The Weekly Wrap-up compiles interesting articles published this week on Photofocus. This Wrap-Up has articles about opportunity, winter architecture, exploring your self, long exposures and writing. Enjoy!
A simple and free content creation workflow - Editor’s Note: We welcome Scott Wyden Kivowitz to the Photofocus team. Scott is a father and photographer whose dedication to teaching photographers comes through in a straightforward and no fluff style. Scott is also the Chief Community Officer at Imagely, the WordPress Photography People. Not all photographers feel comfortable with the idea of content creation. I’m not referring to photography content, of course. I’m talking about text or video and even audio content. In this article, I will be sharing two simple workflows that can help make your blog content creation process easier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_fCoWCwbaQ?rel=0 Before we dive into the organizational part of the workflow, I want to share two services that can drastically improve the text that you write. Adding them to your workflow will immensely improve your product output. Content creation services Hemmingway Hemmingway is my first go to service for writing anything and everything. It’s a free service which requires no account. While there is a grammar and spell checker included, its main intention is to simplify what you write. As you can see in the screenshot, Hemmingway analyzes the content for: Unnecessary Adverbs Uses of passive voice Phrases with simpler alternatives Hard to read sentences It also gives you a readability score, and somewhere between 5-7 is a great score. If you want something that lets you save your work, then the desktop version (paid) of Hemingway Editor is quite affordable and offers you the same control as their free services, but with the bonus of saving. Grammarly Grammarly is my favorite grammar and spell checker. After writing my initial draft in Hemmingway, I bring it into a Google Doc, into Grammarly itself or to WordPress for putting the more complete draft together with images, etc. Grammarly offers a paid version and has browser extensions which work in a variety of platforms including Gmail. From within your WordPress photography site, you can have the most powerful grammar and spelling tool review your text for improvements. It can check for duplicate content so you don’t run into search engine optimization issues, offer suggestions to improve individual words and sentences and keep your content positive with minimal to no negative tones. Grammarly uses finely tuned AI to discover areas of improvement in your content. Between the two services you’ll have incredibly easy to read and well-crafted text for your blog posts. Content creation organization There are two methods for organizing your content that I’d like to share with you. One is a popular one among the content marketing industry and the other is one I think I created for my own sanity and it’s also free to do. Trello First up is the popular service, Trello. It uses an organizational board called Kanban. The board is laid out horizontal columns and then individual rows of items beneath each. Within each Trello card, you can add notes, attachments and anything that would go into drafting the actual content. You can start with an “Ideas” column, then drag it to “In Progress” when you’re ready to plan the piece. Start planning and then open Hemmingway to start writing. When the piece is complete and published on your site, you drag the card to the “Completed” column. Google Drive Using Google Drive is my preferred method for many reasons, but some of them are as follows: It’s free if you want it to be You can use folders to organize You can selectively sync it to your computer, or sync all You can keep the images separate for better access later You can get instant edits from someone remote Apply colors to folders As someone who writes and creates various types of content for numerous places, including my own website, Imagely, Photofocus, YouTube and more, I find my organization method in Google Drive essential to my workflow. It all starts with the “Content Creation” folder, which has subfolders of each place I’m creating the content. Looking inside the Photofocus folder you’ll see two more subfolders: “In Progress” and “Complete.” Anything being worked on at a given moment is in the “In Progress” folder. Inside there you’ll see the article you’re reading right now along with two others. Inside of the article’s folder is a Google Doc with the draft of the text. Beside the Doc are any images that are to be embedded inside the published article. I typically use JPEG images, but sometimes they’re PNG files depending on the need. After writing in Hemmingway, then checking grammar and spelling in Grammarly, I’ll copy the text over to the Google Doc and have a second person check it as a backup. If you prefer to just write in Google Docs then know that Grammarly still works there. Grammarly’s support for Google Docs is still in beta at the time of writing this article, but it works well. So, in theory, you could skip two steps of this workflow and just get right to writing in Google Docs. When an article is published I then move the entire subfolder to the “Complete” parent folder under that brand. So by the time you read this, the folder for this article was moved to Content Creation > Photofocus > Complete. Final thoughts I know this workflow won’t be for everyone. But as someone who creates content for a living, I find this extremely helpful to keep my focus clear and the OCD in check. Plus, I’m dyslexic, so relying on tools to keep my words readable is quite helpful. I hope that this workflow helps you to improve your own or discover new ways to fine tune yours.
Long exposure tricks: Use a low camera angle - While there has yet to be a true “dump” of snow in West Michigan, I went back and looked at some older photos recently, pulling up this photograph from Fallasburg Bridge in Lowell, MI. Utilizing a NiSi 10-stop neutral density filter (B&H | Amazon), I was able to get a new, unique view of the bridge I had photographed so many times before. Composing at chest height I played around with a few different angles — both vertical and horizontal — to see if I could get “the shot” I desired. I wasn’t sure what that was at first. I knew I wanted to make the water still enough to get a good reflection of the bridge, so I started with a few longer exposures at first, taken at about chest-height. But then I saw the water, and the leaves and textures in the foreground, swirling and moving towards the bridge. I knew that I had to capture this — it was that special part of the scene that I had to have in my photograph. I decided to go with a shorter exposure — a mere four seconds. And I was liking what I was getting. I could see the movement in the water but still had an exposure long enough to get a pretty good reflection of the bridge in the water. Getting low From there, I decided to go low. I put my tripod legs to their lowest position and turned my camera vertical, so I would get the water and sky to be even in my shot, which helped to create a balance in my photograph. I kept that same four-second exposure and ended up with the photograph of the day. Sometimes shooting at eye level works, but getting low can bring out some details that will make your photo shine! For me, the movement in the water really helped to bring life to the photograph.
Flipping my photography challenges into opportunities - Have you ever had frustrating situations where you wondered how you’ll ever overcome them? I have. Many times. And I got tired of it. I got tired of getting “No” as an answer and missing great opportunities. I decided to take control of my circumstances — instead of being a victim of it. As most of you may know by now, I do sports photography. I do commercial and advertising stuff and I also loooooove to cover events and competitions. As I offered my services to event organizers those past years, I realized that I often faced the same challenge: They didn’t have or planned to include in their budget money to pay a professional photographer. The problem wasn’t the service: It always came back to a money issue. I knew the athletes were eager to get great pictures of themselves and I also knew event organizers would greatly benefit from those images for their own advertising purposes. I needed to find solutions to three questions: How could I get involved in these events that I’d love to be part of? How could I gain access to create high-quality photographs? And, very important, how could I be paid for my work? Brainstorming for more opportunities I had numerous opportunities right in front of me and I couldn’t grab them. I shared my concern with trusted people around me. As we were looking for solutions, an idea sparked. I knew that other sports (like gymnastics and hockey) had photographers covering events who sold the images to the athletes — rather than to the organization. That was fuel for thought … Making a plan After looking at different possibilities, I came up with a plan worth trying. I’d offer organizations the coverage of their events. Instead of delivering them all the images, I would give them some and sell the others directly to the athletes with an online gallery. Doing that allowed me to charge the organizer of an event a fraction of the total price. They would no longer be absorbing the fees all by themselves. The athletes would pay the other portion. I didn’t invent anything new here. I just adopted, then adapted a system that was already working for other disciplines. Taking action OK, now that everything looks great, at least on paper, there is nothing else to do other than jump right into it. I would never have known the outcome of this idea without having put it to the test. I was in unknown territory. No matter what happened, success or failure I’d have my answer. I was ready to put in the hours regardless … God helps those who help themselves, or so they say! Evaluate It turned out that most of the events I covered were a very good investment. Organizations were excited about the deal and athletes were thrilled about photographs of themselves. They were glad to purchase pictures and to encourage my work. I used Pixieset to create my galleries and sell them online. It worked wonders! I had my answer and I absolutely loved it. Mostly, the time I invested covering an event and editing the pictures versus the income I made was profitable enough for me to keep on offering the service. I also realized I really needed to charge a basic flat rate to organizations. The images sold from the galleries weren’t enough to cover all my expenses and turn a profit. Learning has a cost I found this out the hard way at a triathlon event. The organization didn’t have any budget for a photographer. Still, I wanted to give it a try, so I didn’t charge to photograph it. This was an exciting event that I wanted to be part of. Plus, there were hundreds of triathletes participating. All of them were potential customers. I took a chance and became the official photographer for the day (heads or tails … the coin was spinning in the air). The site was so big with so many athletes that I asked another photographer to come and work with me. I wanted to cover as much as I could during the swimming, cycling and running portions of the event. We ended up taking pictures for eight hours — each of us. Then we went back home, sorted and edited more than 2,000 images each. We ended up with 900 images in the gallery. It took each of us another eight hours to process everything. We sold 42 pictures. That’s right. We sold 0.046% of our best images. This has been my biggest failure so far (the coin had landed tails side up). What didn’t work? Were the athletes aware that pictures were available to them? Are triathlon athletes not as interested in photographs of themselves competing than CrossFit athletes? Those are questions I need to answer in order to know where has been my mistakes and how can I fix it in order to make it work it next year. What I’ve learned about finding opportunities More often than not, for me, things turn out to be both beneficial and educational. It helps me grow as an entrepreneur and get creative about my service offerings. Within the course of seven weeks, I’ve covered seven events with that new service. It’s been very popular. People liked this new pricing concept. I will keep on refining it and grow to as many possibilities as I can. It looks very cool put that way. But it takes work. A LOT of work. Every event means approximately 30 hours work within a 48-hour window. The event itself lasts 8–10 hours. Add travel time back and forth, the time sorting thousands of images, editing the best ones and uploading them to the website. Because I like to keep the momentum of an event rolling, I like to deliver them ASAP. Which for me means the next day (or the day after in worst cases). I took chances. I didn’t know how people would react to this new kind of offer. But
Using self-portraits to learn - Self-portraits, ugh. If you’re like me, you really dislike having your photo taken, don’t you? Most of us prefer to be on the other side of the camera taking the images. There is something to be said though for using ourselves as models and test subjects to learn how to shoot portraits and learn general photography. Would you do that yourself? Think about images you see of models. Sometimes they are in precarious positions, scary locations or uncomfortable environments. By trying some of these things yourself you can better empathize with your subjects and help them to feel more comfortable. Using tools Learn to use Tether Tools Tethering your camera to your computer can make this process a whole lot easier as you can see what your shooting as you shoot it instead of running back and forth to your camera. Remote Another tool to save you from setting the self-timer and running to the spot to pose. Flash Learning flash can be fun when you are your own subject matter. Ask yourself when you are setting up, what happens if I do this or this? Take the shots, see where the light is, figure out the best settings, rear-curtain sync, etc. Change the settings and take the shot again. Doing this as you shoot and seeing the results is much easier to make tweaks to your settings and is a great way to learn how to use it, what each setting does, and how to create the light you want. Lighting systems When you get your first lighting system, be it constant or strobes you’ll want to make sure you know how to use it before you take it all out on your first job with you. Experimenting with self-portraits Here are a few ideas to try out. Playing with long exposures and creating motion is a fun one to experiment with. Another fun thing to do is to take multiple shots of yourself and learn how to composite yourself into one shot. Learn how to shoot double exposures in-camera. Want to experiment with props? Grab a mirror or two and play with reflections. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination. Use what you have Don’t feel like you have to have the latest and greatest equipment to make amazing self-portraits. The images in this post were shot using natural light, desk lamps and floor lamps. I used my $20 Canon Wireless Remote and whatever I could find available to use as props where there are props. Get creative. Be like McGyver. You’ll not only get the shot but you’ll also stretch your mind and creativity by trying to figure out what can and will work. These are just a few of the things you can learn by doing self-portraits. How comfortable are you in front of the camera?
Photographing architecture in winter - As a commercial architectural photographer, most of my clients want images shot in great weather conditions: Blue skies, maybe a few clouds, green grass, leaves on the trees, etc. Living in Toronto, it means I can photograph exteriors from approximately June to October (or May to November on a good year). Does it mean I never shoot in winter? Not at all! There are some shooting opportunities in winter, like interiors and shooting with snow. Snowy conditions and low winter light can be great for architectural photography. With the right building, it can make it shine and showcase it in a completely different light. What buildings look good with snow? I like to shoot single-family homes with a decent yard. Including snow has a natural feel to it, so any house close to nature works great. A cottage in a remote location is perfect. If you’re in the city, you need a decent amount of grass around the building, as streets and sidewalks tend to be plowed pretty quickly. Parks are great for snow. Dark buildings really show up well when shot in the snow. The contrast is striking, and with some sunlight, it will look great. What are the pros of photographing in winter? Winter is great for the nice, warm low light. It can be a downside too, as shadows are longer and the north side of buildings (if you’re in the northern hemisphere) doesn’t get any sun. My clients usually don’t like bare trees, but if the building you are shooting is surrounded by trees, having bare trees allows you to see through and see more of the architecture. Snow is great to create minimalist compositions, with everything being white except for a few things, including the building you’re shooting. Tips for shooting in the snow Planning is important. Ideally, you want to shoot right after a snowfall, to have the least amount of tracks in the snow. If you can get some pretty blue skies, it’s a bonus, but grey skies and fog can work well too. Your camera’s meter will likely get tricked and underexpose. Make sure the snow looks white and not gray. Shooting a blue hour looks great with the warm light spilling out on the cold snow. And finally, be prepared for the cold: Wear many layers, good shoes, gloves and a hat. After shooting, make sure you don’t put your camera in a warm place or it will fog up. Put it back in your bag or use a Ziploc bag.
