approching newpapers and estate agents as a photographer

[Thunderchild]

how do I do it ?

Newspapers do they take anybody that can get them the shots regardless of education or just pay per shot,

estate agents do they hire photographers or do it themselves ?

[weeal]

This gives lots of info re Press Photography.

http://www.skillset.org/photo/careers/photogra phers/article_3278_1.asp

Estate Agents normally take pics themselves.

[Thunderchild]

hm interesting siounds like they have the golden rule: get a degree and thats not in my kit bag....

[weeal]

aww, try some other photography vacancies, have you looked on job web sites? possibly design companies?

Good luck

[Thunderchild]

problem is I have no qualifications of any kind in this feild I just take good (I think) pictures and would like to expand

www.simons-photography.com

(perhaps a few things won't sgow up right as I'm having a little redesign)

[weeal]

you could make up a portfolio and contact several companies who may be interested in taking a look if you show keen

I will have a look at the site

good luck

[Thunderchild]

thanks

I applied for a photography job naturally I was perfect for the job it was perfect for me.... naturally they got so many applications I was knocked off probably loads of guys with higher education etc.

[weeal]

well dont give up if its your dream, after all other people didnt get the job even with qualifications

could you do a course at night or whatever to gain a qualification in this? it might be of benefit in the future and it shows determination

[Thunderchild]

yes but forgot to mention the "other" problem I'm almost 25 so am not entitled to free education and I havn't the money to spend or I'd gladly do it. I've lived in Italy for 14 years where I did all of my schooling after age 10 so thats not like great either. the ideal thing would be also that I get an NVQ in electronics as I already have an Italina diploma in electronics (scrap paer here or in italy) so I'd find it fairly easy to get through but same problem MONEY makes the world go round

[pink-kittens]

Hi Simon

Just a quick post about your web site as weeal's advice about the rest is good :)

It doesn't look very professional I'm afraid. Too many colours and the colour combinations are very garish. Not sure if you use/want to use your site for people to hopefully contact you about taking pics of them and for them, but to be perfectly honest, if I were looking for a photographer and came across your site, it would not inspire me with confidence and I would click the back button. I also found it hard to navigate and could only find one picture, a panoramic one. There are also spelling/typing errors
Please don't take offence, I mean this constructively
Colour is OK but it must be co-ordinated colours not a mix up of day glo greens and reds, sorry
Good luck in finding your dream job

[Thunderchild]

Hi pink kittens
thanks for your coments. I know it don't inspire much it does look amateur it is all hand written html in notepad as I get fed up with hi falute programs that decide for themselves what my site should be like (such as frontage).

now as for colours your right I'm eliminating the coloured texts as it probably looks amateurish but I want a light colour in the background just to stop that white glare
you can see an example of this in this section:
http://www.simons-photography.com/alberobello/
and I will make that text black.

as for your not finding images I think I see your point.
wht can I do about it ? my idea was a section per topic and then sub section indexes this would also advoid the problem of having 100 thumbnails on one page, when I orignally designed the site it I was on dialup and appreciated the difficulties others on dial up would have (isn't it great when the thumnails load from 100 - 1 not 1-100 or just come up randomly)

the other things is I'm tired of this black background and white text photo pro style it starts to look a worn out to me and black backgrounds are not nice in my opinion

[weeal]

Hi, yeah pink-kittens is right about the website, but you can work on that and will improve as you go along

here's a nice example of pics on a website, is one local to my mum up here in scotland, its easy to navigate and crystal clear

http://www.drookitagain.co.uk/coppermine/thumb nails.php?album=1

[Thunderchild]

yes thats a nice site its not terifically different from mine in "organisation" but it is more immediate in "getting to the picture" wich is most important I suppose.

I would say my approach wich was allow all the thumbnails to be veiwed in one go giving you a choice has perhaps made it a bit sluggish whereas that site puts you straight into the pictures and slideshows you through, that bottom slide thing is peobably quite easy, I do get the feeling it was done with a template or something my problem is with my limited html knowledge every page is done painstakingly by hand and generally needs correcting for links or something

another thing that i should do is "frame" the images

[pink-kittens]

Hi there

Now that link takes me to a page that looks nice, clean and professional. I like it and would certainly look further for your services if it all looked that way.

google have web pages you could use that look really nice, have loads of templates and I'm pretty sure you can add your own HTML as well, if that's what you want to do. You will need a google account/gmail address but that's easy to get http://pages.google.com/-/about.html (if you decide to go ahead and need a google invite just post here and I'll mail you one via your web pages)

Remember one golden rule for any web pages/sites you set up: Everything should be no more than 3 clicks away.

I can tell you that I like clean looking web pages in blue's, creams and beiges. Lilacs look good too but not bright garish colours, plain soft tones are best. That black on beige you have looks good and fresh - I'd keep it :)

HTH and good luck!

[Thunderchild]

ah thanks so much pink kittens for your advice and "mystery shooper" reports, yes I hoped that style was better. I decided to give up the faded camera tiles as a background but didn't want the white glare. I first tried with a solid colour as light as I dared (it never looks the same on the web as it does in a photoshop pallet) but I wasn't too happy.
then I had a though that was born of my experience as an offset printer, dots tiny dots this would not be a solid and anoying background and hopefully more pleasing to the eye, it is simply tiles that are 3 X 3 pixel with a single coloured dot at the centre making the background not look like a solid wall hitting you in the face but a well I don't know how to describe it a gentle fall off ?

anyway I have decided to redesign the site and do it using css where possible so I have more control and yes I will make things fewer than 3 click away (I hope)

[pink-kittens]

Glad to have been of assistance :)
I am also glad you didn't take offence - phew lol

Come back and tell us when you have finished won't you?

Pk

[Thunderchild]

ok,
nah I'd never take offence the idea of making a website was to present my work no poit in doing it if the layout and presentation shoos people away from the main point of my efforts: the photos

[Thunderchild]

by the way that "nice" site that was linked to is run by php script this means that it is set up in advanced and images are simply loaded into it and the viasual appearance is probably controlled from an admin panel its not really web designing its more of a case of a software creating the slides so basically what the site owner does is upload the image and input its info to the system.
looks quite handy I'm going to try and run it on my site if it allows me to customize it enough and add my own content in other pages

[Thunderchild]

well like I said it seems easier quiker and less time consuming to use a php script application to showcase my images, so I have installed copermine onto my webhost and am rebuilding my portfolio.
its quite a handy tool and allows enough customization for me to be comfortable enough to trust my site and time to its management, but I will still have main website pages with my own content.

You will find it at http://www.simons-photography.com/gallery

as you can see I'm still uploading images but copermine has everything I could want and I think it looks quike pro (but you people best be the judges of that) borders are automaticaly put on the images and i can customize some info feilds adding max print sizes possible and prices

[weeal]

wow simon

What a difference !!!!!
Keep working on that website, its now looking much crisper and more professional by far.

<:-)

[weeal]

from an aesthetic point of view, can the main page photos be lined up and the text wider underneath?

the pics are great BTW