Why hire a professional photographer?

This kind of applies to pretty much most industries today, everyone needs to save a few dollars with the current economic state. As people scout for your services these days to shoot a wedding or whatever it may be, you can talk until the cows come home about how wonderful your work is and how much experience you have but the burning and main question is 'THE COST'. They may ask you, "what makes you different from my friend Joe who just bought the lasest and greatest DSLR"?

Let me begin by saying that there are situations where all of us can get away without hiring professional help: photo-specifically, everyday shots of the kids, photos of the daily special in a restaurant posted to social media sites, grip-and-grin shots to be submitted to the local newspaper. But when do you need a professional photographer?

Generally: anytime you actually want something to look good; anytime you want to be able to hang it on a wall; anytime you want to sell your house; anytime you want photos of your kids that don’t end up with you getting too emotionally involved/frustrated. These are all perfectly valid reasons.

Aside from the more obvious aesthetics of professional vs. amateur, there is still a multitude of practical, concrete reasons you want to have a pro on board for things like portrait, commercial or wedding shoots.

Pros have the gear. They spend thousands – if not tens of thousands – of dollars on good, carefully-researched equipment rather than running to the local store and buying their fanciest prosumer camera because the sales person says it's good. They tend to have the really fancy stuff and spend lots of time learning how to use it.

Pros tend to also carry backup equipment in the event of failures. Can you imagine not having photos of your wedding day because your friend/family member says the camera's memory card seems not to be working?

Pros have experience. Like the trusty postman, we work in rain, sleet and snow, not to mention with awful lighting conditions, nervous brides and family drama. We know how to calm people down—because we do this all the time—and if we’re technically good we can handle everything with grace and sometimes profit from conditions others might consider problematic.

Pros pay for continuing education and perfect the craft full-time, rather than on the side. Pros spend a good deal of non-shooting, non-editing time learning and watching webinars, reading blogs and professional forums, searching for inspiration. Pros join organizations where they can network with colleagues and learn from each other; they attend workshops and seminars, sometimes traveling halfway around the world. As trite as it sounds, pros are constantly thinking about photography.

Pros have a workflow and will get it done on time. Let’s face it, best case scenario—even if your friend or cousin is a full-time photographer and offers his/her services on the big day, you could still run into problems. Professionals are bound to contracts and if they are indeed working as a true Pro, they’re not going to prioritize non-paying or informal jobs. I’ve heard from brides who went this route and didn’t receive their images for 6, 8, 10 months after the wedding.

Lastly, pros control quality from start to finish. Pros spend days sorting through thousands of photos, editing the images to perfection and creating albums. They use software that is the real deal. Every single image, down to the quality of the paper on which the album is printed, is controlled for the best possible outcome. You’ll never have nasty surprises, only tasteful, archival-quality images you can admire for decades to come.

If for no other reason, consider the money you spend an investment in the only tangible remains of the wedding, apart from the dress. You’ll be cherishing those photos for decades.

Photoshop World Orlando 2011

During Photoshop World Orlando 2011, I was able to capture a photo that was later used in Photoshop World Ads as well as being published in the Premier Issue of 'LIGHT IT!' iPad magazine.My photo is also listed in the Photoshop World Photo Gallery. How cool is that!?

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Here's a quick video recap from Photoshop World Orlando 2011.

 

Here's Five Tips To Give You a Push in 2012

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Let's move on from the errors we made last year and learn from them.

1. Have A Good Attitude

If you’re surrounded by bad news, people who don’t support your interest in photography, online groups full of haters and trolls, do something about it. Make a change. Surround yourself with positive people. Develop a can-do attitude. If you want to be a better photographer, be a better person. This starts with having a better attitude. The camera looks both ways. Make sure that the person on the other side of the lens is feeling your 'POSITIVE' energy.

2. Learn To See

Photography is about vision. Vision is about learning to see what others do not. There's always something around you to shoot, you just need to learn to look for it. Open your mind to countless photo opportunities. Having a camera doesn’t mean you have vision. You develop vision by looking at lots of great photographs. Don’t stop there. Look at all kinds of art. Spend a day or a month visiting art museums. Look at the shapes, forms and compositions that other artists use. Learn to see and then translate that to your camera.

3. Learn How To Properly Post-process Your Images

There are more choices than ever for those who want to take their photos to the next level in post. You can use the multitude of post processing tools available out there. Whatever you use, dedicate yourself to learning more about your software and how it works. There’s no excuse for not learning. There are dozens of great, free, online resources, not to mention books, videos and training DVDs. Kelby Training is one of my favorite sources for learning photography. Get better at post-processing. This is just a start. You can add to this list. Now’s a perfect time to refresh, reset and get started on a path toward making 2012 a great year for photography.

4. Dedicate Yourself To At Least One Photo A Day/week

There’s nothing that can replace experience. Picking up and using your camera every day will absolutely, positively, without a doubt make you a better photographer. This is a great way to start the year. Make a calendar – shooting a photo should be the first thing on each day’s list. You can turn this into a theme-based project or simply shoot what you find, but shoot you must. Every day. No excuses.

5. Learn Your Gear

Whether or not you got new gear as holiday gifts, it’s time to commit to learning the gear you have now. If you learned everything that your current camera could do for you, you’d probably be in a better position to make great images than you would with a 10 times better new camera that you don’t know much about. Work on reading your manual more often. Learn the ins and outs of ALL the camera’s features, including those you think you will or may never use. They will probably come in handy some day. Stop using lack of gear as an excuse. Learn to use what you have and move forward.

Three (3) Tips To Establish A Better Connection For Portrait Photography

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Maybe you can try one of these tips next time you're doing a portrait photo.

1) Shooting straight on with your subject at or near eye-level establishes eye contact and a close relationship between the subject and the viewer. There is an intimacy to a straight on camera position that evokes an emotional response.

The straight on shot can work from any height, but it is most effective at eye level. If you want to establish an immediate connection between the viewer and the subject, shoot straight on.

2) Try to get an honest, genuine expression. Expression sells portraits. So get a real one. If you just tell someone to smile it rarely works as well as getting them to smile in a genuine manner. I am not above telling bad jokes to my subjects to get them to laugh or smile naturally. It makes the portrait more real and intimate in my opinion.

3) Take care of the technical stuff BEFORE the subject arrives for their portrait. Know those camera settings and lighting setups you want to use before they show up. The photographers who spend time fiddling with their cameras and gear won’t have as good a chance at establishing a real connection with their subjects.

Nadia Nicole

Thanks to my photo buddy Mark Atkins, I was finally able to grab a few shots of one of his favorite models "Nadia Nicole". This girl is awesome. I really enjoyed having her in front of my lens. Her make-up artist Sharon Belle also did a splendid job getting Nicole ready for her shoot. The Photo shoot was primarily Mark's photo shoot to display some splendid clothing by Cindy Mayers for her Mother Earth collection. Can't wait to have another photo shoot with Nicole. [gallery columns="2"]

Bathsheba Photowalk

On a recent visit to Bathsheba on the East Coast in Barbados I was able to capture a few shots that I really enjoyed. Despite the very overcast day we were still able to take home some keepers. [gallery order="DESC"]

What to Wear for Portrait Sessions

I say it all the time, however I still think that communication is the most important aspect of portrait photography, especially for posing. You may start to discuss this during your first contact with the client. To make the best possible portrait, you need to start before a subject arrives at your studio or location. A few simple tips suggested to subjects can make their session go better, and help them enjoy the portraits produced during the session, which hopefully translates into more clients and repeat business. Let's face it, as I always say "most of us do this because we love it" however the equipment is not free. Nothing detracts from a subject’s face more than clothes covered in busy patterns and prints. Your attire depends on the type of portraits we're looking to create.

Things don’t always work out as we'd like and we often have to work with what we have. Although you might prefer that a portrait subject bring solid colors to a shoot (not WHITE if possible), that doesn’t always happen out here in the real world. So when the clothes aren't working you can try shooting tight. This will avoid the possibly distracting clothes.

Cropping tightly helps the portrait somewhat but it won’t always work to minimize the busy pattern of a subject's clothing. When this happens you can try changing to Black and White.

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50 Reasons why not to Date or Marry a Photographer

1. They rather hold their bulky camera, than hold hands with you. 2. On a romantic date, you’ll watch the sun go down and think “Wow this is gorgeous” and they’ll go “mirror lock, tripod, and stop down f/8 at 1/125.”

3. You’ll never be able to enjoy tv, movies, or magazines because they’ll point out all the visual flaws.

4. They like to sit in obscure coffee shop and watch people for great lengths of time.

5. If you’re taking a walk outside and you come across some “interesting light” they will make you sit/stand/pose in public so that they can take a photo.

6. You’ll never get to enjoy freshly cooked meals when you're out for dinner because they’ll spend 15 minutes taking 20 variations of the same dish before you eat.

7. They get angry when your friends go up to them and say “I am interested in photography, can you recommend a good camera for me? Nothing professional I just want to take pretty pictures.”

8. You’ll wait longer for them to finish analyzing art in a museum.

9. Same goes with old used bookstores.

10. When you think they’re giving you their undivided attention, they’re really wondering how they could fix you with a little Clone Tool and Patch Tool or they are actually using you to not look so creepy as they people watch everything going on around you.

11. They rather drop $1,000+ on new glass than that special gift you always wanted..

12. You can’t take a photo with them without taking at least five more.

13. They get a natural high every time they learn a new lighting technique.

14. If you ask them if you look fat, they’ll say “don’t worry I can photoshop you later.”

15. They’ll never photoshop something simple for you if the content is not up to their “standards.”

16. That photo they randomly took of you yesterday? Good luck getting them to send it to you.

17. They spend all their time on the computer when not using the camera.

18. They can’t have a normal conversation without throwing acronyms and random numbers.

19. They still use film cameras (at least some do).

20. They spend a lot of time with cool people i.e. models, actors, musicians, successful rich people.

21. They’ll be fussy over the position of a common household object, like a coffee cup.

22. They won’t return your calls or text messages, but you can bet they’re still posting pics on flickr and such like.

23. They like watching old films that you’ve never heard or will ever understand.

24. They like looking at weird things in general.

25. Instead of having people-envy, they have camera-gear-envy.

26. If there’s a natural disaster in a far away land, they’re already on a plane going over there when ever possible.

27. Everything is watermarked.

28. They think everyone else’s photos suck.

29. They want to color correct a lot of scenes from Daybreak and Nightfall.

30. They hate rainbows, especially ones spinning in a circle. (MAC Users)

31. Whenever you’re in a group talking and the conversation goes deep, they’re taking notes in some form of Moleskine (Legendary Notebook). 32. They use over priced Moleskine notebooks or iPads.

33.They like trespassing into old abandoned buildings filled with health hazards.

34. They always want to show a new photo they took, but don’t really care if you like it or not.

35. They hate your n00bie friend’s new artsy profile picture.

36. Bright, sunny days make them sad, but cloudy, overcast days are apparently great!

37. They’ll take you into places that have “culture” as well a high chance of getting mugged.

38. Your birthday present will be a portrait that they’ve taken of you.

39. You can’t go anywhere new without them stopping to take a photo of everything and anything.

40. They will always bug you to be a test subject.

41. Nothing can ever be naturally pretty, everything must be fixed in Photoshop.

42. Bringing their camera means, bringing 50lbs of equipment.

43. If you break any of their things on accident, you’ll owe them thousands of dollars.

44. You can’t get them a birthday/Christmas present without spending at least $500

46. They are natural hoarders, collecting and keeping piles of old newspapers, packaging, magazines, and other things that “inspire” them.

47. They are weird and geeky.

48. They have hard drives of photos, but probably have printed 10 images.

49. They are always secretly judging your creativity.

50. If you’re ever in auto mode on your camera, they laugh at you.

 

"People" @ The River Road New Testament Business Fair

What a busy day yesterday 19/11/2011. A day I won't forget for a long time. I started out at 8am by helping my buddy Mark Atkins shoot a funeral which has been in the media for the past few weeks. Then we both attended a business fair around 2pm and did some more photography. Some photos from the fair posted below. Following that I pushed my limits and attended a star lit picnic where photography continued. Whew! [gallery columns="4"]

Keep out of my metadata.......

Quite often I get emails or comments on FB, Flickr, 500px or elsewhere when some one ask me “Dude Why didn't you use  f/16 or f/22 to shoot your photo? Don't you think f/8 or f/11 would of been a better setting?”. You may also have times you just don't want to reveal your camera setting for one reason or another. Could be you got an awesome shot purely by luck (we lesser mortals) NOT you HIMAL or KARL, with some really crapy setting and you just don't want anyone to know. Hummmm.....

Well for those of you out there using Lightroom there's an easy way to avoid giving your camera info when you don't want to.

In Lightroom, go to File > Export and the Export dialog opens, you’ll see a small checkbox called “Minimize Embedded Metadata”.

I'm sure this can be done in other photo editing apps, however Lightroom is what I use.

Looxcie LX2 Wearable Video Camera

The option to record your photo shoots just got easier (maybe). There's been quite a few times I've been out on a shoot and wish I could record stuff I see while still using my camera. So while browsing around on the net this morning I came across a viable option. Being the gadget freak I am it caught my eye. (The Looxcie LX2). I've never been one to use the bluetooth ear piece for my cell phone, it just freaked me out at the idea of what seems like I'm walking around talking to myself. Not to mention the blue flashing light to bring attention to myself. Hey I can just as well talk to myself without the earpiece. This video camera is capable of capturing up to 480p video and audio to a built-in 2GB memory chip and is bluetooth.Reviews suggest that the video quality on this device is pretty good.

The unit ships with a USB cable and various ear gels and over the ear clips for you to get the right size. You can charge it via USB and of course connect it to your computer to access the video files. You turn it on/off via a switch on the inner side of the unit. Once it's on you can start and stop recordings with a dedicated button. There is a green status light so that you know if it's on and a red light on the front to indicate recording.

 

Why Photographers Cannot Work for Free

As photographers, we receive requests for free images on a regular basis. In a perfect world, each of us would love to be able to respond in a positive manner and assist, especially with projects or efforts related to areas such as education, social issues, and conservation of natural resources. It is fair to say that in many cases, we wish we had the time and resources to do more to assist than just send photographs.

Unfortunately, such are the practicalities of life that we are often unable to respond, or that when we do, our replies are brief and do not convey an adequate sense of the reasons underlying our response.

Circumstances vary for each situation, but we have found that there are a number of recurring themes, which we have set out below with the objective of communicating more clearly with you, and hopefully avoiding misunderstandings or unintentional ill will.

Please take the following points in the constructive manner in which they are intended.

Photographs Are Our Livelihood Creating compelling images is the way we some of us make our living. If we give away our images for free, or spend too much time responding to requests for free images, we cannot make a living.

We Do Support Worthy Causes With Images Most of us do contribute photographs, sometimes more, to support certain causes. In many cases, we may have participated directly in projects that we support with images, or we may have a pre-existing personal relationship with key people involved with the efforts concerned. In other words, each of us can and does provide images without compensation on a selective basis. Help Portrait is a prime example.

We Have Time Constraints Making a leap from such selective support to responding positively to every request we get for free photographs, however, is impractical, if for no other reason than the substantial amount of time required to respond to requests, exchange correspondence, prepare and send files, and then follow-up to find out how our images were used and what objectives, if any, were achieved. It takes a lot of time to respond to requests, and time is always in short supply.

Pleas of  “We Have No Money” Are Often Difficult to Fathom The primary rationale provided in nearly all requests for free photographs is budgetary constraint, meaning that the requestor pleads a lack of funds.

Such requests frequently originate from organisations with a lot of cash on hand, whether they be publicly listed companies, government or quasi-government agencies, or even NGOs. Often, it is a simple matter of taking a look at a public filing or other similar disclosure document to see that the entity concerned has access to significant funding, certainly more than enough to pay photographers a reasonable fee should they choose to do so.

To make matters worse, it is apparent that all too often, of all the parties involved in a project or particular effort, photographers are the only ones being asked to work for free. Everyone else gets paid.

Given considerations like this, you can perhaps understand why we frequently feel slighted when we are told that: “We have no money.” Such claims can come across as a cynical ploy intended to take advantage of gullible individuals.

We Have Real Budget Constraints With some exceptions, photography is not a highly remunerative profession. We have chosen this path in large part due to the passion we have for visual communication, visual art, and the subject matters in which we specialise.

The substantial increase in photographs available via the internet in recent years, coupled with reduced budgets of many photo buyers, means that our already meager incomes have come under additional strain.

Moreover, being a professional photographer involves significant monetary investment.

Our profession is by nature equipment-intensive. We need to buy cameras, lenses, computers, software, storage devices, and more on a regular basis. Things break and need to be repaired. We need back-ups of all our data, as one ill-placed cup of coffee could literally erase years of work. For all of us, investment in essential hardware and software entails thousands of dollars a year, as we need to stay current with new technology and best practices.

In addition, travel is a big part of many of our businesses. We must spend a lot of money on transportation, lodging and other travel-related costs.

And of course, perhaps most importantly, there is a substantial sum associated with the time and experience we have invested to become proficient at what we do, as well as the personal risks we often take. Taking snapshots may only involve pressing the camera shutter release, but creating images requires skill, experience and judgement.

So the bottom line is that although we certainly understand and can sympathise with budget constraints, from a practical point of view, we simply cannot afford to subsidise everyone who asks.

Getting “Credit” Doesn’t Mean Much Part and parcel with requests for free images premised on budgetary constraints is often the promise of providing “credit” and “exposure”, in the form or a watermark, link, or perhaps even a specific mention, as a form of compensation in lieu of commercial remuneration.

There are two major problems with this.

First, getting credit isn’t compensation. We did, after all, create the images concerned, so credit is automatic. It is not something that we hope a third party will be kind enough to grant us.

Second, credit doesn’t pay bills. As we hopefully made clear above, we work hard to make the money required to reinvest in our photographic equipment and to cover related business expenses. On top of that, we need to make enough to pay for basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, etc.

In short, receiving credit for an image we created is a given, not compensation, and credit is not a substitute for payment.

“You Are The Only Photographer Being Unreasonable” When we do have time to engage in correspondence with people and entities who request free photos, the dialogue sometimes degenerates into an agitated statement directed toward us, asserting in essence that all other photographers the person or entity has contacted are more than delighted to provide photos for free, and that somehow, we are “the only photographer being unreasonable”.

We know that is not true.

We also know that no reasonable and competent photographer would agree to unreasonable conditions. We do allow for the fact that some inexperienced photographers or people who happen to own cameras may indeed agree to work for free, but as the folk wisdom goes: “You get what you pay for.”

Please Follow-Up One other experience we have in common is that when we do provide photographs for free, we often do not receive updates, feedback or any other form of follow-up letting us know how the event or project unfolded, what goals (if any) were achieved, and what good (if any) our photos did.

All too often, we don’t even get responses to emails we send to follow-up, until, of course, the next time that someone wants free photographs.

In instances where we do agree to work for free, we'd like to have the courtesy to follow-up to let us know how things went. A little consideration will go a long way in making us photographers feel more inclined to take time to provide additional images in the future.

Wrap Up We hope that the above points help elucidate why photographers prefer not to work for free most of the time. All of us are dedicated professionals, and we would be happy to work with you to move forward in a mutually beneficial manner.

Dessert from Shana

Shana wanted to do something nice for her dad and thought it would be a good idea to buy him some dessert from her favorite patisserie shop. Dad welcomes your kind thoughts Shana. However just having you here is more than enough for me, don't get me wrong though the cake was awesome. :)

 

Portrait Photography Tips

Here are 15 random portrait photography tips. Try them before you decide they won’t work :) 1. To make someone look smaller, photograph them from a high angle. 2. To create a dramatic portrait, fill the frame with the subject’s face. 3. Use large objects such as walls as reflectors when you can’t use electronic flash. 4. When photographing men, give them something to do with their hands. 5. Have your subject bring their chin down to make the eyes look larger. 6. When you photograph dark skin, underexpose by one stop. 7. Reflectors are an easy way to balance light on two sides of a subject. 8. Have your subject lean toward your camera. This creates a strong connection. 9. Large light sources placed close to the subject will provide the softest light. 10. Make sure your portrait background is clear of distractions. 11. When shooting a full-length portrait, women usually look better when they are photographed with their ankles crossed. 12. Make sure to focus on the eyes. Everything else can be soft. 13. Keep your subject’s arms away from her body to enhance the waist. 14. When posing someone in a seated position have them sit on their thighs, not their rear end. 15. Make sure to have a minimum of six feet between your subject and background to avoid casting shadows on the background.

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Fifteen (15) In-Camera Tips For Sharper Photos

Sharpness continues to be a problem for some beginners and even intermediate photographers. Here are 15 tips for those of you who want the absolutely sharpest photo you can get.

1. Use A Tripod If you want the sharpest picture possible, use a tripod. If the camera moves when you make the photo, the photo will not be as sharp as possible. Even the slight pressure of your finger on the shutter can make a difference. So use a tripod and make sure it’s properly set up. Make sure that it’s stable and locked down. And use a sturdy tripod. The $30 tripod they sell at Best Buy isn’t going to cut it.

2. Use A Sturdy Tripod Head What good is the tripod if you have a flimsy head? The tripod head is almost as critical as the tripod itself. Make sure you’re using a head that is rated for your gear. A ball head that holds two pounds isn’t going to support your (Nikon fully equipped  with battery grip and a 24-70mm) :) lens on it.

3. Use a Cable Release Cable releases reduce the amount of human interaction with the camera and accordingly, reduce the chance of introducing vibration that can occur when pressing the shutter button. A cable release, either attached to the camera or remote wireless, will reduce camera vibration.

4. Self-Timer If you just cannot use a tripod, or don’t have a cable release, use your self-timer. This will minimize camera shake and reduce the cause of blur.

5. Lock up The Camera Mirror If you’re using an DSLR, you have a mirror that causes the image to appear in your viewfinder. Most cameras will let you lock up the mirror. This will keep the mirror from bouncing during the exposure since it will be up and out of the way. That mirror bounce can introduce vibration that causes the picture to be unsharp.

6. Use Image Stabilization or Vibration Reduction If your camera supports stabilization – use it. Even on a tripod this can be valuable if you’re using big and fast 500 or 600mm lenses. But be sure that your camera/lens combination supports tripod use. Not all stabilization systems work when the camera is mounted to a tripod. It’s a must when you are NOT using a tripod.

7. Buy the Best Glass Sharp photos start with good glass. Just like a stereo system requires good speakers, camera systems require good glass. The best glass on a cheap body is better than the other way around. With very few exceptions, the sharpest lenses will be fast primes.

8. Shoot in the Sweet Spot Most lenses have a spot where they are sharpest. Using special tools you can find this spot, but as a rule of thumb, the sweet spot is typically 2.25 your maximum aperture. For example on an f/2.8 lens, the sweet spot is often between f/5.6 and f/8. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that stopping down to the smallest aperture will create the sharpest picture. It almost never will. What it will do is give you the greatest depth of field, but that doesn’t translate to the sharpest image. Most lenses perform poorly at their extreme apertures.

9. Use Enough Depth of Field If you do everything on this list but your subject isn’t within the camera’s depth of field, you’ll come up with a photo that appears to be unsharp. Use a depth of field preview button or depth of field calculator if you want to make sure that you have critical depth of field.

10. Know Your Target? Establish what you want to be sharp. In a portrait – it will be the eyes. In a landscape, it might be a prominent foreground object. Whatever it is, you can’t measure sharpness if you don’t know what your target is.

11. Use Fast Shutter Speeds While it’s not always possible to shoot a 1/2000th of a second, you do want to select the highest shutter speed you can while staying within the lens’ sweet spot while calculating your exposure. Fast shutter speeds reduce camera shake and therefore allow for greater sharpness.

12. Shoot in the Best Light Here’s a tip you don’t often see in lists relating to sharpness, but it is important none-the-less. If you have good light, your autofocus will perform better, your scene will be rendered with better contrast, and the brightness necessary to achieve APPARENT sharpness will be increased. This is NOT to say you can’t make a sharp photo in low light because you certainly can. This item just reminds you that it’s easier in good light.

13. Consider Manual Focus While I am old enough that I can no longer adequately rely on my eyes to make a sharp photo, I can read a tape measure. And in critical focus situations I do what the cinematographers do. I measure the physical distance from the film/sensor plane to the point of focus and manually focus using the lens distance guide. This is a fool proof method if you have a situation and circumstance that allows for it.

14. Use Live View Most modern cameras have Live View and some even offer a zoom feature. This zoom feature can be very helpful in checking your focus.

15. Use a Third-Party Optical Viewfinder If you use a DSLR with a rear LCD screen, you may benefit by using a product like the Zacuto Z-Finder. These devices give you a larger optical view of the viewfinder and make it much easier to obtain critical focus. While there are other things you can do to get the image right in the camera, this list will solve most of the major problems I run into.

I hope it helps.

 

Three (3) Stupidly Simple Reasons Why Most People’s Photography Don't Improve

I’m guessing that this article will not apply to most of us… but after three (3) different conversations which revealed the same photography problems in three (3) different people – I thought I’d make mention of this here. 1. You don’t Take Your Camera With You If you don’t practice using your camera you’re unlikely to ever grow in your understanding of and skill in photography and if you rarely have it with you – you’ll not get that practice. Does that mean you need to lug your DSLR and all your cumbersome gear around with you all the time? Maybe – I have friends who are never without their main camera – but if that’s just not practical, at least make sure you have a smaller point and shoot or even a decent camera phone with you at all times. While the quality of the images you take might not be as great with these cameras – at least you’ll be practicing your composition, thinking about light, color and other aspects of photography.

2. You’re Going too Fast Many of us lead life at such a fast pace that we rarely stop to see the opportunities right before us to take wonderful images. You can carry your camera around with you 24/7 for the rest of your life but unless you learn to slow down and to look at the world a little differently you may never actually use it. As a result – I guess one of the tips I find myself giving to some that I talk to is to find ways to slow down – or at least slow down temporarily to set aside time to be a bit more intentional about photography. It might start by taking a walk with the main objective of doing some photography but could also be something bigger like a weekend away with your camera or even taking a photography class or tour. For me its about building photography into your daily rhythm and in time it starts to become a more natural thing as you get in the habit of seeing life a little differently.

3. You are Worried what Others Will Think I’ve come across quite a few people lately who suffer from ‘framing paralysis’. They take their camera with them and they even slow down enough to see the photographic opportunities around them – but there’s just something that stops them lifting their camera up to frame the shot. When I dig a little I’ve found in most of these instances the person is simply worried about what others around the will think if they use their camera. Will they look stupid? Will people think that they’re photographing them? Its a feeling I’ll admit to having myself in the past and it’s quite common. I guess the key to moving through framing paralysis is to grow your confidence as a photographer. For me the more photos I took and the more I began to exercise the discipline of taking images the easier it got. Another friend of mine got over his paralysis by finding a photography buddy to go out with – two of them taking shots somehow seemed less confronting than him doing it alone.

Here are a few random shots I took on a recent photowalk, nothing splendid but just an example of picking up your camera.

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Give it a try, you'll be surprised at the results.

Photoshoot with Joaquim

Joaquim and I decided to do a quick photoshoot yesterday to test out a new 24x36 softbox to give some dramatic lighting using just one light. We took a few shoots using a second light to give a little rim lighting effect. However he preferred the one light photos more. [gallery columns="4"]