Getting started

“You need to take more photographs.” This is almost always my number one observation when viewing portfolios of students and emerging professional photographers.

Kodak has told us this for years. However, with film cameras, every time you pushed the button, money left your wallet on its way to Kodak, but no longer!

With digital cameras, it costs nothing to shoot all the pictures you could ever need of a subject. So why do so many people, even photography students, shoot so few photos once they have found a topic that interests them?

Back in the day of film cameras and contact sheets (an 8 x 10 sheet of all the photos on a roll gang printed), it was possible to see how a photographer thought or approached a subject. With good professional photographers, you could even chart the progression of creativity as the exploration of the subject plays out on the page.

First, there was a reasonably decent shot followed by similar shots improving on the first view. Next, the contact sheet showed a change in angle or lens and more exploration. Usually, about the third or fourth approach, the photos became more focused (pardon the pun) or fine-tuned. A few frames before the end of the roll would be the best one or two shots with an immediate and noticeable drop in creativity. The goal was met. The best photo had been made, and the moment was over.

The point is the photographer dedicated enough energy, time, and film to allow their creativity to kick in. Even with the best photographers, it takes a few moments and some thought for this to happen. It NEVER occurs if the subject that attracted the photographer’s attention, to begin with, is not given the energy, time, and number of photos to allow the necessary infusion of his creativity.

When you have a chance to see a documentary about a photographer working, watch his face. If you allow your creativity to join you on your photo shoots, you will see familiar expressions of thought, frustration and positive head nodding on the photographer in the film.

You’ve just seen in action what you would see on their contact sheet given the opportunity.

So many people see something that catches their eye and takes a picture. This is where most people start and stop – with one or two images (correctly called snapshots). The first view of whatever piqued their interest is rarely the best possible view.

Something piqued our interest in the play when we went to a show. Maybe it was the ads or reviews or friends’ comments. If our interest is high enough, we may buy box or orchestra seating so we can have a perfect seat, a seat where we can see the stage from the best angle, a center where we can see all the stage and be close enough to see the expressions of the actors’ faces.

In theater, the director uses lighting and staging to help drive the story’s message. The director “blocks” where he wants the action to take place on the stage. He directs your attention to where he feels it needs to be for the play’s impact.

Buying a seat for a play is like picking a good angle for making a photograph. Find a position where you have good light and can direct the attention of those who see the photos to what you feel has an impact. Now, make a few photographs and let the action build.

One of the digital camera’s most significant advantages is the ability to see what you just shot and the freedom to delete those you don’t want anyone to see.

To create your finest pictures, shoot until you feel (know) you’ve got it. That usually requires a lot of shots. This is not relying on the law of averages or luck. It is not like shooting a burst of photos with a motor drive hoping at least one will capture the moment. That is relying on luck.

By shooting ‘till you feel good about it, you have allowed your creativity to take over and guide your ability to see as only you can see.

Remember, if most people watched plays like they take pictures, they would leave the theater just as the curtain rises.

So shoot and shoot and shoot …

[NIKON D100, 24-120mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 , ISO 400, ƒ/6.7, 1/180, Focal Length = 67]

Cameras have improved a great deal over the years. With digital cameras and all the new improvements, one might think an idiot could make a photograph.

However, a good photographer is no longer satisfied with producing merely correctly focused, exposed, developed, and printed pictures. Such technicalities are nowadays taken for granted. No matter how sharp a photograph is and how natural its colors are, it still can be the world’s most boring picture.

Why? Because the How—the “technique”—is not the end, the standard to evaluate a photograph is secondary to the WHY, the WHAT, and the WHEN. The impression the subject makes on the photographer decides the approach. And as a good writer knows grammar and spelling, synonyms, and different literary forms of expression, a good photographer must learn the devices and techniques to help them communicate their emotional impressions of the subject to an audience. To do this, the photographer must know the technical and aesthetics to make more than a memory jogger but a powerful message.

To produce interpretations instead of representations, a photographer must possess two qualities: vision and craftsmanship. Vision—the power to recognize the essence of a subject and translate it into graphic form—is a mixture of perceptiveness, sensitivity, imagination, interest in the subject, and that intangible quality called “talent.” It is a gift a person either does or does not possess. It cannot be taught. Craftsmanship, however, can be acquired by anyone willing to make an effort. Craftsmanship is the use of things like:

• LENS CHOICE
• LIGHTING
• PERSPECTIVE
• COLOR OR BLACK AND WHITE
• SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP OF SUBJECT IN SURROUNDINGS
• MOTION

The first thing a photographer does is observe with all their senses. The excellent photographer then takes all these impressions and emotions and isolates the subject using only the sense of sight. How does the passionate photographer communicate all these emotions of all feelings with just a sense of vision?

A good photographer is aware that the camera’s vision is objective, uncompromising, and matter-of-fact in contrast with the human eye, which is subjective, selective, and unreliable. A camera is a machine, and the look is part of a living; a brain controls thinking and feeling.

People are susceptible to a multitude of sensory stimuli. A camera is only a light-sensitive machine.

You must understand how to use the symbolic forms that the camera can capture to excite the observer to respond emotionally. You may want to choose to change a color photograph into a black and white photo to emphasize graphics. You may choose black and white to force the viewer to look beyond the beauty of the content. The famous LIFE magazine war photographer David Douglas Duncan preferred to photograph war in Black and White because he felt the flowers in the countryside took away from the horror of the dead soldier in the photograph.

It would help if you felt passionate about what you photograph—negative or positive. The emotions of the war photographer who hates seeing how much death is caused by war are as powerful emotions that the camera can capture as the wildlife photographer who captures the beauty of an animal in nature.

Reach for the camera when you feel something about a subject. Before you push the shutter, release and mute all your senses except what you see in the viewfinder. Look all around the issue and eliminate or include those elements which help create a mood and capture what you feel. Pay attention to the background and be sure that it is secondary to the subject and supports just as adjectives in a sentence to draw the viewer into the photograph as you would want to do as writing does for the reader.

When only those things you see in the viewfinder started to evoke the same emotions you felt before reaching for the camera are attained should you push the button to capture what you intended. This is when you can communicate with others more than a memory jogger. You will be creating new memories for your audience.

With a lot of practice, a photographer learns how to isolate how the camera will see. This craftsmanship is how they interpret the subject using various techniques to create an emotional response from their audience.

The more passionate a photographer is about the subject, the better the chances of obtaining a successful photograph. If the issue has no appeal to the photographer—the photographer shouldn’t waste time pushing the shutter release to take the photo.

Remember standing in your new clothes in front of the hedge, squinting into the sun, while dad or mom backed across the yard, pointed to the camera, and told you to smile?

Our family has years and years of pictures like that, all made in front of our grandparent’s house. Flipping through the albums, you can follow the year-to-year changes in the children and the changes in the bushes and trees that take up most of the picture.

These old photos bring back memories for us because we were there. For a stranger, looking at the same snapshots, the pictures show them nothing because the children are too far away to see what they look like, and the poses tell them nothing about the children themselves.

Here’s an idea. Get closer. Always get more intimate, and the pictures (almost any picture) will improve, especially pictures of children.

When we travel, the pictures we take of the children we see usually are quite different from those of our kids.

We make photos of children playing, being themselves, and not all cleaned up. Their clothes’ expressions and colors draw us to make these photos.

Please introduce yourself to the adults supervising the children and ask permission to photograph them. You may have to do this with gestures if there is a language barrier.

Whether it is your kids or those you photograph on the trip, get to the child’s eye level. Crawl on the floor with a toddler, or get on your knees to photograph preschoolers. Not only is this a better camera angle for children, but the kids like it when you are on their level.

The trick is to take the time to let the child become comfortable with you and your camera. When they begin playing in their world again, you can peak in with your camera and capture something of the actual child.

Children often mimic their surroundings. Give them a pot, spoon, or other grownup stuff and let them play to their heart’s content.

To add to the story value, place a toy in the child’s photo playing with the grown-up things. Use a wide-angle lens or set your zoom at its widest setting. Get close to the child and show their surroundings.

Take a lot of photos. With today’s digital cameras, there is no cost to making many photos; edit them on your computer before you print.

So take lots and lots of photos. Truly explore your subject in their world.

Following these suggestions, your pictures will be true treasures, and even a stranger will be impressed.

My wife just got her fire helmet for her role as Chaplain for our local fire department here in Roswell, Georgia.

I wanted to get a good photo of her in it for her to use in some PR for her role.

The main light I used for this portrait is the Godox V860iiN on a Godox Bracket which let me use the Godox Beauty Dish. Here is the setup, which also included one more Godox V860iiN as rim/background light.

I usually put the main light 45º above the person’s eyes, but when they have a hat on like my wife did in these photos, I had to compromise and lower the light.

Here I just backed up a bit and got a nice vertical using the same lighting setup.

I also came in much tighter and shot this as well. I shot these at an aperture of ƒ/1.8 to keep the emphasis on her face. The background is legible but not distracting.

I hope these tips help you with your next portrait.

[NIKON D4, 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 4000, 1/250, ƒ/8, (35mm = 70)]

I have been asked to speak to various groups about photography through the years. Many of these groups are photo enthusiasts.

Many of us take photos of our friends and family, and we remember when we look at the picture. Most of these types of images are memory joggers. The difference is that looking at the photo helps to revive a memory. For those who were not present when the picture was made, will they know what is going on or what you are trying to say?

One of the points I always make about how to improve your photography is comparing making pictures to writing. Photos are like sentences—every sentence must have a subject and a verb. Every image needs these same elements.

Many photos which are not successful are often like run-on sentences. What is the point of the picture? Where is the subject? What is going on?

The best way to improve grammar is to start simply and add elements. The best way to improve your photos is to keep them simple.

• Come in close and eliminate as much as possible from the viewfinder. This requires you to look around the subject and start cutting things out of the photo.
• Watch for busy foregrounds and backgrounds.
• Action is essential. This is the verb part of the photo.

The best way to make a photo is to put what you want to say into a sentence. After doing this, it is much easier to compose to be sure this is all you are saying and nothing else when making the photo.

Often the problem with most failed photos is the photographer never thought about what they wanted to say with the image.

Remember photos that communicate the photographer’s thoughts about what they wanted to say before pushing the shutter button.

Many years ago, I started doing 360-degree panoramic photos. They were first done with Adobe Flash.

Today we can use html5. HTML5 is the latest evolution of the standard that defines HTML. The term represents two different concepts. It is a new version of the language HTML, with new elements, attributes, and behaviors, and a more extensive set of technologies that allow for building more diverse and influential Web sites and applications.

Here are some I have updated for you.

If you are interested in this high-definition 360 panoramic, call me.

Here are more 360 Panoramics for you.

Look at the border fence from Agua Prieta, Mexico, to Douglas, Arizona, US. [NIKON D3, 24.0-120.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 500, 1/2000, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 120)]

Three mass shootings this past week. Shots rang out as Americans attended a local food festival in California, shopped at a Walmart in Texas, and headed downtown to enjoy some nightlife in Ohio. 

Most of these mass shootings in America are carried out by white supremacists and terrorists who are white males.

My friend Mark Stephen Adams, the coordinator for Frontera de Cristo, invited me a couple of times to cover the work they are doing on the Mexican/US border. Frontera de Cristo’s Mission Education Ministry focuses on building relationships and understanding across borders. We have facilitated crossing borders for more than 400 persons a year who wish to enter into a relationship with their sisters and brothers in Mexico. These trips and the insight gained help churches, presbyteries, seminaries, and individuals reflect and act biblically and theologically on what it means to be disciples of Jesus Christ when borders divide.

This was to be a vigil, but I don’t know what we’ll be doing. They come out here every week with the white crosses that bear the names of the people killed in this sector. They slowly walk down Pan American Avenue, picking up a cross, speaking the name of the deceased, and placing it name-faced-out toward people driving in their cars. 

Why do so many people risk their lives to cross the border? The U.S. Border Patrol has recorded 6,915 migrant deaths along the border between the fiscal year 1998 and fiscal year 2016, and humanitarian groups estimate the figure to be much higher.

“I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth.”

Job 29:15-17

Mark the and Frontera de Cristo team have had great success with one of the solutions: to help the Coffee Growers in Southern Mexico get a fair price for their coffee. Here is that story I did in 2010.

Mark has helped to educate me on how many people are trying to cross the border because of US policies like NAFTA. NAFTA made it so that US crops were cheaper than Mexicans could charge.

With their society being primarily an agricultural society, they had to go through their version of the “Industrial Revolution” in about ten years rather than the 100 years we took to go through it.

A Migrant is a person who moves from one place to another, especially to find work or better living conditions.

Dictionary

Most crossing the border today do not have a coffee farm. The solution is to stabilize the rest of the region so that there are jobs and they can feel safe living where they are from, as shown by the Just Coffee cooperative solution for the coffee growers.

“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.”

Hebrews 13:1-3

Today I hope you will take time and pray for those killed just for their skin color. Pray for their families and for economic stability in the region so families can stay together.

Storyteller Michael Dulaine talks to Jaime Palma as he shows him his work in magazines. [NIKON Z 6, VR Zoom 24-105mm f/4G IF-ED, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 18000, 1/200, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 24)]

Michael Dulaine was given this paragraph on his subject at the beginning of the workshop.

“Jaime Palma came to Vida Nueva church broken and discouraged with emotional issues. After counseling, Jaime is now an active leader in the church. He wants to be involved in outreach and is a professional photographer.”

Start the conversation with ABWE here at abwe.org/go if you are passionate about church planting.

Maybe you work in the media industry and want to explore telling mission stories. Go here to learn more about the Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Missions Workshop.

“Can you shoot this style?”– That is the one question rarely asked of a photographer. However, if you have been in the industry for a while, this is the one question you wish your clients would ask.

Your clients are more likely to go and hire a different photographer because they like their “Style.” If you are like me, there is a perfect chance that after 35+ years of shooting, I have done that “Style” in my past. The problem is that it isn’t on my website, because I changed to the latest “Style” to get clients and haven’t changed it to a different “Style” lately.

Now the only time I have seen clients go to a photographer and ask them to copy a “Style” is when the person they want to hire is out of their price range. This happened to many who wanted to hire Anne Geddes. Today, many try and copy her style, but few are really good at it like her.

Many pros can do many different styles. Through the years, I have done photojournalism, research photography, portraiture, and many more.

For a client looking for a “Fresh Look,” it is easier just to hire someone that they like their “Style” than to try and communicate to a photographer what they are looking for in a photo. Can you shoot some pictures for us like the photo on your website?

So, what do you do if you are a photographer and see some of your clients leave you?

Personal Project

Throughout my career, I have been to so many workshops and conferences to learn from the masters that I can no longer count them all. What is a common theme these experts shared as wisdom? YES!!!

Everyone has said you always need to have a personal project you are working on. Another way to put it is you need to push your unique “Style” and try new things.

I posted some of the variety I have shot here so you can see how much I have tried different things through the years.

I rarely used flash for the first five years of my career. I shot available light. I learned to see the light.

After years of using flash, the latest cameras have let me return and do natural light photography, but this time in color.

Today I mix light sources and do what I can to make the subject look the best and communicate quickly.

Most likely, you will never get clients to come to you asking you, “Can you shoot this style?” You can shoot a different style than they are used to seeing and send them your new work.

By the way, trying to do something new and different will stretch you, and you will often find ways to improve your eye and portfolio.

Red-Tailed Hawk [X-E3, XF55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 400, 1/60, ƒ/4.8, (35mm = 300)]

but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31 

Life is just difficult for everyone. When we look at our own lives, these struggles can be overwhelming. My colleagues in photography have gone through many years of turmoil.

Making the switch from film to digital was so tricky that many left the profession due to all the frustrations of learning what amounted to a new language involving computers.

Since the introduction of the SmartPhone, where anyone can take a photo and post it right away on the internet, the industry has changed.

I am constantly trying to figure out how to be of service to my clients. The problem is that much of what I have done in the past with supplying photos is less and less important to clients. Many of the things they would call me to do, they now use their phones to capture those images themselves.

Most of my profession feel daily like they are in a crisis. They have bills to pay, and the number of clients seems to be shrinking.

Do you try to understand others before trying to have them know you? Success is not about you; it requires others. You need to help others reach their dreams if you want to get yours. It would help if you connected to their memories, their desires.

My wife and I enjoyed watching “Call Me Francis” this past weekend. It is about Pope Francis’s path to becoming Pope; Father Jorge Bergoglio pursues his religious vocation in a country ravaged by a brutal military dictatorship.

It is a four-part series. There is this one point, after going through so many struggles in Argentina, he runs into a lady praying to Mary Undoer of Knots Novena. This resonated with him. When you see the story, you understand how difficult it was to help lead the church in a country run by a dictator. More than 30,000 people were killed by the government when he was helping lead the Catholic church.

The devotion to Mary, Undoer of Knots, has become more popular since Pope Francis encouraged the belief in Argentina. He then spoke about it during his first year as a pontiff. The theology of devotion goes back to the second century. Saint Irenaeus wrote, “The obedience of Mary untied the knot of Eve’s disobedience; what the virgin Eve bound by her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith.”

I pray to God for all my requests. I do find that a book of prayers sometimes helps me find the right words for where I am in life. Here are some daily prayers for Mary Undoer of Knots.

“We’re taught how to raise our hand to answer every question. The problem is that leadership, that building an organization, is all about knowing how to help others raise their hands and answer questions.”

GE CEO Jack Welch

We get so busy with our stuff that it’s easy to forget others’ needs and our effect on them.

There is another way you [, especially me] that we are too inwardly focused while we think we are outwardly focused. Can you imagine a business that never focused on reaching new customers? However, many of us [myself included] are focused only on those we know.

Strategy Question for You

Do you have a strategy to reach out to new people for your company? What are you doing this week to talk to someone new? Do you have a list of people to talk to you don’t know?

Maybe the knot you need to pray for God to untie is your resistance to actively looking for new clients.

Twenty-six years ago, in 1993, I started my new job at Georgia Tech after just graduating with my master’s degree in communications. The first project I was assigned was to use the new Nikon Scanner to help start a computer catalog of the photos shot for our department at Georgia Tech.

I tried to design a system using Filemaker Pro but found the software that came with the Nikon Scanner. That software was Cumulus.

Using that software, I created the first computer photo catalog system for Georgia Tech.

In 2008 I pitched to Chick-fil-A’s corporate communication team to use PhotoShelter as the system to handle the photos online.

PhotoShelter did a story on how we implemented their online database system. Here is that link.

I have consulted many businesses, nonprofits, and colleges through the years, helping them set up their photo catalog.

This week, I saw online that Andrew Wiard posted a great article, “THE FOUR CS – METADATA MUSTS.”

I have written about Metadata and the International Press & Telecommunications Council a few times on this blog. I recommend using PhotoMechanic to embed your text into your photos so they are searchable. You can also use the Adobe products Lightroom and Photoshop to do this as well. I find that PhotoMechanic is the fastest and easiest way to edit and, most of all, deal with embedding metadata.

When you are adding content to the metadata and you click on the triangle on the right of the Keywords, you will get the pop up you see with what I use is the Structured Keywords.

You can type each of the words or use a database that is much faster.

Carl Siebert has created two videos I recommend to help you speed up the process of creating keywords with PhotoMechanic.

I have created structured keyword lists for my clients and used a generic list for my tagging. For example, Chick-fil-A needs what I call industry-specific lingo for their searches. This would be true for any business.

Google is the Gold Standard for search. Google continues to work on its system, so you find what you need when you search for something. Now Google is very advanced. If you had ten people search the same word, they would likely get a different result.

You see, Google knows your past searches and goes to great lengths to be sure your search results fit you the best way possible.

Most photo search fields for photo databases look similar to the Google search bar, and you can refine those searches as I show here with PhotoShelter.

Andrew Wiard’s “Four Cs, Five Ws and an A” is missing what I think is critical. Keywords will help your clients find your photos.

Client Searches

If you shoot an assignment for a client, they will likely not need you to find those images. Clients will call and ask if you have a photo. They will then describe what they are looking for from your collection.

Do you have back-to-school photos? Do you have beach photos? Do you have bad weather photos?

While you can remember shooting a photo and finding it, you will improve your ability to see your images had they been tagged with keywords and not just a caption.

Link to blog post explaining that, “Photographers need to understand difference between Captions & Keywords”

Too often, photographers do a poor job because “We Assume and Use Our Own Words.” We have to think about the client looking for a photo. Not the words we would use to find it, but they will use.

We often create databases that communicate something beyond the target’s comprehension level. Use words your readers will be comfortable with. 

Avoid using jargon or acronyms – and if you absolutely must use them, make sure you explain them in simple terms. Think about the client. Be clear on what you’re trying to say and structure your words to make sense to your audience.

Click on the image above to go to fotoKeyword Harvester if you want to buy a keyword generator. It works great, especially if you are new to putting keywords with your pictures.

Summary

You need to embed words into your images to make them searchable. The words you use need to be the words that clients will use to find the photos, not the ones you would use to describe the images.

It would help if you had good Keywords besides writing a good caption – that’s the 5 ‘W’s. Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Without this information, a picture is useless for editorial purposes. There is no limit to additional details, but these five are mandatory.

I suggest buying a Keyword list to start with and then learning to create custom structured keyword lists for your clients and using PhotoMechanic to embed these into the photos.

One of the best ways to create a custom keyword list is to ask your client to do this for you. Can you give me the search words you would like to use to find photos in your image library? I did this with Chick-fil-A, and this helped me to help them find the images they needed. You can combine that list with a traditional keywords list.

When you take these steps, you will make your images easier to find for your clients and you.

There is a process to finding and telling stories about how a company changes lives.

Before you can tell stories for a company, the company needs a strategy. This strategy is most always built around increasing profits. If you are a nonprofit, you are still most likely trying to raise funds.

Start with the question, “What does the company do for its customers?” Usually, this falls into two categories from my experience.

First, they help their customers with a problem they are having and cannot fix on their own. A great example is plumbers, which help unclog people’s pipes.

Second many companies provide an experience for their customers. A great example of this would be Disney World.

Decisions are primarily emotional, not logical. Even with what we believe are rational decisions, the very point of choice is arguably always based on emotion.

Companies want to inspire their customers. This involves changing the way people think and feel about themselves so that they want to take positive actions. It taps into people’s values and desires.

The best thing to do is to tell a story. Stories don’t tell people what to do. They engage people’s imaginations and emotions. They show people what they’re capable of becoming or of doing.

The key is to find the best story that illustrates how your company played the hero by helping a customer.

Make a list of customer stories you have played a part in and get these elements for each level.

1. Identify your customer crisis and the needed help
2. What would have happened if the help was not received?
3. How bad was it for them? Bump in the road, or was this life and death?
4. Are they available to capture their story?
5. Will they be willing to tell their story?

Once you have a good list of possible stories, please go through them and rank them from the most emotional to the least dynamic.

While you will try and do the story with the emotional impact that pulls on people’s heartstrings, you must be realistic and see which one is doable. Which one can you get the best visuals to support the story?