Audio from this past week’s discussion. This is from the Friday afternoon chat.

I had a wonderful opportunity to discuss the upcoming Clarion Call 2011, a free teleseminar for photographers, with the talent and brains behind it, Selina Maitreya. You can listen here on the page if you like, of see the link below for going off to TinDeck to listen there. Please feel free to embed this info into your websites/blogs.

Download it here.

I am honored to be in such great company, and am looking forward to having a terrific amount of information for you all on that day. Mark your calendars and stay tuned. Clicking on the graphic below will take you to the sign up page – and signing up and listening is free. We all are pulling for your success, so take the opportunity to get some great information.

Wednesday evening, January 12, 2011, 6PM PST. We discuss the new assignment, photographing strangers, and review assignment on Vision Statements.

Lighting Essentials LIVE for our UK and European followers will be Friday at Noon MST. Adjust accordingly, but that should be evening for you all.

Information regarding Project 52.
I have been asked if it is too late to join in. No. Join in at any point. Becoming involved and having a great experience with each and every assignment is the point. Learning and progressing is the point. Making photographs, learning about the business and feeling more confident is the point. Not whether you did one thing or another, but that you did it period.

This is the halfway point of the first Project 52 assignment – a vision statement (mission statement). There are a bunch of them already at the Flickr page. Upload yours there for discussion. We start to discuss them this week, with plenty of time for you to adjust and rework it as we move forward.

Remember, the point of this ‘vision statement’ is not something for public consumption – it isn’t a ‘tag line’ or something for your business, it is for you. A way of pulling your vision from your heart and mind and giving it a dimension. It is what drives the consistency of your work.

Of course we all want to make good, even great, pictures. And we want to be rewarded. We also want to make photographs that work for us on a personal, aesthetic plane. Images that mean something to us.

Here’s mine: “I make photographs that reveal the moments between, with an emotional and graphical environmental experience.”

Does that mean I won’t take photographs of food? Or cars? Nope… love to, but they are the wonderful ancillary to the work I want to do and be known for. And that little sentence, that little vision statement, drives so much of my work. Some examples below.

On to the Project 52, Assignment #2

Assignment #2:
Photograph a Stranger.

Criteria:

• The person should be unknown to you.
• It can be a street portrait, studio portrait or environmental portrait.
• The portrait should be simply lit.
• Tell us a little bit about the person – through the image and the caption.
• Tell us how you approached and worked with the subject(s) for the project.

Photographing someone you don’t know can be a scary proposition for many of us. I am fairly shy, or at least not that comfortable with walking up to someone and striking up a conversation. I usually will not do that.

UNLESS… I have my camera around my neck or in my hand. When I am ‘a photographer’ I can easily and without hesitation walk up to people and ask to make their picture. I do it a lot, actually.

You see, the camera gives me cover. The camera makes it about the photograph, not me. The camera is both a shield and a passport to meeting people.

In the photograph that is the cover shot of this post, I saw this guy sitting on the cold pier with his 6-pack and I walked right over to him. I smiled and introduced myself, told him I liked his beard and his lunch and asked if I could make a few photographs. He smiled and agreed and I brought some lights over and set them up.

All the while we were chatting about the weather and how it had affected the fishing that week. He told us about having three boats sink under him and how he had great respect for the sea.

I got my shots, and met a very cool guy. It also gave me an idea for a project we are doing at the end of this year.

Here are some links and videos to get your imaginations going. (Oh, and to that little voice that holds you back from walking up to someone you don’t know… tell that little voice to go away, you are a photographer and this must be done. Period.)

Here is Lee Friedlander’s wonderful book: America by Car:

There are many portraits of strangers interspersed with the shots from his car.

Watch Mark Cohen at work:

Not my style at all, but he gets some pretty interesting photographs. If this kind of portraiture appeals to you, here is how Mark does it.

Here are two videos of Joel Meyorowitz:

This photographer set out to do 100 photographs of strangers:

Photographer Zack Arias talks about photographing strangers on this post.

One of my favorite photographers is Eliott Erwitt. See his work here. Lots of photographs of strangers with a very humanistic and humorous approach.

Here are some wonderful portfolios and videos by photographers shooting portraits of strangers.
Dawoud Bey
David Eustace
Richard Rinaldi
Sylvia Plachy

One more for this post… more to come this week.

Robert Frank photographed the people he met… strangers. His book, “The Americans” was a landmark collection of photography and he influenced countless photographers in the ‘street’ photography genre. Here is a link to his images and this is the book to add to you collection of important photographic books.

Discussion in the comments. Hold the posts of images till this weekend. I will create a new post on Flickr for them.

Please encourage friends and colleagues to join us for this project. They can join anytime, and take advantage of all the discussions.

Follow me on Twitter and visit my Facebook page and be sure to check out the workshop schedule at Learn to Light.

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A little over a year ago I posted “10 Web Site Strategies for Emerging Photographers.” I think the article holds up very well and is as relevant as it was when I posted it. So please read it if you haven’t done so, then come back to this article for 10 more web strategies for photographer’s websites.

NOTE: Meet Jan Klier, Seattle Photographer. He just recently made the jump. He will be here in my studio Wednesday evening at 6PM, Pacific. We will discuss his planning up to the day he left corporate world, and what he is doing now to build his business. Come join us and bring questions you may have. You will have to signup for an account to ask questions, but it is free and no spam, so nothing to lose.

First – interesting photo stuff from around the web:
Bruce DeBoer offers this great post on speaking about photography: WORD :: How Good Talk Makes Photography Better
Selina Maitreya has a six month challenge for photographers – Video Challenge #2 VISION
Kirk Tuck has a nice little post here: Are you showing off your skill or are you joining the conversation about art?
From Scott Kelby comes this post on ideas for Lightroom 4. If you are a Lightroom user, you should check it out.
And from A Photo Editor comes this article on dropping one’s agent, Ask Anything – Dropping Your Agent.

Three photographers that I really enjoyed this week:
Erik Almas
Dan Busta
John Midgley

This Wednesday (August 18, 2010) evening at 6PM Pacific (9PM Eastern) we will have another Lighting Essentials LIVE video cast from the secret Wizwow compound. The subject will be a surprise, but there will also be time for questions from you. Just visit this site on Wednesday to see the Livecast via VOKLE.

We just wrapped up the First BIG Photo Contest on Lighting Essentials. The contest page is here and the submissions are here at Carbonmade. The judges will be working on the judging this week and we will announce winner next weekend.

Now let’s get on to some strategies that you can use to up the game on your website. It may be an easy fix or it may require some ‘backend’ coding to make it happen, but work with what you have to get a little more punch from your online presence.

Hit the jump here:

1. Share what you have been doing.
Show the new work, and let the clients know what you are up to. Interaction not just for blogs anymore.

Whether it is a “New Work” gallery or attention to getting the recent work into a mini-gallery or vehicle to show that you are constantly creating, it is really a strong way to get people to come back. New Work or Recent Work will show huge activity… especially to returning visitors and that is huge. Tie the imagery to some tear sheets and it is a real credibility booster.

Showing new work also tells the prospective client that you are indeed busy. That you are engaged in the work, and keeping fresh. What you show could run from out-takes to tear sheets, but the fun part is that they are always changing. Every two weeks or every month would be a good time frame to change them out.

New Work Examples:
Jaime Hogg
Anna Wolf

2. Create and shoot projects.
Long form shoots that can bring the people back for more.

Whatever the ongoing project is, let it breathe and take life in front of the visitors. Add new images and keep the narrative strong. Ongoing projects build interest and also provide a glimpse of how you treat larger assignment work.

Choose something you are interested in and keep the gallery fresh with new and interesting images from the project. Don’t forget the people who work with you on the shoots and keep them in the scene as well.

Projects Examples:
Chase Jarvis
Phillipe Toldano

3. Behind the Scenes Videos
Not to train your competition, but to show how you work with clients and subject.

Yeah, everybody loves those behind the scenes shoots with all the glitz and all the glam… well, they don’t all have to be produced like a Hollywood epic. A little video of the shoot from a Flip would be fine… if it shows what clients want to see. How did you meet a challenge photographically – and beat it?

I’m not talking about shooting a business headshot against white, or a “Here’s how to use a boom stand” tutorial… I am talking about a 2 minute or so shoot of what was going on to get the shots. What was going on behind the scenes… was it fun, too stuffy… what?

The point is to have fun with it, show professional skills and engage the viewer by showing a glimpse of what it may be like to shoot with you… unless you are boring or crass… then, well… let’s lose the video.

Behind the Scenes Examples:
Kevin Winsler
Chris Stanford (stills)
Fashion Photography Blog

4. Work with a charity.
They need the help and you have the skills.

These days charities need help more than usual. Maybe there is a way for a win/win. Find a way to work with a charity that can also double as a long term project. The content will drive interest in the site and the work will show how you handle those types of projects.

I am very kind and very demanding when I do these kinds of projects. I am happy to shoot for the charity – IF I can get something for myself. If the work they want will NOT be usable as a project, then I may have to think about it. (Exceptions of course kids and domestic violence where secrecy may be very important. I have worked with those charities as well.)

It may take some doing and some extra heavy planning, but there are ways to involve your photography, creativity and a charity that would benefit you both. And having the work on your website is a ‘very good’ thing to do.

Charity Examples:
SoGo Photography
Viewpoint Photographers

5. Offers and Promotions
Mostly for wedding and portrait shooters.

Come on, get creative. What kind of monthly promotion can you run? What kind of premium can be used to lure the prospective buyers back to the site again and again? Free 11×14 month… (you know why we do 11×14′s… right?). Book one get one booking free in a year. Bring a friend month… come on. Be creative.

Work with a local establishment for some coop marketing. If you can work with someone’s mailing list and offer a discount, the access could be worth quite a lot. Creating value without destroying profits is a tried and true marketing strategy. Giving an 8×10 print for a solid lead from a client is totally worth it. Referrals are some of the strongest ways we know of to get new clients. Making your existing clients your de-facto marketers means more word of mouth than ever before.

Promotions Examples:
Shelley Shroyer
Fine Spun Photography

6. Sell prints.
Even if you don’t actually sell something, the fact is you have them for sale. Limited editions of course.

The fact that you sell prints says you are an artist. It may enhance your credibility. It may give you something to brag about or use as a leverage to get into see people that may be harder to see. It can be a wonderful source of ‘premiums’ for your business. “Shoot a maternity with us this month, and pick any photo from our gallery as a gift.” It is a great gift too, as it has a published price of $75.

Creating new and interesting work? A print gallery is one place to show it off. Showing that the work is used to decorate the world can be quite powerful as a perception point.

A commercial photographer can show a different side of their work in a sales gallery. Elevate the work to art. Make the images “limited editions” at nice, hefty prices. Value… increase yours. Don’t be stupid… $2500 8×10′s will make you look like a moron unless you are way more famous than .1% of the photographers out there, and are already getting that price elsewhere. And gifting someone a print after a long shoot or particular event can mean a lot if they know it has a value placed on it. From SmugMug to PayPal, there are many, many ways to sell your photographs online.

Print Sales Examples:
David Reesor
Sue Barr

7. Get testimonials or at least a kind word or two.
People like to know you are someone that other people want to work with.

Putting a nice note from someone who is in the business can be a powerful referral tool. I am reminded of Carl Furuta’s long time campaign in the Black Book from back in the day. 4 pages of AD’s names / Agencies and the headline: “Ask Me How I Liked Working With Carl Furuta?” Effective? Yeah, at the price it cost to put 4 pages in that book it had to be.

You can tie this with the BTS videos idea as well. A short clip of you and the AD smiling and waving… and tie them all together for a little short with 20-30 AD’s all smiling and waving … be creative. Be marketing or planning your marketing all the time. I wish to hell I would have shot all those behind the scenes funny, incredible, insane and sometimes dangerous moments from back in the day. I really do.

Ask for referrals and ask them if their notes can be used on your site, of course. A few sprinkled in here and there could be a pretty nice way to subtly show that you are working with pros. And it may give them something to send their friends to see on your site… and maybe some of their friends are, I dunno, other AD’s? Yeah… you think?

8. Offer a newsletter on something you love.
Become the go-to source for information regarding photography in ____.

Your town. Your city. Your state. Your genre. Your interest group. Your passion.

What do you love to shoot? Motorcycles? Still Life? Fine Art? Food?

Let’s say you are a food shooter in a small market. Why couldn’t you also be a sort of food connoiseur of sorts. Have all the links to restaurants in your town. Have links to the top chef’s site. Create a little content about food in your town. Shoot something from every restaurant if you can. Ask – you may receive.

Yeah, you are a food shooter… and you love food… and here are some great places to eat great food… and ‘ohbytheway’ here are some photographs of the great food you are going to eat and if your restaurant needs great photographs… yeah, sorta like that. It can be very time consuming, but valuable. Cause you KNOW other restaurateurs will seek out your site if the content is compelling enough.

Newsletter Examples:
James Cowlin
Raymond Klass

9. Blur the lines between blog and site.
A website doesn’t have to be static anymore.

Blogs can be powerful dynamic tools to keep people informed. Websites have tended to be more static with almost an online ‘portfolio’ approach.

I say change it up. We can do things to blogs to add a more ‘portfolio’ like feel to them (and we will cover that in another post), and we can add content to websites to add a more dynamic feel to them.

I mentioned the “Project” approach above. It is one way you can treat content. For jobs, show out-takes and BTS shots, discuss the challenges of the shoot and how you met them head on. What were the desires of the client and how did you deliver. The style can certainly be your own, but keep it conversational and easy to read. Draw the reader, and possible client, into the shoot.

Add mini-galleries of things you like, or places you have been. Show the progress of something under construction. Add value to your site by keeping it current with current information that is aimed at your critical audience.

Examples of the blend:
Andrew Hethrington
ACME Photo (Adam Nollmeyer)

10. Promote something near and dear to you.
A book, a historical district, a group show… mentoring.

Get involved. Promote something good and while at it gain meaningful traffic and PR. Maybe it’s a kids choir, or a historical museum. Perhaps it could be something even more personal like the recovery of a wounded vet, or the vet hospital in your area. No, it doesn’t have to be a PJ approach. It can be portraits or architectural details or whatever it is that you do.

Promote the local chamber of commerce, or a book by a friend, or an artists work that you really admire. It doesn’t have to be tacky, and it can be worked in through the “projects” as well. And it doesn’t have to be a charity as discussed above. This is outright promotion of something/someone… be a mentor.

Helping others with our gifts is something to be very proud of. And it simply cannot hurt from a marketing standpoint. So find someone to promote on your site. Be involved.

Promotion Examples:
Janell Wood (the wonderful Veterans Project)
James Nachtway (through the organization of his images)

Stay “engaged” with the viewers… that is the new ‘buzzword’ and I like it better than most buzzwords.

You don’t have to do all that is presented here. You can do one or two, but these ideas are set forth to get you thinking about ways to promote yourself, do good things and engage your viewers. Get them to come back again and again.

Workshop NEWS is on the Learn to Light page, and as always, those wishing to follow my every idea can follow me on Twitter. See you next time.

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Yeah, I know – everyone who is anyone works in NY or is so famous that entire terabytes of blogs are devoted to them. Sorry, I don’t buy that. Most of us in this business will never be famous, and most of us don’t care. We want to work for excellent clients and provide excellent work. And enjoy our passion in the places we love.

So we will continue here at Lighting Essentials to bring you the interviews with working, successful and excited photographers from all over the world… even NY, and hope that you learn something from each of them.

Claire Curran Corbett: Dallas
“I definitely enjoy fashion and am motivated by current trends. I spend a lot of time going through foreign publications and online looking for new things… color palates, hair styles, etc. I try and keep my book looking current, and love to test out new lighting ideas to create moods that go with the wardrobe.”

Photograph by Claire Curran Corbett

Ken Easley: Phoenix
“I’ve been interested in photography since I was 10 or 11. My first camera was a brownie starflash, a gift from my aunt. My strongest memories are trying to shoot frogs and waterbugs in Oak Creek Canyon. And my Dad complaining about how much film I was using and how expensive it would be to get it all processed. The next year I got an “Ansco Developing Kit”.”

More Photographers to get to know after the jump.

Eduardo Frances: San Salvador
“I’ve been at this for almost 4 years of non-stop fun! To tell you the truth, I think it was slow in some parts and fast in others, I started as a photographer for a small model agency here, then I worked for another photographer (something I now regret because he is not a good person) and after that I decided to go “solo”, and here I am now!.”

Photo by Eduardo Frances

Grant Lovett: Nashville
“Most of the bad experiences I have had have been long burned from my memory as I tend to move on as quickly as possible from them. There are still a few that remain with me still today, but that is just part of the business. It is impossible to please everyone, so I try not to focus on them and instead remember the good ones. It helps keep me sane.”

Photo by Grant Lovett

Steve Korn: Seattle
“I love the creative process. I love envisioning something and then trying to make it come to fruition. I like that, try as I might, intangible elements will always have an influence on the outcome. Whether it’s how my subject will respond, the weather or a technical problem I have to solve, all of these elements bring vitality and a bit of the unknown to every situation.”

Photo by Steve Korn

Kirk Tuck: Austin
“My core motivation is a curiosity about what makes every one so different. I’m trying to find that intersection between common touchstones of humanity and all the things that make everyone so different. It’s the differences that make it all interesting just as it’s the little flaws that make portrait sitters both vulnerable and beautiful. I photograph the way I’d like to write a novel. Observation and narrative. Description and storytelling.”

Photo by Kirk Tuck

Tom Miles: London
“There are many things I love about my job, but after all these years I think the best thing is getting to meet and work with truly exceptional people, on a regular basis, and being placed in interesting situations all the time. When I’m sent to photograph someone it’s usually because they’re exceptional in some way. They may be Olympic Athletes, cancer survivors, millionaires, or any number of things. I’ve always been attracted to people who stand out from the crowd a bit, and I guess that side of my nature is very fulfilled shooting what I shoot.”

Photo by Tom Miles

Daron Shade: Tucson
“I have a notebook with filled with image idea sketches, and I draw from that for both personal and professional assignments. This book also has lists of locations , time of year , time of day and weather conditions I predict would make a remarkable image. I’ve also learned to rely heavily on Google Earth to plan my landscape photography. In fact, I’m going to include a photo for your readers that was visualized and planned using Google Earth. Without that 3d mapping tool, I would have had much more difficulty finding the best location and time of year to capture the depth in this image.”

Photo by Daron Shade

Chris Bohnhoff: Minneapolis
“What gets me going is the chance to interact with really cool photo subjects. Photography is my creative outlet for sure, but what I’ve really come to value about life as a photographer is that a photo shoot is a great excuse to interact in a meaningful way with people that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. Hanging with chefs in their kitchens and watching them create, talking to college professors about their teaching experiences, even being with a family on a wedding day – the interactions with subjects are what make my career so fulfilling and rewarding. And seeing my images used to tell their stories is just a huge honor.”

Photo By Chris Bohnhoff

David Giral: Montreal
“I breathe photography and spend each and everyday either taking photos or editing them, or looking at photos from others . The feelings you get from taking photos and editing them are really amazing, it’s like being connected to the universe. I’m very curious, enthusiastic and driven. Most of my inspiration comes from within and from the beauty of people’s souls and of the world surrounding us.”

Photo by David Giral

I hope you enjoy these great interviews with hard working photographers in all kinds of markets. There are lots of places that interview all the big “stars” but at Lighting Essentials we know that there are a lot of great photographers who are not already household names. We give them the voice to be heard here on our humble little magazine.

As always, if you would like to stalk me on Twitter, feel free. Workshop information is on Learn to Light.

See you soon!

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While some pros are worried about kids shooting Facebook and concert pix for free, I think that the perspective is really skewed when we start to become more interested in what non-consequential folks are doing and forget to be excited about this wonderful thing called photography. To make photographs is a joyous event, something I love to do. I don’t want to sit around kvetching about some dude who shot his company picnic. Hope he had a blast and made good shots. They couldn’t have paid me enough (well, they actually could have, but they probably wouldn’t have regardless of the product manager’s awesome handling of the formidable D-Series camera… and what if he had a Pelican case… Judge Brown would have made him the winner anyway).

I have made my feelings known on the ‘working for free’ thing on several posts. It isn’t for ‘free’ if value is gained… and if it can be a win-win… then take the damn win.

So today we aren’t going to worry about that $400 wedding (with CD and proofs) that happened yesterday, or the IT guy who shoots for the local ice-cream parlor for trade (Mmmm – Rocky Road). Who cares anyway. Did you really want those gigs? Today we are going to focus on what we can do that is positive and fun.

Ten things to POSITIVELY affect your photography that you can do NOW.

1. Shoot something totally out of your comfort zone.
Are you a portrait shooter? Take some gear out and shoot landscapes. If you normally shoot still life, grab some stuff and go somewhere to shoot street portraits. Do something different. Shoot something different. Try a totally different subject matter… and try to bring your aesthetic to it.

Do it with the seriousness of an assignment. Work toward something that would be ‘portfolio’ worthy. Make the date and keep it. Whatever the impending challenges, meet them and create a shot. If it is raining… cool, make that work for you. No excuses… bring back a shot that you love.

Examples:
Dave Hill’s Landscapes
Arthur Elgort’s “Jazz” (you will have to click on it on the navigation. Stupid UI (flash) doesn’t allow for deep linking… but then this is Arthur so he probably isn’t looking for SEO… heh)

2. Do a “series” of images on something new to you.
Or something familiar, I don’t care. But make it a true series. Tell a story. Five or more images that work together. Not a ‘comp’ card approach, nor am I wanting you to write a ‘story’ and make illustrations for it. (Although, that sounds like a possible #11 to me… hmmm.) I am talking about images that ‘belong’ together.

Plan a couple of excursions to that place or event, or some time blocked off to work out all the shots you need. “Cover” the subject with enough shots that when you edit them down, you can get to a set of images that says something about what/who you shot.

Examples:
Joni Sternbach’s Surfers
David Eustace’s Trip with his Daughter
Chase Jarvis’s Songs for Eating and Drinking

3. Rent a Tilt-Shift lens and spend a week with it.
This is a somewhat unique tool. It can change the perspective on an image and allow you to control converging lines and depth of field. Still life shooters use it, as well as architectural shooters. Here is a link to a tutorial I did on how to use it.

Take it out as your single lens for a day or a weekend. Find things that it can do to help make your images different. Play with it. Experiment with it. Shoot portraits and exploit the tilt to alter DOF.

Resist the urge, if you can, of tilting it back and making landscapes look like toy scenes… yeah. Cute. OK… maybe one or two, but don’t get carried away. Oh, and BTW, if you do a google search for Tilt-shift photography you will find a ton of these lameass shots and articles. And most of them are too that silly ‘toy’ look, that is ONLY tilt, NO Shift involved… but hey, stupid runs rampant on them interwebs.

Rent it from these nice folks if you live somewhere they are hard to find. They make a few flavors of wide to semi-telephoto and each do their own thing. I would say start with the 24MM, but that is only a suggestion.

How a Tilt-Shift Can Change Your Work
From Luminous Landscape, this great post.
Wiki has some good info as well.

4. Plan a large-scale shoot. Then do it.
This is great for the soul and great for the commercial shooter working on building a book.

The planning and production of a large-scale shot is one of the things that is so hard to learn from a book, or a blog. It is something that takes practice and experience. And it has a ton of learning associated with it.

Working out the set, the models, MUA’s, stylists needed. Then the time and coordinating the shoot with the realities of time. Three models and one makeup artist means you better have the models on set waaaaay before the shoot. Scheduling them for a half hour before shooting could be a terrible mistake.

Do you need permits or permissions? Get them. It’s good practice. You will have to do this more and more as you move into larger commissions, so get comfortable with the system now.

Do a casting… not a MM thing where people simply show up (if you are lucky) – but a real ‘casting’. Find the people you need and KNOW will work for the shot. Look for the look you want. Settle ONLY as a last resort. And then resist it like hell.

Need props… find them. Find rental houses, if you can. Ask friends and family. Somebody knows somebody with a Harley if you need one. Getting the resources together to make a big shot happen is as important as understanding what it takes to pull a big shot off.

Be tenacious and make the shot happen. If you are lucky and prepared, you will get something for your book. And you will learn a ton of stuff to do differently next time. And then start planning the next time.

Make the jump, there’s more on the other side.

5. Make a Book.
Seriously. Make a book.

Take your images and edit them down to 30 or so, then edit them into a ‘flow’. Take your time and develop the images in a sequence that makes sense. Hint: Cheap 4×6′s are a great tool for finding the sequencing. I cannot do it on a computer… back and forth is not the same as grab and switch.

I generally use Photoshop to create full page designs that are to my liking, and really not use their design software. It isn’t bad, but it is not my preference. You, however, may enjoy their templates. Make a hard cover book and show it around to everyone.

What you will learn is the so valuable as you go through the process. Flow of images, color matching, layout. There are a ton of things that you will face to get it right. And in the end you have a book to go on the coffee table. You can spend as little as $30 on it.

Want a really fun idea? Do the book in conjunction with a road trip, or a series of images, or stuff you don’t shoot very often. If your kids skateboard, spend an afternoon with the lights and get them and their friends doing cool stuff. No matter what you do, where you live and who you know… there is something cool going on around you.

Book Makers to consider:
Blurb
MyPublisher
LuLu
Asuka Book (a little more pricier, but very nice)

I have made books with all of the above. I have been happy with what I received in all cases.

6. Make a Portrait of Someone Famous (or nearly famous).
Yeah… get on the phone, send an email, show up at the door – and make it happen.

Maybe it is a local musician, or the symphony conductor. A local chef who is renown for his cooking. An author, painter, heck – even another photographer. Just make it happen. Could be you set your sights way high… Catherine Zeta Jones for instance. OK, you are going for a big name… can you pull it off? I bet you can… it just takes legwork and time and energy. And if you need anyone to, you know, hold the lights or something, I am available for that one. Yep. Sticking to local celebrities may be easier.

The shot MUST be killer, so make sure your stuff is up to par. But the point of this exercise is to work out how to make this happen. It takes guts. It takes initiative. It takes gumption and the ability to sell yourself and the gift of gab and more… It won’t happen while playing Farmville, and it won’t happen sittin’ on your ass watching re-runs of American Idol (the white-hair guy wins, can’t remember his name.) It surely won’t happen while you are spending every waking moment at your BF/GF… that is for damn sure.

You may also learn a thing or three about celebrity shooting. It isn’t nearly as easy as you think it is, and you already don’t think it is that easy. Correct. Egos, time, PR flacks, weenies with too much power because they glom on… it is quite an interesting world. Get your feet wet locally and see how it goes. However it goes, you will learn a ton about the business/production side of photography.

7. Get a List from Agency Access.
Oh, and then use it. This is for people who have already got their book together and are ready to make the rounds. Get a list. Get a good list. It may cost a few hundred bucks, but it is so worth it. Agency Access.

1. It eliminates that lameass excuse of ‘not knowing who to show’ the work to.
2. It is tailored to what you want to do (magazines vs ad agencies for instance)
3. It gives you a target and a real tangible sources for your efforts.
4. It becomes the foundation for your marketing efforts – and is worth 10 times what you paid for it.
5. None of the above count if you get the list and continue to NOT do a damn thing with it.
6. Read #1 again.

You should have your mission statement, marketing tools and drop-offs and leave behinds ready as you begin this process, so we are going to simply let that stand as a very important pre-cursor of this exercise. If you are not ready, what is your time frame? Don’t tell me – tell yourself. Oh, and you should have some ideas of rates and billing.

Now get after it.

8. Create an EMail Marketing Campaign.
If you aren’t totally ready for the big time yet, you can start by creating an email marketing campaign and get it ready to go.

Finding a template there for your photography by not be the easiest thing to do – even though there are several billions of templates or so. Know what you want to send. Work with a designer to get the look you want, testing it to yourself and a few friends. This will take a while and you can be getting your other stuff ready in the meantime.

You can find some pretty cool templates for email at Envato. Or look for a designer you like and find out what something custom would cost. Not as much as you think, probably. If you are good with html, you will most likely be able to customize one of the templates provided.

Try it out on a few customers or a circle of prospects. This is a list of the ones I have used and recommend. You may find others that you love. That’s cool.

MailChimp
Constant Contact
Mad Mimi

9. Road Trip.
Oh yeah, man. I love them. They get me going. Apply the road trip to any of the above suggestions in as liberal a dose as you can handle.

10. Work With a Designer and Create a Direct Mail / Leave Behind
Get that direct mail piece into the works.

It can dovetail with the list above, and of course the email list as well. It may take a while to get together, and it may cost a bit (tradeout?), but it is worth it. This piece is your calling card, it is YOU when you are not there. It says who you are, and shows your attention to detail, aesthetic, style, vision, presentation and relevance.

Start to research the different styles and methods of these important parts of your business. I would recommend these sites to see examples of direct mail and leave behinds.

A Photo Editor
Heather Morton Art Buyer
Graphis (print as well)
Communication Arts Magazine (print as well)

Getting this vital piece of the puzzle done before you start to get calls is very important.

And anytime you start to actually ‘work’ with your own images, you find out a lot about yourself. We can miss holes in our work, and stylistically out-of-place images when we are simply shooting and storing. But going in and working with them to make a book, or a direct mail piece, an email campaign and other things we can do, can bring them to us in new and different ways – ways that transcend just being an interesting photograph.

Or we can sit around complaining about other people who have no more consequence to professional photography than the man in the moon.

And this should be #11, but it is a reminder that you will probably not spend a hundred bucks on anything more valuable than Selina Maitreya’s 12 hour long audio series, “The View From Here” on success and vision and style. She has examples, road maps and more in this baby, and it could be worth 10 times what she is charging.. and you get half off her price of $200 by purchasing it through Lighting Essentials. Just enter FOSLE in the checkout and you will save $100. I don’t do a lot of ‘selling’ on this site, but I so very much believe in this information that I really do think you should get it.

So that wraps it up for this post. Follow my bloviations on Twitter, and come to a lighting workshop to pop your chops up another notch.

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Rant/Rave today.

So it kinda sounds like this to a lot of young photographers:
1. You can’t get gigs unless you have experience.
2. Without actual shoots you cannot get experience.
3. You must always charge for your work (see # 1 above)
4. Get an assistant gig.
5. There are few assistant gigs.
7. Never shoot for experience alone.
Start at the top… repeat.

That, folks, sounds like a politician trying to tell us that unemployment is a blessing because it increases employment.

Yeah – sure.

There is always a conundrum that plays on in this business, and it makes me crazy to see and hear such a deafening silence when someone actually asks HOW to get off that round-about.

On a private forum I belong to, one of the photographers, Paulo, asked me a set of questions about my post, “Sometimes It Is About Getting the Shot”. He is allowing me to share the questions and my answers with you.

“After all you come out of college with your photography degree, or leave your job with everything up until that point telling you that you are a great photographer but can you really be expected to hit a home run every time?”

Yes. By carefully picking your starting points, and making sure you have the assets in place to produce the work required. In other words… pick your challenges. Would a kid coming out of college have the experience to shoot a 6 day annual report over several countries? Probably not. Environmental portrait in the city… sure. I would at least hope so.

So the point is to begin to build to the point where doing the big stuff comes second nature. My friend Ken, who I referenced in the article, had a client here in Phoenix that had him shooting about 20 portraits a month. They paid $250 per and let him do his thing on the images… he built a great portfolio, and actually put a lot of money in his pocket. If it had been a one off, it would have been too low of a rate… but they guaranteed him at least 10 per month… so it was not a bad deal. I can tell you that the experience Ken got while doing that gig was priceless.

Want to shoot high end real estate? Do work for architects where a ‘re-shoot’ isn’t that big of a problem. There are usually not that many deadlines, and you can return the next day and shoot it again. If access is required, get access for a period of a few days to make sure you can get it. The ‘practice’ and experience should start to build in to your personal ‘apps’ if you will.

It is more about managing your learning, testing incessantly, and building your skills. And many times you spend a lot of your own capital doing so.

Put together a larger shot for a weekend morning – set a shoot time in your head. Three models, a MUA, a stylist. Set the call times and treat it as a professional gig. Of course make great images, but also make note of things like timing, and set control, and managing the shoot from the photographer’s position. We can learn how to go out and make a photograph when there is only a model and ourselves… and no time frame – and no distractions and the freedom to do what we want…

Things change real fast when there are more people in the mix, a time frame and the exponentially increasing challenges that brings. Did your shot come together in the time frame you expected? Or did hair and makeup take longer than expected, lighting take up too much time, or the people become unmanageable for directing into a tight shoot schedule?

If it came off great, wonderful. Do another shoot just like it to build that experience into your personal apps. If it didn’t, imagine how it would have gone if the call were sunset? The sun doesn’t set on your time… it sets on its time. So do it again, but then have the very real, scary deadline reveal itself slowly falling to the horizon.

“So what is the enabler? What turns your average photographer or even a gifted newbie into the kind of pro that you are talking about? Skills, talent , vision and common sense can get you off the starting blocks and for some very gifted people that may well be all they need to reach your standard but I think the vital missing ingredient is experience.”

Experience is the most important thing of all. We used to get it by assisting, and yeah, that is a lot harder to come by these days. But working for smaller companies and smaller agencies can lead one up. You must start “small” – if you will – and keep your abilities to do the gigs in the fore of what you are looking to do.

In some ways your portfolio will help you keep those expectations under control. In your book show the work you are prepared to do. Show the work you are proficient in. Don’t accept assignments you cannot do. If it is out of your league, be smart enough to pass on it. (Or be smart enough to hire the best damn assistants you can find who actually HAVE experience in doing that kind of shot. I did that on a few occasions. Paid the assistants handsomely, LEARNED a ton, put some money in my pocket and delivered exactly what the client wanted. But you better be dialed in to the best assistants in your area.)

In any case, be damned sure you can do what you are being asked to do. Does that mean we play it totally safe and never, ever put ourselves out there on a limb? ROFL… oh hell no… part of this amazing business is the excitement of possibly instant death (well, maybe a little over the top, but the adrenaline that gets pushed… whew!!!)

Let’s say you want to shoot for big time sports officials. Here in the states we have the NFL or whatever. It is nearly impossible to start with them… too big, too much power, and too many gatekeepers. The challenges would be formidable.

So start with the minor leagues. Want to do big setup shots? Do one. It may mean a little more arm twisting and some out of pocket… but arrange and create a bigass setup shot. Do the best damn little league shot ever made. Find some pickup basketball players and bring out all the bells and whistles to do a killer shot of them playing in the street courts. Gymnasts, Ice Skaters, Bodybuilders, and Dancers can all be approached for photography. Do it, do it, do it. Period.

Take the images and do what we used to call a “post mortem” on the shoot. What did you learn? How can you make it better next time?

As you build your book… keep pushing your work and your style to a place where you are so totally comfortable with it that you can create it when needed.

“How do you get experience?”

By doing it. I know that sounds a little snarky, but it is not meant to be. I would say that if someone wanted to shoot music, and couldn’t find anyone to photograph, or bands to work with, or managers willing to take a chance on a portfolio shoot – that person is going to have a terrible time in the ‘music photography’ business. If you cannot find a way to make this stuff happen, how will it be easier when you have a ton of restrictions, expectations and money on the line?

Create your shots, form a group that meets once a week to do a big shot. Assist and shoot. (I have an idea about how that should work… if you are the shooter, you shoot and others assist. Period. When it is your turn to shoot your gig, others assist… but no one shoots but that day’s designated shooter. Otherwise the images can be pretty worthless… Unless you totally change the shot from shooter to shooter. Having a couple of shooters with the same image in their books is just stupid.)

“The best way is on the job, but all the lessons learned can harm your career as your article illustrates. Working as an assistant will teach you how to solve problems by learning from someone who already has the experience or at worst learn from their mistakes without any cost to you.”

It is so important to understand that you don’t start at the top. Shooting an editorial is usually not as ‘gut wrenching’ as shooting for an ad agency. Shooting (testing) models for agencies is less dangerous than shooting editorial for local magazines. So you start there. Shooting real estate for brokers has less ‘failure’ for re-shoots than a location shoot editorial for “Metropolitan Home”. Shoot food for local restaurants before heading out to do a 5 state trip shooting for “Cuisine”… it only makes sense.

It is one of the things that makes the Harrington post, (“12 Excuses for Shooting Photos for Free — and Why They’re Bogus”) that I refer to in my current LE piece (“What is the Difference Between Shooting for Free and Shooting for Me?”) simply wrong. There ARE times and places where you have to parlay your work and find people to work together to create an image that benefits you both. That has value in and of itself. To think that people can start this business without having any opportunities to prepare is simply insulting. Of course there are necessary sacrifices to get to the point where the work has the kind of value that can be considered sustaining.

And ANY pro who tells you they NEVER shot anything for free or nearly free are just blowing smoke. I know too much about this business to accept that at face value. Ask any fashion shooters if they have ever shot without money changing hands? Or travel shooters… or sports, glamour and beauty shooters. Do they do it as a matter of course? Well, of course not. But I know Avedon did. I know DeMarchelier does. I know Elgort does. They are sometimes working to get something for THEMSELVES and the collateral folks needed get something for them.

I would like to share this quote with you from my friend Steve Korn (one of the best drummers ever and a wonderful photographer)

“Musically, I don’t get nervous because I feel prepared and experienced and know I have the skills to handle pretty much anything. After all these years I know that I’ll always sound good sometimes great, but even on a night when I don’t feel like I’m playing my best, I’ll still sound at least good. It may sound like a load of ego, but it’s really just confidence and experience and I know that pretty much whoever calls, I’m up to the task.” – Steve Korn, Musician

Making it to the point of charging good money can take a lot of turns and changes, but the path is one that has to be made. Finding that path and sticking to it is so important. Commitment of time, money, time, effort, time and the knowledge that is built while doing the hard work to get there will pay off. I could go into a rant about the lack of commitment to this business that I see everywhere, but I did a rant about it here.

I hope you liked this Rant. I will be doing a followup on the “Shooting for Me” post on Monday with a list of things to watch for when contemplating working with others and working for your own book without legal tender changing hands.

—-

As always, follow me on Twitter and if you are looking for a workshop to hone your skills, check out Learn to Light.

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We see a lot of talk about ‘vision’ and ‘style’ and they are difficult to put into a specific, detailed set of parameters.

Style – noun (OnLine Dictionary)

1. The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed: a style of speech and writing.

2. The combination of distinctive features of literary or artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group, school, or era.

3. Sort; type: a style of furniture – a type of photography.

4. A quality of imagination and individuality expressed in one’s actions and tastes: does things with style.

5.a. A comfortable and elegant mode of existence: living in style.
5.b. A mode of living: the style of the very rich. (Photographers… heh)

6.a. The fashion of the moment, especially of dress; vogue.
6.b. A particular fashion: the style of the 1920s. See Synonyms at fashion.

We have talked about style before on Lighting Essentials:
“Style: It’s Not What You Shoot. It’s How You Shoot It.”
“Salina Maitreya: 4 To Do’s for Photographers (Interview in Three Parts)”
“What Makes a Photograph ‘Great?’”
“”Breaking Out” as a Professional Photographer: Daron Shade”
So take a look at those articles when you get a chance.

Pretty good definition list, but what do we make of them. (5b is a given for photographers, so we won’t get into that one. My Bentley driver may have a few words later, but only after he fuels up the jet for the weekend MM shoot.)

Let’s see what we can attach to some of the photographers I have listed here. Spend some time at each photographer’s site. Note how the definitions above start to make sense as we view the images.

Rodney Rascona is a fellow Phoenician. His work has always been top of mind for me in this area. A talented photographer who has maintained a strong presence in the national advertising scene and still lives here in the desert. Rodney’s work ranges from portrait to automobile to travel… and he has a style that is so prevalent in his work.

Photograph by Rodney Rascona, Phoenix. www.rascona.com

Photograph by Rodney Rascona, Phoenix. www.rascona.com

Spend some time with Rodney’s work and note how he creates his style. Composition and light as well as presentation are consistent. A drama that is created by formal design and light with contrast to define. Colors are vibrant.

Across the genres of portraits, automobiles and even the photojournalist like shots of the tsunami, there is a consistency of vision.

Joni Sternbach is a huge favorite of mine. Her work ranges from portraits to landscapes.

Joni Sternbach, Photographer : www.jonisternbach.com

Joni Sternbach, Photographer : www.jonisternbach.com

Sternbach chooses an older process for her prints, and uses large cameras for perspective control and limited Depth of Field. But it is beyond the choice of camera and process that makes her images take on a specific vision and style. Study how she approaches the “Surfland” images and compare that to the imagery in the “Salt Effect” series. Portraits of surfers and landscape work tied together by a vision and execution that show a single photographer’s style.

Kurt Markus shoots fashion, sports figures and landscapes… how’s that for variety. And yet the distinctive vision that Markus displays is across all genres.

Kurt Markus, Photographer: www.kurtmarkus.com/

Kurt Markus, Photographer: www.kurtmarkus.com/

A great example of it being not ‘what you shoot’ but ‘HOW you shoot what you shoot’, Markus’ clean style and intimate, natural approach to his images keep his vision consistent. Classical, almost historically iconic approaches to his subjects combine with a fresh, natural feeling seems to run through his work. Modern classicism? Maybe. See what you can find as you go through the images slowly and with deliberation.

I love Kate Orne’s work. It is approachable, natural, elegant and totally free of conceit. It is an approach that lets the subjects be the subjects. No banks of lights and Photoshop magic, just honestly beautiful images.

Kate Orne, Photographer: www.kateorne.com

Kate Orne, Photographer: www.kateorne.com

Notice also how Orne’s style crosses over to her travel work and studio work. It is a vision that is hers, and the style is in the work itself. Beautifully photographed and simply presented imagery.

Nick Onken is a guy I go to often to just smile and take in great imagery. He keeps his work fresh and identifiable by keeping the style consistent. And that consistency has led to major campaigns and recognition from all over. His book “PhotoTrekking” was reviewed here on LE and is a fantastic addition to any photographer’s library.

Nick Onken, Photographer: www.nickonken.com

Nick Onken, Photographer: www.nickonken.com

Nick’s color palette, natural light approach, fun and witty composition and strong emphasis on Point of View gives some consitency. His attention to detail, in every instance, brings an excitement to the images and draws the viewer in. You will have a lot of fun looking through Nick’s work.

Damn, I am a big Mark Tucker fan. Such compelling work and with such conviction of style. Whatever Mark shoots, it is presented in what seems like the most perfect way. There is a pronounced absence of ‘over-the-top’ processing or faddish types of lighting. The work is consistent in color, composition and vision.

Mark Tucker, Photographer: www.marktucker.com

Mark Tucker, Photographer: www.marktucker.com

Mark’s work can be quirky and fun as well as serious. His use of old lenses, tilt-shift lenses and textures also makes the work accessible and seem like a blend of art and commercial… with an emphasis on personal style. As you go through his images, think of the choices he is making as he is designing the shots. What you see in Mark, and all the artists here, is a deliberate attention to detail. If it is in the shot, it was meant to be. The light is chosen to set the subjects off in a specific way… and that approach is taken across genres in his work.

Last up is Bill Phelps, a fantastic shooter that I recently discovered. I am so in tune with this work. Personal, engaged and without the vestiges of over-commercialism, the work Phelps delivers is most definitely his. Not a lot of compromise shown in the vision… it is tightly held and demonstrated in every shot he shows.

Bill Phelps, Photographer: www.billphelps.com

Bill Phelps, Photographer: www.billphelps.com

I am captivated by his post-modern style and the way he uses the frame to isolate sections of the world, and presenting them as slices of reality. A reality that is charged through the use of black and white. The work has a film look to it, although I have no idea if it is film or digital… nor do I care. The careful use of light that is infused within all of his work is intriguing and elegant.

As you look through the images of these photographers ask yourself these 5 questions:

1. What is the thing that ties the work together for you?
2. If the work was presented within different post-processing would it still stand?
3. What is the compositional approach that the photographers use to bring their work cohesiveness?
4. How is light used to enhance or alter the reality in the work?
5. Quick, describe the photographer’s work, style if you will, in less than 8 words.

Of course not every single image will contain every element of a photographer’s style, but taken as a whole – a “body of work” – the images belong to each other. And to the photographer that created them.

A challenge:
Can you find the elements that tie your photographs together and show how they work to present a body of work? Are they cohesive enough to show you as a photographer with vision or just a photographer? And, hey, it is great to be a good photographer. Let’s step it up a bit and be a good photographer with style and vision.

It’s damned hard work. It is a gray area, a nebulous enigma entwined in the emotional ties we have with our work. It is the ability to grasp and let go at the same time. It may mean a slight tweek to what we are doing. It may mean a total disc wipe and on to a new chapter.

But whatever it is, it will be important for us in the long run to have developed a style. Doesn’t mean we are locked in to only one, but one is good to get started.

Thanks for tagging along and I hope I have your juices going on what style may be, how to look for it in the work of others, and your own. It is a journey that can have lots of pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth. Sometimes you feel isolated and fearful and sometimes joyous and victorious. All part of the next climb in the journey.

Please note the workshop schedule, and follow me on twitter if you are so inclined.

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On the heels of my E-Book on Portraits, “The Heart of Portraiture”, I have a few other portraits to share. And I discuss why I like them. Article on the E-Book is here.

First some housekeeping:
GoingProNOW is our emerging commercial photographer seminar with Selina Maitreya, Jack Hollingsworth and me, and we are finalizing what we need to get the registration started. We have had a ton of interest, so we will open it to people who want to sign up soon. It is a different kind of seminar, and we focus on the commercial photographer, not the wedding or portrait industry. Direct to consumer is a different type of photography, and there are those who really know that area better.

Workshop News:
Openings remain in Atlanta and Columbus. Greenville is nearly full. Remember, we only take 12 people, so the size is small enough to get a lot out of the workshop. Columbus will be hosted by the great guys at MPEX and they will be announcing some incredible things shortly – and that will of course be here as well. New York and Baltimore are both filled up, and I will be spending the week back in that area shooting and writing so it will be a big week for me and for Lighting Essentials as I plan to blog each day beginning with the Friday before the NY workshop up to the Sunday of the Baltimore workshop.

I am going to do a workshop in Flagstaff, Arizona in July. The workshop will begin on Friday at around 1PM and finish on Sunday at sundown. Flagstaff is an incredible area, with amazing landscapes and backgrounds for portraiture. It will be a very special workshop, with a wide variety of photographic experience. From forest to stark desert, the area around Flagstaff will become our palette. More Workshop information here.

From the Web:
Seth Godin talks about the Micro Magazine and its importance to the upcoming changes to publishing. I believe the iPad is the breakthrough with many other devices on the horizon. This will be a very heady time for photographers and publishers and writers… for sure.

At APhotoEditor there was a wonderful post on “Treatments”. A Treatment is a document a photographer may submit to show the client what they have in mind. Lighting tests, wardrobe ideas and such. I haven’t used them in the past as a photographer, but I sure did in the agency days… providing the photographers and clients our treatment ideas. This is a fantastic way to differentiate yourself from other photographers, and this post shows you how. There is also a great interview with Keith Gentile, the owner of Agency Access. Agency Access is a list builder for commercial photographers, and this interview may really open your eyes to how part of the business may help you.

Bruce DeBoer has a great little article on a guy who rediscovered his art. Take a moment for a good read, and some inspiration.

Check in with Heather Morton and catch this great little post on “Contact 2010″.

And three photographers who I have been looking at a lot lately. Love this work.
Jason Bell
John Russo
Nicolle Clemetson

BTW – I wrote a rant for the guys at Tiffinbox that may cause me to get bodyguards, so look for it in the next few days.

Now on to a few portraits from the archives that I kinda like.

The first shot is Briana at a rest stop on I10 near the Sedona Exit, Arizona:

This shot has become one of may favorites, and it was shot a while ago. I have shots where Briana is looking at the camera, and I like those too. But this shot removes the ‘glamor’ from the shot and instead presents a person in the environment. And the gesture of the shoulders/hair tend to add some great dynamics to the shot. I don’t know what it would have looked like had she stood there casually looking toward the clouds, but I am very happy with this movement.

Lighting and Camera: Canon with Canon 20-35MML at 20MM. Two Canon flashes. One to camera right and one to camera left. Setting to bring ambient in foreground to close to that of the background. I wanted the clouds to be dominant, and the reflection was a wonderful find.

Now we have Connie, our makeup artist from Florida:

I loved her great smile and the fantastic way the light settled on her face. It was very late in the Florida evening and the light is coming from nearly the horizon toward her. It is a warm and soft light. I took a quick meter reading as I was heading toward where she was sitting and realized that the sun and the ambient were only about 1.5 stops different, so the shadows would not be too dark. At first she turned away, but I told her how great she looked in the light and she gave me this smile. I got two shots off before she turned away laughing.

I used my 20-35MML 2.8 at 4.5 to keep a little more focus on her face. The shutter speed was only 1/100 so I had to be a little careful with it. However, at a setting of 20MM, there would be a little room to play with for camera shake.

Next up is a shot of Christina in Miami, Arizona:

This was a shot I did on a shoot I wrote about called “Minimalism Shooting”. Christina and I went out with nary more than a fill card, a camera and a couple of lenses. I love natural light, and we were on a quest to make some images without a ton of setup time. It was also damn hot in Phoenix, so we headed to Miami, only a few miles up Highway 60, to get 15 degrees cooler.

This shot was done in a little doorway with totally natural light. Across the street was a very bright wall, and that added some wonderful main, and I used a fill card to camera left to fill in a bit on the shadow side of her face.

I used a Canon 50MM 1.4 lens at 2.8, at 1/250 second to get this nice DOF look, and the way the lens shapes her form. You can tell from these settings that there was a lot of light coming from that building.

And we end with Alexi in Las Vegas, Nevada:

We were walking around a little cantina area in a shopping mall in Vegas when I saw this cool lighting thing happening on a terrace. I had Alexi walk into the light until I got the patch of light to reveal his face and the shadow to appear on the wall. Having him look off – toward the light – gives the image a bit of mystery. The framing gives it some dynamics. I had him lean into the light a bit to add more ‘movement’ to it.

Canon 20-35MM L 2.8 at f-8 – 1/250. I had it zoomed to about 28MM to get the framing I wanted. The light bouncing around in the little hallway gave me a bit of fill, but the drama of the dark was maintained because of the color of the walls. I exposed for the highlights on his face to keep the look more dramatic.

Thanks for coming along. I hope you download and enjoy the E-book. These images do not appear there, but there are 20 other images that are discussed in depth. Light, subject and gesture – the things I look for in a portrait.

You can stalk me on Twitter, follow along on the blog, or hang out at FaceBook if you like. See you soon with a blog on gear I like a lot.

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Did you ever have one of those ‘blocked’ periods? The ones where things you are trying to do just don’t resolve? Maybe it’s the time of year, or at the end of a creative burst. The batteries start to drain a bit and it gets close to recharge time. When we get in these creative funks, there are many ways we can work our ways out, and hopefully back to a point of productivity.

I have a list of 10 or so, and I hope you add some of your favorites in the comments section. I will append the article with your ideas and we can have a nice resource for getting over the slumps.

First some fun stuff.

On the Web:
Kieth Carter’s work is amazing. He also plays a mean guitar (we jammed for a few hours a few years ago at a studio in Phoenix.)
Interested in 4:3′s photography? You are going to love this post on Kirk Tuck’s blog.
Ever get that feeling in your gut when starting a gig with a new client? Yeah, me too. Most of the time I wished I listened to it. Here’s a nice little article for us freelancers.
If you are working with WordPress, and I hope you are, here are ten MUST have plugins. BTW, did I mention we have WordPress Web Sites for Photographers?
On Marketing Essentials International, an article titled “What Makes a Great Photographer“?
At APhotoEditor: Photography as Commodity. The action is in the comments, trust me. You want to read this one.
David has a nice little post on being called on to photograph one of the great photographers. At Strobist.
Seth asks if you are one in a million?

And now for some LE news.

On the workshop front: I have openings in Omaha. That is an under-served area of the country, and I love coming to those places and taking the photographers to a new level of lighting. If you know any photographers in Omaha or the surrounding area, let them know to check out Learn to Light for information on the workshop.

Selina Maitreya, Jack Hollingsworth and I are putting together a workshop aimed toward the emerging photographers and the serious amateurs ready to make that break into professional photography. We took the wraps off of it April 3, 2010. Our goal is to help educate the beginning and emerging photographers to the new challenges, markets and solutions of today’s ever-changing market. We call it Going Pro NOW and you can see the site for more information.

There has been a roaring battle over workshops and what kind of instructors should do them. You can see it here, and a nice response from Trudy here.

As a workshop leader, I read that post twice. I can feel the heartbreak some feel after they have had particularly bad workshop experiences. I know, because I have attended workshops that didn’t meet the hype. Or the promise. I wrote about what workshop participants should do to have a better experience here. However I also think that there needs to be some thought and research done before a photographer decides to spend a lot of money for a couple of days time with someone who is making a lot of promises.

I plan on writing a lot more about this, but here are 5 things I would watch for and think about:
1. Over promises: Anyone who tells you they can show you how to make “X” dollars in professional photographers are, well, liars. Got it! (Oh, and if there are ‘secrets’ that are promised to be revealed… well, there are no secrets… hardfrigginass work is the only secret.)
2. Are the workshops teaching something that is ethereal like ‘style’ or ‘brand’ or are they focused on something that is measurable and definitive?
3. Ask yourself if you are going because of the information, or because of the ‘rock star’ status of the instructors? Rock stars can play the big stadiums, but they may suck at teaching music. Are you sure your ‘rock star’ can do both?
4. Assess your abilities and how the workshop will fit in with your goals. Learning how to light with $50K worth of gear is cool. But, uhh… you ain’t got $50K worth of gear… so the point was???
5. Are there testimonials, and will the workshop instructor give access to people who have taken the workshop?

It makes it very hard on the people who do a good job teaching workshops and seminars, but it makes it doubly hard on you, the photographers wanting and needing to have some help. And that is a shame. There are some great workshops out there. Ones that can really help you learn something, and often much faster than reading books or listening to podcasts. Hands on training can be a wonderful learning experience when it is accompanied by explanation and concept.

Three recent articles you may not want to miss here at LE:
Finding Your Creative Center, by Daron Shade
Just a Camera and a Subject. Simplicity Can Be Fun.
Before You Shoot for Peanuts, Consider the Risks

Well, let’s get on to some ideas for breaking out of a creative slump and moving on to a better place. Our happy place.

1. Create a Portfolio Folder:
Make it easy to save work for your book.
I can’t believe how many times I will be working with a photographer and ask to see some image, or to send some images for a portfolio, and be told “Let me see if I can put some together”, or “I’ll look for them.”

That is not terribly efficient. Or wise.

I use a shortcut on the desktop to send any and ALL portfolio possibilities to a folder on an external drive. When I am working on an image, and I feel it has consideration for the portfolio, it is simply dragged to the shortcut and sent to the folder for later review. Keeping the drive external means a copy of the image is sent, so the original is still in the working folder.

At the end of the month, I can look in the folder and see the prospects. They can then be sorted if you like. Being able to locate your best images, quickly, is a real time saver. You would be surprised how few photographers do this.

2. Take an Asset Audit:
Sometimes we confuse what we want with what we need.

This is a real eye-opener for a lot of photographers. We sometimes feel that we are lacking something that we need in order to move forward. Most of the times it is simply something we want. Take an hour or two to organize and assess what you have… software, camera/lens combinations, gear, extraneous tools.

Now look at the work you are doing and want to do. What do you really NEED to do that work. If you are jonesin’ for a new 85MM 1.4 lens cause you NEED it and are working on an old computer that gasps each time you run a Gaussian Blur, perhaps knowing that you can use existing glass to make images, but may not be able to continue to process them will put things in a new perspective.

I list and ‘asset audit’ at least twice per year. It is a good practice and can keep you focused on what is really important.

3. Refresh the Portfolio:
Sometimes just the act of working on the portfolio gets the juices going.

When is the last time you added new work to your portfolio? I am hoping new work goes in constantly, but alas I also know how notorious photographers can be about not getting new work into the book.

If you haven’t worked on adding new images and deleting older ones in your book, take some time to do it. That simple, yet important project can put you back in touch with your best images… and can work as a strong catalyst to make more.

4. Start and complete a project:
Even a small one. Concept it, shoot it and produce it.

Yeah, a project. Done. Nothing like it to get the creative juices flowing and stimulate growth into a new project or set of images.

Choose something that can be done in a weekend. Shoot in a day or two, edit and do post on a set of images and add them to your book. Keep it simple if you haven’t done it before or are so busy with all kinds of scattered projects that you feel it is impossible.

A few ideas from my notebook: neighborhood churches in shopping/industrial malls, the hot rod show at McDonalds each Saturday afternoon, bird sanctuary and the folks who go there (Chandler, AZ), Dragstrip people, Casinos in the desert and the dog park.

I don’t know if I will get to all of them, but I am going to do one of them this month. Make a list of projects you can shoot. Then shoot one.

5. Two words for you. Road Trip:
Whether with a photo bud or alone.

Me, a car, the road. Instant creative flow. New places bring freshness of seeing for me. I want to shoot everything I see.

It doesn’t have to be a long trip, just an afternoon could be fun. Go somewhere you don’t normally go. See things you don’t normally see.

Take a friend, to share the journey can sometimes be stimulating to both. Creativity starts to flow and it can become quite an adventure.

Three rules:
1. If you like it, shoot it.
2. If you see it, stop the car, (or turn around) and shoot it.
3. Have fun with your photography.

Here is my friend, Kirk Tuck, talking about his recent long road trip adventure. And a link to one of my short trips.

6. Research some new resources and blogs:
We get used to the same places, find some new places to recharge.

I did this recently. Added three or four new blogs/sites to my daily visit. I use NetVibes for my home page, so all is aggregated there.

I added a new music blog I found, as well as some art photography blogs that were not on my radar. These new sources of news and images on subjects I love are keeping my brain going, and new work will emerge.

Looking for new blogs and sites? Simply ask your friends, google the topic, or chase links from sites you already know.

7. Rent a Film Camera for a Week:
It can be very zen-like to shoot a nice medium format camera.

Get an RZ, or a Hasselblad, or one of those monstrous Fuji’s and make some images. If you have never shot film, get a quick lesson on how to load the camera, and make sure you understand the workings of it. RB’s take two actions to get ready for the next shot, RZ’s only one. If you are a telephoto shooter, rent an additional lens to keep you in that zone.

Shoot a couple of rolls, or shoot a lot. Getting the film processed will be more of a challenge in some areas than learning to shoot the camera. But you will find a place – the rental folks will tell you where to take it.

My favorite film for medium format is color negative film in the ISO 100 – 160 range and black and white in the ISO 100 – 400 range. This is not the time or place to get into all the different films, and if you haven’t shot film, it may not be a discussion that would make sense at this point.

I would suggest a tripod, and use your digital camera to check exposure if you don’t have a meter. Have fun with a new way of taking photos that is actually an old way… of… well, you get the picture.

8. Find a Mentor:
They are out there. Find someone who will take some time to lead and encourage you.

Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Ask for some assistance. Many photographers will be available to help. And those that aren’t…. well, they would probably suck at being a mentor anyway, right?

You can find people willing to help at associations like ASMP, APA, and APPA. Local chapters will be filled with folks who may take time to advise you.

Suggestions: If the photographer who wants to help you is some ol’ grumpy dude who wonders why you are getting into this god-forsaken business cause it has all gone to hell and there is no hope… well… maybe he ain’t the right guy to advise you in your endeavors.

I have had several wonderful mentors in my life, and all I did was ask.

9. Find and Critique Great Images:
Write three paragraphs of what you see. How does the work relate to you and your vision.

Seriously. We look at photographs all the time. But it takes time and energy to actually see them. See them.

Go online and find some great photography. Adams, Caponigro, Avedon, Penn, Weston, and Cunningham are some of the ‘Masters’ that I love. Take an image that you particularly like and write about it. Write three paragraphs on what it is that you like.

This is probably the hardest of all the suggestions I have made. It will force you to confront the image, your understanding of it, what it means in and out of context and more. But it also makes you see the delights that are inherent in wonderful images – of the great ones, and of your own. And writing them down reinforces what it is you find exciting about photography. Do it for an hour… creative block gone.

10. Photograph Someone who usually is not the subject of a photograph:
Make an image that they love and you love.

We can always get models. They are into having their picture taken. Sometimes they can actually stimulate the image and bring it forth.

But making a cool or wonderful picture of someone who isn’t used to being photographed can have it’s own creative rewards as well.

I don’t have any pre-conceived ideas about who and where to shoot, but I know when you read the paragraph above you instantly thought of someone you know. That person… yep, that is the one.

So from talking them into the portrait, to the shoot, post and presentation, you will be thinking creatively. It is incumbent to be creative when working with someone who may not bring any creativity to the image.

Or… they could surprise you. I love it when that happens.

OK, so there’s a nice list for you to think about this Easter morning. I hope you find an idea or two here to help the next time you have a creative block. If you have a suggestion, please add it in the comments.

Thanks for visiting Lighting Essentials, and feel free to follow me on Twitter, and if you are interested in a workshop this year, check out Learn to Light for our schedule.

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Finding your Creative Center with Google
by Daron Shade

A few months ago, I recommended that you sign up and implement Google Analytics. By now, I’m sure you are all getting pretty proficient with GA and have been watching your traffic and are beginning to understand your visitors better.

You’ve learned about all of the strengths and the few glaring weaknesses of GA that get in the way of truly understanding what drives traffic to your site. You’re a photographer and your work is entirely image-based. GA won’t tell you the search phrases that visitors used to find you on Google Image Search! How do you know if your title and alt tags are working their magic? How do you know if your Meta descriptions and on-page content are working together to bring visitors to your images? You don’t! But you want to know, right? Read on.

I had been struggling with the lack of image search information for many months. For some unknown reason, Google considers it’s own image search engine a referrer and not a true search. I began hacking the GA code and API, and found a way to force it to do what we need. I’ve been testing for a few months and am very happy with the result. Here’s a view of some recent traffic for the search engine images.google.com:

Before this hack, I had no idea that I was getting traffic for any of these keywords.

So, how is it done? It’s actually pretty simple. Google in their infinite wisdom has kept their code very open and friendly to modification. All we need to do is tell it that domain names images.google.* are all search engines. The behind-the-scenes magic does the heavy lifting for us! It took me quite a while to come up with working code, but as soon as I did, I searched and found that some other people were able to do it also.

Without getting more deeply into the details, let’s address the ‘how-to’ of rolling this into your own site.

Simply take the code code below and use it to replace your existing GA code on each page of your site. Please note the “UA-xxxxxxxx-x” – that needs to be replaced with your existing account number for this code to work.

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxxxx-x");
var ref = document.referrer;
if (ref.search(/images.google/) != -1 && ref.search(/prev/) != -1) {
var regex = new RegExp("images.google.([^\/]+).*&prev=([^&]+)");
var match = regex.exec(ref);
pageTracker._clearOrganic();
pageTracker._addOrganic("images.google."+ match[1],"q");
pageTracker._setReferrerOverride("http://images.google." + match[1] + unescape(match[2]));
}
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

It’s that simple! Update the code and you will start collecting detailed information about Google Image Searches!

Next time, we will discuss paid vs. organic search engine results and if you should be doing both.

– –

Thanks Daron. This neat little trick will be very handy in tracking your images – and what it is people like about your work.

You can catch Daron at his website, you can follow me on Twitter, and visit the Learn to Light site to get more information on the workshops and other cool things coming up soon.

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This is one of the best books on the holistic creation of a creative’s portfolio in quite a while. There are certainly quite a lot of portfolio books out there, and many of them are terrific. However, I like the total take on creativity and creating a unique presentation that is explored here. The full name of the book is: No Plastic Sleeves: The Complete Portfolio Guide for Photographers and Designers. The authors are Larry Volk and Danielle Currier. You can follow them on Twitter. Lots of insights for professionals presented there.

I have links and such at the end of this article, but let’s get right at it.

I pre-ordered this book when I first heard and read about it at the “No Plastic Sleeves” website. And Amazon delivered it a week earlier than expected. That gave me a chance to take in on the Santa Cruz trip and read it when I had the chance.

I found it hard to put down. The writing is direct, without much fluff and the authors get right to the point in each chapter. The way the book works is very helpful to photographers and designers of most every level. You don’t have to go from front to back, but can pick the chapters that are of most influence to you, at your point of portfolio work.

The book is directed toward designers as well as photographers. That can be an issue only if you let it be. Some of the concepts discussed here are more directed toward the designers than the photographers. That is great… if something you see directed toward a designer sparks an idea for you to work on then all is well. Ideas, concepts, hierarchical exploration of content and presentation are all worthy for consideration.

I don’t care what sparks my brain, as long as the sparks keep coming. Heh.

The chapters lay out from beginning portfolio planning and run through branding, book building and portfolio concepts. The authors do a good job of introducing a wide variety of information on the subject of brand and portfolio creation, but leave a lot of particulars out. I wish there were a bit more detail on some of the parts of the book… but that bias probably comes from what I struggle with, and your bias may want something more on another area. This is quite an extensive book, so adding more detail could also make the book unwieldy as well as more expensive.

As a designer as well as a photographer, I found the layout of the book very nicely done. Presentation of the work is clean, there is enough white space for the eye to relax and the portrait orientation makes the book feel ‘new’ and different. And, they are talking about presentation here, aren’t they?

Here is a link to their PDF of the table of contents and chapter one.

Contents
Introduction: Overview of Process;
Step 1: Develop an overarching visual identity;
Step 2: Create the visual “look and feel”;
Step 3: Page Design and Cover Design;
Step 4: Construct the portfolio book;
Step 5: Extend the visual brand to include the entire portfolio package;
Step 6: Creating Your Web presence;
Step 7: Develop resume and cover letter;
Step 8: Mailers and business Cards: extending your visual identity;
Step 9: Utilizing the complete portfolio package; Resources/Appendix

As you can see, the contents are quite ambitious, and this book will sit perfectly with more granular approaches to each of the areas you need more help in.

Chapters on placement of images and design are basic, but well crafted and the information is easily digested by photographers with a good visual literacy already established. The illustrations and images are detailed enough to get you thinking about the way you want your work to be shown. These pages are as much for photographers as designers, and there is much to be aware of when putting images in your portfolio.

There are examples of ‘story telling’ with multiple images, as well as creating dyptichs and tryptichs for presenting a group of related images. While these chapters aren’t extensive, they are deep enough to get you thinking about showing multiple images together.

One of the things they keep impressing on the reader is the need to keep the ‘brand’ or style cohesive throughout the presentation process. From web site to book to CD/DVD to mailers and leave behinds, the need for consistency cannot be overstated.

There is a section on creating your own books, and there are several methods shown. Some may feel that this is more geared toward designers, but I think that small groups of images, projects and some very special images could be created within their own book and make quite a splash when meeting with an AD or Editor who wants to see more work.

The book details:
ISBN: 9780240810904
Pages: 270
Format: Book – Paperback
Publication Date: March 10, 2010

You can get it at Amazon. And the price at Amazon shows a nice discount.

My recommendation is to buy this book if you are working on your first portfolio. Even if it is your second portfolio. The information in this book will make you think about presentation. Taking the time to concept a piece that shows your work in the best light is very important. Even if it is a simple paged book with sleeves and images, there are things that could be considered to promote the book and present the work.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money, but the concepts can be adopted to whatever level of work you are currently seeking. See our articles on portfolios here and here. No matter at what point you are in your quest to be a professional, the portfolio and presentation of your work is important.

(Caveat… Great work is first needed. Putting less than great work into the best of portfolio presentations will not be a benefit to anyone. Work first, presentation second. And good work simply presented in a folio with images will be seen by those who need to find good work to hire.)

Now to the books and such that would accompany this book for more detailed information:
How to Succeed in Commercial Photography: Insights from a Leading Consultant by Selina Maitreya (Amazon) and her first book (hard as hell to find, but at this writing Amazon seems to have a few copies left), “Portfolios That Sell: Professional Techniques for Presenting and Marketing Your Photographs” by Selina Oppenheim (since changed to Maitreya). You can also add Selina’s incredible audio package to your brain food by going here, and entering the code FOSLE into the box at checkout – save 50% ($100).

John Harrington’s book “Best Business Practices for Photographers” should be on your list as well as Elyse Weissburg’s book “Successful Self Promotion for Photographers.”

Lighting Essentials has several posts on portfolios and presentation in the Going Pro Category. Check out the articles there, and as always, if you have something to say… say it in the comments area. I am always ready to answer questions or send information.

Happy to announce that Jack Hollingsworth, Selina Maitreya and I have put the final plans together for our three date seminar series this fall: Going Pro NOW. We will start in Boston, then Chicago and finally end up in San Francisco. This full day seminar will be priced so everyone can attend and the information will be focused on the emerging photographer and what is needed to Go Pro in this ever-changing environment.

As always, follow me on Twitter and if you are interested in taking a workshop that will move you from beginner to advanced in lighting, check out Learn to Light. Hope to see you at a workshop soon.

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