The other thing I may suggest, put a watermark or some sort of identification on your images. It's entirely too common these days for pictures to be taken and used elsewhere.

Oooh, pictures! The snow is gorgeous, nerd.

I'm actually of the opposing view, kat (although, before I state that view: I am not a professional photographer, neither my bread nor my butter comes from photography, and I state the following only as a comment for those who also do not rely on their photos for bread or butter). I find watermarks very distracting, and I don't feel like I get to truly appreciate a photo when it is watermarked, so I don't mark mine. I've put my information into the particulars of the file anyway, most of the time, and I figure if someone really wants to rip off my photo, they are going to rip it off anyway. Plus, most of my photos are nature/architecture based, and that isn't quite the same as posed pictures (unless they're documentary for work, in which case, I don't care if people use them due to the nature of my job).

Anyway, photography is one of my many art-based hobbies. It's one of those things that I know just enough about to be dangerous, but not enough to be much good. I will post some of my photos intermittently on my blog, which you can find some of my recent favorites here, and I recently got an instagram, but I have not started using it yet, as I don't want to start posting on it until I can give it some proper attention and planning. I'm currently shooting about 95% of my stuff over my iPhone, as I travel frequently and don't usually check baggage (which means I don't really have a spare bag to devote to lenses, battery chargers, and etc). I find that most of the time I have pretty good control over all of the settings, but the one that bugs me is exposure, as iPhones tend to adjust lighting for you. I have found I can combat the automatic lighting choices but taking one picture slightly overexposed and one slightly underexposed, and then pulling the details that shine from each one into the final image. Most of the time, though, I'm pretty happy with the result with minor editing.

When I do shoot for work, I'm shooting to document car crashes and other disasters, often trainings, which my team has set up. It's definitely a very different shooting style, and I use an Olympus E-500. I don't use that camera for much else, as it has a lot of...gunk...from everything.

I don't have a particular place where I can upload any of those photos to share right now, but if I run across any that are appropriately PG and aren't a problem for me to put on a 3rd party site, or if they get uploaded for work, I'll link to them.

Watermarks and meta data altering are pretty much required these days. You'd be surprised at the type of photos that end up in random places. One of the articles I read recently had a landscape show up on a common photography printing site without permission. But like I said, it's just a suggestion.

Side note... Technically I am a professional photographer.

I tend to take pictures of horse, humans, and at horse shows. Horse shows are one of the worst for people to screen cap pictures. I've got a Canon 7D mk ii. I dearly need new glass, but it is so far out of my price range it's not funny. One day.

Starkat, the watermark suggestion is definitely a very good one. Especially for those of us who one day might want to make this our profession. I however have no such inclination. I've already turned one of my hobbies into my full time 9-5. I have no interest in ruining another one for myself. That's quite a shooter that you've got there. I sprung for its little brother in the Canon EOS Rebel T6, it scratches my itch and that's all that really matters to me.

Wren, Thank you so much. My passion is landscape and nature photos, oh and vehicles. But recently I've found that I've got a decent knack for shooting people, especially candid's. My big project that I'm working on right now is a collage of my current deployment. Trying to capture the experience I'm having right now, you know? I've always been one to live in the moment, but I've found that I rarely ever have any type of memoirs of them. I guess I'm trying to fix that.

Anywho, I'm gonna steal that Instagram idea from you Wren, the link to jackalope.photography will be below. I'll periodically be uploading some of my favorite pictures to there.

https://www.instagram.com/jackalope.photography/

It's not just if you want to take it another step up. It's if you want to protect your material. This website is amazing for people looking up copyright issues photographers run into: https://thelawtog.com/copyright-laws-for-photographers/

Love the picture you posted, but some of the horizontal lines are at a slight angle. I may be looking too deep though as my last project from a group I'm working with is leading lines. LOL. So don't mind me.

I got my camera because I tend to do horse shows. It's got a high rated shutter and is known for decent weather sealing. I'm currently using a lens with a f5.6 and 75-300mm. It's great for outdoors, but not good enough for high action in low light. One day I want the f2.8 70-200. I need about $2000 first if I buy it new.

The Rebel is a fantastic line. My first Rebel was the xTi and lasted me 12 years before the battery compartment started to fail. I can still use it, but I have it as an extreme backup body. The grain level on that one is horrific. Newer model Rebels are soooo much better than my old one. But mine served me well.

I just got my business instagram set up. It's under photographyaliciaa. My personal one that will transition to my phone photos of my cat and horse and random landscapes is starkat23.

I think it's safe to say there are lots of views about watermarking, copyrights and etc

When you do your insta, do you generally upload photos individually, or do you upload them in the context of all your other photos? How important are the thumbnail pages to you?

I've finally downloaded all of my photos from my last trip. Boy howdy, there's a lot to go through...and a lot of holes in my continuity. I guess that's part of the learning process, too. Now I just have to sit down and start editing them all.

What sort of editing software do you like? I've used photoshop elements for a long time, and I love Lightroom, but I'm not quite willing to shell out the money for it quite yet. I've been doing some research about Snapseed, and it looks like most people love it. I haven't gotten it yet, though, because while I do take most of my pictures over my phone, there's never really enough space on it for everything, and I don't know if I want to take up valuable memory with a photo editing app. Every time I have in the past, I've ended up deleting it (usually to make room for more photos!), so I'm 50/50 on its value to me, personally.

I love photography, I can't believe as a teen about the time I joined NarniaWeb I fought with my mom over being made the family photographer. Less than two years after that I got my first camera.

I'm for watermarks, but definitely prefer corner watermarks. And I sometimes I think it depends what the photo is of, some photos it is a lot easier to make the watermark slightly blend into the photo. It took me forever to figure out a watermark for my pictures, I hate my early attempts and I wish I could go back and change them all, but it's not worth the time.

I used a Canon Rebel T3 for over 6 years with just the basic lens, it is my sisters' and my camera for our online business. In November I got my own Canon Rebel T6 with the base lens and a 75mm-300mm lens that's as far as I could afford to upgrade. I shot family candids, family portraits, landscapes, flowers, products (for our business), food, and tons of coffee and books for my blog.

A few months back my sister made me a board with a couple of LVTs (Luxury Vinyl Tiles) on it that I can use anywhere inside or outside for coffee and book shots. I love it and the consistency it adds to the photography on my blog.

SnowAngel