One of my clients knows that when he hired me he was getting more than someone who took photos.  Actually this is why he hired me. “Please don’t go home and think about this all night long–I don’t need it right away,” is something I hear from this client.

Lasers are something that are not visible when you are in a lab, so how do you make them visible and cool?  That is one reason my clients hire me.

This is a great example of having to think outside the box.  This composer had written software that used cameras to observe light and then create music. The audience was given flashlights to wave around and as they did they were creating music that the live orchestra would play. The problem is when I showed up in his office all the keyboards were just sold. All he had was the software on the computer which wasn’t that interesting, but he had a few shots from the audience.  I had him wave a flashlight to capture what the audience was doing.  For me the photo works–expecially because it had to be created out of nothing.  I had to listen and process to come up with the photo.

My obsessive behavior of not letting go of a thought until I can work it out makes me strange in many situations–but a blessing to my clients. Most photographers can photograph what they see in front of them and even light it to look cool. As you can see from these two photos is that the client gets a photo of something that didn’t exist.

Sports

Putting the viewer into the game is something I like to do. To make this photo I had to use strobes to light the entire court. I had to mount a camera behind the glass on the goal. All of the lights and camera had to have safety cables. I then had to be able to fire the camera with a remote that would not just fire the camera but also the strobes all at the same time.

The closest I got to playing high school or college sports was my freshman year in high school where I played on the golf team for a while.  I never played in a tournament.  In college I did get to photograph my college’s sports and at East Carolina University we had some incredible sports. Our football team at the time was great and so too was the women’s basketball team.

My love of sports has helped my clients get photos that tell a story and communicate the athleticism of their teams. This requires special equipment and knowledge of how to use it to capture those moments that make your team look like they should be in Sports Illustrated. Some of those photos for my clients did find their way to the pages of Sports Illustrated.

In sports you usually want to see the ball, both teams, peak action and the expression of the athletes for the best photos. While you don’t always have all the elements, you know this is what you are looking for to make the photo have impact.

When the client hires me to take these action shots they often need more than just the game shots.  They need head shots of the players for their sports programs.  They also need team photos or stylized images to use for the posters to be put up around town to help sell tickets.

The gloves were originally red, but in PhotoShop I made them yellow and let that be the only yellow in the photo. This was my idea and became the poster that Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets, used that year to show off their Heisman candidate Calvin Johnson. Again you can hire a photographer to shoot what you show them or they can take your idea and make it better.

Faith

When the Archdiocese of Atlanta needed to hire a photographer to photograph a military funeral the list of who they would use was quite short.  Because I had been to seminary and understood more than what was taking place visually but how to handle myself in this situation my reputation got me the job. I arrived early and let the family friend know who I was sent by to photograph the funeral. I asked for their permission and was willing to walk away if they said no. The client wouldn’t want to use the photos if I had gotten them any other way. Many photographers would not understand how not having a photo is better than having one at times.

Proven Track Record

Soulja Boy

Kid Rock

Former President Jimmy Carter

What do pictures of Soulja Boy, Kid Rock and former President Jimmy Carter do for my clients?  Help them relax. I have heard it over and over when the person who hired me takes me around to meet their bosses or other important decision makers at their company they will name drop who I have shot for before and who I have covered.

Their neck is on the line often because photography is expensive. By letting folks know they had investigated me and that I had experience it not only helps them feel better, but relaxes them and this translates into great images for me. The people around them pick up on their mood.

When you hire the best you know you can relax and know you are going to get the best images for your company.

People Skills

Capturing moments that help communicate by using body language isn’t something that everyone is capable of doing. Many people just know how to handle themselves and pick up on the mood of others, but they do not know what those visual cues are always.

Paul Ekman has inspired the latest crime series TV show “Lie To Me” by decoding the traits of liars for more than 40 years. That work concentrates on the meaning of human facial expressions, body movements and speech patterns, which Dr. Ekman, a psychologist, has researched and cataloged.

While I am not an expert, this is what my social work undergraduate degree helped me understand is important.  Through training and experience of using this to help capture those moments I understand how to use gestures and face expressions to help tell a story.

People understand it when they see it, but they might not even be able to tell you why the photo makes them feel a certain way. Photographers who want to make you feel and respond in a certain way need to understand body language in order to predict what will happen next so they can capture it, because if you wait till you see it you will miss the moment.

I actually took this as backup to the schools hired photographers.  They had strobes setup and I was sure they were getting better photos than I was getting.  Boy was I wrong. We were so thankful I took these because the backgrounds were all black and just didn’t capture the atmosphere.

My Network

When a client calls and needs me for something, I cannot always fulfill their request, but my client never has to look for someone. I help them find someone who can best meet their needs. The great thing is those folks I recommend don’t try and take my client away. This impresses the clients as well as me.

I am the member of American Society of Media Photographers, National Press Photographers Association, and Christians in Photojournalism. I have not only been a member of these organizations but served on their boards and in roles of leadership.

Each year I am part of a team that helps to organize the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference where photographers who believe this profession to be a calling come together for a few days to learn and fellowship with each other.

A few times a year I help organize the local chapter of Christians in Photojournalism in the Atlanta area to get together for meetings.

Due to these organizations I have developed a good network of professional colleagues.  I have seen their work and worked with them enough to know about their character and how they conduct themselves.  It is from this network I pull upon to help my clients find the best photographers for the job if I am not available.  Sometimes a client calls and I send them directly to one of my colleagues.  I want the best for my clients.

When you hire a creative are you hiring the whole person or just someone to push the button? You may have thought you just needed a photo, but you are always hiring the whole person.  Are your creatives thinking about you even when you are not calling them?

My clients often will get emails or phone calls where I have thought about something they might be interested in doing. If your creatives haven’t called you with ideas maybe you need to find those who are going to do more than just show up and get what you tell them to do.

Taylor Made Burner Driver

The professional golfer started by learning the golf swing with one club. It was most likely the 5-iron that they started with.  When you hit a golf ball with the 5-iron the ball is in the middle of your feet and just out in front of your body at the comfortable distance where the club will meet it when your swing is proper.

Many who start playing begin with a starter set of clubs.  Instead of carrying the 14 club limit they do on the PGA tour they carry half as many clubs. The reason is simple, before you run you have to walk. You need to get down the mechanics of the golf swing and then learn to slow it down, change your stance for different club lengths and how to make the ball not just go straight but left or right.

Tour Edge Bazooka HT Max Irons

The professional photographer starts out with a simple camera and learns how to master the mechanics of camera. When I started many were told to get a simple 50mm lens and basic camera that was totally manual only. They don’t make this type of camera anymore for the digital era.

I learned over time how to make my shots just like the professional golfer. If I wanted to do something different, just like the golfer, I learned how to manipulate the camera to get the results I was looking for in my shot.

My golf bag

The professional golfer who is leading a tournament is the one who is consistently playing. The difference between those at the top and the others is what goes on in their head. The leaders are calm and thinking level headed about their game. They may have a bad drive, but they are able to step up on the next shot and recover. The amateur golfer often is still thinking about what they did wrong and unable to concentrate on the shot at hand.

The professional photographer who makes their shots consistently is doing it with what goes on in their head.

You can give an average set of clubs to a professional golfer and they will play better with them than most amateurs. A professional photographer can be given a point and shoot camera and most likely out perform the amateur for similar reasons. It isn’t the equipment that determines the professional but the knowledge in their heads that they put to use that makes them perform at the highest level of the game.

The pros do look for the best equipment that is made for them to perform at their best.  While there are differences between golf clubs and cameras most at this level are very minuet and the major differences are more between the person using the equipment.

The professional photographer is best served by having a niche. This makes it easier to market and brand themselves.  I like to think of this like starting to play golf, your niche is like learning the golf swing with the 5-iron.

It is much easier after establishing yourself in a market to add other services. Think of it like adding another club to the bag. You may start shooting weddings and a natural next step maybe portraits.

My camera bag I use most often for corporate work

After shooting portraits on location at weddings you may then add the studio portrait to your bag.  You get pretty confident with this and then step over to shooting executive portraits or maybe musical performers portraits for CDs and their promotional material.

Hopefully, you are starting to see its not the camera or the golf clubs that make you a pro, it is years of experience and perfecting the mechanics to make the shots you want to make. Over time you learn to remain calm, cool and collected in your thoughts, so you can make the shot. You know that it take all of your mind and heart to make great photos that keep the clients coming back for more.

To get this photo of my wife and daughter I took the photo below first.  It is then easier to have the people stand and fill in a part of the frame close to the camera. Nikon P7000 ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/40 fill flash to auto balance the background.

Nikon P7000 ISO 1600, f/3.2, 1/220

When you travel for vacations, be sure you do a good job of taking photos that show where you visited.  Don’t get so close on your family photos that the photos could have been taken anywhere.

Also don’t have the people so close to the background they are too small to see their faces.  Have the people as close to the camera without completely covering up your background.

Also, even tho you are outside on a sunny day try the photo with a flash and without.  Many times the flash helps improve the photo.

While this will work for your vacation photos, it will work for anyone you need to show in their environment.  Try this same technique for a person you might have a story about.

While I liked the picture of the Horwarts Train I really wanted to show our family visiting.  So after getting the camera angle I then had my family stand in and get a better photo for us.  Nikon P7000 ISO 100, f/4, 1/380

Adding my wife and daughter is easy once I have where they are composed.  Nikon P7000 ISO 100, f/4, 1/230

Nikon P7000 ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/400

Added my daughter to the photo above.  Again, by having a good background I am not only taking a photo of my daughter, but you can tell we went to Harry Potter Wizarding World Theme Park in Orlando, Florida.  Nikon P7000 ISO 139, f/5.6, 1/550 and fill flash used.

Does this get your attention?

“We covered this event last year, let’s just run the same story,” have you ever heard this before?  Of course you would write a new story and find a new angle so the audience will want to get the story.  Another reason you create a new story is otherwise you might not have a job very long.

“Last year we covered it, let’s get a writer assigned to it and just use some of those visuals we had from last year,” is something I hear way too often.  If you think about it, this is why when you pull the analytics on a story, you see most readers never clicked to read the story or they spend less time than normal on the page.

If the visual looks like something the audience has seen before, many in your audience will assume they have already read that story.  Remember all the research says that the visual is the first place most of your audience will look.  If it is the same as last year and yet you have written a new story you have wasted your money on the writing.

Is this more effective with the light on the face?

One of the biggest things that professional communicators are asked to do is the cover the same events year after year and each time to cover it like it was their first time covering it. It actually is quite easy to cover that event the first time, but as most pros know it takes a lot more creativity the more and more you cover something.

The writer looks for a new lead for the story. We work for a new headline to grab your attention for something you have seen over and over.

Which one do you like more above? Ever thought you could use one one time and the other another time?

All the analytics for most websites continue to show that visuals help for driving traffic. Most everyone will agree that a strong image or visual will get the attention of the audience and make them want to know more.

While you may not be covering an event, but writing about a new initiative for your company, are you using the same visuals you are using for other articles?

Always looking for the great image can sometimes paralyze your visual communication.  Believe it or not a photograph is successful if it stops your audience and makes them look.  Don Rutledge, my longtime mentor, told me that when a person is flipping through a publication and they stop on your photograph and then read the caption, it is a successful photograph.

On the flip side a photograph is a failure if the reader flips past your photograph.

It would be a few years before I would get another photo coach in Dave Black that helped me understand this from a slightly different perspective.  Dave let me know it isn’t about a better image it is about a different image.

The photos with the tilted horizon were different at one point and because they were different you stopped to look.  Now that it is a fad, it has worn off in its effective use to be “different.” The most recent phenomenon on Facebook is the App Instagram.  These filters turn your present photo into looking like a 1970s Polaroid snapshot.

When the App becomes a joke you know it is loosing the ability to be “different.”

You need to be sure your visuals are fresh if you want the reader to think it is new material.

Remember, the image doesn’t have to be great—it has to be different. You need to surprise your audience with a visual as much as you plan to surprise them with the text.

Don’t waste hiring a writer and stick an old visual with the story. You would actually get more hits on your website for example if you had a new visual and the same text. This way they would click to see what’s new. Isn’t that better than not clicking because the visual tells them they have seen this before?

Use fresh visuals with your fresh text so together they connect with your audience.

Don’t waste your money on visuals any more than you would on the text.  If you take the time to invest, whatever you spend is wasted if you don’t connect with the reader.

The leaves are changing on top of Brasstown Bald in Hiawassee, GA.

This is the time to take advantage of the fall colors, especially in the mountains of North Georgia.  The peak is normally in the next couple of weeks.  The closer you get to Atlanta the closer the peak will be to the first of November.

Take some time and plan for a day trip.  Their are wonderful scenic routes that you can take.  Here is a link for planning your trip.

I like using telephoto lens to capture the mountains.

Shoot a variety of photos at different zoom positions on your point and shoot or DSLR.  You will be surprised at how often a telephoto captures more of the vista than a wide-angle lens.  One of the reasons for this is the wide-angle makes things look further away.  You want to bring the impact up close and personal.

Normally I like to shoot the wide-angle with a flower or something close-up as the main subject with the mountains in the background.  I didn’t see any flowers that I could do this with on this trip.  The drought has affected some of those plants.

You can see the leaves changing here closer to the top of the mountain.

You might want to bring a polarizing filter to help cut the glare on the plants and increase the color.  Here is a link to explain what it can do for you.

This is the visitor center at the top of Brasstown Bald. There are great exhibits inside, but we just stayed outside with the great weather this weekend.

The best part of just taking off to the mountains this weekend was the surprises you find. We stumbled across Jim’s Smokin Que in Blairsville, GA.  We asked the park rangers where they recommended to eat and they told us about them.

I liked the food so much I wanted to be sure I put them in my blog here.  I hope you try them out.  I shot a few photos to show you how on the spur of the moment with a Point and Shoot camera you can tell a story.  I shot all of these photos here with my Nikon P7000.  They make a newer version called the Nikon P7100 that I highly recommend if you are in the market for a camera. 

(Option #1) This is how many folks might want to start their photo story on Jim’s Smokin Que. does this really get your attention?  I don’t think so.

The first four photos here were me working until I could find the photo that I would use to start the story.  I was torn between #3 and #4.  Which one do you like the best to tell the story?  Notice I asked which one to tell the story and not which one do you like the most.

Why would I ask the question this way?  Tell me why in the comments below.

(Option #2) I like this better than the first photo, but I still think this looks too generic as far as unique and making you take a second look.

(Option #3) I went between this photo and Option #4 as to which one I would use the lead the story.  I think both work.

(Option #4) This is most likely the photo I would choose to lead the story.  You know what to look for driving into Blairsville on the side of the road.

Had I known I would want to tell this story for some magazine I would want to go back and show them Smoking the meat out back of the restaurant.  I would want to show more photos in the kitchen to show how fresh everything is they prepare.

When you Google Jim’s Smokin Que you will find write ups that not only mention the food, but how clean the place is for a BBQ joint. It was clean and made me want to come again.

I love Jim’s tag line of “You can smell our BUTTS for miles!”  If I were assigned to shoot the story and not just on a trip to the mountains for the afternoon, I would try and be here when the counter was full. I think then the sign with everyone in the stools would have a little more humor.

Their famous “Butt Sauce.”  They also have a “Kickin Butt Sauce.”

It is important to show the things that help make the story different from other places.  All BBQ places have a sauce, but how they name that sauce can make it more appealing or humorous.  I think we see the humor of Jim Guess and his wife Donna.

I ordered the Beef Brisket sandwich with Cole Slaw & Baked Beans

Review by Mike E.

The Real Deal. Just delicious. I stumbled on to this place during a day trip up to the North Georgia mountains, and I am glad I did. Everything I had here was fantastic. This is  BBQ how’s it’s meant to be. But unlike authentic BBQ joints, this place is clean and the staff is very friendly.

I had the Pulled Pork Sandwich and it was great. It came on a great soft bun with a ton of pork. They have this sweet BBQ sauce they make called “Butt Sauce” that is just ridiculously good. I couldn’t drench enough of it my sandwich.  The baked beans were really tasty too. They had some sort of pepper (I think) mixed in which gave them a really unique and delicious flavor.

They are also friendly to the motorcyclist, which come from far away to ride these scenic highways of North Georgia.

Review by Mike S

I’m a BBQ snob, and Jim’s is in my top 5.  Great pulled pork, lean but not dry with a deep smoke flavor.  Good sauce (i went with the hot) and seved on a nice soft roll.  Beans and slaw were good, not great.  Very nice people, you could do surgery in their open kitchen.  A nice surprise on the way to Blairsville.

This is Jim Guess the owner of Jim’s Smokin Que.  He is a friendly guy making you feel at home at his BBQ stand in Blairsville, GA.

Why would I put into this blog those reviews I found on the web? Quotes are the greatest tool for the writer. The only think better than a quote is the recorded voice of the customer.  I would really like to go back and interview some of the customers and put together a multimedia package on the place.  It would just be fun to do and give me another excuse to go and eat some more of Jim’s Smokin Que.

It’s October and the time for pumpkins and scarecrows.  This is in the overflow parking area, which we had to use when we first arrived.  They are a great place to eat while you visit North Georgia.