Anticipating Change

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Digital media (such as photography & video) is and has been a fast growing field, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. Technology is making it easier and easier for the average joe to take a good picture. So how would the professional photographer be able to survive in an over-saturating field like photography or video?

My prediction is since photography & video is becoming easier to capture, soon (if it hasn't already happened) there will be an expectation to be able to do both. There is a consistent reoccurring pattern, as technology grows so should the skill sets of industry professionals. Besides having my own personal reasons, this is why I strive not to just master photography but video as well. Professional photographers are dying, professional media generators are thriving.

In addition, I anticipate a hunger for people to learn how to capture better images since more people have the ability. I'm currently honing my teaching skills to so I can be a better instructor to those who want to learn to capture quality media.

Anticipate where trends will go, think hard about where people will be in the near future and how you can hone your skills now to accommodate them. In a fast moving field like digital media; if you wait until the new standard is set to catch up, by the time you catch up you have fallen behind.

Interview with Doubilet

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing renowned underwater photographer David Doubilet. The color, intimacy, and high standard for quality in an extremely difficult environment found in his imagery has always been an inspiration for me. Simply put, his work magically reveals a world hidden world to most. (photo courtesy of daviddoubilet.com)

I have listed some of my favorite nuggets of advice he gave for any budding photographers like myself to digest.

"Have a really good grounding in art, don’t just study your field."

"Know all the techniques and technical skills that you need to know [to get the image you want]."

"Know all the tools; light... moment... color... gesture. Above all... Intimacy and light is what counts"

“Dream, think, shoot… but above all shoot”

"...The hardest part [of being a professional] is getting the job"

"The only reason you should want to become a professional photographer is, you’re a little crazy and very passionate."

"Keep shooting, aim for a frame you see and keep trying. Anticipate."

"Everybody is shooting pictures now, so you better really think about what your shooting."

"Follow your interest and heart, photography is a way of expressing your interest visually."

"...Great pictures transcend... and become a piece of art... they have a poetry to them."

Dealing with a digital mess

I happened to do a whole bunch of reading on digital asset management this week, conveniently while I was dealing with my own digital asset mess. I was in the process of reorganizing my disorganized files so everything on my desktop was the same as my laptop (the digital version of cleaning my room & office). In the process my desktop ended up breaking down. Luckily everything was double backed up... but not the most organized back up. Files were all over the place and it made it extremely difficult and time consuming to locate what I needed. The worst was dealing with the Lightroom catalogs. I had several catalogs, relocating all the files and combining the catalogs took even more time away I could have spent working. I ended up loosing my whole weekend to fixing and reorganizing my computers and the files on them and I'm still not finished.

Moral of the story: If I didn't wait and had organized my digital assets organized a week earlier I wouldn't have lost a whole weekend of my life to the digital file management catch-up... Don't wait to the last minute like I did. A lesson I won't forget.

Impressions of Light

When I capture images I'm taking in an impression of the space, sometimes I feel that impression needs to reveal more than what we see. That's when I drop my shutterspeed and move with the light. I sometimes have a hard time calling my photographs "stills" because they are anything but. There are so many ways to capture an images, why do they all have to be still? Too many images look the same to me, in a world of stock filters we begin to loose the real magic that happens in spaces. Observing the light we don't see is how I break free.

Know what your clients want now, as well as what they will want in the future

Simply providing a client with what they want is good, but not the best business practice. If you can expand what they want with what they could have, then you're leaving the door open for more work in the future. The truth is, most of the time the client doesn't know what they want because they barely know what is possible. It is you're job to inform them of the scope of possibilities.

I recently had meeting with a client which initially only wanted a short 3 minute promo video. By the end of the meeting they were convinced to start with a 2 minute promo, fallowed by an additional 10 minute in depth descriptive video to be produced later on. By using the strategy just mentioned I effectively increased their initial budget and potentially doubled the amount I could earn from the client.

Compromise is the essence of doing business

While reading Chapter 5 in The ASMP Guide to New Markets In Photography I'm slowly discovering how important it is to stay in the business mindset while working with clients, especially when it comes to pricing and usage rights. Almost everything has a price as well as a middle ground. Clients may want full limitless usage rights, but they also don't want to spend a lot. It becomes your job to explain they why they can't have both as well as come up with compromising options so you don't chase them away. The compromise is essentially the essence of doing business. Thus when doing business, you should always be able to come up with a fair compromise that doesn't lower your worth.

Haggling Rates

Tonight's assigned reading is out of "Best Business Practices for Photographers". This chapter was all about negotiating and shed light on a lot of common situations, even some that I've already encountered despite my limited negotiating experience. The overlying lesson I gained from it was to know your numbers. There is power with information, especially with negotiation. If you know what every little thing costs it makes it easier not to waver down past something economical and also makes you more aware where you're able to mark things up.

"market your work with the same creativity you used to create it" - Stephen Elliot

I initially tried making a website from scratch which just ended up with me running into so many roadblocks I crashed and burned. I was and still am struggling with how to translate my creative eye into creative marketing. However, after reading several chapters in The ASMP guide to new Markets in Photography, the first line I read was still ringing around at the front of my brain. Something about this quote just washed away the dread of marketing myself and replaced it with a fun challenge.

Avoid the "unreal", seek the "surreal"

Despite the over-saturation of photographic content today, I keep discovering photographic techniques that have been lost in time to digital technological advances such as Photoshop and point-and-shoot cameras. Being able to control how your camera absorbs an image is literally being able to control how you see the world around you. If done properly, you can produce a uniquely surreal scene that is based in reality and not just an unrealistic composite of digital images.

“Brand is how people percieve you, not how you tell them you are” — Colleen Wainwright, The ASMP guide to new Markets in Photography

There has been a lot of reading about branding this week. What intrigues me the most is this notion that you can create / control your brand. To me it seems like the only way to “create” your brand is not to focus about creating a brand, but to focus solely on what you enjoy or are passionate about. Others dictate what your brand is, you basically have no say in the matter other than choosing what to show them. So show them only the work you love

Always have something handy to jot down notes & ideas

The ASMP guide to new Markets in Photography tells you to always have something handy so you can jot down notes and ideas. I've been doing this for quite a while now, even before I did this reading. The hard part is constantly trying to stay organized with all these random ideas. Organization often gets pushed to the side for more pressing issues like assignment deadlines. I've come to accept creativity will always bring a bit of chaos with it, the best I can do is make sure it's at least livable.

“A specific vision, style, or point of view directed toward a particular passion or interest is our one true unique offering” — Susan Carr, The ASMP guide to new Markets in Photography

I came across this quote within one of my assigned readings. The overall article talked about how to make a living in a content saturated field such as photography. A difficult task considering now-a-days your not just competing against your peers within your profession, but also amateur photographers as well. The fact is there are many photographers out there that can produce high quality images. To separate yourself above the rest, you need both skill and a unique vision. A skill can be learned, but a unique vision is driven solely by your own natural curiosity.