What I Learned From Michael Jackson’s Death

Image by [ Zenat El3ain ]™ via Flickr

I hate to jump on the band wagon.  I’m not just posting this to see my blog stats rise all based on the demise of a celebrity.  I guess this is my Friday rant/vent session.  But it is also a reminder of what I learned today.

First of all, my condolances go out to both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson’s family and friends.  Losing someone you care about is never easy whether it’s anticipated or not.   I can’t imagine how it must feel.   What should be a private moment to mourn you loss being scrutinized and put under media/public attention.

The media frustrates me with the way they run everything into the ground.  These people haven’t even been dead 24 hours.  In Farrah’s case we know what caused her death but in Michael’s case they are just speculating.  Until  all the reports are in no one in the media can say anything with surety.  MOVE ON there is other news to be covered, I don’t need to hear the same 5 sentences repeated a myriad of different ways.  I trust that you will give me the news when you have confirmation – in the meantime report something else instead of rehashing speculations.  But the most frustrating part is those who are not in the know, who are not even privy to the sources the media has trying to comment, judge or even condemn someone.

From what information we have most would hazard a guess that Michael Jackson didn’t have the best of childhoods.  I don’t know how the pressure to perform coupled with the every glaring spotlight would have effected you but I am not that strong.  Yes, some people have had hard lives and are able to move on or even go on to really become an inspiration.  But you know what, some people just aren’t that strong.  Some people don’t have the support system or tools in life to get over their issues.  Does that make them any less worthy of our sympathy?  I for one am not going to sit in judgment of them for not being able to overcome.  You know it’s not my job.  I was raised to believe that job feel to someone else and I wasn’t suppose to try and do his job.

However, all of this crazy professional media (and real people via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Friendfeed and other social media) attention has taught me a reminder.  The next time I see something and start to pass judgement on it, I will think Michael Jackson.  It will be my personal reminder to myself that it is not my place to pass judgement on someone.  I have not walked in their shoes, I have not experienced their life in any way, shape or form, I am not them.  I believe that the universe teaches us lessons for a reason – guess I needed to be reminded of this lesson.  We could all learn from Michael Jackson’s death.  I’m just sorry it took him dying to remind me of my place.

Why Is This Even a Question?

What is a Browser?

I have the utmost respect for LibrarianbyDay but I’m going to have to disagree (again) with her latest blog post.   She commented on this video too and feels that the average Joe doesn’t necessarily need to know what a browser is.  Personally I think that is root of most computer problems – people (average Joe or not) don’t know ENOUGH about the machines they use.

Computers are pretty much a part of all of our lives.  We use them at work, at home and they are in almost everything from our cars to our electronic equipment.  I feel that people DO need to know not only what things are called but how to use them properly.  I’m not saying we all need to be programmer and start writing code but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have some computer competencies.

It is important to call things by the right name.  If I call it a whatizt but it is actually a howzer you won’t understand what I’m talking about, you won’t be able to help me and I’ll just get frustrated.   As someone who has to troubleshoot computer problems (which can often be user problems) nothing is more frustrating to both the user and me then when we can’t communicate.  Some might say “but you are speaking techie” – no, I am not.  I am known for using plain English but I will call things what they are (often followed by a short description or analogy so non-techies get it).

So let’s not perpuate this culture of not knowing what a browser or an operating system or anything else to do with these machines that are such a part of our lives.  Let’s educate people in at least the basics of computer literacy.  As a trainer I try to pass along nuggets every time I teach a class regardless of the main content.  If they are using computers in the class I’m going to be sure they know the browser we use is Firefox, that tab browsing is fantastic way to make your life easier (CtrlT), keyboard commands, etc.  I don’t think it is expecting too much of people that work with computers daily to know not only the correct words but some basic literacy when it comes to computers.

When Is Too Much, Too Much?

Image via CrunchBase

I am probably going to be in the minority on this one.  But how many Tweets is too many?

Does your message get diluted if you Tweet too much on Twitter or does it get diluted if you have too many followers?

How do you balance the right amount of Tweets to keep your followers engaged vs. overwhelmed?  Keep in mind I’m thinking more along the lines of an official account versus a personal account but I think it can apply to both.  Is one man’s not enough another man’s too much?

I subscribe to several Twitter accounts that are linked to libraries or businesses – some of them Tweet quite often while others rarely.  I don’t seem to have a problem with the ones that Tweet more (I quickly glance at the Tweet that pops up in Twhirl and move on – just like those Thunderbird pop ups that let me know I have a new email).  Some say you overwhelm your customers/consumers if you Tweet often.  Not sure I agree with that.  The ones that don’t Tweet much at all are doing their customers the real disservice.  Don’t taunt me, tease me into thinking I can communicate with you via Twitter and then give me nothing or very little.  Is more than 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 Tweets a day too much?  Is it really about a number?  Shouldn’t it be about content?  Shouldn’t the real measure be whether or not you are providing your customers/consumers with content of value and a way for them to reach you?

So what do you think?

My 2 Cents To Businesses Everywhere

Customer service seems to be on the minds of everyone lately.  First I posted about my recent not so great experiences, then today Strange Librarian posted on her blog her dealings with Weiss and being rushed out of the store, and then Andrew Shuping posted at FriendFeed his less than stellar experience with Cracker Barrel.  Something must be in the water.

You might wonder what do I know about customer service.  Well I served at the public service desk for many years as part of the Circulation department, I have contact with customers on weekly basis via email when dealing with technology problems, I have to interact with internal customers (staff and they are just as important as our external customers) daily solving their problems, answering their questions and helping them succeed in their roles but most importantly I AM A CONSUMER!

So whether you are a library, a retail establishment, small business or major corporation here is my 2 cents to you:

• Hire the appropriate staff.  Make sure your interview process asks probing, clarifying questions.  Don’t just give scenarios and ask how they’d handle them.
• Once appropriate staff are hired, TRAIN THEM.  Don’t assume because they answered questions correctly in the interview they know everything.  Technology comes along that they need to be aware of to interact correctly with customers.  Also refreshers are never a bad thing we can all benefit from that.
• Make sure your company policies are inline with good customer service.  Don’t tie your employees hands with silly policies or rules.
• Trust your employees.  You interviewed them, you hired them, you trained them now trust them.  That isn’t to say not to be aware of what they are doing but don’t micro-manage.  If you hover over them that kind of pressure won’t bring out the best customer service in them.
• Reward great customer service.  Let them know you value the kind of service they are providing.  Anything from an “attaboy” to comp time to monetary rewards – doesn’t have to be big but acknowledgment is always great to hear.
• Nip bad customer service in the bud.  One bad experience by a customer can multiply times ten and now with the social web it can multiply times ten thousand or more.  Pull that person off the front line, get them back into training, listen to them and help them learn a better way to handle the situation and if worst comes to worst fire them.  Keeping bad customer service employees in this day and age is tantamount to suicide.

I am as loyal as they come when you treat me right.  But all it takes is one wrong customer service experience for me to write about it, tell all my friends and more than likely never darken the doorstep of your establishment again.  Just ask Sears.  Had a bad experience with them back in 1989 and other than walking through their store to get inside the Columbia Mall I have never bought anything from them again.  You might think how much damage can one little person not buying anything from a major company like Sears do.  Well, it isn’t just me that isn’t buying it is my family and friends who have heard the full story – now with the social web that story can be told to many, many more.

Addendum to VPI Experience

Addendum:

Interesting that only seconds after to Twittering my bad experience earlier I had some new followers and one was the co-founder of Embrace Pet Insurance.

About an hour later I received a phone call from the supervisor who I had originally dealt with.  She and I were more civil this time.  Turns out she did some digging (sorry to say should have been done the first time but glad it was at least done this time) into my account.  She found something pending (didn’t say what exactly) that was from the time I had originally signed up with VPI.  I found this odd because whatever this was it did not keep me from making claims or receiving my payments.  She also let me know that because my email had contained attachments (2 screen shots so they could see exactly what I was seeing) it had been deleted (even though I got a confirmation email that they had recieved it).  So she asked me to try the web site again and if that didn’t work that I was to submit the email again but without the attachments.

I gave ol’ Firefox a try again and it still doesn’t work in Firefox.  Gave into using Internet Explorer and was able to FINALLY cancel the policies.

A few moments later I got a call from Patty at VPI to let me know that my policy cancellations had indeed gone through.  I thanked her for following up.  I asked her if I could speak to someone in the web dept.  I explained to her my main frustration had started with the inoperability of their web portal.  I enlightened her on not limiting your customers to only one browser (IE is FAR from the only thing out there).  She assured me that the web dept. was working to have their web portal work with Firefox and Safari (odd earlier they only knew that Safari didn’t work with it).

I truly hope that VPI learned a lesson from this today.  Follow up customer service is great but it shouldn’t be in place of good customer service to begin with.  Also that you don’t limit your customers or frustrate them by designing a site that isn’t web standards compliant.  Don’t launch a site until it works in all the major browsers (and OSes too – Linux, Windows, Mac).

I did Tweet that I appreciated them calling me back.  Am I completely happy?  No.  But I certainly feel a lot better than I did a few hours ago.  Thank you for getting back to me but let’s work on getting it right the first time. 

My Tweets:

VPI Pet Insurance just earned a few points – supervisor called back and gave me her ext. plus update on my problems – good customer service

few more pts 4 VPI – told me they are working on getting site to work w/Firefox & Safari never launch a site until it works in ALL browsers

Seriously? In This Economy You Can Afford To Offer Bad Customer Service?

I think  most people who know me would say I’m pretty fair.  I don’t immediately fly off the handle at a drop of a hat.  I am someone who will give you 3 strikes before calling you out.  So it is fair to say I gave VPI Pet Insurance more than their fair share of strikes.  I’m just utterly blown away by the experience I had today with VPI.  All because I wanted to cancel my policy.  I will say that at the beginning I wanted only to cancel my policies for now and had all hopes of reinstating them at a later point.  That point is now NEVER going to come.  VPI blew it big time.

Below is the email I sent to their customercare@petinsurance.com.  First part about canceling the policies and the numbers have been left off.  I’m still realing after this interaction.  I would never in good consceience recommend this place to ANYONE because of the bad customer experience I had today.  Sad to say one really bad experience can negate previous good ones.  Worst part is if the supervisor had taken a different route with me a lot of my frustration could have dissapated – she just added to it.

I’ve attached 2 screen shots to explain the problems I was having with your web site.  The first one shows you that I have all the information filled in and all the boxes dealt with correctly.  The 2nd screen shot is the message I got after clicking on submit.  I called to make sure there was no changes pending (as I have not submitted any claims or made any changes for 6 months) – there were no changes to my account that anyone could find.

As someone who has not only worked in customer service but also in Information Technology for over 25 years this was the worst experience I’ve had dealing with both a web site and people via the phone.  If you want your customers to be able to manage their accounts (make claims, cancel, etc.) you need to make your web site is web standards complaint (any browser, any operating system and interoperability/accessibility for all no matter what their situation might be).  At first I tried your web site in latest version of Firefox on Ubuntu (Linux) and was unable to do so.  At first I thought perhaps you were down or having problems with the site so I decided to try later.  2 weeks later (today) I try again – after filling out all the info and checking boxes (see 1st screenshot) I see a small box flash quickly (something about searching a database) and then I get the same page I was on.  I felt as if things didn’t go through correctly.  So I called the first time to verify.  I explain to that person (sorry he didn’t give me his name) and I explained in a calm voice that I was frustrated but trying to cancel my policies.  I told him about my experience.  He was (out of the 3 people I talked to) the best.  He explained that I should see another screen, he was patient with me and I with him.  I asked him if the site didn’t work with Firefox and he put me on hold to check.  Someone (don’t know who) told him the only problem they were aware of was Safari (which means you are limiting your whole MacIntosh user base).  I told him I’d try again on my WindowsXP machine.

Tried Firefox again but on WindowsXP and experienced the same problem.  I then decided to try Internet Explorer – I was able to get further than I had but was presented with a box saying that changes were still pending on one of my accounts and you couldn’t cancel my policies.  (see screen shot 2)  At this point I again called your company.  Amy helped me this time.  Although she was nice I don’t think she understood the problems I was having and after more than 30 mins of trying to cancel my policies I needed this escalated to someone who understood web browsers as well as your policies.  I asked to speak to a supervisor or possibly someone on the web team.  After several mins have gone by I finally get to speak to Jeanette.  No offense but if you have a customer who up until that point had been kind, calm and understanding but extremely frustrated and asking for a supervisor – that is not the time to try and sell me on your policies or lowering my coverage.  At that point you need to see to my frustration and needs by doing that you may have retained me as a customer.  She asked to hear my story (and I wanted to give her the details of what happened) before I had finished she cut me off and didn’t want to hear anymore.  That was just plain rude.  I lost it.  I could understand if I was being rude or if I had been yelling at her but I was not.  There was no excuse for cutting me off.  She didn’t even hear all of the problem before she just jumped in.  She was curt and rude with me for the rest of the call.  At one point I wanted to let her know that I was not happy with my customer experience and I was letting others know this.  I told her I was Twittering this.  She assumed I was trying to cancel via Twitter (NO I’m not stupid but I do have a fair following on my social networks and many of them are pet lovers like me).  She curtly asked me if I had sent the email only moments after I wrote down the information.  HUH?  Come now you need information from me, I need to log into my account – how on earth did she expect me to send an email within seconds.  She informed me that the calls are monitored.  If that is so I certainly hope as a supervisor she is given better training on dealing with customers.  Interrupting, being insulting and rude are not values we instill in my work place with our customer service staff.

I expect my policies to be canceled effective today. I don’t expect anything more than to make sure your web portal is web standards compliant and will actually ALLOW your customers to use it and to educate your customer service staff in how to best give GOOD customer service.

This is really a shame because up until today I had been a loyal customer.  In the past my phone calls have only resulted in the best customer service interaction (especially one kind lady who even called me back and walked me through a procedure to ensure I got all that was due).  But after frustration with the web site, dealing with a supervisor who doesn’t know how to deal with customer service I don’t have the same high opinion of your company as I once did.

My Tweets:

1. @AAHAHelpingPets I’d have to say #unfollowfriday to VPI after the experience I had today. Bad customer service and poor web portal.

2. I sense another blog post coming on – must be record bad customer service week.

3. @rachelrapp Funny thing is one woman I spoke to (3 people total) was named Amy – my Amy knows customer service

4. Even told the woman Jeanette I believe she said that I was Twittering about this. So VPI Pet Insurance I recommend you clean up your act.

5. Condescending supervisor asked for my story then doesn’t want to hear it all. BAD customer service rep. VPI Pet Insur. major fail.

6. FAIL – your site doesn’t work in Firefox or Safari and only on Windows?!! VPI pet insurance no wonder I’m canceling my policies.

Let The Social Web Document Your Next Training

While driving home from the Maryland Library Association conference I had several hours in the car alone to contemplate things.  At some point my mind wondered to those forms that we or at least folks in Maryland have to fill out to receive CEUs.

The form is boring.  The form can’t really capture what you may or may not have learned at a training or conference.  Why not allow the social web to document your next training or conference as an option.  Mind you I know not everyone blogs or Twitters or has a Flickr account but many of us do.

Submit your Twitter stream and the hashtags you used.  Give the URL of your Flickr set from the training/conference.  Set up a blog and live the sessions you attend.  All of these options would give your employer a much better idea of what you got out of a session than some form.

Maryland Libraries Sandbox Wiki Email Issues

Many Maryland library staff who participated in 23 Things and played with the Maryland Libraries Sandbox Wiki.  Well now due to PBworks (the software behind the wiki) changed who it views as an admin to the site (basically anyone who ever signed up their email address so you could edit the wiki) – people are now getting lots of emails from PBworks Changebot.

Here is how you can stop these emails from hitting your inbox:

• log into the wiki
• click on Account in the upper right hand corner
• click on the Home tab
• in the Preferences section select NEVER
• click submit

If you can’t log into the wiki – either contact the workplace owner and explain that you want to login (but forgot your login)  to change your settings

OR

setup a filter in your email client to delete emails that come from the marylandlibrariessandbox.

Tale of Two Customers Experiences

It was the best of customer experiences, it was the worst of customer experiences.  Odd that they both took place during the same conference.

BAD:

I attended the 2009 Maryland Library Association conference held at the Clarion hotel in Ocean City, Maryland.  I left my home in Northwest Baltimore County to travel to Maryland’s Eastern Shore around 6:30 pm.  Believe it or not I’m not familiar with Ocean City despite being a Maryland native.  I’m more of a Rehoboth Beach, DE kinda of girl.  So I took my trusty GPS with me so I wouldn’t get lost.  Of course that is exactly what happened or at least it took me on a very round about way to the Clarion in OC.

For some reason the day before a large convention which had most of the hotel booked they decided to paint half of their parking lot.  So when I get there there was no parking on the same side of the street as the hotel.  I parked in front of the office area and walked in to see where I could park.  “Hi, I’m here to attend a convention and I’m staying the night.  Can you tell me where I can park, your lot is full.” “There is overflow parking across the street.” is what I heard back.  No, “Oh let me check you in first since you’ll need to place a tag on your car” or “Would you like to check in now and then park your car?”  Instead I get back in my car, drive down a couple lights to find a spot where I can do a U-turn and park my car.  Since I’ve heard horror stories of people being hit while crossing Coastal Highway, I decided to be a good pedisterian and crossed at the crosswalk, drag my bag on the sidewalk until I get back to the hotel.

When I get there I see four people working the desk, three of them talking to each other and one actually helping someone.  Finally one of the talkers looks up and asks me if I’d like to check in.  After I check in and get my key she then tells that I need to hang this tag on my car which is now unconviently parked across an eight lane highway.  It wasn’t that big a deal to walk over there it was just the topping on poor customer service.  Good customer service would have dictated that when I came in to find out where to park they should have offered to check me in and give me the tag then.

In this day and age with the economy depressed as it is and businesses failing left and right customer service, good customer service is MORE essential than ever.  Just because I am attending a conference in your hotel does not mean I have to book a room in your hotel.  I can assure you that next year if I attend MLA 2010 I won’t be staying at the Clarion.  I’ll find a place that actually understands what proper customer service looks like.

GOOD:

Thank goodness I was able to experience the opposite of the above customer service issue while I was still in Ocean City.  Thursday night I went to dinner with a good friend.  Since he is more familiar with Ocean City and what they have to offer I asked him to pick the place.  We drove up to Galaxy66 Bar and Grille.   As I walked through the door I realized that this was going to be a different dinning experience.  The decor, colors used, even the plates on the table set a tone.  Then from the moment we walked in the customer service and attention to detail was excellent.

I asked our waiters if they served Coke products.  Sounds a bit odd but I’ve made the mistake over the years of asking for a Diet Coke but they fail to tell me that it’s really Diet Pepsi.   I explained to the guys that I had gone all day without a Diet Coke and I was jonesing big time.  That was just the start.  They brought me a Diet Coke and before the last drop was finished there was another glass was brought to me.  Their attention was the right blend of anticipating what we needed, asking us and staying away so we could chat and dine.  The menu was unique.  The flavor combinations were different but they worked.  I was pleasantly surprised with my bokchoy salad – red curry aioli, scallion crepe, radiccio, yellow and orange peppers, crispy lo mein noodles and shoestring carrots.  I then followed that very generous portion of salad with the gnocchi – seasonal mushrooms, rocket, garlic truffle oil, aged Parmesan.  Dinner was accompanied by toasted bread with my favorite herb, rosemary.

It was a wonderful time to spend with an old friend and the restuarant only made it better.  I judge a restaurant not only by it’s customer service, food but also by it’s ladies room.  It doesn’t have to be fancy but just clean.  Well, Galaxy66 had both.  The funky decor continued into the ladies room and it was clean.  To me that means you care – if you care about that then I have faith that the kitchen has as much if not more care given to it.  The icing on the cake for me was the card that came with the bill.  Being the social web guru that I am I absolutely loved seeing that they were on Facebook.  When I visited their web site they are also listed as being on Twitter.  You know I just had to follow and friend them.  Thank you to our waiters, the chef and the manager of Galaxy66 for great customer service, a wonderful unique meal and making my short stay in Ocean City a lot better (especially after the Clarion’s boo-boo).

What To Do With Your Digital SLR

I had the good fortune to attend a WONDERFUL class last night at the Howard County Library.    My hats off to Cristina Lozare of the Central Library  for orchestrating this.  She not only contacted the two passionate photographers to teach the class but she really marketed the class – so well attended class there were no empty chairs.  The class was presented by Anne Kelley Looney and Jeff Kniple.  They did an amazing job of sharing their love of photography, answering questions and making things make sense to this buddy photographer (read very, very much a beginner).  They even kindly stayed after the library closed to help people with the cameras they had bought.  I love to see passionate people share with others.  It was just such an infectious atmosphere to be in.

I decided to Twitter my notes with the hashtag #dslr so I could go back and put them altogether.  The infectious atmosphere must have translated to my Tweets because I had 2 of my followers tell me “really enjoyed your #dslr tweets” and ” following your tweets makes me want to go out and take pics…but it’s dark!“.  I even had a couple of comments on my Facebook page because of my tweets from the class.  I was happy to share this fabulous class with everyone.  I promise Cristina that I’d pull my tweets together into a cohesive list so she could let those pass them on to those who attended the class last night.

My tweets from the class – a lot of good information that I’m happy to share:

• Sitting in Digital SLR class at Central Library waiting for it to begin – going to hashtag it #dslr for my notes
• Class offered by Anne Kelley Looney and Jeff Kniple
• this class will help those stuck in the program mode to get out of it – get a little bit technical to get creative
• 5 main things – focusing, shutter opening, aperture, ISO speed, white balance
• your eye sees things differently than the camera
• Nikon D200 has 11 focal pts where as the Canon 5d only have 9 pts
• use whatever you are most comfortable w/live view or viewfinder – most don’t focus as accurately in live view
• biggest reason to use viewfinder – DSLR were designed that way and can be held more firmly/proper grip – leads to sharper pics
• subject not moving/nor you -choose manual focus – subject not moving too fast – single shot autofocus
• subject moving – use servo or continuous autofocus mode
• Exposure – if you can’t see it doesn’t matter if it’s in focus
• aperture let’s light in more or less efficiently depending on setting – aperture is like the size hose to fill the bucket
• to a camera the world is grey – camera’s try to average the range of tones into an exposure
• scenes that fall into the extremes throw off many cameras – sun in frame, beach or snow scene, night time, high contrast
• camera is trying to capture the best image wo/over or under exposing what it thinks is the subject
• shutter speeds – camera is giving you a fraction of a second for shutter speed
• camera is trying to capture the best image wo/over or under exposing what it thinks is the subject
• fix exposure change the shutter speed, too dark – slower shutter speed , too light – faster shutter speed
• aperture – fstops – lower # = bigger the higher the number the smaller the whole in the lens
• fix improper exposure is to change aperture – too light close down lens w/higher # too dark open lens to lower #
• ISO lower # less sensitive it is to light – higher speed requires less light for correct exposure
• ISO range fromn 50 – 25,600 most DSLRs 200 – 3200
• too dark – go up to higher ISo , too light – go to lower ISO – be careful to a pt that is OK – no free lunch
• higher ISO lose bit of color, clarity – and you get grainy/noise less sharpness
• wt balance – natural light different colors, tungsten – yellow, shaded areas more blue, fluorescent is greener
• when possible use white balance setting for the type of light you have – if mixed light use camera’s auto balance
• read up on raw files change light and switch things around
• 4 exp. modes – Program camera chooses apt. and shutter speed
• A or Av you pick apt. S ot TV – you pick shutter speed
• simplest solution to too dark or too light – adjust your exp comp wheelt to a + number and take it again
• if too light – turn exp to – side and repeat the process until you get it right
• inside or if dark enough around you – look at screen
• if too bright use the highlight warning screen or histogram
• blow out the highlights means too much light in a particular area – no value – the bucket is over filled -over exposed
• digital you are exposing for the highights where as film was exposing for the shadows
• using histogram don’t lose stuff on the far right of the image – the white side
• don’t over extend the sensor on the dark or the light end – you want it to be in a range – you don’t want extremes
• got to get it right in the camera no matter what editing software you use
• larger apt give smaller amt of photo in focus – smaller apt gives more in focus
• shutter speeds 2nd most important key to sharp images – blur or freeze the subject
• old rule of thumb – equal length of lens that you are using to ensure sharp pic
• 1 1/2 times the length of lens w/today’s DSLRs – 50mm 1/75 or faster 100mm 1/150 or faster
• you can cheat a little if your lens has VR or image stabilization – read manual or marketing on it
• shoot at lowest ISO rating that your camera is made for – move it up if you have to – no farther than you have to
• most important accessory – flash! match a flash to your camera system
• bounce flash gives softer look – bounce off wall can give directional light no harsh shadows
• shadow directly off to the side – from on board flash
• if the photo is not interesting, you are not close enough – Henri Cartier-Bresson
• flash can be a great way to freeze action
• evoke a feeling – tell a story – document a moment – express imagination – be fact or fiction – be understood uniquely – suspend belief
• compostion – how you want everything in the image to relate to each other
• composing your image what/where main subject is and what else is included – yopu are telling them what YOU want them to see
• white card under subject draw light from the sky into the subject – simple way to get more of what you are looking for
• composition – size, position, focus of subject
• where does your eye start? how do your eyes move around the image
• main subject – where you want viewer’s eye to go – rule of thirds based on 19th cen painters
• most powerful spots where the lines intersect in the rules of thirds
• upper left and lower right most compelling spots for main subjects
• our eyes will follow the subject’s eyes – make sure there is room on the left and right of subject
• support the main subject – soft focus background, lines leading to the subject contrast between lt & dk framing subject
• your image is a story – support main character but there are supporting characters too
• main subj – edge light – juxtapose near/far objects, include something in foreground – leading lines, tone, contrast create depth
• looking at photographs from famous photographers over the ages to demonstrate the things that support main subject
• creative ways – get close, wide angle, strong light as an edge light, shift subject away from center
• watch the background – so easy to make this mistake but so easy to avoid this mistake
• 2 or more people similarly toned clothing allows focus to be on the people expression relationship than the clothing transcends style
• remember wide angle lens will widen the subjects at edges – use 50/70 and walk a bit away – will look better
• always power off before changing memory, battery or lens
• don’t change lens in dusty area – have camera down to take off lens and put new lens on
• your computer monitor can be out of calibration so what you think is color correct may not – create relationship with photo lab