sapper6fd said:


> ...The only person who treated him with any sort of respect of dignity was Rexbocat gsgary and cgipson1 and pixmedic.


Geezzz... If I had a feeling, it would be hurt!


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## tirediron

gsgary said:


> fotomumma09 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ^^ this
> 
> Sarah,
> Welcome to TPF! I checked out your website and think you are off to a good start. You have some shots that I am sure you are very proud of. To be honest none of them appear to be professional quality. The good thing is if you have a desire to learn and grow and a passion for photography you can build on what you already have! I would like to encourage you to stick around as there is a lot of information (stickies with great tutorials). Believe it or not there are some people on TPF who genuinely like helping others as long as they have a willingness to learn! Try not to feel deflated but keep at it! Rudeness and belittling is never an appropriate form of honestly so just ignore it.
> 
> Dannielle
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Have you been drinking ?
Click to expand...

Lighten up Gary, Dannielle's is a reasonable and well written post.


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## MLeeK

Sarah, this forum is a tough one and we get a LOT of trolling posts just like this-regardless of whether you are trolling on not. 
It can be a rather harsh forum because the members have gotten rather sick and tired of the trolls among other things. Unfortunately a lot of the legitimate newbies look just like the trolls coming in here. 
Let's cover just a few things...
Your name is not an introduction to you and about you. It's just a name. We know nothing about you and have no way of knowing you aren't one of the hundreds of trolls we see each week. People judge each other based on their own past experiences and with 95% of posts like yours we have a new troll. 

Every day it seems we see a new "best buy" photographer who has gotten a new camera and Viola! They are a professional with a business and a website and EVERYthing! Yay! We really get tired of them and aren't exactly supportive of the attitude we get from them. There are pros here with anywhere from a few to 50 years of experience. It gets old. We will gladly help you get to professional level and even go forward in business if that's what you want, but you have to walk before you can run. The comment about learning to take professional photos stems from that. It's not constructive, but this looked like the typical trolling thread so, the reaction was a learned one... Pavlov's dog and all that psychology crap. You definitely need some serious work on the photography skills, but janine wouldn't have put it that way if she thought you were here for anything other than self promotion as your post proclaims. 

You have the ball in your court now. We'll be glad to help you find the things you need to learn if you want to, or you can take off outta here. Just remember that this forum can be harsh (me included) and sometimes just plain mean (yep, me too) but overall we will help anyone who wants to give the time and effort to get help. 

Your website images are needing you to start with the basics. THe first and biggest improvement any newbie can make is studying composition. HERE is my favorite website link for composition. Especially to stop looking down on your children. Get to their level.
After that you need to learn to LOOK at the light you are shooting in. Most of your pictures of your kids show them in lovely spotted light through a tree giving them blow outs and shadows that are not flattering. 
I think you need to calibrate your monitor. You have some GLOWING colors in many of those that I don't think you see. 
After that you can start with the tutorials here for learning how to control your own exposure and how an image appears here: Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials


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## swiftparkour94

fotomumma09 said:
			
		

> ^^ this
> 
> Sarah,
> Welcome to TPF! I checked out your website and think you are off to a good start. You have some shots that I am sure you are very proud of. To be honest none of them appear to be professional quality. The good thing is if you have a desire to learn and grow and a passion for photography you can build on what you already have! I would like to encourage you to stick around as there is a lot of information (stickies with great tutorials). Believe it or not there are some people on TPF who genuinely like helping others as long as they have a willingness to learn! Try not to feel deflated but keep at it! Rudeness and belittling is never an appropriate form of honestly so just ignore it.
> 
> Dannielle



*applause*  I'll add that the key to great photography doesn't rest in the camera you possess, but rather your eyes. In school I shot with a loaned point and shoot and came back with great shots, one even made it as far as Nationals for PSA's youth photography contest. The words that changed how I shoot which I'll never forget...I was on a pier in Oceanside and a guy told me that in my sunset shot I should include some architecture so people know what area I'm in, which then brought me back to the rule of thirds which I never quit understood and had to re-learn. Now I shoot with the brackets on all the time. So my advise to you is, try including something interesting in the shot that tells a story, if there is something distracting or not related to the mood you want the image to project then just crop it.


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## gsgary

tirediron said:
			
		

> Lighten up Gary, Dannielle's is a reasonable and well written post.



I cant even have some fun now


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## swiftparkour94

I meant composition as well as rule of thirds


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## tirediron

gsgary said:


> tirediron said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Lighten up Gary, Dannielle's is a reasonable and well written post.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I cant even have some fun now
Click to expand...

Sure you can... you just have to promise to stop jumping out from dark corners, yelling, 'Boo!' and scaring the newbies!


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## sapper6fd

tirediron said:


> sapper6fd said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...The only person who treated him with any sort of respect of dignity was Rexbocat gsgary and cgipson1 and pixmedic.
> 
> 
> 
> Geezzz... If I had a feeling, it would be hurt!
Click to expand...


Sorry, missed you there.  Just went over the posts on the previous pages quickly!


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## fotomumma09

gsgary said:


> fotomumma09 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ^^ this
> 
> Sarah,
> Welcome to TPF! I checked out your website and think you are off to a good start. You have some shots that I am sure you are very proud of. To be honest none of them appear to be professional quality. The good thing is if you have a desire to learn and grow and a passion for photography you can build on what you already have! I would like to encourage you to stick around as there is a lot of information (stickies with great tutorials). Believe it or not there are some people on TPF who genuinely like helping others as long as they have a willingness to learn! Try not to feel deflated but keep at it! Rudeness and belittling is never an appropriate form of honestly so just ignore it.
> 
> Dannielle
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Have you been drinking ?
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, did you write something, I was ignoring you


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## Tony S

Like pixmedic I don't often go to links, but I did on this one.

  I like the overall layout of your site.  Where things are is clear and to the point, when clicking on buttons it loads up the next page pretty quick.

  The images inside the portfolios need some work.  A lot of the portrait shots are under exposed and have issues with shadows and hot spots.

  The bug animals portfolio shows what I would call normal snapshots, everything is bullseyed right in the center of the images. Mostly more of the same from the misc., and flowers porfolio.

The landscape portfolio has some promising images that could use tweaking or reshooting at better times of the day. Keep an eye our for tilting horizons with water or if trees/towers are in the image.

Scrap the Iphone portfolio, that one does nothing at all the help your collection.

All the images in the Yosemite portfolio are soft, with no detail. Blown highlights, dark shadows, and a bluish color caste hurt most of the images.  I would get rid of this set also as it does not show your very best.

  Keep pluggin away, with your website only show the very best of your photography.  You really need to do a good in depth self review/critique of your images before you put them up for all to see, especially if you are trying to market them or yourself.


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## terri

gsgary said:


> fotomumma09 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ^^ this
> 
> Sarah,
> Welcome to TPF! I checked out your website and think you are off to a good start. You have some shots that I am sure you are very proud of. To be honest none of them appear to be professional quality. The good thing is if you have a desire to learn and grow and a passion for photography you can build on what you already have! I would like to encourage you to stick around as there is a lot of information (stickies with great tutorials). Believe it or not there are some people on TPF who genuinely like helping others as long as they have a willingness to learn! Try not to feel deflated but keep at it! Rudeness and belittling is never an appropriate form of honestly so just ignore it.
> 
> Dannielle
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Have you been drinking ?
Click to expand...

Some people don't require a shot of anything to attempt to be pleasant while letting others down easy.    She DID say "none of them appear to be professional quality", which is honest without being harsh.

Some of what has been said here to this new member is inexcusable.     

Hope none of you pop open, puffing yourselves up like you do at the expense of someone else.    :thumbdown:     

Duly noted....


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## PhotoWrangler

janineh said:


> Maybe start with learning how to take professional photos...




Sweety, you have absolutely NO PLACE to be telling people how to take professional photos... Especially when you've been posting things like this:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...9739-second-portrait-attempt.html#post2720155


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## MTVision

ChristopherCoy said:
			
		

> Sweety, you have absolutely NO PLACE to be telling people how to take professional photos... Especially when you've been posting things like this:
> 
> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/people-photography/299739-second-portrait-attempt.html#post2720155



???


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## sarahhearn

Thank you all for making me feel more welcome to this section versus the professional area. I obviously didn't pick the right place to start at and not to mention the wrong time.
I took all your information and plan to focus on those and try to fix some images. I do like to play with colors... which can be good but in this case... can hurt. 
And yep my profile picture was from my Iphone. I dont have a good picture of me done yet but I will change that as well.
Thank you all for your comments


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## cgipson1

ChristopherCoy said:


> janineh said:
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe start with learning how to take professional photos...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sweety, you have absolutely NO PLACE to be telling people how to take professional photos... Especially when you've been posting things like this:
> 
> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...9739-second-portrait-attempt.html#post2720155
Click to expand...


Christopher... while I agree with you totally, the link you chose does not belong to that individual!


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## Majeed Badizadegan

sapper6fd said:


> Another warm welcome for a new member who is a soon to be member of another forum.... Some times the level of arrogance here makes me shake my head.
> 
> How about some constructive criticism? How about not blasting someone on their first post to the point where they feel like they have been raped for asking a question. They don&#8217;t know what the forums are like here, nor do they know how many posts like this come from new members.
> 
> *Why not just bypass the thread if you don&#8217;t like what has been posted?*



Because this happens every other day, and half of these people are linking to their Facebook photography page, and never come back. In fact, sometimes mods just _delete/hide these threads outright. _Granted, I was a little harsh, but I assumed the thread would be deleted before it went a couple pages .

When I see someone's first post on this forum saying "here's my website check me out and tell all you friends", it gets old.


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## haynie90

Poor lighting, harsh shadows, distractions in pictures (such as cars and powerlines in landscapes/sunsets), missed focus, over and under exposure.
There was a great point in a book i read and i will try to find the title as a reference but a key that he pointed out was in order to look proffesional only advertise your most proffesional looking photos, until you have reached that point a website, portfolio, or anything of the sort should be your last concern. Your major concern now should be experience, practice, general C&C of your photos here on the forum, and enjoying your hobby. Photography shouldnt be a part of your life if the only concern you have is to make money, it should be because you truly enjoy it and will do it no matter how much money you bring in. The passion you have for photography will show in your photos, eventually. Everything takes time. I have googled how to bring in extra cash working at home as my wife is a stay at home mom and it disgusts me at how the majority of the blogs about this subject list photography in they're top 10. Do what you love and love what you do, it will show. I am in no way very experienced nor consider my photos to be proffesional quality. I did not buy my camera to start a buisness, i do it because i love it and always will no matter what.


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## Majeed Badizadegan

sarahhearn said:


> Well, maybe if you looked to see that i JUST JOINED... that I haven't even had a few minutes to join in and talk with everyone. I didnt know that this site was filled with a bunch of rude people. MY MISTAKE. I guess maybe i will need to be rude to all of your posts to work my way in... monkey see monkey do...



Just one rude people: me. 




sarahhearn said:


> PS: nice big words, just so you know (and I can't stress this enough) NO ONE CARES.



about what? 



sarahhearn said:


> oh and before you make yourself look like a douche, maybe give people a chance to join in... you know... longer than an hour.



Oh, so if I gave you longer than an hour, you'd have realized by osmosis that it's distasteful to join a forum full of photographers and self-advertise as your first post? Call me a cynic. 



sarahhearn said:


> People do sleep and people are busy. Maybe I had time to post real quick and then come back later in the day to make time for everyone else. Nice going.



Apparently not too busy to join the forum and post an advertisement to get your photography "out there".





sarahhearn said:


> Oh and if you couldn't tell... my name introduces itself.



Welcome to the forum!


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## swiftparkour94

sarahhearn said:
			
		

> Thank you all for making me feel more welcome to this section versus the professional area. I obviously didn't pick the right place to start at and not to mention the wrong time.
> I took all your information and plan to focus on those and try to fix some images. I do like to play with colors... which can be good but in this case... can hurt.
> And yep my profile picture was from my Iphone. I dont have a good picture of me done yet but I will change that as well.
> Thank you all for your comments



Don't worry about fixing up the pictures, shoot more and shoot lots considering the knowledge we've given you. If all you have is an iPhone for now, who cares? That's what you have for now til you can afford better cameras, take full advantage of the opportunity to use and exploit it. You can't learn much in reguards to manual settings, exposures, etc. but what's very important to learn is composition, rule of thirds, lighting, and so forth


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## Tight Knot

Welcome to the forum Sarah.

Glad to see the rudeness of some didn't scare you away . 
I am right on the verge of transitioning from hobbyist to semi-professional (but will always remain a hobbyist who loves to shoot for my own pleasure).
I came to this forum knowing very little, and have learned so much from people here (as well as taking courses in photography). It is really a worthwhile forum, just ignore the snarky comments. 
The most important piece of advice for composition that I got when I started was:
1: Choose a theme for the photograph, ie. what is the subject of the photo? What do you want people to see?
2: Focus attention on your subject
3: Simplify the subject and photo. Remove any unwanted or distracting elements, like power lines or objects that make the eye wander from the subject.

Of course the next thing is look up different links to understand how to use the rule of thirds, and I believe that the iphone has a rule of 3rds overlay that you can use.

And next is the most difficult part, learning lighting and exposure. Unlike having an eye for photography, which generally comes naturally (and is exceptionally difficult for people who don't have it to learn it),  and it appears that you do have a good eye, lighting and exposure can definitely be learned, because it is a science (there are also art aspects to it, but first learn the basics of the science, and the art will come).

Best of luck with your hobby (new or not) and best of luck fulfilling your dreams.

And just remember, photography is one area that IS legal to shoot people for fun and profit, and won't get you sent away for 10 - life (in most cases ).


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## KmH

Having an eye for photography can indeed be learned, and learned fairly easily. No doubt there are a few people born with it.

Of those born with an eye for photography, even fewer actually become photographers. Of those few that become photographers, even fewer become successful in the business of photography, usually because they lack business acumen and/or sufficient technical photographic knowledge to make the camera/lens/light do what they need done.


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## Tight Knot

KmH said:


> Having an eye for photography can indeed be learned, and learned fairly easily. No doubt there are a few people born with it.
> 
> Of those born with an eye for photography, even fewer actually become photographers. Of those few that become photographers, even fewer become successful in the business of photography, usually because they lack business acumen and/or sufficient technical photographic knowledge to make the camera/lens/light do what they need done.



Hi KmH,

I agree that very few people who have a natural eye for photography become successful photographers because of the reasons you mentioned. But I still feel that the difference between a good  photographer and a great photographer is whether a person has a natural eye or not. Can it be learned? Absolutely, but not easily. Can someone who doesn't have a natural eye become as good as someone who does? Yes, but with  a lot more effort.
Successful financially usually requires a good business sense and an excellent foundation in the science of photography.


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## Derrel

Welcome to TPF Sarah! I feel like to go along with the regular crowd, that I ought to take this time to welcome you to TPF,and then proceed to, immediately, "*tear you a new one*", but I see some other TPF'ers have already done that for me--better than I could have possibly done. If you're still here after three weeks, I bet you'll become a full-fledged newbie member of this site, and your skills will skyrocket. You are, right now I would say, at a point where your skills could go up,up,up VERY QUICKLY with some study,work,and practice, and some really thick,tough skin. As in *rhino-hide *thick and tough. As you can see, TPF is a rough-and-tumble place. Like the wild west, but *without the cheap dime whiskey* or the nickel beer, and minus the $2 buy-in poker games...


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## PhotoWrangler

cgipson1 said:


> Christopher... while I agree with you totally, the link you chose does not belong to that individual!





I was referring to her advice to "pump up the exposure." I thought it was funny that someone who doesn't know how to take "professional" photos themselves was recommending it to someone else.


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## cgipson1

ChristopherCoy said:


> cgipson1 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Christopher... while I agree with you totally, the link you chose does not belong to that individual!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I was referring to her advice to "pump up the exposure." *I thought it was funny that someone who doesn't know how to take "professional" photos themselves was recommending it to someone else*.
Click to expand...


I definitely got that part of your post... and again, agree entirely!  JAMWAC!


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## amolitor

Again, we see this strange idea being trotted out that somehow you have to be able to take good photographs to recognize them.

How many novels must I write before I am allowed to say "this is a bad book"?
How many paintings must I paint before I can say "I don't get Jackson Pollack"?
How many cakes must I bake before I am permitted to say "this cake tastes like poop"?
How many children must I have before I can say "your child is cute"?


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## cgipson1

amolitor said:


> Again, we see this strange idea being trotted out that somehow you have to be able to take good photographs to recognize them.
> 
> How many novels must I write before I am allowed to say "this is a bad book"?
> How many paintings must I paint before I can say "I don't get Jackson Pollack"?
> How many cakes must I bake before I am permitted to say "this cake tastes like poop"?
> How many children must I have before I can say "your child is cute"?



As in, if you can't play... be a coach? And if you can't coach... be a referee?

I think the point here is that some people who critique others harshly, should look honestly at their own photos first! You know.. glass houses, rocks... all that jive!


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## snowbear

Welcome aboard, Sarah.

I's like to give you my opinions.  I am strictly a hobbyist, and don't see myself being anything else.
I like the overall look & feel of your web page.  It's easy to navigate and is not cluttered as a number of sites are.
I like a number of your photos - I feel they have a decent composition and are interesting.  You do need to work on your exposures (strive for consistency) and make sure your horizons are straight.

Good luck.


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## Derrel

amolitor said:


> Again, we see this strange idea being trotted out that somehow you have to be able to take good photographs to recognize them.
> 
> How many novels must I write before I am allowed to say "this is a bad book"?
> How many paintings must I paint before I can say "I don't get Jackson Pollack"?
> How many cakes must I bake before I am permitted to say "this cake tastes like poop"?
> How many children must I have before I can say "your child is cute"?



Hey--that's *my schtick* from 2009!!!! So, obviously, I agree!!!!


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## amolitor

Derrel said:


> Hey--that's *my schtick* from 2009!!!! So, obviously, I agree!!!!



You are Prince to my John Mayer! I just follow your style, years too late.


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## Derrel

My little red Corvette is up for sale--did you know that???


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