Photographers: Luck is NOT a Strategy
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
When on my recent trip to Arizona, I encountered a photographer who was fully decked out in Camouflage. He was in a blind and had a Canon 1D MK IV with an 800mm lens. In other words, this guy was serious. I saw him at his truck so I walked up and introduced myself. I asked him what he was photographing. “Eagles!” he replied with enthusiasm.
Now I know a thing or two about photographing eagles so I was very surprised he was in Arizona in May trying to photograph eagles. I asked him why he was at that location and he simply said he was hoping to get lucky.
Okay – time to take a breath. There are about a dozen breeding pairs of eagles in Arizona. Unlike Alaska where there are literally thousands of eagles, Arizona has few. Moreover, the locations where these birds congregate were hundreds of miles from where I encountered my well-prepared new friend.
In other words, this guy had a better chance of seeing the space shuttle land in front of him than he did an eagle.
I tried to gently inform him that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he would have none of it. He insisted he’s been lucky his whole life.
So – knowing there’s no way I would convince him otherwise I moved on. The temptation to laugh at this poor fellow is tempered with my pity for him. He’s spent a bunch of money on top-quality gear. He’s devoted himself for the weekend to sitting in a hot blind. And he’s got no shot at all of getting an eagle picture.
But I try to find something positive in every negative. He will at least have some experience setting up and handling his gear. And I can use this encounter to hopefully teach others that luck is not a strategy.
Do your research. Whatever your subject, eagles, bears, little kids, CEOs, do your research. Right time and place have a great deal to do with success in photography. Don’t depend on luck. Depend on common sense, research, and lots of experience.
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
I recently bought a condo at Las Vegas City Center. I still have my house in Henderson but on nights when I want to hang out on the Strip it saves me the half hour drive home battling all the drunks on a weekend.
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
While City Center certainly had a rough start the place is now a mecca of beauty and magic. Next door to my condo is Crystals. It’s a very high end shopping center so I’ve been taking morning photo walks there to both familiarize myself with the area, get a little exercise and work my photo brain. I’m using nothing but my iPhone 4s camera phone and the things I am both seeing and shooting are amazing. I made some large canvas prints of the abstracts I found and actually sold them to the shopping district!
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
In any event, these images look like they are otherworldly – perhaps distant galaxies or universes but they are just fountains found on the main floor at the shopping center.
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
Tens of thousands of people walk by these fountains daily without seeing these images. That’s because they look at them vertically. I decided to shoot DOWN on top of the fountains horizontally and got some pretty stuff. At least I like it.
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
The whole point of this post is simple, you never know what is lurking around the next corner that may be camera ready. Be ready. Open your eyes, your mind and most importantly your heart and see what you can “see.” It’s particularly fun with just a smart phone camera or a point and shoot. That way the gear doesn’t get in the way and you can just have fun.
Canon Video Camera For Sale XF 100 Kit
Canon Video Camera For Sale XF 100 Kit (Sorry won’t break this up)
100% operational like new. Comes with everything you’d get from the store except the box and one lens cap that is missing. Replacing this with new Canon C300. If you want a budget camera that acts like a pro camera – this one is it. I sold footage from this camera to many companies and they couldn’t tell the difference between it and some more expensive cams.
I’ve listed the current retail/street prices for comparison:
Canon XF100 HD Professional Camcorder $2995 B&H
(Comes with lens shade, original cables, remote, extra lens cover, battery, battery charger, strap, manual and unfilled out USA warranty cards)
Bonus items:
WD-H58 Wide Converter Lens (0.7x) $263 B&H
TL-H58 Tele Converter Lens (1.5x) $298 B&H
Canon BP-955 Lithium-Ion Battery Pack (5200mAh) $174.95 B&H
Audio-Technica AT897 – Short Condenser Shotgun Microphone $228.00 (B&H)
(Includes cable and Rode Dead Kitty Wind Protector)
F-Stop BackPack (To carry it all) Retail $185
Total street price to buy it all new: $4143.95
Selling for $2995 including ground shipping to anywhere in the Continental USA. Accept payment via Google Checkout only. Will only ship to your verified Google Checkout address – signature required. Sorry no exceptions.
If interested contact me at photofocus@me.com
Photo Courtesy M. Katz
Workflow – I hear that word all the time. “What is your workflow?” Almost all the time, the question relates to photography workflow or post-processing workflow. In this article, workflow is designed to convey the five steps photographers go through every time they are hired as a professional photographer. While these five steps may not apply to every genre of professional photography, the concepts are similar enough to be useful to all. Additionally, you should know there are many more steps that might be added to this workflow, but I consider these the minium steps.
So where does it start? What do you do first? Here’s my list.
1. Smile & Dial
You may be the best photographer who ever lived, but who knows that besides you and your mother? You have to learn sales and marketing if you want to be a professional photographer and there’s no way to sugar coat this. Most successful professional photographers spend time every day contacting prospective clients. Use the phone, send out promo pieces, go to meetings, network. Get the word out. Selling is part of the workflow.
2. Show Your Portfolio
Once you get yourself in front of the right buyer, your next step is to show the pictures. You get hired as a professional photographer by showing your work. You need to show the work every chance you get. It’s like LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION in the real estate business. SHOW THE WORK, SHOW THE WORK, SHOW THE WORK. It should be the thing that drives you every day to get out of bed. You NEED to show the work to somebody that day. Hopefully a photo buyer. Pick your best stuff (and only your VERY best stuff) and show it. Show it online. Show it on an iPad. Show it in a traditional photo book. But show it.
3. Offer An Estimate/Bid
Depending on what sort of photography you do, you will at some point in time need to offer a price. In commercial and editorial assignments, this often requires you to prepare an estimate. In other types of photography you may need to offer a bid, or simply quote a firm full price. Whatever the case, this part of the workflow is as much art as anything else in photography. Price yourself too high, and you’ll get passed over as too expensive. Charge too little, and nobody will take you seriously. Quoting a price means taking into account your expenses, market conditions and the value of your work. Spend some time here. You won’t get a second chance if you screw this part up.
4. Do The Work
After all the planning, all the selling and all the negotiating, you actually get to make some photographs. This is the easy and fun part. But you still have to execute. You need to know your craft. You have to focus on meeting client expectations and doing the job you promised to do. Be professional. Be on time. Stay on budget. Do the work. Everyone wants to be a rock star, but nobody wants to learn the music. Spend time getting the job done right the first time and it will lead to more work.
5. Get paid.
After the shoot, it’s time to get paid. Make sure your invoice matches your estimate or bid. If it doesn’t, be prepared to detail why you went over. Provide copies of receipts for gear rentals, props, studio time, modeling fees, etc. Make sure to include a W-9 form (available for free download from the IRS website) so that your client doesn’t use lack of it to delay payment.
Obviously this is a very brief, very big picture view of the process. But hopefully this post will get you thinking about YOUR workflow. Make sure that at a minimum, these five steps are included if you want to get paid.
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November, 2011, Hokitika, New Zealand
1/50th sec, f/22, ISO 100
(Post and photo by Tamara Lackey - follow Tamara on Twitter)
I have been fortunate enough to shoot a great number of portraits in a variety of beach locations, in a variety of countries, over the last decade – and, along the way, I have learned a few good things to question in advance.
After, of course, determining the very basic “right time of day to shoot” (1. early morning light! 2. just around sunset!), here are 10 smart questions to ask yourself before selecting the ideal beach location:
How crowded is it?
How wide is the actual beach area, and how much remains after the tide comes in?
Where is the sun rising and setting?
How buggy is it?
What kind of wind shelter is there?
If shade might be needed, how much is offered?
How clean is it? How much debris is washed up on shore and is it safe (jellyfish, etc.)?
What kind of natural seating elements are available?
How rough is the water and what effect might it have?
How long does it take to get to the actual shooting location, and how dark might it be when you return?
There are only another 50 questions you could use to evaluate which beach to shoot at, and I’d be interested to know the questions you ask for the type of beach shooting you prefer – but this should at least get you started when it comes to thinking about selecting a location.
From my perspective, given all those data points, the one question I consider the most, above all others, is how crowded is it? I can deal with any other problem, although lack of any sort of wind shelter is a close second – but not having enough space to move about and shoot in all sorts of directions and really feel the freedom that the beach offers to such sessions is a big miss when it comes to why beach sessions can be so compelling in the first place.
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Last week I mentioned that I wanted to give someone a scholarship to the upcoming Google+ Photographer’s Conference, May 22,23 in San Francisco, CA – (Info here – http://gpluspc.com/)
I received nearly 100 applications for the scholarship and I was very touched by many of the stories I was told. So in conjunction with Kelby Media I’m awarding not one but TWO scholarships. The first goes to:
Lisa DeMattei
Google+ Lisa DeMattei
@LisaSaysLook
And the second scholarship goes to:
Joanna Hernandez
Twitter:@wickidgrrl
Google+ JoannaHernandez
Thanks to everyone who applied and I hope to see you at the conference in a few weeks!
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
Before I get into my setups I thought I’d mention the species I photographed in Arizona. I got lots of broad-billed hummingbirds. I happen to think they are the prettiest of the North American species. There were also lots of black-chinned hummingbirds. The most skittish, and the hardest to find and photograph were the magnificent hummingbirds. They are really shy. I also got some blue throat hummingbirds. Down low in the canyon I got costas hummingbird.
Using your hand to gauge exposure is often the best way to make sure you are holding the highlights and have an exposure that’s even with the background.
In order to photograph these birds you’ll need to set up native plants and feeders in the area. It’s best to use the kind of feeder that doesn’t offer a perch. This increases the chances of getting shots of the birds in flight. You can use native flowers to disguise the perch.
Photo Courtesy of Robert O’Toole
You’ll need an abundance of c-clamps, articulating arms, light stands and dows to hold your backgrounds. A tripod with a gimbal head works best for me. You’ll also need flashes.
Don’t laugh – this was our practice bird. We used him to set up our lights and test exposure.
In case you’re wondering, the flashes don’t usually bother the birds one bit as long as you don’t overdo it. Also, it’s best to completely avoid using flash on hummingbirds that are sitting on a nest. This can overheat the bird. They run very close to the edge at all times so any extra heat can be damaging. For most birds, as in almost every other species, flash is NEVER a problem. But with hummingbirds, it’s more troublesome if they are nesting and a few species are spooked by the flash. So don’t overdo it.
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
I made sure the flashes evenly lit the background. The camera is set to manual mode and the ISO is set according to conditions. Usually ISO 200 in sun – 400 in shade. The shutter speed should be set to the highest the camera allows when using flash. Usually 1/125 to 1/250 of a second. Consult your camera manual to find out which shutter speed your camera uses. Then stop down the aperture to somewhere between f/19 and f/22. Since I was pre-focusing on the edge of the feeder I needed lots of depth of field. After that, it’s like all other bird photography. Hurry up and wait. In Arizona you might see one bird an hour or hundreds. Unfortunately, they don’t come just because you want them to.
I have also been able to get the birds using autofocus on the 5d MK III. This is remarkable to me because I’ve never been able to get AF to work on something this small and fast.
A handheld light meter also comes in hand when setting the flash exposure.
It seems best to work with the background backlit. That way you can establish a shady place to sit and for the birds to perch. The males in particular don’t seem to like to come out into the sun since that makes them easier to spot. I used backgrounds ranging from poster board purchased at a local art store to painted backgrounds. It doesn’t really matter as long as it isn’t distracting.
Here’s a typical setup with our background and feeder.
On the second phase of the trip I switched to Quantum Q-flashes with Quantum battery packs. These worked MUCH better than the Canon flashes. They are larger light sources since they come with built in reflector cans and are therefor more forgiving. They are also more powerful, recycle faster and just seem to throw off a prettier quality of light. In most of the successful setups I only needed three flashes – occasionally I used four of the Quantums. They are more expensive than the Canon flashes but more versatile and I enjoyed them so much I’m going to use them in the future.
The overall setup…
Most of this boils down to patience. You have to be VERY patient – sometimes waiting an hour to see a bird. You have to be ready at all times and you have to be still and quiet. Most of the interns I’ve worked with can’t meet those criteria :) When the hummingbirds come in, you literally have a few seconds to get the shot. And you don’t get many second chances.
Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
I was severely tasked during this shoot. I had no trouble getting the perched or nested birds, although this was more challenging than usual since these critters are so small. With perched and nesting birds, I used natural light. But the flight photography was really difficult and in my case, required multiple flashes. I have to try this again and again in order to get really good at it. But it was fun, and I did get some images I am proud of.
If you’re looking for a challenge, go find some hummingbirds. Bring your camera, lots of light and lots of patience and good luck.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and want to encourage you to give this a try yourself if you have any interest.
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