instructional |

Mike and Molly Zubik, of Gorham, Maine. (Brian Fitzgerald) — Ferry Beach in Scarborough, the setting for the Lights on Location Workshop

It’s now October, which means that it’s time to start thinking about holidays, jackets and how to escape the coming cold. It also means the final workshop of our 2011 series is almost upon us.

The Lights on Location Workshop is slated for 4-7:30 pm on Tuesday, October 18th at Ferry Beach in Scarborough. This is a hands-on-cameras workshop focused on real, practical shooting with strobes (studio and speedlight) in combination with sunlight outside.

If you’ve ever struggled with portraits on the beach, or getting a great fashion style shot, this workshop is for you. We’ll be shooting in full sunlight and at dusk using studio strobes with battery packs and with speed lights, with a variety of light modifiers.

The goal is to give you confidence that you can balance natural with artificial light to make a stunning, dramatic image for your portfolio or for your clients.

I love gear as much as the next photographer, but the focus here is unleashing your creativity. As such we’ll delve into light basics, lighting with just one or two lights, high-speed flash photography, and maximizing the effectiveness of your camera manufacturer speed lights. The focus is on maximizing the gear you already own, but we’ll show examples using more lights and some more sophisticated lighting controls.

To sign up for the workshop, click to pay here. Space is limited to just 10 participants. Hope to see you there!

After many years’ experience as working, professional photographer, I’m well-versed in the technical side of my craft. The largest part of my business isn’t photography, though–it’s business. You know, everything from marketing to maintaining my site to keeping records and doing taxes. That’s often where photography businesses either make it or break it.

Whether you run a retail business (selling prints and products) or a service one, where deliverables are usually in electronic form, you need to know about state sales tax laws and how they apply to you. I’ve been confused about this in the past, as have many other photographers I know. My accountant didn’t know the answer, and so I called the state. A very nice lady named Mary helped answer my questions and directed me to the instructional form on the Maine.Gov website that explained what I needed to know. Click to download the form that applies to Photographers and Photofinishers.

Chances are if you’re like me, your sales tax strategy could use a few tweaks.

Posts tagged instructional

Lights on Location Workshop

Maine State Sales Tax 101 for photographers