Help me build my about page?

[Jim Poor]

I'm the guy BEHIND the camera, not in front of it (even in the figurative sense) so I really hate talking about myself.

I'm considering doing my about page in an interview / Q&A format just to be different.

So, send me (or post here) your Q's and I'll start thinking about my A's. They may not all make it and some may make to to places like an FAQ or even a blog post, but no promises.

If you're curious, the developmental version of my site is here:Jim Poor - The Dog Sport Photographer - Jim Poor - The Dog Sport Photographer

Lots of non-working links still and piece of stuck code in my style so it isn't ready for prime time yet. Maybe a month or so.

For those who don't know already, I'm a full time Dog-Sport and Pet Portrait Photographer with a little bit of Nature thrown in for good measure.

[equilution]

Who's your biggest influence?
What's your first thought when you look through the viewfinder?
What emotions do you try to evoke in the viewer when you compose a shot?
If you were stuck on a deserted island with the Swedish Bikini Team and could have only one lens, which would it be???
What's your favorite lens?
Do you prefer SOOC pics, or do you post-process them?

...just a few to start...

[JodyGall]

Do you own any pets? What are their names?
How did you get into dog sport photography? Have you ever participated in a competition?

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by equilution

Who's your biggest influence?
What's your first thought when you look through the viewfinder?
What emotions do you try to evoke in the viewer when you compose a shot?
If you were stuck on a deserted island with the Swedish Bikini Team and could have only one lens, which would it be???
What's your favorite lens?
Do you prefer SOOC pics, or do you post-process them?

...just a few to start...

Thanks.

Funny to hear from a dog sport perspective but I'd have to say Moose Peterson. I got my start in nature photography so that explains some of it. The rest is explained by his mantra that "No photograph is worth the well being of the subject."

Usually, "Wow, it is dark in here." Most of my dog sport work is indoors, especially in winter and I spend most of my time at ISO 6400-12,800.

For portraits, that really depends on the personality of the subject(s) and can change from day to day or even shot to shot. For dog sports I try to capture the relationship between dog and handler first, then a sense of the dog (hopefully) enjoying itself. Then, back to personality. Some dogs are graceful, others are pure speed, others are real clowns on the course. It is an amazing thing to see that a dog not only understand what he/she is doing, but understands the why and the how without further instruction.

Something macro of course

Oh, my favorite lens? I'd have to say that is changing right now with the upgrade to the D3s.
For indoor dog sports, 200 f/2 and 85 f/1.4 were my only two viable choices as recently as three months ago. With the D3s, I can now get up to f/2.8 and even f/4 in some locations so I'm back to my 70-200 f/2.8 and 200-400 f/4. Outdoors, it is the 200-400 by a large margin.

Apart from the "developing" required for any digital photo, I really try to get it SOOC, but indoor venues with no flash allowed and crazy lighting conditions really force me to do some post. WB correction for each and every frame on an individual basis is a must under sodium vapor and mercury vapor lighting where one can end up with four different color casts in an 8 frame burst. With no control over the lighting, I end up doing a bit of shadow and highlight work before printing. I've got my own set of custom actions for that that do a far better job than the stock Shadow/Highlights adjustment in Photoshop.

Thanks again. This may prove to be an interesting exercise.

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by JodyGall

Do you own any pets? What are their names?
How did you get into dog sport photography? Have you ever participated in a competition?

Ohh, I'll have a "my dogs" page too, but a link from the about page to it might be a good idea.


We are owned by five dogs:
Igloo, American Eskimo. Turned 17 in November 2009.
Rusty, Golden mix, Somewhere around 5 or 6 years old.
Haley, Doberman mix, Somewhere around 4 years old.
Missey, Sheltie Mix, Somewhere around 16 years old.
Snowball, American Eskimo, Turned 2 in September

I was shooting a pet portrait fundraiser and someone asked me if I would cover a Canine Freestyle Federation event. The rest is history.

Photo Competition. Nature's Best a couple times.
Dog Competition. Not yet, but we're training for our debut in a couple venues.

Thanks!

[junglebear]

What's your opinion on cats?

Nice website by the way, very professional.

[Jim Poor]

Cats are cool. We rescued one many years ago and I've done some cat-rescue photography as well as some portrait sessions. That said, if you want to see some super cat photos, check out Helmi Flick http://www.helmiflick.com/ and Preston Smith Preston Smith Photography.

Originally Posted by junglebear

What's your opinion on cats?

Nice website by the way, very professional.