High School Freshman Celina King Records 1000th Point.

Celina King, a Freshman at Cincinnati Christian, drive past a Cincinnati Christian Schools defender and scores her 1000th point on January 26th, 2013. 

Celina has actually been a starting Varsity point guard in High School since she was 12.

While previously at private Christian Schools, including Spring Valley Academy in Dayton, she is now in her first year at an OHSSA sanctioned school. 

More amazing than her basketball skills, is the amount of books that she had read, by the time she was 12, that deal with having a PMA, Winning and going after your goals. Celina is one of the most well balanced and humble kids that I have ever met and is a little Pistol Pete Maravich on the court.

As a Cincinnati Sports Photographer, I met Celina and her family in 2010 and was blown away by her personality, sense of humility, maturity level and work ethic.

I spoke to an ESPN editor at a holiday tournament the first time I was hired to come photograph her and was told by a gentlemen named Mark Lewis of ESPN Hoop Girls at the time, that there are lots of kids with incredible unique abilities, but there are probably only 4 or 5 kids like a Celina King.

Posted by Monroe Ohio photographer Vincent Rush, Cincinnati Sports Photography and Dayton Sports Photography of Monroe Ohio. Vince Rush can be contacted by phone at (877) 858-6295 or by email at vrush@rushintl.com or visit http://CincinnatiSportsPhotography.com Check out my about.me profile!

Miami University star Simpson has Crawford County connections

 Jessica Simpson delivers a pitch for Miami (Ohio) University this spring. / Vincent Rush of Cincinnati Sports Photography

Written by Dan Messerschmidt Telegraph-Forum

OXFORD -- Jessica Simpson has drawn quite a bit of attention over the past few years.
No, not the singer/actress who cavorted with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. But this Jessica Simpson turned some heads, just the same, as a star pitcher for the Miami University Redhawks' softball team.

Simpson has roots in Crawford County. She is the granddaughter of Bill and Barb Kaple of New Washington. Her mother, Karen, is a 1980 graduate of Buckeye Central High School.
As her grandfather, Bill is rightfully proud of Simpson, a 2008 graduate of North Canton Hoover High School.

"As a freshman in 2009, she was (Mid-American Conference) tournament MVP with a 4-0 record," Kaple said. "For eight years, at North Canton Hoover and now this, it's hard to top."

The "this" that Kaple referred to was another MAC tournament MVP and a trip to the NCAA tournament for his granddaughter.

Simpson had a love of sports and played a number of them before narrowing her focus to softball.

New sport

"I really was into sports when I was younger," Simpson said. "I played basketball, softball and volleyball. I always knew I wanted to play a sport in college. It turned out that softball was my sport."

Was it ever.

Simpson became a dominant pitcher, as indicated by the Miami and MAC records she accumulated in her four years in the circle for the Redhawks.

She holds MAC records for career wins (102) and career shutouts (46). Simpson also established Miami records with 32 wins and 358 strikeouts this season and career complete games with 117 and 1,021 career strikeouts.

This year, especially the post-season, demonstrates what an iron woman she has been.
To get to the NCAA tournament, the Redhawks had to battle their way out of the losers' bracket to win the MAC tournament.

The Redhawks lost 1-0 to Central Michigan to open the tourney. The next day, they beat Kent State at 11 a.m. and defeated Ball State -- the No. 1 seed -- at 7 p.m. The following day, Miami beat Western Michigan in an 11 a.m. game, before facing defeating Central Michigan twice, at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. with Simpson toeing the rubber in each. She pitched 42 innings in three days, giving up just three runs.

"Thursday we went to Knoxville and had to play Tennessee," Kaple said. "They were like the fourth ranked team in the country and Jess shut them out, 1-0. The next day, she lost to Virginia Tech in 100 degree heat. The team started to run out of gas."

Ready for college

Simpson was well prepared for Division I college after having played on state championship teams her sophomore and senior years at Division I Hoover.
"A lot of things stand out," Simpson said, looking back. "I loved my career, both high school and college. Shutting out Tennessee was big. We were only the third team to do that. It was a huge upset. It's something I'll remember for a long time."

Her athletic prowess is not surprising, considering her pedigree. Grandpa Kaple was a multi-sport athlete at New Washington (Class of '58) and her uncle, Brett Kaple, was a prolific scorer in basketball at Buckeye Central and now coaches at Colonel Crawford.

For her efforts, Simpson was mentioned in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd in the June 4 issue.

Next step

Though her playing days are over, Simpson has no intention of leaving behind the sport she loves.
"I can't imagine my life without softball in it in some way, shape or form," Simpson said. "I plan to be an English teacher and coach softball, along with giving pitching lessons."

Simpson will graduate in December and, as she put it, "Try to find a job wherever life takes me." She did indicate she would prefer to go somewhere warmer, which would be better for her softball coaching aspirations.

With her resume, it's easy to believe that Simpson will succeed wherever she goes.
dmessers@nncogannett.com

Posted by Monroe Ohio photographer Vincent Rush, Cincinnati Sports Photography and Dayton Sports Photography of Monroe Ohio. Vince Rush can be contacted by phone at (877) 858-6295 or by email at vrush@rushintl.com or visit http://CincinnatiSportsPhotography.com Check out my about.me profile!

You’re Charging Too Much For Your Photography

By scottbourne

 

Well not really – but I needed a catchy headline. Chances are you are charging too little. Let me explain.

(Please note this post is written from the perspective of a professional photographer. If you want to do photography for charity or use it to provide social outreach or pure art, this post may not be something you’ll care to read. Thank you.)

Every time – every single time – someone says – “Your price is too high,” it means that you have the wrong prospect. You don’t have the wrong product or price. You have the wrong prospect.
A man with $2000 in his pocket out to buy a car walks into a Jaguar dealership, sees a lovely XJL sedan and says, “I like that. How much is it?” The salesman replies, “$120,000 sir.” The man says, “That’s too much.” Is it? Obviously the problem here is not that the Jaguar isn’t a nice car or that it costs too much. The problem is that the man simply can’t afford a car in this price range. He’s not the right prospect. There will never be a meeting of the minds here.

So this illustrates part one of this problem. Wrong prospect always leads to no sale.

What is the solution? Is the solution to sell a different product or reduce the price? Absolutely not. The solution is to find the person who can afford that price and wants that product.

Photographers often charge too little because they have an “opinion” based on their own experience about what the market will stand for. But that’s the core problem. The photographer isn’t the buyer. The photographer doesn’t necessarily represent the market. You should be aiming higher than your own income bracket if you want to grow your business so find clients who CAN afford your higher prices and sell to them.

Most often it’s your opinion that is the problem. It’s not the price. It’s not the product. It’s your opinion about what the market will stand for.

Let me give you another example. If you live in a world where the average income is $50,000 a year, you probably haven’t considered adding a Rolls-Royce Phantom to your garage. This may lead you to believe that since you can’t afford it, nobody can. But that’s wrong-headed thinking. Want proof? Rolls-Royce sells a model called the Phantom. It’s $380,000. Now they also sell a special edition of the Phantom called the “Year of the Dragon” edition. That version of the car costs $1.2 million. Guess what. They completely sold out of those cars – worldwide – in 60 days. So while you may not be able to afford that car, it doesn’t mean someone else can’t.

There are people in this world – in fact in your neighborhood – who can write $100,000 checks without even asking their spouse for permission. There’s plenty of money around, even in a bad economy. You just have to find it.

So study demographics. Which zip code in your area is the most affluent? Where are the country clubs? These are the places where your prospects for high-end photography exist.

Not everyone cares about making a great deal of money in their photography business. Some prefer the social nature of the job or the artistic nature of the job. For them, this isn’t going to resonate. But for those of you who would like to make more money, start thinking about finding the RIGHT prospects – the ones who can value and afford what you do.

An article by Scott Bourne posted on Twitter on Feb 6th, 2012

Re-Posted by Monroe Ohio photographer Vincent Rush, Cincinnati Sports Photography and Dayton Sports Photography of Monroe Ohio. Vince Rush can be contacted by phone at (877) 858-6295 or by email at vrush@rushintl.com or visit http://CincinnatiSportsPhotography.com Check out my about.me profile!

Making Money With Photography

              Mount St. Joseph College Football photo by Cincinnati Sports Photographer Vincent Rush

From Advanced Photography

Here are 10 ways to make a good start at making money with photography. Some pursue photography as a hobby or interest. However as any other field of art, photography is a good way to make money while you are at it. It may not be one of the most promising and money making stream to choose as a career, done wisely it can prove to be a stable and reliable income stream . In the days of film, the number of people pursuing photography as a career was limited to few gifted people, but in the days of digital photography, the art of photography has reached its zenith. It has become a promising income stream with some effort involving internet marketing and creativity to blow-off the common man’s expectations with outstanding photographs.

Make Money With Event Coverage Events are a huge source of making money with photography. Be it weddings, sporting events, company meetings, graduation ceremony, school activities, etc all require to be documented in forms of photographs. The organizations hire the professional photographer for covering the events and pay them like anything. On an average basis, a wedding photographer charges $2000 to $5000 per wedding. Similarly, sports photography is also a huge market of making money. 

Make Money Online One of the best ways to make money with photography is to establish online presence as the photographer. Internet is the easiest source of reaching to large masses and gaining popularity (and eventually gaining the benefits of “word of mouth”). Become the part of the viral internet marketing through:

Stock Photography: Stock photography provides an excellent platform to the buyers and the sellers of the photographs. The stock photography sites encourage the photographers to submit their best works (and maintain the online portfolio) and provides the best deals to the buyers.

Building A Web Gallery: The other smart way to showcase your work to the world is to create a web gallery. You can either build your own website or a photo-blog to display your photographs or can choose from Picsengine or Wix.com which help in building the online portfolios without the hassles of maintaining the website. Social Networking And

Sharing Sites: Social networking sites are an effective way of gaining popularity. Upload your photographs to the social networking sites and offer the photo-services to attract the potential customers. Apart from the social sharing sites, there are some sites like Demotix.com which pays you for submitting the newsworthy images. 

Specialize In “What Sells” To make money with photography, you need to look at the commercial aspect of photography. Get an overview of the market stats to know what sells the most. You have to be thorough with this one. Find out what sells the most not only in terms of the subject, but in terms of image quality, concept and license (royalty-free, rights-managed or copyrighted images). Once you are done with the ground work, you gain an insight into what is favored by the audience and likewise you can start working in that direction for providing the photographs which  are liked by the masses.

4)     Creativity Is The Key To Making Money Your creativity, vision, imagination and the presentation skills provide you an edge over the other photographers. The stock photography sites, the web designers, entrepreneurs, advertisers, etc mostly avoid picking up the common photographs. The photographs they pick and choose reflect the brand and convey some specific message and thus, each of them is looking for something unusual, different and striking. If you can offer the creative photographs which convey the message or highlight the concept, nothing like it. So, even though you specialize in what sells the most, the one thing which gives you an edge over the others and of course help you draw money is your creativity

   Post-processing As A Medium For Making Money In the course of learning photography, the photographers eventually turn out to be the masters of the post-processing skills. Right from making some crucial post-processing adjustments for correcting the color cast, contrast, saturation, sharpness, etc to introducing some special effects in the photographs, the photographers can make a good income by utilizing their post-processing skills (also termed as the photo-finishing skills). You can easily make money by offering post-processing services like creating a realistic torn photo-frame effect, converting the colored photographs to black and white, restoring the old pictures (and resurrect the faded color in Photoshop), etc. 

  Photo-Journalism Is A Great Source Of Making Money Photography is as diverse as its applications. Ranging fromstreet photography to conceptual / story telling photographs, you can make good money by offering your photographs for editorial purposes to magazines and newspapers. This gives you an opportunity to make money as a freelancer (as a hobbyists or an enthusiast). Instead of just offering the photographs to the magazines, you can earn a good income by selling the stories with the photographs shot by you. All you need to do is to invest in some creative effort to wrap the photographs around the content like photographing streets, customs, traditions, buildings, people, etc when traveling to some distant city / state with the intent of presenting it as a documentation sells well with the magazines

    

  Shoot For The Advertisement Campaigns Marketing is the evergreen stream of income and shooting for an advertisement campaign alone can help you make good money. But getting the offer for an advertising campaign requires a lot of effort on your part; where the major role is played by the contacts at your disposal and the richness of your portfolio. It requires you to be a technical expert (having sound knowledge of the basic concepts of photography and command over the equipment) to produce the sharp, creative and impressive photographs required by the advertising agencies.

 Join A Professional Photographer As An Assistant Joining a professional photographer as an assistant serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it enables you to make a living with the salary offered by the photographer and secondly, it helps in gaining experience and exposure. Working on various projects with a professional / freelancer photographer comes in handy for understanding the issues between clients & photographers and helps you in exploring the opportunities as a beginner.

 Make Money With A Home Studio Economically speaking, the best of way of earning money is to cut down the costs. Instead of investing in a full-fledged studio, its better to maintain a simple home-based studio with bare necessities. It just takes a DSLR, a tripod and the artificial lights to get started with a decent business with home studios. This kind of set-up comes in handy for photographing the table-top products ranging from a pencil or pen to the textured walls (and balls, fruits, etc) which help in contributing to your online portfolio with stock photography sites (or can make way to owned website galleries). A home studio set-up opens up the opportunities for experimenting with various subjects at your disposal 

 

Every business needs photos for various purposes —for brochures, websites, company events and meetings, advertisements, etc. These photographs reflect the brand of the company and gives recognition to the products and the services they offer. Owing to the above said facts, the companies tend to hire the photographers permanently and pay them huge sums for the photographs which speak about the company at large. Apart from this, the businesses dealing in real estates also offer good deals to the photographers for photographing the property and portraying the houses and flats as attractive as possible

Posted by Monroe Ohio photographer Vincent Rush, Cincinnati Sports Photography and Dayton Sports Photography of Monroe Ohio. Vince Rush can be contacted by phone at (877) 858-6295 or by email at vrush@rushintl.com or visit http://CincinnatiSportsPhotography.com Check out my about.me profile!

Positioning of Your Subjects

When shooting sports photography, many times you're at the mercy of elements that are out of your control.

If you're photographing the Cincinnati Reds for example, you may be relegated to a "Photographers Pit" or if covering the Cincinnati Bengals or any other NFL or College team, only be granted access to certain areas of the playing field, thereby limiting your ability to properly frame up your subject.

In conditions or enviornments where you do have total access however, it is always good to utilize whatever backgrounds you can to enhance the overall picture.

In this sports photograph, one can see that I clearly positioned myself so that the scoreboard became the back drop.

Too many "sports photographers" are merely picture takers and not really photographers. In todays digital world, anyone can grab a camera and shhot untill they land a big one.

Being a "Photographer", be it Sports Action Photography, Portrait Photography or Event Photography, involves more than just "point and shoot". One must be cognizant of all elements that he or she is faced with.

Posted by Cincinnati and Dayton Sports Photographer Vincent Rush of Monroe, Ohio. For more information (877) 858-6295

Sometimes, the Gold is on the Sidelines!

I was recently shooting sports photography and covering the sixth grade Monroe Wee Hornet Football team in Monroe which is close to Dayton Ohio.

Most aspiring sports photographers or GWC's,(Guy With Camera)only focus on the field. (Now I am not talking about Cheerleader Mom. She will obviously be shooting her girls on the side lines)

I like to think of myself as more of a well rounded photographer first and a sports photographer second. I can do very attractive family portraits, senior portraits and event photography throughout the Cincinnati and Dayton Ohio arena.

With that being said, you can only get so many captures of the running back or QB handing the ball off, before you run out of things to shoot. And if you're regularly shooting in one particular community, eventually Mom and Dad are going to have enough action shots of the family superstar to hold them till next year.

So I always look around for the collateral shot that when posted up on the community message board, highlights the fact that you probably are not a bad portrait photographer or could do a pretty nice family photo as well.

This little Monroe Hornet Cheerleader was on the sidelines with her big sis and was the cutest thing going on that afternoon. After all, what cheerleader squad doesn't have the cute little mascot that loves to dress up and be on the sidelines with the crew.

I took about 12 frames of this little kindergarten cheerleader and then took the time to do the color / B&W combo job on it to create a family keepsake, and then posted it on The Voice( http://www.mainstreetmonroe.com/Voice/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16778 ) a local community message board that caters to Monroe, Ohio.

That particular photo generated more hits and publicity than some of my better sports pictures. I got a call from the Mother of this little girl that night wondering how she could get a copy.

In this particular case, I gave it to her in a digital file and let her know that she had an option to buy from my site if she wanted, but either way, she could have the file.

I also knew that this little girl was the hit of the day on the web site, and it would be more to my benefit to have Mom spreading some good publicity about Vincent Rush and Cincinnati Sports Photography.

And as a result, less than 3 days later, I've received 4 questions about Senior Portraits and Family Pictures.


Posted by Cincinnati and Dayton Sports Photographer Vincent Rush of Monroe, Ohio. For more information (877) 858-6295

Do Your Pictures Tell A Story

I recently had a great conversation with a Sports Illustrated photographer out of Orlando, Florida about sports photography.

I asked him his opinion on my work and any area that I needed to improve upon. He paid me a very high compliment when he simply said "connections". He went on to clarify that he felt that my particular style was every bit as good as the Sports Illustrated work of today. All I needed was the connections to get in the door.

That was fine and very flattering but I really wanted to know why he felt that my work was that good because obviously that's either very flattering or he just wanted to be nice.

"Your good at telling a story with your pictures. I look at a Vincent Rush or a Cincinnati Sports Photography shot and I don't have to wonder about what was going on. There is always a focus on the action and the subject in the middle of it. All good sports photographs tell a story."

I thought about that over the weekend and then took those comments and looked at some other Dayton, Cincinnati and Monroe, Ohio sports photography websites and saw a whole new perspective on what other "Sports Photographers" are shooting.

I think that there are those that think that simply a good stop action shot is enough. However if there is no central point of focus or you look at the picture and your first instinct is...awkward, because the player is suspended in the air, head in one direction feet in opposite and no ball in the frame, you're like..."What the ????" or the players are suspended in mid air. Is this a Chris Angel act or what is actually going on?

If I'm a Dad or Mom that is going to shell out good money for an 8 x 10 of my son or daughter in football, baseball or soccer, I want a shot that makes my kid look like Carson Palmer, Jay Bruce or Beckham, not Forrest Gump.

Now granted, my little personal athlete, more often than not, looks like Gump in the shots I take, but I only post and brand myself with the sports photographs that make him look like a straight up "baller".

I don't want a shot of my kid looking like a confused scarecrow on the field. If I have a daughter playing Volley Ball, I don't want to buy and especially see shots of her butt cheeks as she is jumping off balance to block a spike, posted on the Internet.

I recently saw a series of soccer pictures that were the oddest looking collection of images that I've seen a sports photographer post. It looked more like an interpretive dance class than an actual soccer game. There was one shot of a long haired kid that as a result of jumping in the air, looked more like a kid in a fright wig than a kid who just hit a "header", which is what he did, but the ball was no where in the frame, just a weird looking picture of a of a kid levitating with a bad case of static electricity or "balloon hair".

The picture I posted today was shot during a 2007 match up with Anderson High school vs. Turpin. My subject, a private client was the kid in the air in this shot that headed the ball into the net. Now this wasn't even the best shot, but I couldn't find it for this post. But even this picture tells a clear story and the series is currently framed on the family wall. The coolest thing about this picture, is that his Mom shed a few tears when she saw it.

Every picture needs to tell a story. That, according to my friend from Sports Illustrated, is a key to being an effective sports photographer.


Posted by Cincinnati and Dayton Sports Photographer Vincent Rush of Monroe, Ohio. For more information (877) 858-6295

Mens Softball = Big Profits!

As my name and reputation as a Sports Photographer in Cincinnati grows and I am faced with choices on where to spend my time, I always ask myself, what am I trying to accomplish?

On some days, I just want to go grab some good portfolio pictures and put more meat in my portfolio.

Some days I am looking to shoot a new sport for the experience of doing it.

But on other days, I am simply looking to make some profit.

One of my favorite places to go fishing is men's softball. Softball players love to compete and love to see themselves captured in Sports Illustrated style action shots.

Softball players also love to purchase glossy 8 x 10's of those moments in time.

Over the past couple of years, a single 4-5 hour period at a big softball tournament will net somewhere in the neighborhood of $400-500, once I have edited and posted up the pictures on my website.

I shot softball 2 days this year and sold more than 50 8x10's from my site over the next few weeks. And then there were also other sizes and digital files that were purchased.

I would always post on http://cincysoftball.com/ once I had the pictures up and posted and then I could literally watch Google Analytics rack up the page views by the hundreds.

I would say that http://www.cincysoftball.com/ run by Andy Larkins of http://www.profitability.net/ has been my best single source of traffic of the past couple of years.

I also got a big boost as a sports photographer from http://www.fatguysports.com/

Softball is one of those events that always has proved to be a money maker when you want to go out and earn some cash, however, knowing how to let the people know the pictures are available is a big part of making that a successful day.

You can shoot the best sports photographs in the world, but if no one even knows your pictures are available, you won't make a dime.

As a Dayton Photographer, Monroe Photographer, Cincinnati Photographer, Portraits, Family, Senior Portraits, or even a Cincinnati Reds Photographer the question of what you are out to accomplish must always first be answered before you can clearly define your goals.

Posted by Cincinnati and Dayton Sports Photographer Vincent Rush of Monroe, Ohio. For more information (877) 858-6295

You Can Bet Your Glass!

Ever wonder how it seems that the guys with the big cameras and huge lenses get the outstanding shots time after time? Must be the camera…right? I mean, you were in almost the same position, taking the same shot with your point and shoot or your Nikon D90 with the provided kit lens.

In my opinion, all things being equal, such as position and angle, it is more often than not, the lens. You don't need a Cincinnati Reds Press Pass to get outstanding baseball shots, if you have great seats and an even better lens.

I get people ask me all the time about upgrading their cameras for several hundred dollars to get 1 or 2 more mega pixels.

Many times, weather you’re shooting portrait photography of sports photography; you may already have a camera suitable for capturing the same quality of sports photography that I will typically display. What you don’t have, is a quality piece of glass, or lens on your camera.

I shoot the same quality sports action pictures with my $1700 Nikon D200 as I could with a $5000 Nikon D3.

The glass, along with a choice selection depth of field, say 5.6 or higher, will go a long way to capturing that sharp depth of field in your sports photographs.

The length of the lens, will give your pictures that compression factor that is a trade mark in professional sports photography.

In other words, a 50 millimeter lens will give a more accurate relationship between your subject and the background. A 200 millimeter lens will draw that background in close to your subject matter giving it the “Pro” look and feel.

In this picture of Go-Kart racers, I was at G&J Kartway in Camden, Ohio, a nationally recognized professional go-kart track where the likes of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart have gotten their starts.

I used a Nikkor 80-200 millimeter lens and a mono pod and set this shot up where I knew there would be close competition in an S curve.

It took me about 6 attempts to get these guys in just the right position as they were racing.

The 200 millimeter lens gives the illusion that the back two racers are literally hooked up bumper to bumper and makes for an intense action shot.

Any other camera or lens would have shown you that there was ample separation between the three of them.

I you aspire to be a quality sports photographer, the one investment you’ll never go wrong on would be your lenses. You can “bet your glass” that the photographer with the better lenses will always capture the best sports photographs of your event.

Posted by Cincinnati and Dayton Sports Photographer Vincent Rush of Monroe, Ohio. For more information (877) 858-6295

It's All Subjective

It's all a matter of personal taste and the client is the only taste that matters when you're marketing and selling your services.

I'll share a simple story to make my point.

I have a niche for SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY. It's my comfort zone. I, like any other self respecting professional SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER, feel I'm one of the best at it. Not because my camera is better, or because I have a special set of skills other photographers don't, but rather because I work a sidelines as good as anyone and go places other photographers won't to get the unique angle or perspective on a shot.

But because of my SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY and my own unique blend of marketing, I have started to have the opportunity to branch out and begin doing some other style jobs.

One such experience was when I received a call from a Monroe, Ohio resident by the name of Kristina Centers. She has seen nothing but sports Photographs from me on http://mainstreetmonroe.com.

Kristina is developing a line of clothing called "FIGHT HER", http://fighther.com , kind of a "WARRIOR CHICK" style t-shirt line.

She wanted to know if I could shoot some pictures of her models as a CINCINNATI PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER for the website. I said sure. To tell you the truth, I was way out of my comfort zone on this one.

So I head out with my NIKON D200, NIKON SB 800 SPEED LIGHT and my GARY FONG LIGHTSPHERE and the bottom line is, the shoot was 4+ hours and at the end of the day, it was a success.

After editing pictures and delivering them to her, and her models...everyone was thrilled and most importantly, the style, look and feel of the pictures fit with the theme and style of her clothing line.

At the end of the day...Client happy...mission accomplished. And as a result, I had some outstanding portrait photography for possibly picking up SENIOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY in MONROE, CINCINNATI or DAYTON, OHIO.

Now to the point I was trying to make.

I have a friend who has worked hard to carve out a niche for themselves as a small time wedding and portrait photographer. And to be honest with you, I really admire that persons tenacity and how far they've come in just a couple of short years. I'm a big fan. However, I rarely see anything my friend shoots that I would allow on my web page or show as portfolio pictures. I really do not like their style.

With that being said, I never offer advice because, "unasked for advice is criticism", but I personally don't think they are very good.

But that's ok, because I am not one of their clients and the clients that they shoot for, think they are outstanding. An at the end of the day, that's all that really counts.

So just for grins, I asked photographer friend to look at my portraits and critique my work. I received comments such as, your lighting is all wrong, white balance is off, top of camera flash did not help, etc.

I was mad for about 5 minutes and then I realized that their opinion really wasn't what mattered, it was the client.

Photographers in general can be very critical of other photographers work. When I was in the Navy and going through photography school, I used to hate hanging out with other photograpraphers, because they were all Ansel Adams in their own minds, and a simple trip to the movies, would turn into a cinematography critique session.

As a PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER, EVENT PHOTOGRAPHER or SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER, at the end of the day, the only opinions that matter, are number 1, your client, number 2 you and then everyone else, to the back of the line.
Posted by Cincinnati and Dayton Sports Photographer Vincent Rush of Monroe, Ohio. For more information (877) 858-6295