Click to Explore | Powered by Piqsure That was one of the questions posed to me during an interview this past weekend. A young woman had asked to interview me for a college paper she was writing. The call and the questions started out somewhat clinical, most likely another task or paper that she needed to check off her list. She proceeded through the usual list of questions: “Did you go to photography school?” “What…
I don’t go looking for inspiration. That doesn’t work for me. Instead it seems like the more I look for things to inspire me, the harder they are to find. But when I quiet my mind and allow it to wander to places that aren’t familiar, I start to see and take notice of ideas, I had typically overlooked. If you’re seeking inspiration, these tips can help: Get away from the noise – Take time…
If you’re a professional photographer and aren’t business savvy or have a partner who is, you’ve most likely signed a bad contract. If you have, you are not alone. Even the greatest rock group of all, The Beatles, signed a few bad contracts in their day because they didn’t bother to read them. Instead, they put their trust in their business manager, Brian Epstein, until Brian’s untimely death in 1967. Who knows if Epstein had…
…it depends on where you stop the story.” ~Orson Welles The story is everything, and as the director and/or the DP (Director of Photography), I must have a clear idea and commitment to the story that I want to tell. If don’t, I’ll confuse or lose my audience. When I set out to create storytelling pieces – short form or long form documentary or narratives, I am mindful at all times of the story I…
Perhaps, one of the most daunting components of video production for still photographers is capturing good audio. Audio is everything. If your audience can’t hear or understand the dialog in your video, they’ll walk away. If I have the budget, I will hire a sound person. Check out these videos to hear what good audio sounds like: Audio captured with internal microphone of Canon 5D Mark II (same card as video) Audio captured with Samson…
I got into the business of photography as a means to an end. The “end” was to establish a career that would give me access to the life I wanted to live – exploring other lands and cultures. In essence I wanted a career that would allow me to pursue my interests and passion projects, and get paid for it. I was very fortunate when I started out to shoot stories for Travel & Leisure…
When I first started learning video storytelling, I took a class at the Maine Workshops. Our instructor, a crazy guy from LA who worked for the E-channel, broke us up into teams to go out and get man-on-the-street interviews for our class video project, The Cameras of Camden. The video was about surveillance cameras used to monitor people in public spaces. My task was to query random people on the street and ask them what…
There have been plenty of times when I’ve been asked to agree to things that were not in my best interests. In particular, I’ve had a lot of lousy, one sided contracts presented to me over the years, and sometimes I had to walk away. One thing I’ve learned about contracts is that if I want to have any leverage in negotiating, I have to be in a favorable position. If the type of photography…
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield Pressfield talks about overcoming the resistance in our lives so that we can do the “work” we are meant to do. Resistance comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s the people around us and sometimes it’s our procrastination or our pursuit of perfectionism that sabotage us. It’s a quick read and one that I’ve read multiple times. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder When I was editing my…
The digital revolution continues to change our media landscape. We have moved way beyond just getting a video to play online. As a culture we want to receive and share content on demand, wherever we are. Mobile devices are rapidly becoming our primary tools for communicating. What does this mean for still photographers? Mixed media content is in demand in today’s marketplace. Video, sound, time-lapse, animated Gifs and still images all play their roles in…