Advice From Davids Hobby and Ziser

http://prometheus.med.utah.edu

David Hobby (left), aka The Strobist, writes my favorite photo blog. He uses flash. I use flash. He uses Nikons. I use Nikons. His blog was named by Time Magazine as one of the 25 Best Blogs of 2010. Two out of three isn't bad.

I have extracted some text from a (relatively) recent post on a subject he is imminently qualified to speak about:  Finding Oneself  As A Photographer. This excerpt comes from this posting.

"...It's not enough to just be a photographer. Maybe it was once, when cameras were scarce and expensive and conjuring prints in a darkroom was literally a dark art. Now, technically speaking, everybody (my emphasis) is a photographer. Their camera, video camera, darkroom and world-wide transmission/syndication department is right there in their front pocket. It is as if anyone could go down to the Apple store and buy another language for $99 with a two-year contract..."

Mr. Hobby's comments speak to the new reality: Nearly all of the mystery of the photographic process has been eliminated. Mastery of the physics and alchemy once so integral to the photographic process has been rendered irrelevant by automation and clever engineering. All this, and it's hidden inside your phone.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com

David Ziser (right) is a well-known wedding and portrait photographer, the author of Captured By The Light , and a highly sought-after lecturer and presenter. I have attended several of his seminars for wedding photographers, and am amazed by how much solid material he presents during his fast paced, one-evening presentations. He is also a gentleman of the first order, a kind man, and one who readily shares his sales and marketing experience with his students.

He makes an important marketing point during his client presentations, as summarized from this exerpt from his book: 

"...Why do we want to differentiate ourselves from the competition? The main reason is this: if I am just one of many photographers out there shooting weddings, then the primary reason my clients select me as their wedding photographer is price. But, if I differentiate myself from the competition in both style and technique, my clients will seek me out for those differences - price is no longer the primary consideration in that decision-making process. The bottom line is that you can charge a whole lot more for "differences" than you can for "sameness..."

Anyone who has considered photography as an occupation needs to keep these two truisms in mind. As a nod to Mr. Hobby, it isn't enough to show up at a wedding with a digital single lens reflex, once considered the penultimate in performance and cost. Today, if you attend any social event, you'll see many guests carrying them. In some cases they will be more expensive than the camera in your own hands. As a result, all those Nikon totin' guests start feeling like they are now playing in your sandbox, and they might begin to question what makes your images so special, since they often believe that your camera and theirs cameras are essentially the same.

Mr. Ziser's message is a little more nuanced. For the wedding photographer (actually every photographer), the task at hand is documenting every stage of an event unfolding. Anyone can stand in front of the happy couple and press the shutter the moment the knife hits the cake. But is it the right moment? Is it properly focused? Were the exposure settings appropriate for the conditions? If the answer to these three questions was "Yes", you've made it to third base. But to make the Home Run, you'll need to bring something to your photograph that will set it apart from the millions of photos that were made before, and the millions more that will be made in the future. It is that extra something, your own "secret sauce", that you must use to raise the photo from ordinary to exceptional.

© J. Quinn Miller

This photo composite, made by J. Quinn Miller in Baton Rouge, LA., may well have created the high water mark for creative wedding photography. Now you can't tell me that there are brides (and grooms!) everywhere who would pay any price to have this image in their wedding album. It has already inspired a number of copycat images. Didn’t know it was a composite? Get real!

In short, the proper equipment is just the start. Knowing how to provide over-the-top customer service is absolutely essential if a photographer wants to be competitive.

Photo Op:Yours Or Mine ?

 

Be Wary Of Greeks Bearing Gifts. The press release read, "12:30 pm: Photo Op". Well, isn't that special? Some quality time with my subject, and opportunity of create this year's submission for the Pulitzer prize. Just kidding. The notation was a little misleading, but I created this post for two reasons: First, if you ever have an opportunity to shoot an event's "Photo Op", be wary. Second, sometimes you may be ready to make the beautifully lit photography, but fate just snatches away the opportunity, and laughs.

The event was a major, women's tennis tournament, the first in a series of must-attend matches that culminates in the U.S. Open. Had I checked the web page in advance, I would have realized that this event would feature some of the heavy hitters in women's tennis, and former winners of the event read like a who's who of the women's tennis.

Photo #1: 1/250, F 11.0, ISO 200

I normally don't name drop on my postings, but the gentleman on the left is media personality and Tennis Channel host Andrew Krasny, shown here introducing 2012 World Tennis Champion Victoria Azarenka. I had arrived a bit later than I had planned (It's easy to get lost at Stanford), only 15 minutes before the Photo Op was scheduled. I took this sketch shot from the side, partly because there wasn't a better background, and also because I'd be blocking somebody's view if I moved to the other side. It's probably a good thing that I stayed put and out of everyone's way. Also, I prefer to work from the subject's left side since it decreases the possibility of the right arm crossing over the face, assuming your subject is right handed. It didn't work here, because Mr. Krasny chose to hold the microphone with his right, while gesturing with his free left arm. But lighting was the real issue, and as you can see (Photo #1) shot, there would be be no detail in the shadows if I selected an exposure that won't blow out the highlights. Obviously, I need some help in the lighting department.

Photo #2: 1/250, F 10.0, ISO 200, On-Camera Fill

Because the quarters were so tight I left my monopod on the sidelines, figuring that I would just use the speedlight as a convenient fill light. I quickly mounted a Nikon SB-800 speedlight in my camera's hot shoe, and you can see the immediate up-tick it made in shadow detail. Besides, waving it around would just call attention to myself, a potential distraction with both real and imagined consequences. Anyway, the photo would reproduce quite well, as the colors were vibrant and true. Definitely not a shot one should be particularly proud of, but I now had a shot "in the can", and while it was technically satisfactory, it was a little weak in context. Besides, the "Photo Op" was schedule to occur in just a few minutes, so all I had to do was wait.

Photo #3: 1/100, F10, ISO 200

Then the announcer started to get the audience ready for their "photo op". One full table would come up and be photographed with Ms. Azarenka as a group. Then the image would be posted to the event's website and made available for downloading by any of the guests. In a strange way, it made perfect sense, as dozens of fans could be processed in a very short period of time (Photo #3). But from my point of view, it was a photographic disaster, as eager fans, like flotsam, seemed to wash over Ms. Azarenka, hold their positions for just a moment, and like a receding tide, drift off the stage. Two technical notes on the photo: First, for some reason the camera went to Aperture Priority, resulting in my subject's being a bit over-exposed. Why this happened, I don't know. Certainly I don't remember changing the settings. Second, the image wasn't going to be submitted, since I wasn't going to chase after 11 die-hard tennis fans and get everyone's name. I just pointed the camera, made the shot, and sighed.

Photo #4: 1/200, F 10.0, ISO 200

Finally, I got a break. I noticed that whenever a new group approached the stage, there would always be that one fan who stepped forward for a handshake and a word just before the photo was taken. I decided to simply wait until each group came forward and try to get the shot of that determined fan trying to get some face time with Ms. Azaraenka. In this case, it worked (Photo #4) . Looking back, I might have called for them to look towards me, but had I done so, I probably would have had many more fans to deal with, and that many more names to chase after. This shot, my first choice, was submitted, and I suspect came close enough to what my editor probably had in mind. At least she didn't immediately respond, "Do you have any others?", a sure sign I had really missed the mark.

So next time the release announces a "Photo Op", I have to remind myself that it may be a photo op for the guests. After all, it's not always about me.

Post Script: Photo #2 ran in the August 1 edition of the paper.