Our featured artist and expert photographer today is the Montreal, Canada based Ken Kaminesky. Ken is a freelance lifestyle and travel photographer for stock photography agencies such as Picture Arts, Jupiterimages, Corbis and Getty Images. He loves to travel and has more than 15 years experience looking through the lens.

We are all lucky to have Ken with us today as I throw at him a few questions about his passion and his art of photography and Ken is even generous enough to share with us some of his master pieces for your inspiration and viewing pleasure. Scroll down and enjoy this rare and very educational one on one with Mr. Ken Kaminesky.

Florence-Via-Costa-dei-Magnoli

Q: I guess we would all like to know a brief background or perhaps a short bio of Ken Kaminesky. Like how and when did it all start for you? And what attracted you to photography in the first place?

I never had a camera as a kid, so I donʼt have one of those stories about me discovering my passion for photography at a young age like so many other photographers.

I kind of fell into this by chance. In fact in high school, art class was an optional class and when I signed up for it the teacher refused to let me take her course. She said that I had no artistic aptitude.

Come to think of it, I donʼt remember her showing us any of her work.

So my first experience with photography was when I took a course in my first year at college. After developing my first roll of film myself and working on my first darkroom photo, I was pretty much hooked. But even then I didnʼt think much of photography as a career. My plan was to get into cinema and I thought that photography would be a good base to help me develop an eye for composition, and being behind the lens.

After 2 years of school, I started working for some local photographers in Montreal and found that I was learning more from them, than I ever would in school.

I was really enjoying shooting my own work on the side while still assisting. At this time I was mostly working for fashion photographers and that was a fun situation to be in for a young guy. Pretty models, fun work atmosphere, and some travel all made me more certain that this is what I wanted to really do. 20 years later, here I am.

Q: Doing travel photography takes you all over the world, when I travel I hate lugging around any heavy luggage so my question is, aside from your personal choice of DSLR which gear canʼt you leave behind and can you tell us its importance to the work you do?

Other than the camera and lenses, I would be lost without my tripod and ball head, Macbook Pro, travel hard drives, rain cover for my camera, and my new camera backpack from F-stop.

In terms of non photo gear things, I would say that good walking shoes and socks are vital, since I can walk 20 to 30 km in a day easily. My iPod touch with maps, travel guides, subway apps, my portfolio, my music, translation apps and language tutorials is an awesome travel tool. Iʼm hoping that soon the iPad will be able to replace both the iPod and laptop when I travel. Iʼll get one when it can do all that I need it to do when Iʼm on the road.

Q: What do you usually look for in a subject or a scene to make a jaw dropping photo composition?

Iʼd like to think that itʼs a blend of intuition and experience that allows me to know when I have the right subject matter in front of me. To be honest though, I think that I can always do better. Iʼm often reminded of the quote by Samuel Butler:

“Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. If you look at it to admire it,
you are lost”

The scene will speak to me as Iʼm there taking the photo. Each scene has itʼs own story to tell, so there is no one true constant that I look for. Itʼs more of a feeling.

Jasper Maligne Lake Boathouse at Dusk

Q: How important is post processing to your final images?

Very! I can spend hours working on a single photo in Lightroom and Photoshop. I was doing the same thing in the darkroom well before I ever owned a computer. There is no image that has not been worked on in post in the history of photography. Everything that is done in the taking and developing of an image is processing or manipulating of some kind. Exposure, camera settings, lens choice, development of film, printing and computer work are all forms of processing. So I get a kick out of some people who call themselves “purists” and say that they donʼt use photoshop because itʼs cheating. To me they are just too lazy to learn how to use all the wonderful tools that we now have at our disposal. This is a golden age of photography and Iʼm loving it.

Quebec-City-St.-Jean-Baptiste-Church

Q: Can you share with us some tips of how to achieve the same quality of photography you end up with?

I could, but then Iʼd have to kill you.

Seriously though, Iʼd say passion, patience, practice and photoshop are my 4 Ps of perfect photography.

There is no simple method to get great images, itʼs hard work and experience that gets you there.

Q: And lastly how about some profound inspirational words of wisdom to the rest of us who could only dream of producing amazing photos like yours.

Believe in yourself, work hard, be nice.

Find out what you love to shoot and shoot the hell out of it.

When possible, walk, donʼt ride.

Embrace the tools that we now have at our disposal and learn to use them well. But always remember that itʼs photographers that take photographs, not cameras.

Stop, look up and around every once in a while. Youʼll be amazed at all the beautiful things that youʼve
been missing.

Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints.

“This is really a great day for us here at prodigalconcepts.com and on behalf of our friends and followers we would like to thank Ken Kaminesky for indulging us with this insightful interview, the experience is overwhelming. We wish you all the best, more power – stay cool.”

More high dynamic images from Ken Kaminesky

Here are some of the images Ken generously shared with prodigalconcepts.com, this is just something to wet your appetite be sure to visit his website or his newly updated blog for the image back stories, hi-res versions and more great photography from around the globe by Ken Kaminesky.

NYC Times Square

Rome Colloseum

Paris L'Ombre de Notre Dame

Paris La Defense KPMG

Ottawa Maman sculpture by Louise Bourgeois

Montreal Olympic Stadium

Milano Centrale Train Station

Barcelona Telefonica tower Olympic garden

Banff Lake Moraine

Badlands Hoodoo Rock formations

Where to find Ken Kaminesky on the web

Website: kenkaminesky.com

Blog: blog.kenkaminesky.com/

Social Networks: Twitter, Facebook

With baby photography one name stands out for me among the crowd and that would be no other than Anne Geddes, she’s well renowned for her baby portraits usually dressed up in fantasy styled outfits and garden settings. I was introduced to her work a while back (some time in the late 90′s) when I received copies of them printed as postcards and greeting cards, I fell in love with her concepts. Anne has an eye that can see babies from a very surreal perspective and presents them mostly during their earliest days of innocence, when one couldn’t help but be awed as the babies look serene and magical.

I’ve decided for this post to celebrate the birth of Iñigo and make a compilation of creatively portrayed babies in photography. Babies in different poses and scenes shot by Anne herself as well as some images by other photographers I stumbled upon along the way. I hope you all enjoy and get enough dose of inspiration to grab that camera and immortalize the little tykes at their age of innocence.

Anne Geddes and her Surreal Babies

Anne Geddes style of children’s portraiture broke some fresh ground in the early 90′s. She has a few published work and some awards in photography excellence to back her years of experience in the industry she has grown to love. And if being interviewed by Oprah doesn’t count as an achievement, then let her work speak for her talent.

Carrie Sandoval and her Babies in B&W

Carrie Sandoval was always into anything that has to do with arts even as a young girl. She worked as an Art Director for an advertising agency before she had her first baby, a boy who gave her a new career direction. “Becoming a mother was the catalyst that caused her love of photography to blossom.

Adele Enersen and Mila’s Daydreams

Adele Enersen is from Finland, I believe Helsinki to be exact. She’s not a professional photographer but makes this list because of her creativity. A copywriter and a concept designer by profession who took time off from work to have her baby “Mila”. To avoid disturbing Mila’s sleep Adele just takes a few minutes to create a concept and take a snapshot using a point and shoot Canon IXUS 750, then it’s back to the crib for the little angel. Adele Enersen will have a daydream-book out soon, inspired by her blog Mila’s Daydreams where she portray’s her daughter in a wide array of dream like poses and settings, using anything readily available at home she can get her hands on as props which is planned to be published sometime in 2012 by Balzer + Bray.

Related Articles

6 Baby Photography Tips for Beginners

Baby Photography 101

Baby Photography:21 Cute and Meaningful Black&White Baby Photos

30 Adorable Examples of Baby Photography

On a personal note Iñigo finally arrived around 11:50 am on October 25, 2010. He’s a handful but manageable and it’s really something else to hold him, it’s like magic.

If the internet is a mall then we all agree that it’s a very humongous mall. As of the latest survey for July 26, 2010 around 9:46 am, wiki answers gives us approximately 1,474,822,045 of the world’s population goes online every day. Wow, that’s a lot isn’t it? That’s how big your potential market is.

Like so many who goes online to browse I hate the walk around. I prefer the simpler walk through, I’m a busy guy myself who has other sites to visit like those super funny gags on Youtube, hehehe, so funny. So let me breakdown the avenues that could make you some real money on the internet.

If you’re into Photography then you can sell,

Pictures or photographs

You don’t have to be an expert to sell your pictures. There are a number of websites where you can post your images to and if they are really good pictures you are bound to sell a copy. They don’t even have to be award winning shots either, some images or photographs are sold as stock photos because they can be a part of something else, ex. background images like a nice wall or a clear summer’s day at the beach or the park can get you paid. Anything goes with selling photos, you will never know who will need an image of your cute dog or that grungy close up texture of your peeling wall paint, or a shot of someone eating their favorite burger unless you post it up for sale. But the quality has to be there. Be sure to check your focus and perspective.

Do read the guidelines of your image hosting provider/reseller, to know what images they need and what images are not allowed before you start uploading those classic self portraits that makes you look so damn cool.

Where to go
• 123rf.com
• crestock.com
• shutterstock.com
• istockphoto.com

Related reads for selling photographs
• Selling Photos Online
• How to Sell Stock Photos Online
• How to Make Money Selling Stock Photos Online

I hear you are more into graphic design? Then you can sell,

Digital art

If you don’t know digital art, then I guess this is not for you, (but do read on you might pick up something valuable). Digital art is any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology. Let’s say you are conceptually savvy and you’ve been doodleling on your parents walls long before you learned to walk. One day you discovered how to use image enhancing/editing application softwares like “Photoshop” or it’s open sourced cousins like “Gimp” then check this out. Just like photographs vector illustrations are also in demand. It’s uber cool if you can sell a copy of your original artwork as art, but swirly’s and silhouettes can also get you some dough. These types of illustrations are also used for backgrounds of conceptual designs from web to print, like posters, brochures, banners and t-shirts. Also if you are good with logo or brand design then you should definitely go with this.

Where to go
• 123rf.com
• crestock.com
• shutterstock.com
• istockphoto.com

“This is not a mistake the photo resellers also dabbles in the vector image trade”

But wait, there’s more…

• graphicriver.com
• deviantart.com
• graphicleftovers.com
• vectorstock.com

Related reads for selling vector art
• How to Make Money With Vector Art
• Do you want to earn money selling vector images?
• 40+ Places to Sell Your Designs Online

T-shirt designs

Since we are on the subject of designs, tshirt designs are also getting a piece of the web money making action, and just like photography and vector illustrations tshirt designs can give you a continous flow of income depending on how well you do your stuff.

Where to go

• cafepress.com
• redbubble.com
• spreadshirt.com

Related reads for selling tShirts
• How to sell your custom t-shirts online and make money!
• So You Want to Earn Money Online and Work For Yourself?
• How to Break into T-Shirt Design

How about turning your thoughts into reading material,

Writing

So you hate carrying a heavy and expensive camera and the only software app you can operate is your document writer/editor. Fear not because article writing is also in the list of profitable things you can do online. You can sell your articles and write-ups. If you’re a techie you can also do product reviews or write tutorials.

Where to go
• associatedcontent.com
• constant-content.com

“Do an online search for websites that pay’s for articles or tutorials like, psd.tutsplus.com“

Related reads for selling articles and write-ups
• How to Earn Money with Online Writing
• How to Write and Sell Articles to Websites and Magazines
• Writing for Money – How to Make Money Writing
• Earn Money Online Writing Articles

Blogging

Since you’re a writer another thing you can do is set up a blog and if you’re good enough to get regular traffic then ad placement is another money maker that just keeps on giving. All you need is some relevant content that a lot of people could associate with and they keep coming back for more. If you need help setting up a blog or a self hosted website on a free host then simply refer to How to set-up a free website on a free web-host for newbies.

Where to go
• Google’s adsense
• buysellads.com

These are some online money makers that a noob like me would be very interested with. If you’re a web designer you have the advantage of putting up your own site, and sell your stuff so you don’t have to pay commission fees. But the competition is pretty stiff and you would need to learn how to drive some serious traffic to your website, before you get involved with ad placements, like buysellads.com but it doesn’t stop there. You could also hook up with affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs

How it works

Affiliate programs are marketing strategies of some websites to increase memberships and traffic. Once you register to them they will give you a reference code that links back to their site. Some affiliates pays per click and some per sign-up. That means they will pay you when someone uses your link to get to their website.

Related article

Affiliate Marketing Is A Number One Online Business

My affiliate sites
• justhost.com – web / domain hosting provider
• neobux.com – PTC or paid to click programs that also pays to refer new members
• ad.ly – a twitter based ad publisher

That’s a wrap!

Before we roll out the credits I would just like to add that the brilliant guys who built psd.tutsplus made a series of web sites that could open up a new can of worms with making money online which they call Envato or the Envato marketplace from website templates and flash animations to music samples and 3D works even video after effects and what programmers do in their sleep, coding and scripting. So go check them out and see what they have that fits your skill sets that will eventually give you the power to buy your friends coffee. (Uhurmmn, clears throat then winks)

Well that is all there is to it my friends, wasn’t it short and sweet? I’m pretty sure I’ve only uncovered the tip of the iceberg. But as a noob I’d like to start with the easy ones. I’m not saying it will be a breeze, remember the golden rule “if it’s too good to be true it probably is” so don’t quit your day job or stop looking if you’re on sabbatical like me *wink, wink. In the end it’s not how you find opportunities to earn that’s important it’s your willingness to find opportunities, always keep an open mind and weigh things that could be good or bad for you. Until next posting, rakenrol!

“Aside from life changing comments and flattering link-backs, donations are now being accepted. THANK YOU!“

Must read for night photography

• 10 ways to improve your night photography
• Digital night photography tips
• Three Photography Myths About Nighttime Photography
• Night photography Tutorial by =ehlo
• Smashing Magazines – 60 Beautiful Examples Of Night Photography

Here is a collection of 30 photos that I hope will inspire newbies like me to not loose hope with night time photography, and continue practicing and sharing your work to rest of the community.

The first camera I’ve actually owned was a Yashica FX-3 a manual SLR that I bought from a second hand store a long time ago. I got it real cheap because it was a fixer-upper. Nothing major, mostly aesthetics since it was probably sitting at the super store of cool finds for quite some time. I did learn a lot from that camera, basic things mostly, ISO, aperture, shutter settings and how to focus and take a shot without making your subject lose their pose or smile and stuff like that, very basic but the most important skills you will need in your photo shooting arsenal, having said that this article will not be touching that subject but do read on.

There are some downside to owning a manual SLR as a beginner, for one thing you’ll never know which shot is a bust until you get them developed and that will cost you, then it’s also quite expensive to arm yourself with enough film negatives that you will need to practice. In the advent of digital photography I ventured into scanning my pictures to be digitized copies which is not a good idea to be excited about, the quality was very very bad and resizing a scanned picture will not produce quality prints so might as well forget about that bright idea. Investing in a digital camera is a must these days especially if you’re active online, it could be social network sites (where you exchange wacky pictures with family and friends) that keeps you busy, or you are the owner of multiple blog islets (that features anything under, even around the sun) you may even be the brains behind your own personal website, whatever the case may be each one would occasionally require the aid of a visual stimulant that would help convey your erratic thoughts to your visitors.

Suggested reading for beginners

• Mosly Lisa’s – 10 New Years Resolutions Every Photographer should make
• Photo tuts+ – The Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Photoblog: Part 1
• Digital Photgraphy School – Digital Photography Tips for Beginners

OK so let’s get down to business, I’m not expecting anyone to have a high-end DSLR but kudos to you if you happen to have such an equipment, what I would like to mention at this stage is that to be effective you would need your own basic instincts as well to get the shots that you would be proud of. So grab your camera phones and your digital point and shoots (loose the DSLR’s for awhile) and lets go on a photo-walk.

If you’re not busy or tired try to go on occasional photo-walks

Our good friend wikipedia.com (please donate when you can) describes photo-walking as the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things that the photographer may find interesting. There are tons of subjects you can use for your theme of the day or go wild without any and just shoot whatever passes in front of your lens. Whatever you decide here are a few tips on how to get some interesting shots out of ordinary things.

Lines, shapes and patterns

Question, can you overlook a photography subject that’s present in architecture and nature? You can’t, but most beginners probably will and may possibly ignore them, try to see lines that would raise an interest whenever you go out. If you get really good at this you can even sell this stuff as patterns to designers.

Using the 2 mega pixel camera of the Nokia E63 I captured these images in front of a corporate office building.

Perspectives

Looking from a different angle is always interesting, sometimes all it takes is to see the world from a fresh set of eyes to appreciate its beautiful simplicity. Going real low on the ground produces some cool perspectives, as it is with viewing from the top (birds eye view).

With the Sony Cybershot its easy to get these unconventional shots.

Colors

They’re everywhere and just like the air we breath colors can be so naturally forgotten as the main subject to take in photography. Look for colors that pops out from the rest of the scene, don’t be afraid to mix and match.

We picked the Nikon D-90 because of the way it interprets real colors.

Portraits

This is difficult to get without asking permission from your soon to be subject so if you’re a bit shy talking to strangers a good lens will do you good (paparazzi style). You can also start practicing with your friends and families or practice on yourself, all you need is a tripod or anything you can put your camera on top of (make sure it’s stable), a camera timer or remote. And keep in mind that the more natural the expression the more dramatic the end result will come out.

Well that’s all I have for now

I just want to cap this off by mentioning that post photo-shoot enhancements are very common these days it’s a big help to maximize your images that gives them character and that extra “Bada-bim, Bada-boom”. Given that all these technological advancements are within your reach I still suggest that as a beginner make time and get to know the manual settings through and through and not to rely on image enhancement applications just yet. And most importantly always see ordinary things from an extraordinary point of view.

This is the description header you will find at the web site of www.nikonusa.com – D90 page “Fusing 12.3-megapixel image quality and an exceptional 24fps D-Movie Mode, the Nikon D90 exceeds the demands of passionate photographers.”

We recently became a member of the Nikon family when we purchased the Nikon D90, this is my first DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera) so I can’t say I’m an expert but when financial times are hard you need to get your money’s worth, and before you let go of your hard earned cash a little research will go a long way.

This article will cover how and why we decided on getting the Nikon D90 from the vast array of choices of DSLR’s available in the market today.

A serious photo hobbyist and even newbies who graduated from taking artistic photos with a 2-megapixel (or higher) camera phones or the more powerful pocket sized digital cameras will more likely to start with the popular line up, “canon, nikon and olympus”. If you are one of those nodding their heads in agreement but then you came to your senses and realize that it’s still a wide range of selection even if I’m just talking about the top 3 dslr’s but what about their models those “EOS Rebel T1i, EOS 50D or D5000, D3000, Evolt E520″ and so on, don’t panic, here is what we’ve done.

The process and how to narrow down your choices:

Let’s start with popularity, like a good movie you would like to see, you will hear a lot of buzz as to which camera is at the top of everyone’s list, all you have to do is listen and observe.

What we heard is Canon this and Canon that… as most of our friends always have a Canon SLR handy when we have a get together or go on trips we were lucky that we got exposed to it through association we had a few hands-on experience during these times to see the camera’s potential and why it was very popular. But popularity alone is not enough if you’re looking for a long term relationship with your camera. You need to seek out the competition at least, that’s where the Nikon comes in.

What we did was look up the top 10 list of cameras and we found “Top 10 Popular DSLRS” from digital-photography-school.com very helpful for our purpose.

From here we got the top 2 brand names that professionals, enthusiasts and newbies look for and at this point comes the interesting part of your search when you pit them against each other to see which one will remain on top of your list.

Know their strengths and their weaknesses by using google to find forums, websites or articles that knows what they’re talking about like dpreview.com. It’s also a good idea to visit the camera manufacturers respective home sites to get the camera specs (forget about their marketing spiels they were made to make you buy their products). View them side by side and take your time to get to know the meaning behind the terms of the key features and the technical specifications from the ISO to the AF system and so on, don’t be scared they just sound like big words but they’re not. Wikipedia can give you the meaning of all these things and if that is still not enough then google-lize it.

Next step is to go in deeper when you have all the technical info try comparing outputs this is the final image captured, you may think this is a bit going overboard but we did find out through this process that even with the same settings and features these two cameras output comes out very different.

From this exercise we have already leaned on the Nikon, output wise we like it’s color composition and clarity, but which one? So to narrow this further the last thing to consider and probably the overall deciding factor would be the budget, the features of the D3 looks promising and a dream come true, but it doesn’t feel right to pay more than 7,000 dollars when you are just starting out. On the other hand the D3000 comes to a comfortable price of less than 1000 dollars, if you are willing to own a high end version of your handy old digital pocket camera then this model is for you. But for us the D90 feels just right, (like Goldilocks). All the power you need at the price that is still affordable for us and would not make Grace cringe when she pay’s the cashier.

So before you check out do the previous process but this time just for camera brand you have set your eyes on and pit each model against each other, try to be realistic and stick to your price range that way you can minimize your options.

That’s all there is to it! Now that your all set up take your new camera for a break-in and go out into the world to capture your master pieces and don’t forget to share what you learn along the way.