All hands on deck – working with assistants and second shooters.
There comes a time in the life of a photographer when a specific tipping point / tension presents itself; too much to do and not enough time, energy to do it. Now dont get my wrong here – this is a great place for your one-man-band business to be, but staying there can, and almost surely will lead to burnout, nervous breakdown or just generally volatile bad tempers. Even considering trusting another person and potential future competitor in the same market can be a daunting path scattered with legal, relational, and professional land mines.
Having said that, there are a number of ridiculously amazing and successful photographers that make it work on their own and equally, those that aquire extra guys on the team – so which way do you go… The A-Team or The Lone Ranger? In this post I will try and highlight a couple of key factors to take into consideration then working in team, as equal partners or as photographer-assistant. The point is this as the afrikaans saying goes: “Vele hande maak lig die werk” (many hands make the burden of the work light). This does bring about a number of challenges – things i wish someone else had told me about, but i suppose thats part of learning what it means to be a photographer. Read more…
Tip: Sorting
Anyone ever had a moment where you realise that shooting digital is costing you more time? That whole idea that you can just delete the shots you dont like and live photographically ever after with only masterpieces in your collection?
I’ll tell you, that’s a pretty picture, but i have found that because of that mindset, I tended to shoot so many shots on any particular shoot that it might look like I had a spastic index finger. looking through the shots quickly results in a little stop motion video clip… that when you should know you shoot to many shots, possibly in the hope that one of those is the right one.
Now when you shoot any particular thing more than once, the first shot might be to quickly evaluate the composition and exposure, make adjustments and do a final shot – this seems to be the way we all shot film – possibly only one shot even. Alternatively with digital, shoot a hellavalot with a number of
Pricing and copyright
howdee! i thought is time to post this as i got freshly reminded of all the things i didnt know a couple of years ago.
ok so you guys are getting into the commercial side of photography. i think it is much needed practice to charge according to your skill level, but also not give you work (and intellectual property) away for peanuts.
check out the sites after the jump to help you establish your rate, capture fee, editing rate, etc.
there is also some good info on copyright. this is important! in SA the copyright defaults to the commissioner (its the only place in the world that does it… and we are fighting hard to mend that) so be SURE to make the client sign that they understand that the copyright and ownership belongs to you the photographer, and that they are licensed to use the image(s) within certain boundaries negotiated by you and the client. Read more…
Slideshow
Ok so this is pretty cool if it works. taking into consideration that i know nothing about coding, here goes:
(and it seems that it does!)
This thingamagiggy is called FlikrSlidr and I came accross it here. Please support these okes for making something so easy and cool.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Concept
Jungle #5
Lately ive found the hunt for locations to be futile, not because there are none or that i’m not inspired, but it quickly got to a point for me where i was imagining a shot ive seen somewhere else and in my imagination, super-imposing that same shot into the cool-looking location in front of me. thats lame in all honesty. its perfectly fine if i’m aiming to just try out something, but if i’m going to be out shooting and making the effort of setting up lights, organising assistants, make-up artists, stylists and whatever, i might as well take it to another level and not just shoot someone against a “live backdrop” but work with a clear concept instead. Read more…
Testing 123…
Ok so it has been another while… I’ve been working hard to afford my latest gadget: an iPhone 3Gs 16GB. And I am glad to report that it is even more of a dream than I thought
Normaly when I get excited about things, they seem to under perform measured againt their appeal and marketing promises. The iPhone just gets better. Now I can of on the run when I’m bored or waiting for someone or something to happen… Which brings me to my next point – I’m typing this message FROM my phone to see how it holds up. Let me know what you think or what you experiences are with blogging from your phone (tweeting does not count here)
(By the way, this image was shot on my phone, edited and made to look like a polaroid snap all in-phone, and resized by the app for uploading speed.)
Shopping Centres
This is a sensitive little point (and shoot) for anyone wielding a tripod or a camera that looks vaguely expensive (let me translate into security guard speak: expensive = SLR = professional).
As you might or might not know, most shopping centres, malls, etc. have signs that says “no photography” and even if you try, security comes out of the woodwork and tells you you cant take photographs inside. i asked so many of them why and non could answer, so i got chatting with centre managers. The best excuse so far was that the shop owners did not want their shops to be photographed. sorry, but what on earth can you see in a photograph that you cant see with your eyes? Read more…
Flower magic.
Shooting flowers and plants with a macro lens is the best thing out. its gets even better if they are all on top of each other like these “Vygies” were in my garden. this was a fantastic idea to plant them this close (close together and close to home) because they look great together and it saved me some pertrol money in stead of having to drive out to the west coast for an hour!
What I found was that the flowers got quite abstract the closer I got because part of the petals became ridiculously out of focus (OOF) to a point where it started to look like abstract paintings and the colour fields of  Mark Rothco, just with some flowery details mixed in. Read more…
Kalk Bay
This is the most amazing little harbour and is super photogenic. There are all sorts of things to be photographed: textures, colours, people landscapes, close-ups, even macros. Take care around spring tide in September though, as the seas are very rough and people have been swept off the otherwise peaceful harbour wall before! Right on the wall is Harbour house and Polana, two very good restaurants and around overlooking the harbour is The Brass Bell and Cape to Cuba. Read more…
