In the last post was a photo of a dent in a hood of an old, beat up truck I happened upon at a local library. It fit the theme of the original post of minding your surroundings in more ways than one. Firstly, it was a dent in a car, which always means someone wasn't minding their surroundings. Second, I wasn't at the library to look for old beat up trucks to snap shots of. But I couldn't help but love the beauty of a rusty beat up truck. I was there taking pictures of some outdoor art, and the truck was just there as I was leaving. As a photographer, I'm always trying to mind my surroundings for great shots. Sometimes I feel as if I'm not stopping and looking enough to find shots. But I'm working on it. I think that's a big thing you have to remember as a photographer is patience. But that's a topic for another entry.
Skill Level: P&S
Last week I wrote about what happened to me during a friend's wedding, with one of the other guests and a disposable camera. It's been gnawing at me for a week to put this topic up. So much so that I almost wrote them back to back. But, I have to pace myself, or you won't get your weekly fix. I want to talk this week about a topic that has been at the forefront of my mind for a couple of years. The topic is probably best described as camera envy.
Now camera envy is a curable affliction. It can easily be fixed by remembering that it's not the kind of equipment you have, but how you use it. (No innuendo implied). It's just as easy to take great pictures with a point and shoot film camera as it is with a high end digital professional DSLR. It's a matter of realizing what you're taking, how you're taking it, and what you're trying to convey.
I started out with my photography in my childhood, but it wasn't a hobby I actively pursued. As I got a little older, I still really enjoyed taking pictures, but never put much effort into it. Until I ended up on the yearbook staff of my high school. I wasn't one of those kids you see in movies walking around with a camera all the time, but I can look back at my senior yearbook and point out a large number of the candid school shots that were one's I took. A couple of years later, my interest was piqued again thanks to my wife/fellow photographer/business partner and her elective photography class in college. She had to get a Pentax K1000 for her class, which, I guess is standard for students still. We brought that camera out every chance we could, and that's basically where I caught the bug that's brought me where I am. We still have that camera with film in it, and use it. some of my personal favorite images in my collection were taken with that camera. It's still amazing.
Even some of our images currently in our portfolio were taken with our little digi-cam. I've had people compliment me on my images from that little camera, even with a professional hired to take shots at the same location.
You can go out and find stacks and stacks of books, magazines, tapes, cds, dvds, websites and experts who can tell you how, where, when, why, and with what to take photos. It's almost sad that a lot of these people have been at it for so long, they've forgotten what it actually means for normal people to grab a camera and take photos. You can get technical information for every situation you might encounter and yet it's really not as difficult as it seems.
Whether you're taking photos for yourself, your friends and family, or for profit, it boils down to the basics every time. There are no rules in photography. Take shots for you, and if you want to sell them, someone will buy. (You might have to look, and do marketing, but someone, somewhere will like what you've done.) I recently read an article on a young guy who's using an old Kodak camera to show the world around him, and he's making enough off his work to do it full time. So you don't have to have the latest gadget, equipment, or techno-widget to take wonderful pictures.
So forget about camera envy. Not every picture you're going to take will be fantastic, but then again, not every picture the Ansel Adams' and Annie Leibovitz's of the photography world take are perfect. Do what inspires you.
The first image above was from a client who I'm personally familiar with. I loved this shoot and I'm pretty pleased with how that shoot turned out, especially this one. I fiddled around with the image in post processing and it looks great. But I'm biased.
Skill Level: Pro (D)SLR
If you're a new-to-the-game pro or semi-pro, you're probably trying to figure out exactly what you want to do. It's a bit daunting to look into the field of professional photography and see all the areas that are available to make a move towards. Anything from weddings to pets, from food to advertising, from studio portraits to public events, makes it a wide open field. The advice I have to give here is pretty simple, but it's probably the most overlooked. Do what you love. You love photography (and if not, why are you doing it?) that's a given. But, what else do you love? What hobbies do you have? What activities do you do in your free time? And how can you translate that into the images you take?
From personal experience, I can honestly say that I'm coming into my own realization about exactly what I'm wanting to do. It's not always a simple process, and it doesn't always happen immediately. It's taken a pretty decent amount of searching, thinking, reading, researching, and learning. But once you have that epiphany, that "A ha!" moment, it's a good feeling. I knew getting into photography, I wanted to be free to shoot at will. I really didn't want to focus on weddings. Sure, they're a way to make money, but as with any job, if you really don't like it, it won't satisfy you. So I'll occasionally take a wedding gig, but it's not really where I want to go professionally. I also don't really want to stick to in studio work. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Studio work is fine, and can be very rewarding. But not for me. I don't like having to be in one place for very long. It tends to cramp my creative process. Which is why I want to get outdoors to shoot. I'm not claustrophobic, but I have more room to breathe and think in the outside world.
To me, weddings, studio shoots, school pictures, it's all repetitive. The idea, for those with the patience and ability, is to make it not so monotonous. And there are those gifted wedding photographers who can do it. Recently the photojournalistic style of candid shots rather than staged shots has been making a big impression on the world of wedding photography. Unfortunately, not every bride, groom, or mother of the bride has the insight to let this happen. That's because it's been done one way for a very long time. If you look into the history of wedding photography, it wasn't actually done at the wedding. Photography was expensive, so usually it was done after the fact at a studio or home. Once film, processing and cameras became cheap, it turned into the hiring of a pro to shoot everyone at the ceremony. Now, it's possible to shoot things as they happen. That to me is the better style. Take a look through enough wedding albums from the last thirty or so years, and you'll see what I mean. Groom and bride, couple and parents, couple and family, couple and attendants, couple and... And the list goes on and on. Back before digital was so prevalent, photojournalistic could be cost prohibitive. Taking candid shots requires multiple rolls of film. It still could be done, but it was going to cost extra. Now, it's as if each click of the shutter can show every moment and memory from the day. And it's great when as a photographer you're able to find someone who is open-minded enough to let you roam and shoot. It can be stifling when you can't. So I don't focus on that area.
So my goal is to find a genre of photography that allows me freedom to be creative and the ability to go outside. My ideal office/studio/gallery set up would include not only an indoor studio (which I do believe is necessary, you just can't go outside for every shoot) and an outdoor backyard type with multiple sets for shooting various looks. But that's the topic of the next entry here, so I won't go into too much detail now. Of course my ultimate goal is to find someone who's willing to pay me to be creative. It's not just a job. It's an adventure.
The second photo above is a cake pan full of metal stars. Most of them are designed like those blue camp coffee pots you can get with camping supplies. But one is a rust colored star. It stands out. It's different. It makes no excuses. The shot was taken in a series which was following the Red Rule. What's the Red Rule? If you see red, shoot it. But which one would you choose?
The entry to follow will be shortened. Not only to save space, but because I think I can sum it up better now. At one point, for quite a while, I was having difficulty coming up with posts. Part of it was because I wasn't really getting into the whole blog thing, and another was because I was at a point in my photography where I wasn't sure where to go. I knew what I didn't want to do, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. I mentioned that I'd been spending a lot of time in some online communities based on photography, not only for research, but for guidance. And in offering some advice, I found some solace and idea to help me move forward. I wanted something to click in me, not just in my camera.
The conversation started out with someone asking how someone could be doing so well with crap photography, but how someone with great photography would be struggling. I won't quote the whole thing now, but basically I responded that it's all subjective. Especially in photography. People like what they want. You just have to keep plugging away.
In the post I skipped a bunch of the answer after that, but I went on to suggest that photographers should find a theme and go shoot it. When they're feeling a lull in their work, or not feeling the right direction, they should just go shoot.
My ultimate advice, and I'm trying to adhere to it myself, "Take out your camera, and shoot your brains out."
In the next couple of posts, I'll go into that, and what it's meant to me lately.
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