I just moved desks at work and found a print I made of this shot I called ‘Silhouetted Mist’. It’s an 8” x 12” print on Lustre paper, which gives it a great color while not being super reflective.

Why am I telling you this? Because it will yours soon! (Well, one lucky one of you at least). All you have to do to enter is like/reblog this post here on Tumblr. If you want to increase your chances, then Like me on Facebook and then like the post about this giveaway there too (Sorry if you don’t have a facebook account). I’ll pick a winner next Monday. Please make sure you have your ask box enabled so I can get your shipping information.

Good luck!

(Oh and if you don’t win and have a hankering for a print of mine, check out my Etsy shop or my (small) store on Gumroad)

I’m off for a bit of a birthday weekend of travels and not too much internet. Thanks to the magic of the Tumblr queue and the fact that I took way too many photos yesterday (and the fact that I have a bunch of film shots that I haven’t posted yet), you shouldn’t notice anything different along the way. Enjoy, and I’ll be posting again on Monday.

B&H has what we’ll just call the mac-daddy of sd cards on sale for 50% off. These will store 64GB of your stuff and can write it all incredibly quickly. Buy them for a hair under $50, which is about $0.75 per GB.

If that’s too much for your blood (either in terms of price or storage), you can get these great Transcend 16 GB Class 10 Cards from Amazon (I’ve got a pair of these in my D7000 right now, and they are great) for $15 a card.

Since those are affiliate links, you’ll be helping me and the site out, so thanks!

Whoops, I totally forgot but this here site turned 2 on Saturday, so happy birthday to it! And I’ve got some things to say so the timing works out pretty nicely:

First: I want to thank all of you for the support you’ve been giving me over the past 2 years, I’ve said this before, but your feedback (in likes, reblogs, and replies that I swear I read) and questions mean so much to me. If you want to support me a little more financially, then you are in luck because here are a couple you that you can do just that:

If you normally shop online using Amazon,B&H, and/or Adorama and you use those links, I’ll count as an affiliate and you’ll be supporting my site without costing you anything extra!

The other (and way more exciting) way you can support me is by buying prints from my Etsy store. If you’ve got a photo in mind that isn’t there, don’t worry, every photo here is available for sale, so get in touch with me and I’ll make you a posting right away.

Since my store is light on prints anyway, which photos of mine would you like to buy?

dale917 asked: I'm 13 and I'm really getting into photography, but I'm limited to a not-so-great camera right now, and pretty confined as for the areas I can photograph, any tips for me?

Hey Dale, you’ve got plenty of time to get more expensive gear and go exciting places. For now, you should focus how to look at things in interesting ways and how to compose images correctly.

I see from your site that you have a Coolpix S210. From what I’ve read it sounds like it’s a very capable camera.

In terms of learning about composition, your best bet is to read about the rule of thirds and think about it while you take pictures. Having a good eye for composition can make all of your photos better.

Secondly, don’t worry about having a limited area to take pictures in. You may not know this, but a lot of the pictures I take are actually from a relatively small area. What you should do is try to photograph as much of the area you can photograph as you can and (this is important) make it look amazing. Figure out how to highlight colors and interesting things you see on a day to day basis.

Use your constraints as a benefit - rather than looking at a small area as a limiting factor, look at it as a challenge. Try to document that area in a variety of ways, angles, and of details.

Ultimately, that’s what photography comes down to.

Update: A great point from replies:

the-tale-of-a-librarian: you can edit pictures on your phone or computer to different constrasting colours and sometimes that kind of thing can really make a picture amazing, just cause your cameras not so great shouldnt limit you. From a fellow budding photographer. xox.

Don’t forget that it’s more than the camera or software that makes your photo - its the subject, perspective, colors, contrast, and how you utilize those elements to make the photo.

I started taking photos every day on a bit of a lark.

I had bought my first DSLR - my first ‘real’ camera - and I had no idea what to do with it, and I worried that I was going to be one of those people who just dropped a ton of money on a new toy that I’d never use again. I realized I basically had two options:

1. Go to a class, where I’d either be one of the only people who had no idea what was going on or (more realistically) be one of many people who had no idea what was going on, and not really gain much in either situation (or, at least, that’s what I thought); or
2. Start taking pictures, lots of them.

I have a friend from college who told me about doing a 365 project. She had started her project a few weeks before me and sold me on the idea of taking pictures.  What did I have to lose (other than my pride)?

So I started doing just that. I still remember taking my first photo: I was at a bar with my friends and I looked up, then took a picture of some paper lanterns hanging. After showing off my shot to my friends, one of them said “Just like a real photographer”, and from there, I guess I was off.

The first year wasn’t easy, in fact it went by as a bit of a blur. I definitely became known as “the guy with the camera” but I was ok with that. I remember whining about how hard it would be to find things to take photos of and how excited I would be to be done with it when Day 365 rolled around, but something happened after that: I couldn’t stop.

Rather than feeling like it was a chore to take photos every day, it suddenly became fun. Rather than needing to ‘find’ things to take pictures of, I realized I could show off the small things I noticed, everything from the small bits of street art scrawled on drain pipes to the way that light reflected off a set of windows over the street in SoHo.  

At some point at the end the second year, I made the decision to continue taking pictures, for as long as I could.

So that brings me here, in a shortened sort of way, still taking photos. Why do I do it now?

I take photos to continuing seeing the world. I look for things that interest me: forms, shapes, lights and shadows. I push myself to get better at composition, to understand exposure, and to play with light in new ways.

I take photos to keep learning.

You may remember my camera buyers guide that I started at the end of last year. I also recommended a book called I Will Teach You To Be Rich. The good news for you is that that book is on sale for $2.24 (for the Kindle), so go buy it.

In the meanwhile, what are some specific questions / things you’d like me to talk about when it comes to buying a camera?

theipodchronicles asked: What are your favorite subjects to shoot? I love your shots of classic cars, and street art. They are so full of character and so beautiful. I was just wondering what your favorites were.

Great question - I’ve been meaning to collect my series/subjects for a while now into a link or some sort of self standing page. Feel free to click through all these links to see my shots from the particular subject/series.

My favorite series I’ve been shooting are:

• Over the Handlebars - POV Shots of parked bikes
• The Towering City - A look up at the city
• One Headlight - Detailed shots of bike handlebars
• The Lives of Others - Moments of other peoples lives, seen through small moments in large shots.
• On the Platform - Life on the subway platform

As for what I like to shoot that isn’t classified as a series, you are very right that I love shooting cars and street art, but I also love shooting:

• Bokeh (everything out of focus)
• Animals
• The Subway
• Found Quotes
• Signs and Logos/Found Typography and Neon
• Bicycles and Vespas
• Reflections
• Florescent Lights

Lightroom 4 got announced yesterday (I bought it already), and they dropped the price by a ton, it’s $149 for the full version or $79 for the upgrade.

Good news though: if you bought Lightroom 3 after February 6, 2012 then you can upgrade for free. Checkout that link for information on how to do that.

I recently upgraded my facebook page to use the new timeline view, so do me a favor and check out the awesome picture that Olga took of me and if you haven’t like it!

If you want to keep up with me on other networks, here’s a handy list:

• Twitter: @joelzimmer
• Etsy: Joel Zimmer Photo
• Instagram: joelzimmer

You can keep up with me in all those places and here too!

If, for some reason, you didn’t buy it the first 3 times I posted about it, Amazon has Lightroom on sale for $90, or $210 off. I swear by it these days, both as an organizational tool and for its editing abilities. Buy it already.

If you slept on that Lightroom deal yesterday, you are in luck. B&H has the full version for $70 (that’s $200 off!).

I use this program every single day, and am blown away by the power it has. I highly recommend buying it, especially for $70.