Let's Click And Connect - Hong Chan

Dear Friends, and Fellow Photographers (both Hobbyists and Pros):

It has been some time since I've posted directly to my blog, although I'm delighted at the tremendous number of wonderful people who have decided to join my two Twitter Groups.

I have added two brand new buttons at the bottom of my posts, and now I'd cordially like for you to click them in order to get to know me better.

Please feel free to invite me to join your Linked In network -- I am just beginning to build mine. Simply click on the button below and we'll be connected. Also, if you would like to take a look at my file of stock photos at Dreamstime, I've created a button which you can click to do that, too.

Let's get to know each other. Especially since the internet puts us only a mere click away from connecting!

Thank you, and I look forward to connecting together.

Hong Chan

Edited by Douglas E Castle

Self-Portrait: A Photographer's Dilemma

A professional photographer will generally be analytical and critical of every photograph he sees; especially those which he has taken himself. The biggest dilemma facing either an hobbyist or a professional photographer is when he is asked to provide a photo portrait of himself --- it seems that this task (which should really be quite simple) is turning out to be one of the most nerve-wracking exercises I've ever had to go through.

I am in the process of updating my professional profile, and I have to provide a suitable portrait of myself. And none of them seem to be "quite right." This is an amazing dilemma after my having been a professional commercial and stock photographer for in excess of ten years, and after having received some wonderful compliments on my work [including several Editor's Choice Picks on Dreamstime -- You can click on http://www.dreamstime.com/HongChan001_info to see some of these for yourself].

The challenge is not only creating a photograph which expresses who I am as an individual, in the best possible light (no pun intended). It is also the fact that I will be judging my own professional abilities by the end result, as will countless other friends, colleagues and clients who will get to see my "photo avatar."

I'm still at work trying to capture the best possible image of myself; one that not only shows my best side, but one that meets my only rigorous technical and artistic requirements.

When this process is finished, I promise to show you the end result... I'll let you be the judge!

- Hong Chan - Photography.

Related articles of interest:

• Introducing Yourself: Boasting With Humility? - Douglas E. Castle - Mad Marketing Tactics (madmarketingtactics.blogspot.com)
• Portraits Blended with Photos of Nature (petapixel.com)
• Artist Explores Street View's Loneliest Lanes (abcnews.go.com)
• Photographers to 'give,' not 'take' portraits (cnn.com)
• Can I wear white in a portrait photograph?. (photographerinauckland.co.nz)
• Personal style or self-repetition? (susielovesphotography.wordpress.com)
• Amazing portrait photos by Ingetje Tadros (lostateminor.com)
• The Best Way I Know To Avoid Photographic Boredom & Grow At The Same Time (photofocus.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Self Portrait. (melonpops.wordpress.com)

Hong Chan Photography, Blogging and DREAMSTIME.

I am quite hard at work putting together my new professional profile for Blogger, Dreamstime, Linked In, Twitter and to all of those other places in social media cyberspace where we can discuss commercial and stock photography collaboratively (with tips, tricks and tools for choosing more marketable subject matter as well as for creating better photographs and maximizing [promoting!] our monetization potential from our shared passion -- the magic of capturing and immortalizing special moments.

In putting together my profile, one of the greatest challenges, ironically, will be selecting a suitable portrait photograph of myself to add to it! Have any of you been faced with a similar challenge? We are all faced with analyzing and criticizing our own photographs - but the greatest problem facing a perfection-obsessed photographer is the dilemma of taking and selecting the ideal professional bio shot.

I will also endeavor to post to this blog, the Freeze Frames Fotos Blog and my Dreamstime blog at least once each week. -- HC
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For those of you who might have missed my last post to this newborn blog (which might have been untitled!), I am re-publishing it right here. Oh: And before I do, I cordially invite you to click on the buttons below to join my blogs, follow my Twitter Tweets, join my brand new network on Linked In and to take a peek at my Dreamstime portfolio [including some Editor's Choice Awards, for which I am grateful and honored] and my blog posts there, too.

Dear Friends:

I am passionate about creating greater knowledge, exposure, networking interaction and business opportunities for neophyte (enthusiastic beginners) photo hobbyists as well as more experienced photographers who are interested in sharpening their artistic skills as well as increasing their income opportunities. There can be nothing in this life as truly fulfilling as earning a comfortable living while doing what you love the very most. For more than ten years, photography has been my driving passion -- I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of creating illusions that are so believable that they actually defy the senses. As you will find out, a truly great photographer is part artist, part scientist, part inventor and part magician.

This is my professional blog [http://HongChanPhotography.blogspot.com], where you will find out about what I'm working on, some new, innovative tips and techniques, and various seminars and workshops which I offer to both hobbyists and professionals on a variety of exciting photography-related subjects. If you'd like to receive my RSS feed or my daily email updates, please just click on your choice of hyperlinks in the area immediately above this article.

There's more...

I'd also like to welcome each and all of you to the maiden voyage test post of our brand new blog, as well -- Freeze Frames Fotos, at http://FreezeFramesFotos.blogspot.com. While we are still very much a work-in- process, we expect to rapidly build a wonderful, useful and very profitable (for all participants) interactive community of fresh, emerging commercial and stock photographers, moderated by Hong Chan (that's me!), a renowned expert in commercial photography tips, tricks and techniques, and a seminar leader who has won several Dreamstime Editor's Choice Awards for his masterful stock photographs.

Some of the labels, tags, keywords, search terms, categories and topics where you'll be finding us will include: Hong Chan, Photography, stock images, Douglas E. Castle, Clip art, royalty-free images, income, monetize, self-promotion, photography blogs, social media, networking, photo art, small business trends, profitable hobbies, training, education, cooperatives, collaboratives, crowd sourcing, passive revenue, career training...and a host of others.

We hope that you will join me in our collaborative thrust to assemble an inspired, communicative group of emerging and established experts in the creation and successful marketing of our collective artistic immortality -- the stock photographic images.

Enjoy a fabulous educational, networking and passive income-producing experience. Turn your artistic passions and visions into a wonderful income and source of pride, accomplishment and joy.

Of course, membership will be absolutely free...forever.

Thank you for visiting with us! We'll be keeping you posted -- in fact, you might want to subscribe to our RSS feeds or our once-daily email updates. Just scroll up to the hyperlinks above this posting.

A truly great photograph is not merely a picture - it is a fully sensory, emotional experience captured -- frozen -- in time.

-- Hong Chan

p.s.  We offer only temptations for now - we are hard at work at building both sites, as well as in polishing up our companion Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook and other social media network-building sites; if you belong to one, you are welcome to belong to all of them. All yours, all free.

p.p.s. I am looking forward to see what you think of my professional bio. Your opinions are invited and encouraged. I'll be showcasing it soon enough. Writing it will be a challenge (It would be easier if it could just be a slideshow of everything I've done during the course of my career, wouldn't it?), but I will be getting some help from a friendly editor to give it life and to make it tell the right story.

Hong Chan