Welcome to ProPhotoResource.com - Photography Articles and eBooks

Kirk Tuck (24)

Wow. Things are really heating up here in our Austin studio. We now have three very well reviewed books available: The first one: Minimalist Lighting. Professional Techniques for Location Photography, is still a best seller on Amazon.com since it was published over a year and a half ago. If you need to know more about working with battery powered strobes on location, this is the book for you! Our second book, Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Studio Photography, is the follow on book which takes a lot of the techniques showcased early and interprets them for use in the studio. This is the book you need if youre ready to set up a small, home studio or a real, professional working space. It will also help you to improve your lighting without blowing your budget.

Our third book is my favorite. Entitled: Commercial Photography Handbook, it shows you how to choose the kind of photography youd like to pursue, covers advertising and marketing, using proven techniques that are still working for us this year, and covers the basics of whats required to be in business. Reviews have been wonderful and, what amazes me is people who are leaving the reviews. A National Geographic veteran, the head of one of the countrys largest college photography programs and more.

Weve also gotten the workshops off the ground. In September we did a great lighting workshop at the University of Texas Journalism School for the Texas Photographic Society. In October we hosted 42 people for a day long workshop that covered both interior and exterior lighting. I am available to speak on lighting and marketing anywhere you need me to be.

Our blog is gaining new members everyday at www.visualsciencelab.blogspot.com .

The market for professional photography is tough but its not impossible. Get armed with good information! If you have a question for me please post to one of the forums. Ill get back to you as fast as I can.

Remember, there is no magic in photography, only the messy intersection between art and physics......

Wednesday, December 02 2009

Bidding Jobs Requires a Big Check List!

Written by Kirk Tuck

I recently got a phone call from an ad agency asking me to bid on a job for a multi-state region utility company. We were being asked to do an ad campaign that would consist of five print images that would be used in direct mail, statement stuffers, newspaper and city lifestyle magazines, as well as their website. There would be one person in each set up as well as photoshop prop additions.

Monday, November 02 2009

Interesting Stuff To Put In Front Of Your Small Flash

Written by Kirk Tuck

Since the publication of my first book, Minimalist Lighting: Professional Technique for Location Photography, back in May of 2008, I've been asked from time to time to review products that people think may be useful to photographers working with small flashes. If they are yet another variation of the small, on camera fill card I usually decline. But every once in a while you get some really interesting things to test out.

Tuesday, October 06 2009

Designing Your Marketing Pieces

Written by Kirk Tuck

I keep telling you to do all of this marketing, but I haven’t really told you what to put in your marketing pieces. It’s obvious that you will want to show examples of your best work, but there’s always the question of where to startand how to extend your brand by putting out new stuff.

Thursday, September 03 2009

Cameras, Lenses and Other Voodoo

Written by Kirk Tuck

This is a photograph of Eddie Wilson. He's the owner of a famous restaurant/music scene called Threadgill's. When I eat chicken fried steak I eat it there. Mr. Wilson is a revered fixture in the Austin music scene and the Austin restaurant scene and he was a perfect candidate for inclusion in the play, Keeping Austin Weird, by David Steakley.

Tuesday, August 04 2009

Recharge, Refresh, and Rev Up for the Recovery

Written by Kirk Tuck

You never seem to change horses in midstream even if a change would do you good. But I found myself with downtime this year (like almost everyone else I know) and I did some hard thinking about my photography. I decided that I wanted to change cameras and I knew I wanted to try something totally new. I had been following a model of gear acquisition and depreciation that was totally at odds with my Minimalist Mantra as expressed in my books about lighting. “Travel with light luggage and an open mind.”

Tuesday, June 30 2009

Time to talk a bit about marketing. Yikes

Written by Kirk Tuck

Is it possible to be in the market for too long? I'm not talking about the stock market. We all know the answer to that one. I'm talking about the photography market. If you are forty or fifty years old and you've been a photographer for the last ten or twenty years you know that we've been through some gut-wrenching changes. We've all devised some self-serving and optimistic ways of looking at the decline of our traditional markets.

Monday, June 01 2009

Hot Lights...Fun Lights

Written by Kirk Tuck

A few days ago Michael Johnston, the writer/owner of a website called www.theonlinephotographer.com , proposed a “new” learning exercise to master photography. He suggested that the best way to learn is to buy a Leica rangefinder camera (film version) with one lens. He suggested a 28mm, 35mm or a 50mm lens. My choice would always be the 50mm but then I see everything in that focal length. He further suggested using only a 400 ISO speed black and white negative film like Kodak’s Tri-X or Fuji’s Neopan 400. His theory is that the finder is unexciting so the photographer must previsualize what he wants to shoot. The film is a standardization so that one doesn’t spend time spinning wheels with too many choices. The limited focal length choice teaches exactly what one will get in the frame every time.

Wednesday, April 22 2009

Make A Lot More Money By Getting Back To Your Roots

Written by Kirk Tuck

Let's face it, I don't think any of us woke up one morning and said, “The thing I love best is taking pictures of chubby brides putting on yet another cookie cutter, antique ivory white dress with the annoying little buttons down the back.....”. We didn't. We don't. We do many of the annoying little jobs we do because they pay the bills. The wedding profits pay for the mortgage and the car payments. The bridal portraits help pay for new gear.

Saturday, March 14 2009

Shooting Medical With Small Lights

Written by Kirk Tuck

Here we are near the middle of March and everything I wrote about in October column seems very accurate. The markets for commercial photography suck. The market for corporate work is still in the toilet. One of my biggest technology clients has cancelled all major shows for the year. All of them. One of the few bright spots for some of my friends is that weddings have gone on inspite of all the business turmoil.

Friday, February 13 2009

Marketing Techniques to Super Charge Your Business

Written by Kirk Tuck

I recently suffered through a painful presentation on social network marketing and another presentation on creating “effective” e-mail blasts to advertise your service business. These were followed by impassioned suggestions that my business could be improved by paying for Google Adwords(tm).

Start

End

Page 1 of 2

Kirk Tuck (24)

most popular