Amy Koughan - Tips For Budding Photographers

Amy Koughan has enjoyed a passion for photography since she was a young girl and has dedicated her life to developing her skills. She delights in working with amateurs and new professionals alike to help them to do the same. “Anybody can become a good photographer,” she says. “All it takes is a passion for the art and the dedication needed to develop your technical abilities.” Of course, everybody has to start somewhere, so these tips are intended for those who are picking up their cameras for the first time and wish to develop their skills.

                                   

Choose Equipment Wisely

A lot of new photographers make the mistake of buying the most expensive equipment on the market under the assumption that it will serve their needs. In truth, most novices should budget themselves and consider the sort of photos they wish to take before investing in any equipment. Spending too much at this early juncture could result in you resenting the purchase if you struggle to develop your skills, plus you may find that a lot of the features your expensive camera has are lost on you until you get better.

Extra Memory Cards

Most photographers start out with digital cameras as they are cheap, efficient and convenient. The memory card that comes with your camera will be able to hold a lot of photos, but you will soon start to find that this space ebbs away, especially when the camera is on its highest settings. This may result in a situation where you find the perfect picture, only to discover that your card is full. To avoid this, always make sure that you have a back-up or two spare so you can keep snapping away.

Experiment Often

Much of the joy of photography comes through experimentation. While there are a lot of useful techniques that you can learn to improve your skills, many of which can be found online, you shouldn’t feel constrained in any way when pursuing the hobby. Experiment with different lighting and angles. You never know, you may end up finding a technique that you really like, allowing you to come up with photos that are unique to you.

Be Patient

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” says Amy Koughan “and neither were my photography skills.” The point she is making is that it often takes a lot of practice and patience to develop your skills as a photographer. In can be easy to look at your early efforts and allow them to dissuade you from pursuing the hobby altogether. This would be a waste of the talent that you have. Instead, treat every photo that you take as a learning experience and don’t be afraid to ask for help from others.

Amy Koughan - Entrepreneurship and the Photography Business

Many successful freelance photographers, such as Amy Koughan, became profitable in their careers by planning and managing their small businesses efficiently and effectively. There are some essential points that all photographers who are planning on running their own business need to contemplate before getting started.

When starting a small business, the freelance photographer should familiarize herself with all legal recourses necessary, such as state, federal, and local tax filings. Small business should be set up as such, and the photographer would be wise to learn about limited liability partnerships and incorporation to determine which process is best for her situation. The photographer then needs to get the word outabout her business and offerings; this can be done through social media and through meeting and networking with other small business owners and local venues.

There are also challenges that must be overcome in regards to customer contracts and relationships. Many professional photographers struggle to deal with the legal aspects of contracts that many clients may not fully understand upon signing. Extra efforts may be needed to help walk clients through the contract step by step, which can be time consuming and frustrating. Finding the right computer and automated programs for small business can often help alleviate these issues.

Amy Koughan and other freelance photographers who have grown their own small business have found great satisfaction in what they accomplish on a daily basis. Their creativity and final works of art allow them to take pride in their skills and talents, and what they have offered to the community at large.

Source: http://femaleentrepreneurassociation.com/2014/04/building-a-photography-business-2/
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Amy Koughan - Her Work Is Astonishing

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Amy Koughan is a Los Angeles photographer who has been taking photographs for most of her life, and working professionally for more than ten years. She says she was drawn to photography as a child, and knew early on that she wanted to spend her life taking pictures.

She says that some of her biggest influences in photography have been Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Diane Arbus. More recently she has been learning about the photography of Vivian Maier, an enigmatic woman who spent much of her life in obscurity working as a nanny in Chicago, but taking photographs all along.

“Her work is astonishing,” Amy Koughan says. Like a lot of people, she first heard about Vivian Maier after a documentary called Finding Vivian Maier was released in 2013. Maier herself had died several years before, at the age of eighty-three. The filmmakers pieced together the broad outlines of Vivian Maier’s life: she was born in New York but grew up in France, came back to the United States in 1951, and wound up in Chicago where she worked on and off as a nanny for many years. Her employers included Phil Donahue, the former talk show host.

Maier was an eccentric person who seldom if ever printed any of her work. Her photos were not widely known until after her death in 2009. Though she had been shooting for decades, her first pictures appeared on Flickr, the photo sharing website, in 2008.

“It’s a remarkable story about a remarkable woman,” Amy Koughan says, adding that during her lifetime, and even in the years after her death, Vivian Maier was an enigmatic but talented artist.

Sources:
http://www.vivianmaier.com/about-vivian-maier/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Maier

Amy Koughan - Distance Running

Amy Koughan is a professional photographer who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She devotes a lot of time to her work, and says that as a freelancer she doesn’t always know when her next job is going to come along. Because of that, she says that she is always ready to drop everything for work, if something comes along unexpectedly.

She is also a wife and the mother of a young boy, and says that her family takes up a lot of her time. But by budgeting her time carefully she is able to devote a lot of time to keeping in shape. Her favorite forms of exercising are riding a bike and running, both of them for long distances. She also enjoys swimming.

For many distance runners there comes a time where they cross an invisible line and transition from grudgingly taking those long runs, to loving them and even looking forward to them. “There was this point where my runs became enjoyable,” she recalls. “It wasn’t a matter of looking forward to the ‘alone time.’ It was a matter of actually looking forward to the run itself, as agonizing as they can be sometimes.”

A typical run for her is between ten and twelve miles. Some of her friends are mystified that she could enjoy those long runs as much as she does, but Amy Koughan says there is nothing mysterious about it. Running makes her feel healthy, and after she completes a long run she says that she feels exhilarated, in large part because she just did something that is improving her health.

Sources: http://www.running4thereason.com/2012/03/12/13-reasons-why-i-love-running/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/love-of-running-long-distance-_n_2190419.html
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Amy Koughan - Food Waste

Amy Koughan has been a freelance photographer for many years. She makes her home in Southern California, where she is also an active member in a nonprofit called Feed Los Angeles.

She says that there is an estimated seventy billion pounds of food that goes to waste in the United States every year, and at the same time millions of Americans who deal with what is called food insecurity every day. And she says these are heartbreaking statistics she wants to influence for the better in whatever way she can.

“Up for forty percent of the food that is grown, processed and transported in this country is never consumed,” she said, citing government statistics. “Not only that, wasted food can actually become an environmental threat. Food that ends up in a landfill just rots, and in time becomes a significant source of methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas that has twenty-one times the global warming potential that carbon dioxide does.”

But it is far more important to get food that would otherwise be wasted to people who would otherwise go hungry, she says. “And I’d rather be a part of the solution than be a part of the problem.” Last year, Feed Los Angeles was able to divert some ten million pounds of safe and edible food that would otherwise have gone to waste, and get it to local food banks.

As a photographer, Amy Koughan said she felt it was her duty to document the Feed Los Angeles program in images.

Sources: http://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/how-we-work/securing-meals/reducing-food-waste.html
http://endhunger.org/food-waste/
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Amy Koughan - Three Ways to Stay In Shape

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Amy Koughan is a dedicated freelance photography who has been honing her skills since she was a child. Her parents introduced her to a camera when they recognized her abilities at a young age. She was able to later attend the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California where she was born and raised. She now has her own family that both inspires her and works with her to create stunning images of various landscapes and the local city.

However, whenever she isn’t focused on the advancement of her career in photography, she can be found spending time on her physical fitness and health. She believes that staying in shape is one of the most important parts of her life because it ensures she will be able to be active with her family for many years. She has three helpful tips to stay in shape that can make a difference in peoples’ lives everywhere.

The first thing you need to do is eat a more nutritional diet. A diet can go a long way in helping you stay in shape because your food determines how much energy you have through out the day, how many calories you ingest, and how much protein you get.

The next thing you need to do is exercise. Make sure you spend a few times a week working on your strength, endurance, and flexibility in order to keep your muscles strong and injury free.
Lastly, focus on your mind. Physical health is only part of it; you have to be willing to relax your mind as well. Take up a yoga practice to work on your mind.

Amy Koughan - Master Photographers

Amy Koughan is a freelance photographer based in Los Angeles. She attended the Otis College of Art and Design and studied her craft there. But she says she was already a well-rounded photographer by the time she enrolled there.

“I really believe I was born to be a photographer,” she says. “I’ve always been drawn to pictures – taking them, and looking at them; especially the work of the masters.” The master photographers she most admires, she says, include Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Diane Arbus. A more recent photographer to seize her interest is the late Vivian Maier.

Asked what it means that three of the four photographers she mentioned are women, Amy Koughan just laughed. “Nothing,” she said.

Before embarking on her freelance career, she got her degree from Otis, and also worked for a time in a department store taking pictures of children. After that she worked as a technician in a photo lab. Taking pictures of children all day got to be monotonous, she recalls, and the job in the photo lab was far more interesting. “Even as digital photography was taking hold, we used average about a hundred rolls of film a day. And that was with a staff of three. That used to feel pretty rushed.”

Now, as a freelance photographer with a growing reputation, Amy Koughan says that she is always ready to drop whatever she is doing and head out on a shoot, if the terms are right and she isn’t breaking any important commitments.

Sources: http://www.otis.edu/photography
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080227164629AALCjwC
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Amy Koughan - Tips For Advertising Yourself

Amy Koughan is an individual who works on her own schedule and is her own boss. She is currently serving as a freelance photographer in the city of Los Angeles, California where she was born and raised. She even went to the Otis College of Art and Design within the community in order to better hone her skills as an artist. She now works around the world and locally in order to inspire others to make a difference in the world. She regularly travels to third world countries and dangerous areas in order to show the world harsh realities.

However, if there is one thing that being a freelance photographer has truly taught her, it is how to advertise her own abilities. Although she gets to manage her own work and schedule, she doesn’t have a major company or publishing name to help her advertise her own abilities; she has to do it on her own time.

One tip she has for advertising yourself as a freelancer is to utilize social media. There are a number of both professional and personal social media websites that freelancers can use to upload their professional images, resumes, and any other professionally related works.

In addition to utilizing the opportunities that social media accounts provide, you can also continuously shop your talents around. As a freelancer, you have a choice in where your work goes or who you want to work with next. Make sure you send your resume and samples to every organization you wish to work with.

Amy Koughan is dedicated to her career in photography, and she has established herself as a successful freelancer.
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Amy Koughan - Running With Proper Form

Amy Koughan is a dedicated freelance photographer who is committed to capturing the best images she can in the field. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where she lives today with her husband and child. Her loved ones and her surroundings constantly inspire her, and it is evident through her work as a photographer. Amy attended the Otis College of Art and Design, and didn’t limit her studies to just photography; she is proficient in a number of art forms, including film, painting, and sculpting.

However, when she isn’t working for any number of publications in the professional world of photography, she can be found running around the city, or some of the incredible landscape that Southern California has to offer.

Running to stay in shape can be a great exercise. Not only does it work your heart and lungs, but it also has tremendous benefits on the body as well, which includes physical strength. However, running with proper form is important because it can be the difference between getting faster, and getting injured.

The primary thing you want to remember when it comes to your running form is your strike. Make sure that with every step your take, your weight is forward into the ball of your foot, not the back towards your heel. When you strike the ground with the ball of your foot, the impact forces felt on the body radiate through your muscles rather than your bones or joints. This will increase the strength of your running muscles, and greatly decrease the chances of sustaining an injury due to overuse.
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Amy Koughan - Changing the World Through An Image

Amy Koughan is a freelance photographer who has been working and living in Los Angeles, California her entire life. She was raised within the diversity of the city, and came to love the melting pot of different cultures, generations, and industries. In addition to her work locally, she also has been known to travel the world in the hopes that she can capture images that make a difference in peoples’ lives. As an artist, she believes she has an obligation to use her talents for good, and to not simply just get caught up in the financial aspect to her work.

Amy Koughan

As a professional freelance photographer, Amy Koughan understands that she has the power to be able to capture peoples’ attentions with a single image. She has traveled to very remote places in order to take pictures of beautiful foreign landscapes, third world conditions, and even the effects of war on the innocent civilian. Her work is meant to serve a greater purpose than simply as entertainment, and it has the ability to sway peoples’ minds back home in the United States.

In order to capture an image that has the power to change the minds of others, you have to be deeply passionate about the subject. The image should depict your own feelings about a certain frame of time, which will in turn give a glimpse of reality to the people that view it. Her photographic works have helped raise money for rainforests in South America and food initiatives in third-world Africa; she believes in the service she provides the global community.

Amy Koughan - The Secret of Composition

Composition is the most important skill a photographer can have. Amy Koughan has years of experience and was trained at the Otis College of Art and Design. She is highly skilled at composition and is always able to create a stunning image. She advices new photographers to spend time working on their composition skills in order to become better artists and professional.

Amy Koughan

 Composition involves several different factors. An important factor is framing. As a photographer, your goal should be to fill the frame of your photograph. You want to have a main focal point in the photo while involving several different aspects in the frame. The goal is to have one main point of interest while involving several other points of interest.

Shape is also key in composition. Using shapes and lines can help give your photograph depth. Using diagonal lines in your photo can help give it an interesting depth and can help focus interest on your main subject. When used correctly diagonal lines can increase the drama of a photo.

A great tip in photo composition is to avoid framing your subject in the center of your photo. Try different angles and avoiding the center. This can be a great way to fill your frame while adding interest to your photograph. When composing your photo, try using different angles and placing your subject in different areas within your photo. Amy Koughan always recommends practicing composition in order to learn how to manipulate every factor of your photograph for the best affect.