School Formal

I shot Korowal's School Formal evening.  Amazing to see these kids I've shot over and over reaching their final day with school....

'Liking'...

'Liking' every other photographer's artwork on Facebook will not only waste your time, but it will hamper your creativity.

You think it's giving you good ideas to see what other people are doing but really, it's limiting you to what other people are creating, and removing the focus from what you are creating.
Not only that, if they're being hyper creative, it will merely point the finger at your lack and you'll feel bad.
Then you're on the Ultimate Photographer's Spiral of Doom...

'Oh no, their work is so much better than mine.  I'm rubbish.  I'm not doing what they're doing.  Boo hoo me.'

Do you WANT to be on the Ultimate Photographer's Spiral of Doom? (The UPSD for short, because I like FLA's)

There comes a point where it's a good idea to stop looking at other people's art, pick up your camera, your paintbrush, or your pencils and let out what is inside you without giving a damn what other people are doing.  Their work is no 'better' than yours.  There is no 'better'... there is only 'different'.

Release your creativity.   Stop embracing theirs.

There, I said it.  So shoot me.

So You Want to Be A Photographer?

Really?
I've read a lot of stuff on being a photographer over the past few years of running my business and there's been none better than the text I'm about to share with you.
This is the bottom line in photography... it's kinda bleak, it's pretty depressing in its stark reality but also, it's up to you to make it work.   You ARE the bottom line.

Would you like to photograph anything you want, anywhere you want, anytime you want, any way you want, with a great professional camera system? Would you love to travel to luxury destinations and photograph whatever, whenever you want?

The only way to do this is to keep your real job and do photography on your own time.

If you want to photograph professionally you'll make less money, have to shoot the boring stuff in crappy locations for which you're hired, shoot it the way the client wants, and probably have to shoot everything as if it's some big emergency every time. You'll probably only be able to afford beat up old gear that's "good enough."

Making a buck in photography is a lot tougher than keeping a real job. The photo jobs and locations that pay the most are the most boring. Think you're going to have people hiring you as a travel photographer? Guess again.It's exactly like golf or surfing. Golf is fun, and it's almost impossible to get people to pay you to do it. Only one guy in ten million makes lots of money in surfing, photography or acting. Everyone else who makes the money does it in something allied to the field, like making or selling product or the dream.

We all know the few actors who pull in $20 million per movie. Did you know the average annual income of the many SAG (Screen Actors' Guild) members, the majority of whom we've never heard, is something more like $20,000? The SAG website's FAQ page offers this advice on how to become a performer: "Develop another career to supplement your income." People pay photographers less than actors.

A person who studied stage lighting in college and worked in Hollywood discovered that almost no one makes it in the fun job of lighting. The people who make more money more regularly are those who become lighting salesmen.

Who makes more: an actor, or an agent who earns 10% from each of the 20 clients they represent?

If you want to make money in photography, it's probably not by doing photography....

Read the rest of the article here.
With thanks to Ken Rockwell for the most down to earth, sanest post ever made in the world of photography.

How to look great in a photograph

Don't like your photo being taken?  Complaining that no-one has ever taken a good photograph of you?  Feel all coy when someone pulls a camera out?

As a photographer who constantly comes up against this in all sorts of shoots (commercial, private, celebratory) I can tell you that the only way you'll ever look great in a photograph is to loose your self consciousness.
Easy, right?  :D

I ALWAYS without fail get people pointing out their double chins, telling me how much weight they've put on in the past few months, complaining about their wrinkles or just saying how they never look good and sadly, it's mainly women though some men do it too.

BUT the only way you're going to look great in a photograph is to lose the shackles that bind you ~ self consciousness ~ and look at that camera and give it your all!

Lose your inhibitions.  We are all human and therefore we are all plagued by uncertainty and insecurities.  Even the most successful and famous people are not always sure of themselves as we know.  Some incredibly talented people out there have shown us that they're full of self doubt.

When I look at you, I may not know you.  I don't know how you looked six months ago.  I didn't know you a year ago or how you looked.  What I see is a person and what I'm going to try to do is capture the person I see in the very best way for them.

Personally, I like to connect with the person I'm photographing.  A while ago, when I was shooting a commercial job, this lady sat in front of me absolutely frozen.  I asked her to tell me about her husband but she got more uptight.  Wrong!  Then I asked her about her kids and she just relaxed on the spot.  In a few seconds we were sharing stories about our children and having a laugh.. and we came out of that session with some fabulous shots.  I honestly don't think I can take good photographs of someone who appears to be frozen and unhappy in front of the camera.  It never works.
So if you can lose your inhibitions for a few seconds and connect with your photographer, then the photographs are going to be great.


Now whilst I've asked you to do this huge thing, I'm going to give you a few tips for looking good in a shot.

• Wear make-up... don't wear make-up... It's really up to you.

• Be natural... be yourself... Be the person you are normally.

• RELAX!  Take a few deep breaths in and out and let all your stress go.

• Try and keep your posture good.  Even when I'm taking a headshot, having a straight back with shoulders back will make an immense difference to your face. 

• When the photographer is shooting, breath in through your nose.  This will make your pupils larger.  Large pupils make you look friendlier and less fearful!

• If I asked you to breath in, you'll have forgotten to smile, so smile!  Everyone, without exception looks better when they smile.   I know you don't believe me, I know you hate your teeth, but just relax and trust your photographer to get the shot they know they can get.

• Trust your photographer.   They know what they're doing. 

• Trust yourself!   You chose the photographer, hopefully.  You checked out their photographs.  You know what you asked for.

• Final tip... Don't look at the photographer!  I always ask my clients to look straight down the lens, not at me.  This way, everyone's focus is on a very small point and this gets great results.

Happy shooting!

Style

Style has no formula, but it has a secret key.
It is the extension of your personality.
Ernst Haas

My eleven year old daughter has told me that she can always recognize one of my photographs, even when they're with a load of others, like on the Korowal school website for example.  This is because they have a certain style.
Someone who's just started in photography recently asked me how long it took to 'define' my 'style'.
The honest answer to that is that I don't really know though at a guess, probably two to three years if we're talking about what I present to you when I take a photograph right now.
But style is not just about 'seeing'... it's about showing who you are through your artwork.  It's an extension of your personality.

But how can you develop a style?  And why should you?  Is it really that important?

If I gave you a load of photographs from Ansel Adams, Yousuf Karsh and Jerry N. Uelsman, (three of my photographic gods) you'd have no problems sorting them out because of their difference in style.

Creating a style is about a unique way of 'seeing'.  The way you see things is the way no-one else sees... and the way you see is coloured by who you are.

 People don't watch enough. They think. It's not the same thing.
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri, above, has it totally on the nail when he says people don't watch enough.  As a photographer, you need to see whatever it is you see and the only way to do that is watch.
It always amazes me how many photographers copy other famous photographers styles.  I see it time and time again in the exhibitions I visit.  There's nothing really wrong with this legally.  It's a good exercise to produce something 'in the style of', and you'd probably get asked to do this if you were at art school or doing a photography course... but for your photography it's not your vision you're using, it's theirs.
Developing your own style isn't about copying someone else's style, it's about knowing who you are, the way you see and letting your work become an extension of who you are inside.  If you make a living from copying someone else's work, you're not including your own personality in that.


Everyone seems to use Photoshop these days.  PS is full of filters, actions, and techniques.  These are not new and throwing the latest PS technique over your shots won't give you style.  PS is merely the software version of what has been available in the darkroom for many, many years.  Often, working in PS or other software manipulation can lead to new discoveries... new ways of processing, but PS is not a style in itself.  It's a medium... Something that can help you achieve your personal style.

I know of some photographers who PS the hell out of their shots, when the shot that came out of the camera first was absolutely fine and good.    Did it need to be re-coloured, softened, sharpened, actioned, etc?  Nope.  Leave it alone.  Let it speak for itself.
There's a pressure here... 'What do you mean, you don't use PS?'  'Really?'
Yes, really.  I have PS.  It sits here monolith like on my computer and wow, it's a great tool, but I rarely open it for any of my photographs.  It's not what defines my style.  If you'd be lost without digital manipulation tools, then why is that?

And as regards my style, I'm not sure that I have entirely finished developing it.  To say that I've finished would be an acknowledgement that I've stopped growing as a person, and that's just simply not true.  Whilst I guess my personality has pretty much set, my growth as who I am has not.  If I look at my very early photographs, they're very different to what I do now, technically and in style.
I'm still journeying.
My only advice to those who are developing their style... keep taking photographs, keep making mistakes, don't be afraid of making errors, keep learning, keep experimenting but most of all, enjoy it.

Style isn't a destination, it's a journey.