An introduction to social media for photographers by Australian Freelance Photographer Gemma Carr (@GemTweetAlot).

How critical is social media/marketing to your photography business?

Photographers are busy people. So too are our clients. More so than ever before we have an abundance of information available to us at the click of a mouse. It’s always evolving; full of opportunity and at times, a little overwhelming.

As you can see, the modern day photographer is a busy one indeed. Running a successful photography business has always been about much more than just taking great photos.

As shown in the diagram above, the skills we need as a photographer in 2010 are much more diverse. The list could go on, but, I think you will see the most notable change in skills is the web?based tools such

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One of the questions I get asked a lot by readers is for a suggested workflow for the post processing of images in Photoshop/Lightroom/Aperture (insert your favourite post production software here).

I thought it might make an interesting discussion to invite readers to describe their own workflow for processing images.

For some I suspect it’ll be pretty haphazard and quite different every time, others still will do very little post production while others will have a system that they follow with every image.

What about you – how do you approach post production of your images? What tools do you use and what order do you tackle different elements of your processing in?

I shared this image of my boys (yes, one needs a haircut) on Facebook a couple of days ago as a shot that might not be technically perfect but which tells a story. The reaction from others was pretty amusing as people started to suggest what that ‘story’ might have been between my two little guys.

So I thought maybe it’d be fun to do a little competition over the next couple of days to come up with a caption for this shot.

To enter – simply leave a comment below with a caption for the shot. On Saturday (midday my time in Australia) I’ll close the competition and will choose my favourite caption – the winner will receive a copy of each of our 3 photography eBooks for free.

Update: Thanks everyone for your entries – …

While many of us spend a lot of time getting rid of ‘blurry’ shots – one of the best ways to add interest to play around with capturing motion blur. Here are 13 places that you might like to start experimenting with capturing motion blur in your photos.

1. Trains

Image by Extra Medium

The shot of a passenger waiting on a subway platform for a train with moving train behind is always a fun one to experiment with because it contrasts the speed of a train with the stationary passenger (often being buffeted by wind of the train).

These shots are all about making sure your camera is completely still (tripods are key if you can) and anticipating the moment. It’s also about framing your shot so that

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The economy.  It’s a hot topic whether it’s a boom year or a bust.  Every country on the planet has many forms of commerce that power its society.  To get a feel for the local economy you may need to do a bit of digging.  You can take a multilevel approach to capturing how your travel destination exchanges money and goods.  Start with where you are.  If it’s a tourist area the pickings will be easy; street carts, souvenir shops, fast food restaurants, people peddling their wares.  And if that’s where your comfort level ends, feel free to skip to one of the other travel photography subjects listed below.

If you’re feeling the need for more of the picture (pun intended), start expanding outwards beyond the area around your hotel.  Look for fueling …