Aubzie Arts And Photography

In his State of the State address in January, Governor Schwarzenegger announced his Jobs Creation Initiative. A month later, he’s still traveling around California promoting this plan in an effort to get the legislature to act on it. Here are the components of the governor’s job creation proposal.

The Homebuyer Tax Credit

Back in 2009, California offered a $10,000 tax credit for buyers of new homes. It was successful in increasing new home sales, but when the money dried up, so did the home sales. Governor Schwarzenegger wants to allocate an additional $200 million for tax credits, not just for new homes, but for existing homes as well. An active real estate market means jobs in mortgage, title, escrow, real estate sales and more. When those homes are new construction, framers, electricians, plumbers and roofers are needed.

Elimination of Sales Tax on Green Technology Manufacturing Equipment

Green products, such as solar energy systems, are poised to take off. We’re just at the edge of making them economically viable, and consumer interest in doing the right thing for the environment has never been stronger. Just look at the success of hybrid cars – in spite of their higher price tag. Removing the sales tax on equipment needed to make green products will make these products more affordable for the end consumer. As sales increase, jobs are created. These are jobs that will be around for a long time, since the entire green industry is expected to grow and thrive over many years.

New Hire Tax Credit

The governor has proposed a $ tax credit to businesses that hire new employees. This gives that little extra push to companies that want to hire but were reluctant. This is ingenious in that it’s available in any industry to any company that’s ready to grow. Small businesses can benefit if they are able to add just one or two new jobs. Larger firms will be encouraged to employ more people.

Streamlining of Construction Regulations

Construction takes a lot of time to get started, and state regulations slow things down. Streamlining the regulations will help home builders bring new projects to the market faster. It removes a major obstacle, allowing the homebuyer’s tax credit to have a positive effect sooner.

Elimination of Frivolous Lawsuits

California businesses worry about liability more than businesses in other states. Frivolous lawsuits cost millions and hurt businesses, killing jobs. If we can free up the resources that businesses currently use to fight these lawsuits, they’ll be able to spend more on their businesses. That means jobs.

The governor’s plan has two strategies. The first is to encourage investment. There are some individuals and businesses out there that can afford to spend, but they’re holding back. If an incentive from the state can get them off the fence and convince them to buy, then jobs are created. The people who hold those jobs will then be able to afford to spend. He’s chosen two specific industries, housing and green technology, because they have great potential to create jobs. The new hire tax credit directly targets jobs in any sector. If this strategy works, it should become self sustaining.

Tips for photographing babies.

Babies can be the most challenging and rewarding portraits to take, but can also be the most frustrating.

Babies tend to sleep, eat and cry a lot and won’t pose in front of the camera but don’t let that put you off photographing them. Creating the perfect baby portrait, when done right, will certainly be rewarding.

One of the most important factors in photographing babies is patience and the way you apply child psychology when relating to the baby. Babies over six months may be shy and won’t react well to a complete stranger. This is where child psychology comes in – you must try to play with the baby, or even become a child yourself while taking the photograph. The keys of your car can be very effective. But remember, your job is to take a baby portrait; you must be able to react quickly when the infant responds to your entertainment.

Shooting a portrait of a newborn baby can be difficult. At this age the baby will not be active, so it’s better to focus on close-up headshots. Try using natural light from a bedroom window to add mood to the portrait.

Babies over a few months of age will be more alert and will have a lot more movement in them. Shooting fast is a necessity, the infant will tire quickly.

Babies seven months or older can be very tricky to shoot. The baby will bore quickly and will not want to stay in the same position.

If you are serious about baby photography and you tend to shoot from your own studio make sure you have a lot of toys to amuse the infants. A light colour background will work best and shoot the portraits in colour and black and white.

Parents may be worried about the affect of studio lights on their baby. Point out that strobe lights have no effect on kids. Try to point this out before the parent asks.

Don’t ever handle a baby without the parents consent. Most parents will be very protective and won’t react well to a stranger lifting the infant.

Watch out for the fingers – fingers in the mouth can be attractive but on most occasions they will obscure the face.

If you plan to resell the baby photograph to an agency make sure you get a release form signed from the parents. There is a large market out there for baby pictures but agencies or magazines won’t touch them without the parents consent. For baby portraits to be sellable they must be technically perfect, but the picture must illustrate the baby being active or some form of child care.

Tips for the advertisement photography market.

Advertisement photography is by far one of the most competitive forms of photography. This is mainly due to the fact that you can earn far more money than in any other aspect of photographic industry.

Every day companies pay millions of dollars on advertisement; with one goal – to sell their product. Companies want to tell the reader that their product is best – so you must be able to match this.

The photographers work must be to the highest technical quality and he/she must have the ability to create a masterpiece from something simple. Close enough is just not good enough. Close enough will not sell a product.

To become an advertisement photographer one must first understand the market and understand what the client is looking for. The best way of understanding this is pick up a magazine and look at the ads. Study each image. Study the images you see on billboards or images that are used to advertise movies.

Most parts of advertisement photography can be classed as still life photography. So if you are interested in taking images for the advertisement market your first job is to set up your own home studio. This can be a great place to practice.

Every thing in your home can be photographed. Start off with a few glasses. But remember you are not trying to make the glasses look nice – you are trying to sell them.

The second thing you need is a large format camera. Buy a range of the best lenses. Slide film is your best choice for advertisement photography. The client may want to blow up the images to a billboard size.

The most important thing when starting off is creating a portfolio of your work. This can be sent to advertising agencies or can be shown directly to a company. Always have a few copies on standby. Also set up a web page. On-line advertising is growing at a spectacular rate. Your portfolio should also consist of a different range of images.

If you are thinking of using an advertisement agency, get their guidelines from them. These should be very helpful to you in understanding the market. Dealing with a well established agency should be very profitable for you if your photography is to par.

Advertisement can be seen everywhere – and about eighty percent of all ads use photography. Most advertisement these days consists of a few words and a stunning picture that should attract the viewer’s attention.

Tips for photojournalism photography.

Did you every pick up a newspaper or a magazine where a single image is used to tell a story. This is known as photojournalism. Photojournalism can fall under all subjects of photography but the image needs to be news worthy to end up being published.

There are two types of photojournalism.

The first type is where an image is used to illustrate a story. Many feature journalists work closely with photographers and commission them to produce images that will be published with their articles. There is no limit to how many images can be used. This is usually the photo editors decision.

The second is where an image is used to tell a story without any words. One single image may be used or as many as ten images are often used in magazines. If you can write – do so; it will be an advantage when you submit some images.

One of the most important qualities of a photojournalist is his ability to react quickly when he comes along a scene that may be news worthy.

Other than the obvious, here is a list of items which may be news worthy.

Impact pictures.
Pictures of the Environment
People.
New buildings.

If you are serious about photojournalism build a collection of images from your area. Many of these pictures will not be immediately news worthy but may be down the road. Take pictures of all the factories and buildings in the area. Some day a factory may close and you may not be able to get to the scene. Also have plenty of pictures of local businessmen and politicians.

Some photojournalists are lucky enough to get assignments from newspapers or magazines, most have to follow or find the news to make a living.

The world of digital photography has made the work of the photojournalist a lot easier. Being able to view, scan and e-mail images to a publisher instantly is a massive advantage.

The work of a photojournalist can be extremely harsh – taking pictures in all kinds of extreme conditions and in very dangerous situations. Many photojournalists die each year in war zones and at different natural disasters around the world.

We live in a world, where today’s news is forgotten tomorrow and the need to get the images quickly to the publisher is so important. If you have images that are news worthy don’t delay sending them to a news agency or publisher. They won’t stay in the news very long.