One of the many ways you can make money as a photographer is to specialise on events. Christenings, weddings, and lots of other events where people create memories can be well paid business. The great thing is that all you need is a stack of business cards, and a good camera.

What to do

Cover only events where it is hard for people to take the pics themselves and where they will want to keep their memories frozen in film.

One idea is to go to kids sports events. Get permission from the coach to click pics for the parents watching and then start clicking away. If you turn up with a wopping big telephoto lens like the ones used for pro coverage of events, you will be taken seriously. Make sure you get all the children doing great action shots and then hand out flyers to all the kids’ parents watching with your web address. If you can get hold of the parents email address so you can email them the URL of you site then upload the pics to your web site that day and email everyone. If you have a simple shopping cart set up you can make money in a few hours as people pop in to see the pics and buy them for $20 or more a pop.

You can do a similar thing with weddings. Take all the regular pictures as part of the wedding coverage but then get your URL printed on the wedding invites and all the other wedding materials and also get an email list of all the wedding guests, offer the couple a nice 20% discount for doing this and then take lots of extra pics at the wedding of the guests doing all the things they do. Upload all the pics to your site and send the emails. You will then make a lot more money than the 20% discount it cost you because then 30 or 40 people will be also purchasing your pics at $20 or more a shot straight from your site. Also charging them more for higher resolution shots is a great bonus income as well.

The trick is to find a niche where you can excel by being the best photographer in the room, and offering an easy way for people to buy your photos.

Dog shows, fashion shows, horse shows, car shows, livestock competitions, rock shows, - the list goes on. Keep your eye out in the events section of your local paper to see what is happening. Always ask for permission to shoot pics and if you need to offer the people 10% of the income if feel you need to so you can get easy access.

Find out about Event Photographer and Wedding Photographers in the Asia region.

This year will mark the first installment of the biennial Artists of Hawaii 2009. The event is something that Hawaii residents all look forward to in attending because it will mark again the celebration of the locals’ talents and unique taste of the Arts. A guest curator will be featured this year who is none other than Laura Hoptman, the senior curator for the New York Museum of Contemporary Art.

To avoid confusion on what I am about to discuss to you now let me first give you the difference between Modern, Post modern and Contemporary Art as these are three subjects that are oftentimes misused. Contemporary Art depicts the art of the Modern times, it is often confused by Post modern because some claim that we actually live in the Post Modern era already and that any art that comes out during these times should be called as “Post Modern”.

Post modern art is described as the combination of the different Art Styles during the Modern era and these styles includes: Art Nouveau and Art Deco among many others. Post Modern style is always a mixture of two or more style era. Modern Art is described as Art that emerged after the renaissance Period or the Period of “rebirth”. It is oftentimes categorized as the Art created during the 18th to early 19th century. Contemporary Art is used to describe the current trend of Styles during the ongoing era. The term contemporary does not come into existence until the half of 19th century (1950’s) onwards.

Paintings are mostly on display on this exhibit. Expect young and talented artists churning out their fresh minds to create great pieces. Contemporary Hawaiian artists all gather at the Artists Guild to celebrate their talents by showing their creations to spectators and enthusiasts.

Come and visit the Artists of Hawaii 2009!

Dandelion Festival will take place on Vermont this year. Vermont is one of the top producers of dandelion products; dandelion is a well known plant of the genus “taraxacum”. Dandelion is a multi-purpose plant that is rich in vitamins and minerals, which is why there’s a lot more reason to celebrate its abundance.

Dandelion is sometimes mistaken as pesky weeds. For Herbalist, dandelion is a good medicinal and food source. Dandelions are fun to pick and can even beautify life, its roots can be used as coffee substitutes, and the flowers are used to make certain wines as well as its leaves are often used as ingredient in salads and sandwiches. All these, making dandelion one of the best plant there is.

Dandelion Festival is a two day event that provides fun and many family oriented tricks. Such as, Dandelion wine sampling, cellar trips, live entertainment, Arts and crafts and the Dandelion run. In this event, children are given their chance to pick dandelion and enjoy food sample. Also, Children are taught how to make their very own home made dandelion jelly. Having the kids involved makes dandelion festival a good family break.

Dandelion Cook-off is a major part of the festivity. Different Dandelion dishes are presented for cash awards. Dishes made during cook-off are later served for public tasting and evaluation. Aside from the cook-off, a free demonstration is also given to promote the health benefits dandelions bring. Dandelions can be used in many different foods, example these are cheese cakes, muffins, gelatos, salads, and many more.

Today, Dandelions are mainly used as appetite stimulant and medicinal plant. Dandelion leaves and roots are commonly used to cure liver problems and as digestive aid. Some used boiled dandelion roots to aid kidney diseases. Their leaf gives diuretic effect, while their root is an antiviral source and appetite stimulant. Dandelions are now available in many forms it can be purchased in the form of tea, tablets, capsules, tinctures and in liquid forms. It is proven to be safe and economical.

An event photographer is someone who you want to photograph your wedding. You will want them to posses a few qualities such as style, motivation, experience and good communication. An excellent event photographer will only posses these qualities through experience, so make sure that they are well trained and can focus on what you want is important.

Every event photographer will have their own style. Your ideas about your wedding should coincide with the photographers style. Otherwise you might end up having a horrible experience. Every event photographer will have a different style. Traditional and wild are two extreme styles of photographers. Traditional pictures will consist of those of the bride herself, the groom himself, the bride and groom together, the wedding party, and everyone all together. Wild styles can be anywhere from being completely serious in all of the pictures to making funny faces.

When choosing an event photographer you will want one who is highly motivated. You do not want to have someone who is inactive and sitting around missing all the good pictures they could be capturing. Motivation isn’t just about doing the job, but enjoying it and communicating are also involved.

Over time is the only way an event photographer will gain experience. In some cases you should ask questions such as where they were previously employed and for how long. This should help you when making a clear decision on an event photographer. If they are now employed by themselves you can find out what kind of work they produced when they were employed by asking their previous employer. It may be a devious way of getting information but it is better to find out then to have horrible pictures produced.

Being relaxed around your event photographer will make things go smother. When you are around them they should make you feel comfortable as well. This will help them in capturing the precious photos later on at your wedding. If you are nervous around your event photographer you will see that emotion in your wedding pictures.

I am sure I’m not the only one with piles of film from my pre-digital days. I had half a fridge door full, and just couldn’t bring myself to throw it out. I needed a fun project to put it to good use.

April 26 marks the 9th annual Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, and what better way to use up old film than in a pinhole camera?

Making pinhole cameras out of everyday objects has been popular since the 1500s, and I’m sure you all have experimented with boxes, coffee cans, etc. While they certainly work (and some quite well), it can be inconvenient to have to load and unload film in total darkness, and figuring out how to get 35mm film to work can be quite tricky. Here are a few cameras that use 35mm and 120 film that can be loaded in daylight:

Pinhole Blender Pinhole Blender makes cameras from what looks like cookie and tea tins with knobs on top (for turning the film). They accept 35mm, 120 and 4×5 film (the 4×5 has to be loaded in the dark though), and are really very affordable, ranging in price from $20 to $80. Best of all, they come with instructions and exposure suggestions. You can obviously get as creative as you want with that, but it’s nice to have a starting point at least.

Holga Pinhole The medium format (i.e. uses 120 film) Holga Pinhole Camera is another inexpensive option ($60, which includes 4 rolls of film). It looks like a regular camera, but instead of a lens, it has a tiny pinhole with an aperture of f/192. You can use any 120 film you want - color, slide, b&w - and there is only one shutter speed: B (which means that the shutter stays open as long as you press the button). The suggested time is anywhere from 2 seconds to 30 minutes, so you’ll have to experiment with that. (There is an optional cable release available, which I think is a very worthwhile investment). You can advance the film as much or as little as you want in between each exposure, so if you want to try double exposures, just don’t advance it at all before taking your next shot, or if you are creating a panoramic shot, advance just a little bit, and the photos will blend together into one long image.

Pinhole Resource’s Hexomniscope For a truly unique pinhole experience, check out the Hexomniscope from Pinhole Resource. This 6-pinhole, 6-shutter, round camera uses 120 film and produces 6 overlapping 60 degree images. The shutters are individually operated, but have a single release. At $1,590, it’s not cheap, but the results are stunning.

Digital Pinhole SLR All you need to use your digital SLR for pinhole photography is an extra lens cap and a drill. Find the exact center of the lens cap and drill, from inside the cap out, as tiny a hole as you possibly can. Use the lens cap instead of a lens and voila! Pinhole camera.

And what about Worldwide Pinhole Day? Well, it’s an international event held on the last Sunday of April every year in honor of pinhole photography. People all over the world take pinhole photos of anything and everything and post them, good or bad, online. It’s not a contest, there are no prizes, but each year, a number of photos are chosen and included in an exhibit.

Many advances have been made in both cameras and the accessories available with regards to photography. Photography is an old and well known form of memory keeping. Digital cameras have almost replaced the old film cameras completely. Between the uses of digital cameras, cell phones with cameras, digital imagery is fast becoming a part of most of our daily lives.

Digital cameras themselves have gone down in price as well making them that much more affordable to obtain. Even though the prices seem to go down, we still wonder how many mega pixels are going to be available next. Because we know most of the functions on a film roll camera, they have transferred this standard design to digital cameras as well. You will notice that there are still functions for flash, zoom and even shutter speed.

With digital cameras, sensors turn light into electronic signals. An added plus with digital cameras is that you are able to see this display on a LCD screen that reproduces the image you took a picture of. The photographer is then able to view and even saved on the camera itself without the need for other equipment. The camera is able to take a electronic image using the sensors within the camera and then store them digitally within the cameras memory system. You can purchase cameras that have a built in printer as well allowing you to produce a paper photo of the desired images directly from the camera’s memory.

The software that accompanies your digital camera will give you the capability to save your images on your computer; in which from there you can print your images saving time and money of processing rolls of film. Each computer system is a little different, some allow you to plug right into the printer and print your photo. Some systems allow you to place your memory card into the computer, save the image and send it to the printer if you wish. The images saved on the computer give the user a vast array of options in which to print or transfer or even send to someone.

You can purchase a digital printer that will print the selected image for you as though it was a document on a computer file. With digital printing the customer makes and electronic document sort of speak to send to the printer to print. The image is sent to the printer in the form of a file and is in a format the computer understands to print. The end result is the photo image you requested. To the computer, it was just another document.

Laser printers are the printers most commonly use toner cartridges. The lasers within the printer scan the selected image and re-create it line by line with tiny pulses. The tiny pulses determine where there are black or white spots with in the image. The image is then printed as the heating element within the printer transfers the ink to the paper.

Well, it is no wonder that the digital camera has gained the popularity it has. Rather than finding it difficult to find a digital camera, try to find a camera that uses film rolls. You are most likely to only find them in throw away cameras. Of course digital cameras can range in their technology. Everyone has a different use for their digital camera and most retailers are trained to help you narrow down your choice. If you’re still not sure which one to get, just stick with your cell phone. Most likely you have a digital camera and didn’t even know it.

Pink in all shades was all over the fashion runways again this spring - evidence that the popularity of the color has not diminished one bit since last year. And manufacturers of all kinds of goods are adding more and more

Dell Wasabi Portable Printer This new little color printer is not only cute: it’s small (4.8″ x 2.9″ x 0.9″), lightweight (8 oz.), prints wirelessly (or via USB) and uses the advanced new ZINK printing technology. ZINK stands for “zero ink”, and the secret is in the paper. It looks like regular white photo paper, but consists of layers with embedded color crystals, which are activated by heat generated in the printer during the printing process. The resulting print looks like a regular photo. The Wasabi produces 2×3 borderless prints with peel-off sticky backs (great for scrapbooking) and can hold 12 sheets of paper at a time. It comes in black, blue or pink and costs $99.

Fluorescent Pink Diana F+ Camera When I made the switch to digital after years of shooting with film, I found myself with quite a bit of unused film in my refrigerator door, getting closer to its expiration date every day. I couldn’t stand the thought of just throwing it out, and kept hoping I’d come up with a creative way to use it.

If you, like me, have a bunch of old fashioned film you can’t part with, why not put it to good use? The Lomographic Society is a worlwide community of photographers who not only love shooting with film, but use really fun, creative cameras to do so. Classics like the all plastic medium format Holga and Diana F, as well as the multi-lens 35mm Actionsampler and Supersampler are some of the members’ (”Lomographers”) favorite choices.

Among their new cameras this spring is the Mr. Pink Diana F+, a fuchsia, medium sized (i.e. uses 120 film), plastic and very manual camera model that originated in Hong Kong in the 1960s. It produces beautiful, dreamy soft focus shots with unmistakable Diana-camera vignetting. If medium format is not your thing - don’t worry. You can get it with a 35mm back as well, and new this spring even an instant back, for Polaroid-esque prints. The price runs from $105 (for the basic kit) to $280 (for the camera with an instant back and a 10-pack of film).

Sony VAIO Desktop PC Decidedly iMac-esque, Sony’s VAIO JS desktop comes in a pretty pale pink and is slightly smaller and lighter than the iMac. The non-customizable VAIO JS has a 20.1″ screen, an Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor (2.50 GHz), 4GB of memory, a 500GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive, an integrated webcam and microphone with face tracking technology, 5 USB ports, and 2 Dolby Home Theater speakers. The price at time of writing is $949.99.

Colorful Inspiron Desktops From Dell Finally, someone is adding a rainbow of colors to desktops as well. While laptops are available in all imaginable colors and designs, desktops have remained in the silver/black range. Dell’s new Inspiron desktop line has so far only been released in China, but is scheduled to appear on the US market later on this spring.

The Inspirons will be available as both mini-towers and slim towers and the customizable fronts will come in black, white, blue, red, orange, green, plum, and “Promise Pink” (with $5/sale going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation). These desktops will have a multitude of upgrade options, and the base price for the least expensive configuration will be $299.

Pokens - Digital Business Cards Spend a lot of time on social networking sites? Is keeping track of your IDs and other info starting to get difficult? Then check out Pokens, keychain-sized figures (with a USB connector) that can store all that info in one place for you. But not only that, by having your Poken high five another Poken, you can easily exchange your social networking profiles with friends, making it easy for them to find you quickly on Facebook, MySpace, etc. And the makers of this little gadget have thought of everything: if someone asks you to Poken with them, but you don’t really want to, instead of rudely saying no, just press your Poken’s palm twice, and it will go into “discreet” mode, and all they’ll get is a “Ghost Card”, none of your information. They cost around $20, and 2 of the figures are available in pink: the Geisha and the Piggy.