I took an advanced and wedding photography course at the Conestoga College. John Mitchell taught the wedding facet of the course, and shared the techniques of Gary Bernstein. I picked up Bernstein’s book, entitled Pro Techniques of People Photography. He has a no-nonsense approach to lighting and shares his skills generously.

I shot slides and bought a projector. It's great to see your photos on the big screen. Colours are more brilliant, but slide film is not as forgiving; you can't make a bad exposure good.

I married a farmer’s daughter and had taken family, farm and barn shots. I submitted a few slide shots: old farm equipment and mist on the creek to Better Farming Magazine. They paid me $75 per shot. I started to get trigger happy, which meant photography became an expensive hobby.

I entered the Digital world with my purchase a Canon Digital Rebel.

All your exposures (F stop & time, time & date, your presets plus more) are recorded, even which lens you use; you don't need pencil and paper to record your information.

Also, the instant feedback is a big plus. You don't discover weeks later, when your film comes in, that faces are in shadow, wrong exposure, etc. The ISO (film speed) setting can be changed without having to change to special films, meaning you’re able to shoot in low light or at high speed for sports.

With my purchase I've never looked back. The programmed image control mode, which I call “dummy mode,” allows you to just point and shoot. The flash will pop up: “hey, dummy, you need a flash.” It does your thinking for you and facilitates amazing shots! It shoots only large jpegs, and there is a choice between auto or manual focus, as well.

Even more fun is the creative zone modes that allow you to shoot raw, which is the largest file you can shoot. I now have shoeboxes of cds and a spare hard drive to store these timeless treasures. I’ve bugged family members to pose for me; I usually get moans and groans. Of course, I want to have my tripod and reflector to create that perfect shot.

Shooting my second digital wedding this summer, I've come to realize weddings are the greatest chance to shoot willing people. You get to practice with poses or candidly shooting people. I’ve also bugged a few of the lifeguards on my excursions to the local swimming pool.

I’ve yet to figure out specifically what my niche is. I can shoot your home, cars, people, gardens, plants, pets and events. I joined the Preston Horticulture Society because I love to shoot plants; you don’t have to get a model release form.

One of our guest speakers from the Horticultural Society, David Hobson, gave a slide show of the gardens and castles he sees when he travels to the UK. I had no interest to visit England until I saw his garden slide show. He takes great shots in his travels. We exchanged business cards. A month later, I checked his website and viewed the shots from his slide show, created in Google Picasa™ Web Albums. I could view them in the comfort of my own home and at my own leisure.

I joined Picasa™ with photo organizer software and you get 2 gigs of storage for free!. Images can be placed in a public forum, where anyone can access them, or in an unlisted folder, where you can create a link of the slide show but not for public viewing.

I have a few photo tips with image storage solutions on my website and links to Google. I tried posting some of my own images on my website, but only got a couple bites, so I joined iStockphoto®. The exposure is better then what I could do with my own website. Some comments posted from people all over the world. Sometimes I feel like I’ve sold my soul, “giving away” my best shots, but I feel good that others might benefit from my talents.

With digital, you pay more up front but save in not developing displeasing shots. You can delete any image on the fly or when you preview them. I usually hook my camera to the television and preview the shots before I decided which to ones to delete.

The downside of digital is that it is a computer: the prices will go down and the quality, memory download speed and memory size will increase. This is what I was told many years ago when I bought my 1st Mac, "jump in". My Pentax film camera always works, even if the batteries die. Mind you, it has been sitting idle with slide film for over two years.
A very wise man, my father-in-law, said once, “ If I won a million dollars, I would continue to do what I’m doing (farming) till the money runs out.” Self-employed I'm in the same boat. Printing is a never-ending learning curve that is why I'm passionate about it. Thinking digital?  Jump in anytime!!

Biography 08
I always say I passed kindergarten because of my drawings. A guidance counsellor at Conestoga College once told me, “If you get a job doing what you love, you can do it all day and not get tired.” I took the advice and quit a well-paying job working for a parcel delivery company. I entered the print industry, for two reasons: air conditioning, and print is the last to slow in a recession and the first to start up again after a recession. After retraining in college, I worked in the printing flexo & offset environments for more than 15 years.
For the past nine years, I’ve been self-employed as a graphic artist working from home. I am husband & father of two teenage boys. Thanks for checking my web to discover more.

Robert Vautour
Graphic Artist & Photographer for Print or Web media
519.653.4922

Photographer, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

Check out my International photo gallery @ http://www.istockphoto.com/imagebob