What do you do to prepare for a photographic session? I am not talking about clothes, location, people involved; I am talking about being emotionally prepared. The fact is, I don’t think many of my clients think about, what their thinking about. They arrive at the session emotionally empty or drained. They want everything to be perfect. They have been so busy getting clothes ready, hair cut and styled, making sure everyone will be there and on time, that the location is prepared; they arrive in a full tilt freak out mood, completely stressed out. And if others aren’t stressed out, they get furious that others are not stressed. So you can see that a lot of couples, families and subjects arrive, not really being themselves. They have usually had a major fight that day and a lot of them have had a word or thousand on the way over to the session. Many family members arrive mad at each other. And it shows. As much as you try to hide it, that emotional feeling won’t leave in just a few minutes, it will linger on your face, posture, and in your body language until you make up.
It will take me a little bit of time to unravel between my subjects, what has gotten all twisted up before the session. If I think my subjects have been fighting, I usually disarm them by asking what they have been fighting about. They look at me in amazement and wonder how I knew they had been fighting. I tell them people don’t prepare emotionally for a photographic session. They are worried about all the little physical things that build up pressure but don’t give much thought to mental issues about a session. Why are they having me take their photograph? What do they want it to say to future viewers? How will they be portrayed? Will they look right in the images? These are the real things people ought to be discussing with their photographer. And if they don’t discuss it the photographer they ought to be bringing it up with their clients. Yes the physical things are important. But the real challenge is dealing with the emotional issues.
There is one group of people who deal with the emotions of a photo session better than every other group. Want to know what group this is? It is people who have their picture taken on a regular basis. These are people that know how to handle the situation because they deal with it every year. They know a photograph is so much more than what they look like today. They learn to discuss what their objectives are in the session with the photographer. After all they don’t want to repeat what they did just a few months before. They are looking for a certain voice in the image. This gives the photographer something to deal with. Give me your reasons, your emotions, your objectives or your purpose and I will give you images that will speak to you, and all you see your images, for years to come. That is art.
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You never thought you would spend so much money on a new camera, right? I know what you are thinking. The very first digital camera I bought for my business, a camera that could do what film could do, was $24,999. That may sound like a lot of money. But it meant that I no longer had to pay $80,000 a year in film, processing and printing. So that was an easy business decision. I could make my money back for the camera in less than a year.
You might be thinking after you bought your new camera, I bought this great camera and it takes wonderful pictures. It does everything. It takes better pictures than most professional photographers I’ve seen. I won’t have to pay to have great pictures taken of my family again. I can do it myself. Really? Does the camera really take the picture or is it just an instrument?
If you wanted to be a good chef, after you buy the best stove, pots, pans, and kitchen tools you can afford, do you then say you are a great chef because of your equipment? No. You don’t base how good a chef is by the equipment they have in their kitchen. Now which guitar do you think makes the best sound? A Silvertone Acoustic guitar bought for $99 or a $9,000 Gibson Acoustic Legend guitar? I think it is obvious. But who can make a $9,000 Gibson Acoustic Legend guitar sound better, Eric Clapton or someone who started playing the guitar this year? It think that may be obvious as well. Just because you have a nice camera does not necessary mean you can take a great image. You see it is not the camera, it is the mind behind a camera or as photographers refer to it, their ‘eye’.
Yes a nice camera may make someone able to capture what is in their mind’s eye easier than ever before, but it does not guarantee it. In the past, you had to know certain technical aspects of the craft of photography, before you could produce quality work. Some of those requirements have been made easier with the newest cameras but you still need to know the capabilities and limitations of the your equipment. And that comes through practice. Hours and hours of practice comes into play. You see most people say you need to have at least 10,000 hours of practice before you can be considered an expert in any field. Do you know how much time that is with a camera? If you shot 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take you 3.5 YEARS? If you shot 4 hours a day, 6 days a week, it would still take you over 8 years to be considered an expert. How many hours a day, every day, do you shoot?
I don’t say any of this to be discouraging to anyone. In fact it may not take that long anymore in the digital age. In the past you did not have instant results in the field. You had to wait for days and the opportunity to retake a given type of image but today you can retake it on the spot with so little effort. I think in reality you may become proficient in 2 or 3 years. I think it still requires 5 or 6 years to become an expert. The final word is this, know the abilities and limitations of yourself personally and your equipment. You will produce better images when you expand your capabilities and diminish the limitations you have on yourself.
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That may seems strange advice from a photographer, but that is what I say to parents when they ask me how to take better pictures of their children. Put your camera down. Take the time to watch your children, know your children. Be able to predict what your children are going to do and say. Understand every aspect of your child. As professional photographers know, you can always take a better photograph of someone you know. That is why I don’t hesitate to take assignments from my friends. I know when I have taken THE image that I am looking for in a session of a friend or family.
I think parents today are so busy taking pictures of their children, they don’t experience “being with” their children. Much like Susan Sontag says in her book, On Photography, “A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened.” Parents have this compulsion to prove a certain thing happened with their children, so they take hundreds of pictures, or hours of video, to prove it. So much so, that moms and dads don’t really experience what they are so busy taking pictures of. So often, they may have pictures of their child graduating pre-school, in the school play, or blowing out the candles at their own birthday party with their friends, but they don’t remember it. They never experienced it, they were working.
You see professionals understand, if you are really busy taking pictures of something, you don’t really get to experience it fully like a guest would. People comment to me all the time, it must be fun going to weddings week in and week out; gorgeous venues, beautifully dressed people, wonderful food, it all must add up to a wonderful experience. Well the truth is, it is work. When you are working at capturing the images you promised the bride and groom, you are not going to get to experience the wedding. As a photographer, you are going to experience, the experience of capturing the experience other people are experiencing. Understand? You are just too busy getting the images from the day to take the time to experience the wedding. These days I am afraid parents are so busy taking pictures, uploading them to their social networks, and really acting like a professional photographer instead of acting like parents.
So, yes, take a few pictures, but then put your camera down and watch your child. Take in every detail, soak in the moment, experience the experience. Then when your child talks about a given experience, you will have a shared experience. If it is really that important to take a lot of pictures, then hire a professional.
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As you can tell blogging is not a habit of mine. I think it is something I would like to develop, but I have not made it a habit yet. So I am going to make another attempt to get in the habit.
For the month of August I am going to commit to post something every day. I will post something about photography, display a new image in my personal work, or talk about a new product I am developing. Maybe this will jump start me on the road to a regular habit of blogging. They say it only takes twenty-one days to change a habit. So I am going for thirty-one days to see if that will help me exercise my blogging muscles on a regular basis.
The committment for myself is if I can’t do this blogging thing on a regular basis then I am going to take it down from my website. Wish me luck.
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This being inauguration day in our country I thought I would post some of the images I took in Washington DC a couple of years ago.
While the kids were home for the Thanksgiving weekend we came up with an idea for our annual Christmas Card. They were very coorperative in helping get it done quickly. That along with a little Photoshop work and we have the 2008 version of our family Christmas Card.
We hope for you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
On a recent trip to visit my daughter at Hardin Simmons in Abilene, I got up early Sunday morning, before sunrise, to go wind turbine ‘image hunting’. I didn’t get many images that I thought were very interesting on the trip itself. I was on my way back when I saw this abandoned ranch house. I thought it was appropriate how this old ranch house, a part of the past from West Texas, was positioned just below the horizon of the future of energy development for West Texas. This was near Trent, Texas.
We were fortunate to be able together as a family over the 4th. Diane and I with our four children, my brother and his son, met at my dad’s lake house on Cedar Creek Lake in East Texas. We love to gather at my dad’s place. Skiing, swimming, boat riding, water volleyball, 42 tournaments and just overall a relaxing time. I took a lot of work with me, so when the kids were off I could work on a few wedding albums I need to finish. Even on get-away weekends I don’t leave my work behind. You never know when inspiration will hit. It was a quiet weekend but very nice to see everyone again.
When I go to East Texas, I aways threaten to go out into some of the small towns around the lake to photograph cool things I might find. But laziness and time usually gets away from me and I don’t do it. Well this time I decided that I would get up at sunrise, while everyone else, except my dad and brother, are still asleep and go find some things to photograph on a little self assigned photo safari. I made my way into a rather large ’small’ town of Athens. Flags were up everywhere on the town square and not a soul was moving. There was a lot there but nothing inspired me. I decided to go North of town and on my way saw this really neat building. It was The Image Warehouse at 103 East Larkin Street. The sign with the address was captivating. Here is one of my favorites. I will post more information on this building with more images on another post.
One of my faults is I have a tenacity to over-think things. I started this blog in April 2008. I thought that I should come up with a wonderful idea or concept for the blog. But other than a few test entries, it sat idle. I have not come up with the genius idea. But I am going to start off with no grand scheme of things. I am just going to write. I may decide to post some of my personal images along the way. But I am not sure how that will work. I am just going to do something. Usually the ideas come as I start a project. So my blog may not contain this earth shattering idea but it IS going to start.
I am reworking all of my advertising and marketing materials this summer. I have not done this in years and my marketing is looking a little dated. My website needs updating. I ran out of business cards a few weeks back. A lot needs to be done. Tonight I thought I would pound out a business card. It could not have been harder. I was here and there and everywhere. My concept was that I wanted the business card to be clean, spacious and contain only the basics. I did not want to cram it with a hundred things. Just name, rank, and serial number, if you will. So after three hours this is what I have come up with for now. I am sure it will change as I move on to my website and other marketing things.
This entry is submitted to test my new blog on my own website.
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