A long time coming...

Well, it has been some time since I last updated this blog. I hope to begin posting more regularly soon, as I refocus some much needed attention to my personal website. With that said, let me briefly try to fill in the gap from the previous blog post.

In February of 2010 I launched Picnook.com, which was a photography community website where artists from around the world could join and share their work and ideas. It was largely a success on the vision I had for the site, bringing hundreds of registered members and thousands of visitors, and even being featured in a photography magazine in Europe. In June of 2011 I decided to discontinue my work at picnook, and closed the site down. Without going into lengthy details, I would just say that running an online community of people is a time consuming job, and can be very stressful. I was paying out of pocket to keep the site up myself, and after months of contemplating different idea's, decided to just close it and focus my efforts elsewhere. It was a great year and a half, and there were many joy's from running the site, but I really feel the site had run its course.

Aside from running picnook over the last year and a half, I have been busy with other projects. The big framing project for my local courthouse was complete several months back, and 9 of my photograph's can now be seen professionally framed in the property appraiser's office in the courthouse. They have garnered a lot of attention from the local foot traffic in the office and I enjoy telling people about the different photo's when they come in. Some other local offices may be using my work in their offices soon- more on this in the future.

With picnook now closed, I've taken a hard look at my personal website. I am not completely satisfied with it, and have begun the process of redesigning it and moving to a new host. Sometime over the next 2 weeks these changes will be pushed out and my website's look and functionality will completely change. The address will stay the same (www.timthigpen.com)It is also possible to have some downtime of the site while I make these changes, but it should be minimal. My goal is to begin using my personal website more than I have in the past. I am also in the process of buying my first house, but once this all settles down, and I am moved, I really hope to begin using my website in some fun new ways. I also plan to change the look the blog here, as well as update it more frequently.

Ill be posting again once the website has been moved and redisgned. Thanks to everyone who has offered words of kindness and compliment on my work the last year and a half. It means a lot, as I try to constantly improve my skill behind the lens.

New Website Launched!

Well, in my previous blog I mentioned a new website that I was going to be developing soon. It was to be a joint gallery between myself and a few photographer friends from around the world. Well, this website ended up taking a backseat for various reason's not worth getting into. With that website looking like it wasn't going to happen right now, I decided to fly solo and do something I had been thinking of doing for several months- Launching my own Photography community website where members could share photo's, leave comments, post their own blogs, engage in forums, and much more. A fairly hefty endeavor for sure, and one that really needs a strong community to get off the ground and succeed. So, I began to put a lot of time and money into making it happen. Im so proud to say that 1 week ago, the site was officially launched. Since its launch, Ive been working countless hours to shape it up into a great site for the members that began to really pour in.

The amount of traffic Ive seen in the first week has really been nothing short of astounding. I credit a lot of the early success to my many photography friends Ive made around the world. I am already looking to put together an admin team to help manage areas of the site, as its almost already become too much for one person to handle. Instead of sitting here and telling you all about it though, Ill simply post the link here, and invite you all to come have a look for yourself. If you are into photography yourself, feel free to sign up and join the community! Its growing very fast, and is full of some very good photographers.

www.picnook.com

1 Year Anniversary!

Happy New Year to everyone! We have rolled the calendar over once again, to 2010. I don't know about you, but 2009 just flew by for me. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years these past 2 weeks.

This month marks the 1 year anniversary of my website, and for me as a photographer. It was January 2009 when I purchased my first SLR camera. I had never owned a camera in my life until a year ago. Photography helped make 2009 a really exciting year for me. I have received a lot of great response and feedback both online and from local's who have come across my work. I always love to hear peoples feedback. Im also grateful for the many photography friends Ive made across the globe in my 1 short year in the field. My website has logged right at 11,000 visitors and 47,000 page hits since I launched it last January. I look for that to continue to increase into 2010.

I have some exciting new projects that are in the works to kick off 2010. One, is a new website. Not a new personal website, but a joint gallery between myself and several other photographers. The website will be a joint collection and gallery, from multiple photographers, across several countries. It will be entirely dedicated to landscape and wildlife photography from around the world. I am proud to be working with some of my great friends on this project, as the primary developer. As soon as this new site is up and running, you will find a post here! We have only just began the ground work on it, and hopefully everything works out to have it up and running soon. This new website will be ran in addition to, and separate from, my personal website here.

Also in the works is a trip to the Smoky Mountains! I have not ventured into the mountains since I picked up photography, and Ive been really itching to go. I hope to be up there sometime later this month or in February. This trip is entirely for the photography, so I hope to bring back a lot of great landscape work.

I may also be looking at taking a cruise sometime after I return from the mountains. I may wait for some warmer weather to take on this venture, but hopefully my galleries will be graced with scenes from the Caribbean in the first half of 2010.

One last thing to mention is that I have begun selling prints. I have already sold several to some locals who came across my work in my office. I have not yet added pricing set ups to my website, but am thinking of doing this soon. If you would like to buy a print, simply go to the image, and click on "Get a quote" at the top. From there, you can submit a request to me on what you would like. You may also use the contact link on the main menu. I do all of the processing and printing myself, and I can guarantee that my work will look every bit as good printed as it does on your monitor (and in most cases much better). I use high quality pigment inks and heavy weight papers. I can print Gloss, Matte, or Luster finish and at sizes of anything up to 13x19" in size. I do have one panorama in my galleries, and I am able to offer this print at 13x42" on Premium Luster paper. My prices are much lower than you would expect to pay at most photographers websites. 13x19" prints are only $30. 8x10" prints are $15, and 5x7" prints are just $10. If you are local, I can supply you with multiple samples at different sizes in a face to face meeting to show you exactly what you will be purchasing. If you have any interest, just get in contact with me.

Thank you once again to everyone who has visited my website this past year, and sent in feedback. It has been a big motivator. Have a great 2010, and stay warm!

A redesign, and other news.

Well, my website had started to bore me, so I redesigned some things and pushed them live today. Ive restructured the galleries, deleted some images that I didn't like, and put up a new banner. Ive also added some new images today. I like it a little better now, hopefully you do too!

It's been a little while since I last checked in here, so lets play catch up. Ive been pretty busy, and have several new things to report. First, the keywest trip went well. I didnt get as many pictures as I thought I might would have, but it was still a fun trip. I also finally got my printer in, and can now offer prints. In addition to the printer, I also got some new gear, the biggest of which just arrived last week- the new Canon EOS 7D. That's right, a second camera body!

Ive also been working on a brand new project lately that I'm excited to talk about today. I was approached at my job about decorating the walls of our office with my photography. Our office has been recently renovated, and so the walls are still pretty bare. The idea came up to decorate the walls with photographs of our county. Having been offered the honor of supplying the photographs, I got right to work traveling and photographing different places in the county. You will see some of these shots showing up in my galleries. I've supplied about a dozen 13x19 prints for opinions so far, and the feedback I have gotten has been nothing short of excellent. Hopefully soon you will be able to find this photography on the walls in my office. I am honored to have been given such an opportunity to display my work.

As mentioned, I have a new toy to play with as of last week. The new EOS 7D SLR was only released in the past month. I had been looking to purchase a 2nd body for a little while now. I am so glad I held out for the new 7D. I still have a lot of testing I want to do with it, but I have been extremely impressed with this body thus far. It is a remarkable piece of engineering, and one that is going to compliment my photography a great deal. That brings my equipment up to 2 SLR camera bodies, one back up advanced point n shoot's and 4 SLR lenses. I was adding up how much I had dumped into this hobby the past year, and was shocked to see that ive dumped right at $7,000 into equipment so far. This month marks almost 1 year that Ive officially been into photography.

In addition to the new camera body, I also now have my printer and can officially offer prints for sell. If you happen to want a print of my work, please feel free to contact me on my website here by using the "contact" link on the main menu. I can offer prints as large as 13" x 19". All of my prints are printed on the highest quality photo papers and with Pigment based inks that should last well over 100 years without fading. I can also assure you that the print will, at the very least, look as good as the image does on your monitor. I can supply sample prints if you are local.

Well, Fall is in the air, and that means it's one of the best times of the year to do outdoor photography. I have several little adventures in planning for the near future, so expect to see gallery updates all throughout Fall and Winter.

Happy Halloween! Be safe this halloween season..

The bombs bursting in air. . .

Well I am a little late on this update, but its here nonetheless. I have finally uploaded some shots from my 4th of July photo shoot. You can find them under the "Events" gallery. I went to the firework show in Tallahassee, FL this year. It was a pretty good show overall, and I had a great time capturing it.

This was my first real attempt at Firework photography, and it definitely was not perfect. I used a similar technique that I have been using to shoot lightning lately. The whole shoot was done in bulb shutter mode, so that I could control the shutter manually. Everything was shot off of a tripod and using a cable release shutter control. I stuck with a wide angle lens as well. The hardest challenge I think is to try and capture the full explosion of the shells, while keeping it all in a crisp clear focus. I was using shutter's of over 5 seconds at times. I kept my ISO around 400, and aperture's around F8.0 seemed to yield the best results. I hope you enjoy my first attempt at this venue. I will try again hopefully on New Years.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I am planning a trip to the Florida Keys in August. I am hoping to do a lot of shooting on this trip, and will likely have a very large update to my galleries when I return. We have a lot of fun things on the agenda for the week I will be down there, but at the top of that list of course for me is the photographic opportunities. It will be my first trip to the keys, so I'm looking forward to it.

I made a few small changes, as promised, to how the website looks a few weeks ago. Hopefully everyone will find the new look to be an improvement. I will always look for new ways to improve my website, and am always tweaking little things behind the scenes. I still get questions on when or if I ever plan to offer my work for sale or prints, and the answer to this question is still yes. My original goal has not changed in this regard. Its more a thing of priorities right now. The printing equipment I am looking at is quite expensive, and I am also looking at upgrades to my camera equipment. I definitely plan to have this all up and running fairly soon however. By the end of the year I should have all this done, and be ready to really push my photography to the next level.

I havent mentioned this until now, but I do have a personal myspace that is mostly used for my photography. I would invite you to check me out there, and even add me as a friend if you'd like: www.myspace.com/timthigpen. Until next time!

Summertime!

Well Summer is here again, and the temperatures are hitting 90+ everyday. Ive just gotten back from a short trip to the beach, and have uploaded some brand new images from the trip. A mixture of both Wildlife and Landscape shots. Ive still got a couple more I will be uploading tonight or tomorrow from this trip. In case you are curious of the location, it is out around Alligator Point here in the Panhandle of Florida. Make sure to hit the Wildlife and Landscape galleries to see the new additions.

I have a big trip in the works for August, in which I will be spending roughly a week in the Florida Keys. You can expect a major update when I return from this trip. I plan to do a lot of shooting in the Keys.

I also want to once again thank everyone for their feedback, and welcome anyone to feel free to drop me any questions or comments you may have. If you are a fellow photographer, feel free to drop me a link to your site and let me check out your work as well. I am planning to start linking some of my fellow photographers websites from my blog as well in the near future. Ive met some great photographers from all over the globe, and I'd like to network with them and share their work here for everyone as well.

Expect to see a few minor changes in how the website looks soon. I'm thinking of changing a few things around a little. It never hurts to change things up every once in a while. So, Until next time!

Happy Mothers Day!

Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone, especially any mothers who may be visiting, a happy mothers day today. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

A quick update on things- I havent been able to get out as much lately and do as much photography, unfortunantly. Im also still working on getting my printing and other things purchased to really take things to the next level. I dont feel too rushed though, as Im also still doing a lot of learning about photography along the way. Ive seen a lot of photographers lately who buy their first camera, and immediatly try to jump out and start trying to play the role; offering all sorts of services that they have zero experiance in. Some still dont even understand the full functionality of their camera, much less any knowlege on lighting, composition, and setting up a proper shot. I have been careful, as a fairly new photographer, not to get ahead of myself. I get asked a lot when Im going to start doing this, or start doing that- the answer to all of it is simply "when I'm ready". I like to do things right when I do them, and have it meet a level of quality that I would be willing to sign my name to. With all of that said, I do plan to start taking these steps soon.

I have been doing some work though behind the scenes lately. I am working now on preparing some 100 pictures for my aunt, from their wedding. Each Picture has to be touched up one at a time, so it will take some time to do all of the ones they requested. Fortunantly, as mentioned, im still working on getting the printer purchased, so I cant print the pictures yet anyways. Aside from that ongoing job, I am going on another trip toward the end of this Month, to Epcot at Disney, in Orlando FL. We will see what I can get out of the trip, so stay tuned for updates on that.

I did update the urban gallery with one new photo the last few days. It is of a beautiful Methodist church from my trip to St. Augustine, FL. Be sure to check that out.