I became interested in photography in the spring of 2008 when my sister introduced me to Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman website. At that point I was blogging just so that my brothers (who both live out of state) could see pictures of my kids. I soon began wishing that “maybe I could learn how to take photos like that.”
From that day on I started to absorb every online tutorial concerning photography that I could. A few months later I took the plunge and purchased Photoshop and made myself learn how to use it again by reading online tutorials. To this day I’m still amazed at the vast resources available to the budding photographer if they just take a half hour each day to make themselves learn something new. It’s all right there at your fingertips on the internet!
If you are interested in improving your photography, be sure to join the free I Heart Faces Community. I wish this invaluable resource had been available when I first started learning about photography.
Camera Gear Information
A couple of things to note before you read more about my camera gear:
1) I always shoot in RAW. I love how you have so much more additional information to work with in a RAW file compared to a jpg. Whether you shoot in RAW or jpg though, you can still edit either file in Camera RAW (in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.) Yes!! Even jpg’s can be opened in Camera RAW. 
2) Purchasing a camera with high ISO capabilities is one of the best photography gear purchases I have ever made. You do not need to purchase a Canon 5D Mark II to do this…the reasonably priced Canon T2i has amazing ISO capabilities as well (I know this for sure because both of my sister-in-law’s just purchased this camera and I was astounded at what they could do when I borrowed their cameras to try them out.)
3) I prefer not to purchase a camera lens whose aperture number is more than 2.8 now…but I’ve also learned that even though many recommend that you should shoot wide open (ie. aperture of 1.8), that isn’t always the best way to go. :)
4) While I do enjoy using my zoom as an all-around lens, for my sessions I almost always use a fixed lens (like my 50mm 1.4) for the close-up portraits when my main goal is to capture those crisp, clear eyes. The 85mm and 35mm are next up on my wish list because they are fabulous for the same reason. Fixed lenses are amazing!
Cameras
Canon 5D Mark II
In February 2010 I became the proud owner of my baby, the Canon 5D Mark II
The camera overall is fabulous, but one of the things I love the most are the ISO capabilities and the ability it has to handle noise. I can easily shoot at high ISO’s with very little noise showing up in my photos. That right there made the cost of the camera worth it for me and my business.
Canon Rebel XT
I also still own my Canon Rebel XT
Camera Lenses
• 50mm 1.4
In December 2008, I purchased the 50mm 1.4
• Tamron 70-200 2.8
The Tamron 70-200 2.8
When I found out I’d be able to pick out a lens, my thought was to get the most expensive one (that I actually needed) as I could within the budget they had given me.
I think I made the best choice possible. This lens has become the everyday lens that remains on my 5D Mark II most of the time. It’s versatile, the zoom is wonderful for sporting and school events, the creamy bokeh is divine, the 2.8 is awesome and it’s very sharp.
The only downside would be the weight of the lens. There is no way around this, but it was hard adjusting to a bigger, heavier camera in the first place. Adding this lens added to the weight immensely. I’m used to it now though…so much so that I even carried it around on our last day trip to the zoo. It worked perfectly!
• Canon 15mm 2.8 Fisheye
When I began to realize that my true passion lies in photographing high school seniors, I purchased the 15mm 2.8 Fisheye
• 18-55mm
My camera came with the standard 18-55mm
• 75-300mm
At the time that we purchased the camera, it also came with a 75-300mm
• Tamron 28-75 2.8
I purchased a Tamron 28-75 2.8
Other
• Canon Speedlite 580EX II – Hot-Shoe Clip-On Flash
I really prefer and am drawn to the look and style of Natural Light photography, but I have discovered though that there are situations when an off-camera flash is very useful and needed…especially at weddings and indoor school events where flash is permitted. I purchased a Canon Speedlite 580EX II
My Photo Editing Programs:
Photoshop CS5
I used Photoshop CS3 until I purchased my new camera. At that time it became a huge pain because CS3 couldn’t read the RAW files from my new camera and it made editing my photos an even longer process. Purchasing CS5 made my editing a much quicker process and for that I am so grateful! Lightroom 3 is something that I am trying to become more proficient about using. At this time I definitely prefer Photoshop over Lightroom but realize the advantages of bulk editing with LR as well.
Photoshop Actions that I use, own and love:
• The Pioneer Woman’ Action Sets 1 & 2 (free!)
• Imagenomic Noiseware Professional
There are gazillions of free Photoshop and Lightroom action sets that you can find online as well. If you know an educator or a student, you can purchase Photoshop and Lightroom for a much more reasonable price than what it is listed at. The programs I purchased through Imagenomic are fairly pricey, but they have been a godsend for me. Our daughter has a skin condition that comes and goes on her face and this program helps me fix her skin very easily and gives her beautiful portraits of herself where she doesn’t have to remember the times when her skin is having issues. I’ve also found that it comes in very handy when I am shooting photos of high school seniors who often have skin issues as well. Please Note: I believe that the newer versions of Photoshop and Lightroom now have a built-in noise removal program as well. That’s something that would probably be beneficial for photographers to look into.
Lightroom Presets:
Printing Services
When I first began my business, I searched for quite some time for a online printing source that would work well for me. With the work I do for I Heart Faces, it makes it very difficult for me to do a ton of follow-up service with my photography clients. I know there are many debates online as to why a photographer should (or should not!) do in-person proofing after a session is over, but I knew that in-person proofing would not work for me.
I looked for a printing service that:
• Offered very high quality prints (and had the backup reviews to prove it)
• Offered private, password-protected galleries for my clients
• Offered reasonably priced prints (still at a very high quality)
• Was easily customizable for my business
I ended choosing SmugMug Pro for my printing needs and I have never regretted it! They fit every one of the above criteria I was looking for and they also provided photo-by-photo comparisons that they had done between different pro labs before they made their decision to go with BayPhoto for their Pro Account. These comparison studies came in very useful for me when I was making my decision:
• Pro Print Lab Test Results and FAQ’s about the Tests
And (even more importantly to me) when I asked several professional photographers whom I highly respect which printing lab they used, they highly recommended SmugMug Pro to me. That really was one of the main deciding factors for me.
The bad news? The cost. I do pay $150 a year for my pro account. This was completely worth it to me though to have the conveniences that I needed for my business and to have access to their Pro printing option. And, after you pay your yearly account fee, the prints are very reasonably priced.
The good news? You can try SmugMug Pro FREE during their 14-day trial. If you decide to keep your account after that time period, they allow their members to offer a $5 coupon to their friends. My personal coupon code that you can use is 5637CGZ9Os3oc (which you can put into the Coupon field at the end of your trial) or you can go to this link to receive the discount as well. Disclosure: SmugMug then gives me a bonus for each referral as well which makes me happy. You win and I win! :)
Starting a Photography Business:
After I first began thinking about starting my own business, I spent over a year practicing and honing my photography skills by shooting free sessions. Even after that I only took the plunge because people I didn’t know personally were asking me to take photos for them and I didn’t have enough time to do sessions free any longer. I still wonder if I should have started my business when I did though.
It’s something to think long and hard about because owning a photography business can completely suck the joy out of photography for you. You definitely end up spending much more time on the “business” part of owning a business rather than on the creative (and fun!) parts of photography. I ended up shooting so many sessions last fall that (in addition to the work I do for I Heart Faces) I completely burned myself out. The good part of that equation is that when you own your own business (if you aren’t depending on it as your sole income) you can take a break from it anytime you’d like. This is exactly what I decided to do when I took the winter off and spent that time photographing my kids for fun again and looking back at what I did and did not like about my business. I was then able to make changes accordingly to help me enjoy photography again.
Some of my recommendations?
• Think about why it is that you’d like to start a photography business. Is it because you really need the money because you are going to be the sole source of income for your family? Do you want to “support your hobby”? Do you have a lot of people you don’t know asking you to take photos and so you’d like to be able to charge them for it? Really analyze why you think you need to start a business because this will set the tone for what you end up doing. For instance, if you are going to be the sole source of income for your family then you are probably going to want to take every session that comes your way or you are going to want to become the very best at what you do for a specific genre in your area (ie. weddings.)
• If you are going to charge money for sessions, you absolutely need to be ethical about it. I strongly feel that if you are going to accept payments for your work then you need to set yourself up as a business and you need to pay your taxes accordingly. If not, then you shouldn’t be accepting money for your work. Period.
• If possible, give yourself some time to learn what you really like to do before you become exclusive to one type of photography. When I first had my logo made up I had decided in my mind that I only wanted to shoot sessions for senior girls, weddings, newborns and maybe some families. My Angie Arthur Photography logo completely reflects that (by the lighter pink and green colors I have in it.) I was completely wrong though! After shooting a few newborn sessions I learned that for me they were way too much work and way too boring. After shooting a few weddings I realized that my other job with I Heart Faces does not give me enough extra time to edit gajillions of wedding photos in a timely manner. After shooting a few senior boy sessions just to try them out I learned that I have just as much fun (if not more!) working with senior boys as I do with senior girls. After photographing a few family and children sessions I realized that posed sessions were not for me.
• Value yourself. One of the top mistakes I see photographers making is that they do not charge enough to even cover the cost of the gas that it takes them to drive to the session let alone all of the time they spent interacting with their client before the session and all of the many, many hours of editing work they will be doing long after the session is over. Please value yourself and this profession that we all love! I’ve often heard “But I don’t think my work is good enough to charge more.” In that case, I would strongly suggest that you go back to shooting sessions that you set up and design for free until you can get your work to the level that you do feel that you can charge more. One mistake I made at the beginning was that I took on any and every session without having a vision of what I wanted their session to be like. If you are shooting a session for free, you need to take charge and set it up so that it will show off the style of photography that you want your clients to pay for in the future. Take charge and control those free sessions so that your portfolio will really reflect what you’d like to do.
Something to think about: For me, it was much easier to photograph a session for free and be able to take all the time I needed to edit that session than to charge $50 for a session and then have to worry about whether my clients were getting angry that they didn’t have their photos ready to go on a disc within 5 days. Is $50 worth that stress? I would think not.
Really ponder about all the time and money you are investing into each session and all of the time it will be taking away from your family. Was the money you charged really worth that? If it was, then that’s wonderful! If not, I’d suggest that you need to rethink your plan. Your time is valuable and you need to charge accordingly.
• When you are sure of what you’d like to do with your business, then go for it! Since I jumped without knowing for sure what I really wanted my business to focus on I am now completely revamping my logo, my website and my portfolio to reflect the type of work that I really love to do and want to do from now on. This typically takes quite a bit of time and money to do. Thankfully, a graphic designer friend had designed my logo for me and she is willing to help me come up with another one to reflect my new vision. And even better, I had set my website up on a free blogspot site so I didn’t waste any money on that either. I can now spend all of that money I would have wasted before on a new logo and new website that will reflect what I really love to do now that I know what it is. :)
And, to avoid future burnout, I decided to become very exclusive to the vision I have for my business. This is fairly easy for me to do since my husband has a good job and I have my work with I Heart Faces…if I was the only source of income for my family then I might not be able to do this. To keep my photography fun and true to myself though and to keep from burning out I came to the decision that I will accept very few sessions per month and when I do they will have to be completely compatible what I am envisioning for Angie Arthur Photography. That way I’ll only be spending my valuable time on the types of sessions that are true to my style and my vision.
Photographers Who Inspire Me (in no particular order)
Other Inspiration
• Ruche
