I spent a day capturing high school students in a number of activities (this series of photos called the “Pride Series”), the photos turned out very well, especially considering the day was a complete run-and-gun operation. I think we teed-up 8 photo shoots during one school day. We’d walk into a new room or sporting location, with never having worked on the photo ideas prior to that moment. Just show up, come up with something real quick, setup lights, pop the photo, pack-up and move on to do it again at another location. The photos received a great response, we made large prints and banners of the photos and hung them in the school. It was predictable that the photos would peak the interests of the high school students, as the photos were of them, however, there was a surprisingly positive response from both the middle and elementary schools. Prints were made for the other schools as well, and the kids loved them. Simply put, the photos did exactly what we wanted them to – generate interest, and ultimately getting the students online, where the website and forum we setup for this project awaited them, and get them talking and involved. You gotta take your information where the eyes are if you want it to be seen, and we all know that today that’s online. 

I decided the next round of photographic efforts should involve well-known community members. Our project had gotten great attention from EVERYONE in Toledo, both students and residents. We were getting feedback that a lot of residents loved what we were doing for Toledo, and wanted to help, they just didn’t know how to help. My thoughts on that… if someone is REALLY interested in doing something, they investigate, search online, visit websites, ask around. If you come up to me and say, “hey, this is a great movement you’ve started in Toledo, and I want to do something, what is it all about, and what can I do?” Well, then you clearly haven’t looked into it, and by default, I’m naturally led to believe you haven’t spent any time looking because you don’t have a true connection with the project. After all, we didn’t start this project just to prompt you to tell us that you “like it.” The whole project was about self-motivation, finding your own unique ways to help Toledo, and our website is very clear about that. Andy and I’s job was to simply inspire, inject/reveal the Toledo pride that had seemed to have gone into a deep slumber. Judging from how the photographs of the students got the students involved in the project, I wanted to take a crack at doing this with the adult residents of the Toledo community. Take photos of them, get them talking, get them involved… involved beyond the point of just asking a question.

We had the kids pumped up and wanting to do things for the town, but resources lay with the adults. Though we had a positive reaction from the adults, I didn’t feel that the resident awareness was even close to where it could be. Enter Project Showcase – Home Series. Focused on adults, for adults, and hopefully the answer to filling the gap between the students and adults. Something to spark the project awareness connection – students and adults alike, they are all a part of the same community. Kids filled with inspiration and ideas to help the community, adults with the resources to make them happen.

This last October, with my car loaded to the gills with photo gear, I travelled back down to Toledo with the residents in my sights. We identified a few community members we wanted to photograph. The concepts were put together in a crude fashion, only knowing the people and the rough locations of the shoots. The basic idea was to hit a few different demographics, lifestyles, etc. to reinforce the idea of diversity even this small town has. Time of day, exact resources, the way the subjects were dressed… none of this was planned (ya know, the things that are pretty critical for a photo shoot). It was very much like the first round of photos with the students, completely shootin’ from the hip. As we finished one shoot, we call the next subject, tell them we are on our way.

It was actually a really amazing day for myself. During the shoots I got the opportunity to converse with the subjects and learn a little bit more about them. I’d have to say the most rewarding part of the day for me was photographing Don Buswell, the older gent you see sitting on the tractor. To put it in perspective, Don is the father of one of my teachers I had while I was in school. Upon arriving to Don’s farm, he was busy making dried apple rings out in one of his sheds. The man is 89 years old, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he lives-out his days running his farm. Not only was this shoot my favorite out of the bunch, but it was also the most natural and unforced. Don first took us into his house where we got into conversation about all of the logging history he had up on his walls (photographs, newspaper cutouts, and maps). Don was heavily involved in the logging business, of course back then it was a boomin’ biz. I love old pictures for a number of reasons. I love the care-free, complete disregard for safety back then, and just overall realness to the photos. A bunch of guys in boots, a pair of jeans, and luggin’ around axes. It made me immediately take more pride in my job (taking photos). Of course I’m so wrapped up in making visually pleasing images, I tend to forget the importance of the documentation element.

I tend to look at photography as a sloping measurement of importance that shifts with time. Visual qualities and documentation being the two major important constants, and time as the variable. The moment the photo is taken, the importance of the photo lay in the visual quality, the photographic execution. As time progresses, all the little photographic details we fret over to make perfect every day when we take photos, tend to fade away. They fade away, leaving only the appreciation of a photo from time. 20 or 30 years after a photo is taken, family members don’t gather around to pour over the lighting execution. They are looking at how young they were, how a building in the photograph doesn’t exist any more, and how different things used to be back then. It’s interesting. I can only hope that all of my efforts I take every day to make photographs that much more powerful translate into making the viewing experience 30 years later a little more enjoyable.

Don and I headed outside, the conversation went something like this:

Don: So what are you wantin’ to do today?
Me: Take your photograph, doing something around the farm.
Don: Ah, hell. You don’t wanna take a picture of me, do ya?
Me: I sure do.
Don: Well… I gotta feed the cows, you want to photograph that?
Me: That would be great.

You don’t have much time to photograph older folks, their patience wore out like 30 years prior, and their poker faces are even worse. This translates to getting about 3 or 4 clicks of the camera in before the apparent discomfort is written all over their face.

I grabbed a light as Don fired up his tractor and pulled it up to the barn, where he kept the hay. 89 years old and this guy is still buckin’ hay bales, amazing. As he was in the barn, I snagged a photo of him. You don’t have much time to photograph older folks, their patience wore out like 30 years prior, and their poker faces are even worse. This translates to getting about 3 or 4 clicks of the camera in before the apparent discomfort is written all over their face. Don did a great job accommodating my rather large camera and light in his face. Better yet, he gave me “him,” and I feel that I got a couple of really genuine photos, albeit they are a bit staged. The very top photo is my fav. Don, on his tractor, loaded with hay to take over to the cows, and he is looking over to another person just off camera right, partaking in light convo. I quickly shot this low angle, loved his body position, and it ended up as this almost heroic pose. Here is the photo one more time. I really enjoyed the hour I spent with Don.

The rest of the photos shoots went about as smooth as possible, considering that lack of prep. This next set of photos are of the Wallace father and son team that run a very busy truck-stop business which sits right on the I-5 strip. This was actually the first shoot of the day, the fog stuck around for an unusually long time that day, hence the blankness of the background. I spent about 15 minutes setting up lights (this shoot was the most complex of the day, involving 4 lights, as I had to light both the people and the trucks for detail). When I was ready, I had the two meet me at the far corner of the fueling station lot. We flagged a couple truckers as they rolled off of the fueling line, asked them if we could steal their trucks for a couple quick shots. Total shoot time on this was 3-5 minutes.

When I thought about doing this photo series, I knew that I wanted to ensure I got a photo of an older couple in a relaxed setting. I wanted to make sure I had a photograph in the set that really spoke to a large demographic of Toledo, which is the elderly community. They are wise, very involved in the community, and most importantly, they care. I wanted to enlist them in the project’s efforts. The Springer couple was elected to be that duo. Highly respected and well-known, Gary Springer was a longtime principle in the Toledo school system – a home run, in terms of a figure to photograph to represent the community. I selected the local park in Toledo for the location this photo would take place. Not only am I trying to show people of the community, I wanted to capture them in very recognizable places of town which would, without a doubt, indicate these photos were taken in Toledo. Again, seeking to find ways to interest people in the project as much as I can.

By the time we got to this photo set, the fog had burnt off, and we had some pretty strong mid-day sun trying to blast it’s way into the photographs. This was another reason I selected the park for this shot, I knew that I could duck out of the sun with the cover of the big trees the park housed. I went for a “unaware camera” look for the couple, as if I wasn’t there, and they were on a casual visit to the park. I shot them in a couple different spots, and we got some good frames.

Not only am I trying to show people of the community, I wanted to capture them in very recognizable places of town which would, without a doubt, indicate these photos were taken in Toledo.

The last shoot of the day was the biggest. The idea of this shot was to use the ONE legit intersection in the middle of Toledo, and fill the photograph with representatives of the community of all ages and occupations. Included is the town cop, mayor, past principle, long-time daycare owner, teachers of different ages, and students from different school levels. The “main” intersection in town even has a light… well, a blinking light. In hindsight, it was a REALLY good idea we incorporated the town police officer, as we caused quite a ruckus. It being a small town, and the shoot taking place on the one main street in town, traffic was a bit of a problem. It seems residents of Toledo have never seen light stands and other photo equipment before, which caused traffic to come to a stop at times. I can say with confidence that we probably generated the first and only traffic jam this town has ever seen, thanks to our shoot (aside from your parades and such). With a group this large, creative photography is kinda tossed out the window, and you just aim for one look, one good frame where everyone has a good look on their face, eyes are all open, and all of my lighting technicalities are working as they should. Below is the resulting frame of the Great Toledo Traffic Jam of 2011.

These photographs were also recently printed as banners in the town of Toledo. We are still waiting to hear of their impact, as things seem to come to a stop during the holiday season. I’m looking forward further progression of Project Showcase, and I’ll share more info as it comes in.

1. Investing in Gear Before Knowledge

Man… this one is a biggie. More often then not, I’m approached by one or more people while I’m working an event, them wanting to talk about how awesome the lens I currently have mounted on my camera is. It’s a gigantic misconception that the bigger and more expensive the camera gear is, the better the photographer will be a their job. If this were true, the guy pictured up above is without a doubt the BEST photographer this world has or ever will know. This misconception not only dwells throughout the general public, but it also bleeds heavily into the photographic community as well. Newsflash, an uneducated photographer will take the same caliber of photos with a $10,000 rig as an equally uneducated photographer with a $500 camera rig. Better yet, a knowledgeable photographer can take that $500 rig and wipe the floor with the dumbass who is holding the $10,000 setup. I’ve seen plenty of fools proudly sporting top-end-super-huge-imagestabilized-not-to-be-out-done gear, but clearly not having the knowledge, as I see their photos from the event a couple days later (and I shake my head and giggle… what a waste). You don’t think you can borrow Eric Clapton’s guitar and play like him when you don’t know a lick of guitar, do ya? How about buying the most expensive hammer Home Depot sells and calling yourself a contractor? Does it matter if the tools which you were suckered into buying are “better” than others if you don’t know how to effectively use them in the first place?

We live in a point ‘n shoot world today, with a camera integrated into just about every device out there that has electricity running through it. Yes, camera manufacturers have done a fabulous job with technology,  wrapping cameras around computers, enabling the average person without any knowledge to take subpar caliber photos. And for the average person that worksout just fine. Very smart of the camera makers to do this, they sell a TON more cameras to the general public, but very stupid of you to think all you need to do is dump money into a camera, get a business license, and POOF you are magically turned into a professional photographer. Think I’m exaggerating? Just read an article the other day that was published by a large news outlet, which the title read ‘Need some extra cash this holiday season? Become a professional photographer.’ It went into detail about how simply buying a camera and offering professional photo services and you are now in the photo biz. Can you believe that? The word “professional” has lost ALL meaning. Like I said, the point ‘n shoot world we now live in is quite delusional, which by the way, also happens to be the same world which lives and dies on consumerism. Think about that for a second. I don’t know if there is a more disrespected, underqualified while oversaturated, undereducated “profession” than photography. Consumerism, we thank you (that would be sarcasm…).

All the gear side requires is money, that’s it. The knowledge side requires time, effort, and a tons of practice and patience.

Investment is like a weight scale – gear on one side, and knowledge on the other. All the gear side requires is money, that’s it. The knowledge side requires time, effort, and a tons of practice and patience. No surprise, the knowledge side will take longer to build. Only an evenly weighted scale will result in full-potential photographs. And no, reading your camera manual, as enlightening as that is, is not an education. With the insane abundance of information added daily via the internet, video, books, and forums, there is no excuse to be lacking in knowledge. Light and ways to capture it is a never-ending, life-long journey of learning. It doesn’t stop after one book, and it definitely doesn’t stop after the purchase of a DSLR or better lens.

Education doesn’t need to be all formal. Again, mountains of information await you online, in workshops, books, videos, and there is no reason you shouldn’t constantly being getting more of it, regardless if you just picked up a camera or you have 5, 10, 20 years experience in photography. It really is a continually evolving skill and understanding. The evolution of technology in this career field is also another important reason to constantly be riding the education train.

2. Seeking Out A “Style”

You hear it a lot, photographers trying to find a style, a “look” to form their photography around. This ultimately leads you to the net and other sources of imagery, where you scour over photos, other photographers, and figuring out what you like and what you want your photography to look like. This approach is completely backwards. It will quickly toss you and your work in a rut, with complete lack of refreshing images, as you are intentionally pigeon-holing your work by forcing it into some preconceived goal (which by the way isn’t your true self’s work). Pull the camera up to your eye and capture what speaks to you… this, this is your style. I’m hoping that you became a photographer to capture life from YOUR perspective, not aiming to be just like someone else and create work just like another photographer. Which quickly leads to the next mistake.

3. Replicating Other Photographer’s Work, Calling It Creative

This is very closely related to the previous “mistake.” If you’ve had your nose in photography for a while, I’m sure you’ve become a fan of a photographer or two. You like their work, their approach, style, the way the write their blogs, etc. A major pitfall people make are seeing photographs they like, which sends them out to recreate the photo. Um, why? And adding insult to injury, these same replicating photographers label themselves as “creative” and “fresh.” Really? We are surrounded by photographers, which is great, as it generates competition, inspiration, avenues to relate and contrast from one another. Use photographers work to analyze techniques and methods to push your OWN work. If you ever find yourself taking images and the photos you are creating remind you of another person’s work, you might want to re-evaluate your approach. I know of photographers while in “discovery” modes will set out to reproduce a photograph they saw to better understand a technique, and that is cool, as they then take it and make a photograph of their own with a sprinkle of what they learned while recreating and discovering things. But! By no means should this “learn by replicating others” be used in your true work with your own clients.

Your photographs should come from inside you, not driven from another photographer’s flickr account. This brings me back to the “style” mistake. Michael Jackson, Elvis, Michael Jordan, Jim Carrey… when these names come to mind I think “original.” They break the molds because they learned from those who came before them and then injected their own 100% completely original self into their passion. In other words, these people didn’t become great because they sought-out to be like anyone else, produce results like anyone else, or worry about having a “style.” They were themselves in the very purest form, and from that they birthed their own style. In my opinion, style can’t be found no matter how hard you look or try. Forcing a “style” will not be style at all. Every time I go out to take photos, I don’t say, “I gotta do this and that and I will have effectively photographed this to my style.” Create imagery that is pleasing to your eye, whatever strikes a chord inside of you at the time, and you have captured exactly what you are seeking – an original style which is 100% you. That is a portfolio worth looking at. Your style will reveal itself when you have captured “you,” and you sit back and flip through your portfolio.

All personal ambition aside, driving yourself to constantly making genuine original photographs will get the attention of clients, and the REALLY good clients. Believe me, you are not going to be getting the amazing clients because you were the one-millionth photographer to “come-up” with the idea of resting heart-shaped hands on a pregnant belly.

Replicating other’s work not only pertains to a particular photo composition, but I also see a lot of people bummin’ editing styles, down-to-the-tee lighting techniques, entire scenarios, etc. from other photogs. Again, emulate others for training, for a better understanding of how to mix a little of it into your own work when it’s finally “go-time,” but please… make original works. Strive to be different, something that deserves all of the titles you use to describe your photography (“professional” included).

4. Over Abundance Of “We” On The Website

Not a giant issue, but I see it all the time – a single business person using the word “we” in-place of “I” all over a photographer’s website. Why? To me, this comes across as you are trying to be something and bigger than you really are, and you are clearly trying to overcompensate for something. If your photo business is more than one photographer, then knock yourself out, use “we” until the cows come home, but if you are a sole photographer… don’t. Stick to using “I,” be proud of “I.” Besides, when read, “we” immediately is less personable, and makes your clients assume they are going to have to deal with a group of people and not necessarily work directly with you. You most likely are a one-man-show, as you’ll be the correspondence, business person, accountant, and photographer. Your clients already know that, and it’s a very personal experience all the way around. Believe me, your clients will appreciate that they only have to deal with one person, it’s easier and you form a better, more lasting relationship.

Don’t confuse this with third-person writing. Sometimes, due to contextual reasons, you may find it easy when composing text for a website, article, event, etc. to write in the third-person (ex. writing your own bio, it can go first or third-person). This should be used in moderation, and obviously things that are automatically designed to be more intimate reading experiences, like a blog, should always be in an “I” context.

5. The “Everything” Photographer Portfolio

Yep, you have a camera, you know how to use it… good for you, but don’t market EVERYTHING. How many clients are looking for a photog that can shoot products, cats and dogs, babies, mountains, bees, cars, an empty train cart on the tracks, your christmas tree, the cheeseburger you are about to eat… (should I keep going)? Sure, most skilled photographers can point a camera at just about anything and captured it decently. You have a love of photography and you like to shoot anything and everything. I’m right there with ya, but you need to understand that when someone is looking to PAY a photographer for a very SPECIFIC job, they are looking for someone who specializes in that area. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Your pretty photo of a bridge with a sunset is NOT going to directly relate to someone who needs their 3-year-old photographed, they’ll go to the photog who has a port full of kid photos.

As a professional, you’ll need to narrow down your spectrum of photo areas (ex. portrait, product, wildlife, landscape, etc), and market to those specific markets if you want good paying clients. Fill your port with ONLY photos of the markets you specialize-in and spend most of your time in. Your BLOG is where you can go wild and crazy with all of the other stuff, share your random photo adventures of your personal interests. Your blog provides your viewers with more perspective on you, get to know you better, and see that you do dabble in other things. You might get a gig or two because they read a blog post about something random you shot, but I wouldn’t hold your breath on it. Paying clients want specialists, your portfolio is the face of your biz, the first thing people should see, and it should be very focused.

I shoot portraiture, my port is filled with ONLY people and their faces. In my blog you’ll find just about anything, but mainly it is still focused on people and topics in that area. I take photos almost every day, a lot of random stuff, and 90% of it will never even see my blog, and there is a reason for that.

6. Lack of Editing Perspective

Post processing, editing, post, whatever you want to call it, there are a lot of people out there doing it wrong. Sure, there is a TON of wiggle room for personal taste and style when it comes to editing, however, there are some very simple rules that seem to escape photographers. I don’t know if it’s a lack of experience or being too wrapped-up in the digital side of the world, but a lot of photographers are not editing for PRINT. Yes, people still PRINT their photos. Of course media outlets like Facebook, email, other websites will utilize digital photos well, but I don’t know if I’ve had a portrait client not print ANY photos from their sessions. “Duh…so, Matt, where are you going with this…”

BLOWN-OUT images… I see more blown-out faces in images than I do “correctly” exposed skin tones in photography on the web. Blown-out, meaning an area of the image that is considered white, no-detail in those areas. Do you edit your images like this? If so, you probably haven’t seen a terrible amount of your photos in print. Why can I safely assume this? Because blown-out faces in print look like crap, and if you knew you were delivering that to your paying clients, you’d definitely change your editing approach.

You need to edit for the world, not your own computer screen. What looks good on your computer might look like crap in print, or even other people’s computers. A couple things to get you started: calibrate your monitor (need to buy a hardware/software combo, like Spyder), and order some prints from the print shops you send your client’s photos to so you can see what your edits look like as far as color/saturation/exposure. You should be using editing software that can tell you right away if you have loss of detail in the highlight areas of your photos, use that function, spot check all of your images.

Additional advice would be to make edits to a photo shoot and then walk away from your computer, or move onto something else, and then come back the next day and see if you still like the edits you made (all the way down to white balance, contrast, etc). Especially if you are fresh to bulk editing, chances are, you’ll want to re-edit a lot of your tweaks. Repeat this process until you can come back to the photos and not want to change anything. After you’ve done this process for a bunch of shoots, you’ll have a better hang of it and have the confidence to edit and export a shoot in one sitting.

7. Neglected Blog

Holy cow, this speaks so poorly for your biz. If you decide to have a blog, you gotta take care of the thing. It’s just like when you buy a puppy for your kids, you know you are going to have to take care of it. It IS a lot of work, so know that going in. It’s better to NOT have a blog if you can’t keep it updated. This doesn’t mean you need to update it every day, but if you are not making at least a couple posts a month, just X the whole idea, kill the thing, and put it out of it’s misery. The whole point of a blog is to generate new content to keep your visitors coming back for fresh/new content and info. Portfolios are usually only updated every few months (at best), so the only reason for returning visitors is to view your blog. If people keep coming back to see what’s new on your blog, and it doesn’t change visit after visit, you are sending a couple bad messages. One, you don’t have a lot of work. Two, you are lazy.

Additionally, if you do write a blog, then WRITE in it. I see a lot of photographer blogs which are pretty much photos with 1-3 sentences stuffed in the post. Really? Way to NOT make an effort. Your photos that are worth showing-off should already be in your portfolio, so unless you have something to say about your photos (like a story, the challenges for a shoot, the gear you used, something interesting), don’t write a blog. Without meaningful writing to go along with your blog, it’s just a duplicate, hard-to-navigate second portfolio.

If you decide to have a blog, you gotta take care of the thing. It’s just like when you buy a puppy for your kids, you know you are going to have to take care of it.

Of course there will be times that simply get so hectic that your blog can get a little sparse on updates at a couple points in the year, but one or two or six month gaps in your blog are unacceptable. Take care of your puppy or give it away.

8. Generic And Free Websites

Can you say “CHEAP!?” The very FIRST thing that pops in my head when I see a free website, a generic/mass public domain name, and a gmail contact address is “cheap.” Web and email services are dirt cheap any more (like ~$100 bucks a year for everything), so there are no excuses to not make the jump and get personalized domain names, website services, and email accounts. You are asking your  clients to “invest” a lot of money into your services, yet you can’t do one of the most basic things and stand-up a professional web presence? Who needs to do the investing? You don’t know how to set this up? Simple, hire someone. Yes, being a digital photographer curbs a lot of the expenses other career fields have to take-on, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spend a little money on your biz. If you want to be taken seriously, establish a serious web presence, get a custom-made site, ya know… something that took more time and effort than registering your name on a free website host. This goes for blogs too, get a custom install on your web hosting space, this will allow you to run it the way you want.

Even worse are the photographers who think a standalone website is unnecessary, or they don’t want to put in the work to make it. They rely on Facebook, Flickr, and smugmug to present their business. Let’s not get into this train wreck any further, but let’s point out that you are clearly not serious about your biz, so don’t expect anyone else to see it any differently.

9. Sparse Contact Info

The almighty contact form. It’s great, simple, and makes it easy for people to send you a message. But what if they wanted to call you or even want your email address to send a direct email? Are you really going to require them to send you a message before they are privy to your phone number? Yes, it sucks that the web is stuffed full of bots sniffing through every inch of the web, snatching-up any piece of info they can, and it’s not an awesome feeling that someone might snag your personal info. There are tricks around this. Bots can read info on plain text, meaning information on a jpeg is just a jpeg, and they can’t read it. Keep your contact form, but put your contact info in an image and add it to your contact page. Like this (click here). This will provide information clients will want to have. Give your clients a reassuring feeling by not hiding behind a form.

I know that we have all had issues at some point in life and we’ve hopped-on the web to find contact info to quickly contact a business. How maddening is it when there is no other contact info than a careless form for you to submit? No name, address, number, or direct email. If you are in a hurry and need info quick, you don’t even bother with the form, do ya? People visiting your site will do the same thing, just keep that in-mind.

10. It’s A Digital Business, It’s Cheap

This is on the fringes of the ‘website’ topic, but goes way further. Not only should you be able to pony-up the clams for a proper web presence, but so many other things. Yes, a lot of your business “lives” on the web, but it all ultimately comes back to the physical world. A healthy and reliable computer, professional-grade software tools, a backup solution for all of your digital files, renting studio space or access to indoor locations during bad weather (or in the PNW’s case, bad half of the year), the countless number of lights and accessories, the list goes on. Business operations have changed in the last few years, social networks have made marketing a truly free avenue, as you can reach just as many people as the most powerful companies in the world using tools like Facebook. Starting a digitally-based outfit doesn’t change a lot of the upfront costs to run a healthy business, it just takes a lot of the long-term operating risk out of the equation (which should further reinforce your want to “go for it”). It’s not like the film days with development, today pixels are free.

Final Thoughts

If you ask me, the “mistakes” spelled-out in-detail above, all come back to the first one – lack of knowledge and the false sense that owning nice equipment is the answer to a successful and well-ran, well-represented biz. I’ve just scratched the surface here with this list, but I wanted to keep it basic. If you are guilty of a couple of these, it’s a sign that you have not properly invested in yourself and your biz. If you want to be taken seriously as a photographer, you need to take it seriously, just as any other business owner out there (expect to get what you put into it). In my eyes, someone who understands and practices all of the above, yet only has an entry-level DSLR and kit lens is YEARS AND LEAPS ahead of the other guy who could afford a $10,000 camera setup and didn’t take in-account he’d actually have to invest time and money in knowledge and the rest of the biz (and this gap will only widen with time). Of course, attending a workshop or two, reading books, watching videos, and getting your questions answered should have patched-up most of these “mistakes” already.

This post kicks-off a set of articles I’ll be pushing out, describing my photographic journey through a handful of months working with Smokin’ Hot Espresso as we produced this calendar. We didn’t skip any corners on this project, and it took as long as it did in order to mature ideas, secure locations, and schedule the shoots. We took a lot of things into considerations, again, not losing perspective (it being a photo shoots of bikini baristas) and getting lazy about the details. For example, Fall activities we were portraying in our photo concepts that required Fall scenery were flexed to ensure we shot in prime Fall colors. It’s not the driest or warmest time of the year to shoot in the PNW, but we didn’t want to cut the project short because it wasn’t going to be ideal temperatures out. The girls know this going-in and they are troopers, staying well-composed even though they are outside for a minimum of an hour, and wearing just about nothing in 40-50 degree temps.

So… here we are, shootin’ in the sticks. This shoot was a trek. About an hour drive from Tacoma, navigating roads until they turned to dirt, and then hiking for 5-mins up a hill. Not a fun task when you are packing 100 lbs of gear with ya. The resulting view was well-worth it though, providing us with almost a 360 degree view of the landscape (it was a big hill), including a clean shot of Rainer.

We got there a bit early, taking our time to select the most ideal composition locations on the hill, as well as wait-out the sun to hit a desirable point in the sky. The primary shot was a no-brainer… framing Rainer in the background. I tossed on a polarizer filter to pull more color into the sky (and knock down the ambient light a bit, allowing me to start my shoot sooner). Sun was camera-right, providing the lighting for the environment, I also stuck my flash on that side (in-relation to the subject) to produce a more natural light on the model (as if it was coming from the sun as well). I mostly shot this composition with a mid-telephoto (~200mm) to compress the background and pull the mountain in to the photo, and then later went with some wide glass to add some drama. I really like the added depth of the out-of-focus blades of grass of the telephoto shots.

The second composition was just about 20 feet away from the first location, propped on another stump and facing West into the sun. We waited for the sun to get really low in the sky, pushing out warmer colors, helping to re-enforce the Fall colors we wanted in this shot. The sun is my favorite backlight to work with, it’s just so darn purdy. Unfortunately, the sun is only worth a darn for about two hours every day (sunrise and set). I got away with only using one flash for this whole shoot, which is always nice. Less gear, less adjusting, and shoots move along about 5 times faster than 3-5 light setups. A lot of photogs always have the itch to fill-in all the shadows with at least a little detail. Me, on the other hand, I love those deep, dark shadows in my photos, so I’ll rock a single flash for a good majority of my shoots. I do a lot of location shooting, so I can use that ambient light as tool for background detail and subject edging.

Throughout the duration of the shoot, I was blindly hoping all over in tall grass, sticker bushes, and hidden tree limbs beneath the thick foliage. When you are rolling out great images, with eye glued to the viewfinder, you tend to ignore the immediate surroundings, completely focused on attaining the right framing, regardless what you have to step in. You’d think I would have learned from last time (click here for my ‘killer ant’ story). I’m happy to report that aside from some scratches from thorns here and there, I didn’t roll an ankle, or get attacked by any animals.

The third look was made by a simple change in my position to the subject, she didn’t move. Rotating around, I took the impact of the sun out of the background and also accented the tall grass from the angle in-relation to the model. Just enough ambient light in the background to give the photo some layering.

There you have it, an archery concept of our barista/indian atop of hill with a great view in the Fall season. Don’t forget to catch the behind the scenes video I cut together for this project as well (click here for that).You can consume a calendar along with your coffee at any Smokin’ Hot Espresso stand now.

A couple BTS shots.

A little bit of stuff here… some inside the studio, in the building, and right outside of the building.

Lots from the commercial end coming to the blog soon…

The newly joined James and Martha Bowen and family put on a great wedding. The ceremony was nestled in a very private venue tucked into the woods, a well-landscaped property, which was surrounded by its own forest of flowers, with a great view out of the end of the property that overlooked a large valley. As hectic as weddings can be for the people who are called upon to provide services during events like these, the relaxing nature of the place helped bring the stress levels down a bit.

Its very easy to talk about a couple in-love as you watch them take their vows in front of friends and family, as its almost an assumption, right? I’ll tell you what, there was no assumptions needed here. Even though I only just gotten to know the couple, I couldn’t have been more convinced of their love by the close of the ceremony. The pair didn’t take their eyes off of each other. You could tell it wasn’t an in-the-moment experience, it was something that was there with or without the glamour of the wedding facade. It gave me a chill as I watched it through my lens, I caught myself uncontrollably smiling like many of the women in-attendance. Such a powerful experience when you see the real deal, love.

Little bit of play with the flowers in the framing…

Kids, what can you say… short attention spans

The rings and walk…

A moment alone at the end of the isle before the chaos that is a wedding resumes….

Formal group photos went well. I scouted the location for 30 mins or so when I arrived prior to the events, and picked out a few spots to capture the staged photos. Very few photos in a wedding have the luxury of being staged and well-lit, so I was going to make sure I nailed those, and leave all the other other candid photos I’d be taking at event in the hands of Lady Luck. I was a bit nervous, having to take the formals in open, hard, mid-day sunlight, but I was able to overpower the sun with a studio strobe.

The best and worst part of the day for me was the couples private formals. The good – tall grass, good lookin couple, very storybook feel to the photos. I was happy how they turned out. Time is pressed (as always at weddings). Lighting was prepped, exact locations mapped-out, and I had roughly 5 mins to work with the couple before they were whisked-off to the reception. I had three varying spots I wanted to shoot the couple in – one walking look, one sitting in the tall grass look, and then one under this funky tree. First two went smooth, but as we were just starting the under the tree look, something went painfully wrong, literally. I had my light and myself tucked up against the trunk of the tree, with the couple just on the inside of the umbrella of the tree. The whole areas was tall grass (about two feet), so you kinda just had to blindly step as you moved along. As I was looking through my lens, popping off a few shots, I was right as the base of the tree. I should also mention that I was wearing flip-flops (hot day, dress clothes, packing lots of heavy gear – you cheat where you can in efforts to stay as cool as possible so you dont look like just walked out of a sweat lodge). I was lovin the photos I was making, so my eye was glued to the camera, trying to work as fast as I could. At that point I felt a sharp pain on my foot, but I ignored it so that I could finish the photo set. But then another shooting pain, than lots of these unpleasant sensations at the same time. I pulled my foot out of the grass and it was covered in very angry ants (ya know… the nasty ones that are trained to kill). My luck, an entire field and I blindly have to step into the ants nest, and they’ve latched onto my skin. What followed was what I’m sure looked much like an indian ritual dance, flinging off my sandals and taking large, lunging steps as I rotated dragging the tops and then the bottoms of my feet on the ground to free the biting grip of the ants. We decided to wrap the shoot at that point, and let the couple proceed with the rest of the evenings events. I proceeded to capture the reception with a slightly bruised ego and a tingly, warm sensation in my foot as I finished out my work. And I’m happy to report that the reception was killer-ant-free.

Last images before I got eaten alive…

It’s that time of year to start pushing bridal marketing. All those brides looking to secure the biggest and best of everything to ensure their wedding is a great experience. LC has been attending bridal expos to help get the word out that they too provide bridal garb, but not just any kind of attire, really cool vintage dresses. A large part of Tina’s time is invested in literally traveling around to fashion hot spots in the world and hand-picking all of the one-of-a-kind designer clothing you see in the store. No steps are skipped through the entire process, as stylists are at the store to help you navigate, select, and fit clothing to best work with your particular shape. It’s definitely not an experience you get in many places, and it’s a completely unexpected surprise in downtown Tacoma. New found customers are often delighted to come across the store, always saying they can’t wait to get back into the store and shop more. Now that’s a business I want to work for. In my mind, the hard part is done, Tina has established and invested into a great store and business, now all I have to do is make sure that the photography can keep up with level of professionalism Tina has set. I’m not having to make anything look better than it really is, fib here or there, cause London Couture doesn’t need it.

So, as you can see in the photos, we had our first bridal concept shoot. Yes, we are dealing with vintage clothing, BUT we wanted it photographed with in today’s world. Mixing modern environment with vintage clothing creates a fun contrast, makes ya stop and look. This work would be submitted to bridal magazines, and the LAST thing we wanted was to blend in with the rest of the bridal ads who all project the same imagery we’ve all seen a million times. We wanted modern, clean, classy, different. We flirted with a bunch of ideas, I did a bunch of scouting in known locations, and we decided on the glass museum space. Lots of options, very clean/industrial/modern.

Not only are we showcasing brides, but bridesmaids and mother’s involved in the wedding. We worked main concepts with all 3 models, and then did closer work on just bride-focused photos. The key concept was the shot with the poles, however, by chance I stumbled upon a second location I wanted to give a whirl. When I pulled up and parked at the location, I looked out to my right window, and there was this space that immediately caught my eye. Concrete and huge metal girders, love it. Totally dumb luck I spotted this, and a true testament to that – I was standing right next to my car when I was photographing this look, didn’t even have to move it (and it also made packing up a lot easier with my car right there!). Love it when things just fall into place unexpectedly.

Early September left us with some favorable weather (even with our messed-up summer), and we had a great afternoon to shoot. I think the thing that makes these photos really pop is the sun’s light getting bounced around the glass poles. Even though the sun is just about to set over the Tacoma skyline, the last few minutes of sun were perfect. The best visual of this setup was also the biggest pain in the ass to work with, the poles. It was a dance of arranging subjects and lights while always trying to hide the sun behind a pole and swapping lenses.

This second location, just around the corner from the last, has this cool, calmness about it that I really love. You could shoot just about kind/type of subject between these two girders and you could say that it works. Brides? Why not. Much less complex of a shot than the first, not nearly as many factors working in the shot. Think of it like a cool down walk after running a really fast mile, a piece of cake in comparison.

I like a lot of the shots, but I’ll have to admit that the solo shots of the bride are my fav. Fun shoot, and SO MUCH more coming from London Couture.

I setup a mini site just for this deal, which handles clients’ questions, shows them the locations available, and even a booking solution all on the page. A bonus, I guess, to being a web designer in a previous life, I can standup site in a couple hours, and in that aspect, I save time in the long run. This solution maximizes my efficiency, as far as handling 50 individual shoots and the questions that come with them, however, it leaves the day of shooting with the people who handle all of the business on my site with a lot of mystery for myself. They’ve been on my site, had on their questions answered, know what to expect from myself and the location they booked, but I know NOTHING about them. Sure, I could have shot them an email once I got their booking confirmation, asked them size of their group, ages, etc, so that I knew what kind of mine I was blindly stepping on, but I didn’t. This left me not knowing who, how large, and what ages of people I’d be working with from one hour to the next. Why not? I wake up every day looking for a challenge, honestly, it makes me smile when I get tossed on-the-spot situations. I really have to pull from past experience, be able to immediately read a new client standing in front of me, what’s going to be do-able with the given situation, AND… all of this while I try to always make something new. I hate making the same kind of images, this is flat-out boring, and I’ll sell my cameras the day I’m satisfied with making the same photos over and over. I’m always making fun, fresh images, literally. So, coming full circle now, all of these variables I’ve left to the unknown up until the moment I meet my client that day, all while trying to make something new… it puts pressure on me, but I’m finding this a great learning experience for switching gears multiple times in a days. I go from shooting a single teen for senior photos to a 5 person group with a baby, where I’m shaking a squeaky toy over my head to get the baby to look my direction. All of this while trying to execute my signature lighting styles. Also something to note, even though I am shooting a handful of folks at the same location, the locations are versatile enough to allow for a good amount of variation from one client to the next. Lots of lighting gear getting shuffled around to different pockets of backgrounds during and between shoots, making each shoot unique.

Inherently, while shooting my clients, I get to talking with them. I have a fun job where I get to talk while I work. I get to learn about someone completely new, it keeps them loose, we all learn a little bit while making fun photos, so it’s a win all the way around. This is obviously exaggerated in these mini session days. I learn about a new person or set of people every hour, what they do for fun, etc. You start over every hour, your introduction, your approach in how you’ll be photographing them, you start to feel a bit like a robot in a way. The mini sessions are a solution to the LivingSocial deal, however, it’s definitely not an embraced path I’d like to keep as a staple to my business. I guess it is exactly what it is – a quickie shoot, do your best with little time, rushed introductions, get the gist of your client, and before you know it you are done before you feel you’ve gotten warmed-up. I’m not trying to make this sound all negative, I guess I’m just speaking my mind on my true feelings. Over the years, I’ve grown accustomed to spending a couple hours with my clients. I get to know them, and before the end of our session, I feel that I’ve gotten to know enough about them that I’ve been able to accurately capture them, and not just an image I wanted to make. I feel that the time gives me the opportunity to capture who they are and not force an image that doesn’t speak to myself or the client. Don’t get me wrong, the images coming out of the mini sessions are good, in fact, I’ve been down-right surprised at what is coming out of a 30 minute session. These clients are coming out of these sessions with ~30 really great images. So, needless to say, unless very unique situations present themselves in the future, the mini sessions are a one-time run, an answer to the LivingSocial deal.

So, onto the first set here. Kids, families, couples, you got a little bit of everything here. Enjoy the photos, a LOT more coming to the blog…when I get some time…

This is something I’m getting the team to realize – we have all the resources, the knowhow, and the creative ability to make all of our marketing and visual content ourselves. It’s a no-brainer, so let’s stop making this so hard. No matter how small of an element some visual may be in the end graphic design, we should be making it ourselves. After the owner of the business saw this, going “this is exactly what I had in my head,” we are going full steam ahead with fully produced in-house content. I work with London Couture on creative design, then I workout the logistics (photographically), scout locations, execute the shoots, and do the end graphic design. So now all the owner has to do is tell me what she wants and it’s done, and I know that makes her happy.

Here we have our model, hand-picked clothes from the London Couture store, and a couple of the owner’s dogs. Shot on white seamless and only backlit to create a silhouette with just a tad of light wrapping around the subjects, which gives us a little detail yet leaving plenty of mystery. This was a tricky shoot not only because we were working with animals, but because we were working in a very tight space, the white seamless paper only 9 feet wide. To give the appearance of walking, yet standing still is a challenge. So, the model took a stance which gave the appearance of walking, and just off the seamless were two assistants holding food to get the dogs to step in the direction we wanted (or at least be looking that way, with tension on the leashes). Animals are super hard to work with. It always seems they are behaving great, doing everything you could ask for, and the moment you raise your camera to your face it all goes down hill. They are walking off, looking the wrong way, wanting to sit, you name it. These kinds of photo sessions are like 95% prep. Set the lights, test lights on test subjects (so we don’t fatigue real subjects), and then the last 5% are hoping and praying for 5 good frames in about a minute you have of good behavior from the animals. They really don’t like the flash and get restless pretty fast. 10-15 pops of the lights and we are done, and of those 15 maybe four of them have all the factors we need done right in combination to pull-off the visual.

We shot two looks, one head-on with the subjects, and one of the profile. We ended up using both, as you can see in the image up top. White seamless is a dream in post production, just plop it in your graphic design and you are done. I created a quick logo and there you go, a look that London Couture is really happy with and can use for years to come.

Strutt For A Mutt will be taking place September 9th, 7pm, in Opera Alley, Tacoma, WA.

Life is hard being a dog model.

In meeting with Darrin, the owner of Amerawcan Bistro, I knew right away that he wanted to make his place truly unique. Aside from him already offering a rare style of food and a great menu, he wanted the entire customer experience to be something people talk about after they eat there. We sat down and mapped out a branding style and message we wanted to send, in a visual sense, to accomplish this goal. I LOVE working with businesses in creating a branding image. Whether I am helping them with more than just photography or not, it’s important that I fully understand what the end product needs to look like, as it’s critical for properly executed photography. Photography produced with the final branding goal in-mind is clutch. Understanding what styles and colors menus, logos, and websites use will influence how the photography is executed. When done right, the photos are dropped right into the marketing material seamlessly, and looks flat-out impressive. You look like you got your shit together, and the truth is, when it looks like that, you probably do. It speaks volumes from the rest of your business, “come eat here, we care, we are professionals, what can we do to make this a better place for you.” Honestly, I was super excited about being a part of this project from the beginning, and not having to worry about transitioning the business out of an old marketing image. A clean slate.

My main projects are photo-based, however, I do a fair bit of web and graphic design as well. The design aspect is something that flows really well when there is well-minded photography to start with, so I don’t mind doing it. Also, by Darrin tasking me with the designing aspects in tandem with the photography ensures consistency across the board.

Step one, the photography, the starting point for this visual production. The flow of the menu, website, hell… even the business cards will hang off of the photography skeleton. Darrin and his chef team prepared a number of food arrangements and brought them into the studio. This is where it all starts, whatever Darrin and his team like visually here, meaning how we setup and light the food will determine the flow of everything else for marketing. It being a raw, organic food restaurant, my mind went to “clean, simple, no distractions.” White seamless was the answer, a white abyss, just the food as the focal point. Aside from this being a super clean look, it makes graphic design a breeze. The first concern I brought up to the team was that all the food being on white plates, the white-on-white could be a little much, and edging on the plate would only be detectable where shadows fell. I shot a couple, let them review, they like it, so we pushed-on with that concept. Turned out pretty smooth, the plate only visible by the lower shadow. These photos require little to no work to integrate them right into design work.

After the photos came the menu design. Maybe the coolest part of this project, the menu is displayed on an iPad. Each table has an iPad with a menu that they customers swipe through from page to page. Pretty fun project. The business is just being born, and I’m sure there are many more photo shoots and cool things around the corner for Amerawcan Bistro. They should be opening their doors any day, come check them out at 745 St. Helens, Tacoma, WA.

Here is a page of the menu, along with someone flipping through it on an iPad.