The Citadel’s Rifle Legion Drill Team performs for the Project GO meeting held at the Francis Marion Hotel in downtown Charleston, SC.
[Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4, ISO 10000, ƒ/5.6, 1/250]

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I am in Charleston, SC covering a meeting where The Citadel’s Rifle Legion Drill Team performed.

The Citadel Rifle Legion Drill Team is an all-class co-educational drill team at The Citadel. Members of the Legion are essentially volunteers from the corps of cadets who wish to not only further a proficiency in drill, but also to represent the Citadel and the state of South Carolina through a developed expertise which forms from being on the team. The team also strives to promote community service as much as possible and takes part in many parades, performances, and special details throughout South Carolina and the neighboring states.

Now to capture the team inside in a large ballroom I had very little light. So I used my Nikon D5 with ISO 10000 to be able to capture them using available light. I shot at 1/250 shutter to somewhat freeze them, but did want a little movement with the rifles to show they were spinning them and throwing them to each other.

To get a good skin tone I used the ExpoDisc to get a custom white balance.

Ramone Nelson from Heritage High School won the best actor for his portrayal of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables at the Shuler Hensley Awards 2017 at the Cobb Energy Center on April 20, 2017. [Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.4, 1/160]

Last night we were part of the “LIVE TV AUDIENCE” at the 2017 Shuler Hensley Awards Show, which is for Georgia High School Musical Theatre.

We were blown away by the performance of Heritage High School’s Les Miserables.

Most other families were not getting these photos because their Smart Phones do not get well-exposed pictures from far away. The images start to follow apart when they crop in because the photo’s resolution drops. Next, it is difficult for them to set the white balance and control the exposure. Now the very best they can do if they know what they are doing is get well-exposed photos. However, they cannot see or recognize their kid because the phone’s lens can’t reach them.

I use the Fuji X-E2 coupled with the Fuji 55-20mm. Here are the latest camera versions if you want to buy them.

I receive a commission from any purchases made using the affiliate link. This is at no additional cost to you.

We started the evening with the Red Carpet, where our daughter Chelle and her friend Camile came in together.

I was photographing this event like every other parent there with a camera.

The school chose our daughter and Joe Pitts from her high school to represent them in the ensemble, which performed the opening and closing numbers.

I shot with my Fuji X-E2 because I wanted a quiet camera while in the audience. It did a great job.

I chose to shoot the performance on a tungsten white balance setting. This way, as the light color changed, it would look like the audience saw it rather than the auto-white balance trying to correct it.

Don’t rely on your phone to take photos of everything you want to preserve for your family memories. Buy a camera designed for theater, sports, or something else you need to capture.

For me, the second most fun thing to do other than traveling the world and meeting new people has photos to share with others about my travels.

I hope you are making some vacation plans for your summer. Here are some tips for capturing your vacation and keeping them for the years to come to help you remember your travel and share them with others.

Which Camera?

Here are three solutions I recommend: 1) The Point & Shoot; 2) The Mirrorless Camera; & 3) The DSLR

The Point & Shoot

This is the newest version of the Nikon P7800. Click on the image to buy. This link takes you to Amazon, and I get a percentage of the sale. You pay the same price.

Now the advantage of a point and shoot is size.

The Mirrorless Camera

This is the newest version of the Fuji X-E2s. Click on the image to buy. This link takes you to Amazon, and I get a percentage of the sale. You pay the same price.

The DSLR

I recommend the Nikon D750 with the Nikon 28-300mm as a small kit that will let you capture just about anything. Also, many prefer the Nikon 24-120mm ƒ/4 since it is a fixed aperture.

What to look for in all three cameras:

1. High ISO of at least ISO 6400 or higher
2. If there is only one lens, I recommend a zoom that covers the 28-200mm range.
3. Buy extra batteries
4. Buy multiple Memory Cards

Now the Fuji X-E2 and the Nikon D750 both had wifi that let me upload to my phone using their Apps and then post immediately to my social media. Very cool!

Keep your camera steady

When taking photos, the #1 problem is motion blur. Hold the camera still and SQUEEZE the shutter release. Don’t punch it.

Sometimes when I am excited to be somewhere, I will take my shutter speed and crank it up to be sure my photos are sharp and not blurry from camera motion. The rule is your shutter speed should be at least a fraction of a second of the lens’ focal length.

When I am excited, I use a faster shutter speed of 1/250 or 1/500 to avoid motion blur.

Talk to people

Don’t stand across the street with the longest lens and take pictures of people on the other side of the road. Do go up and introduce yourself. Tell them why you want to take their photo. I love your outfit. I like the things you are selling.

While taking portraits of people are great, be sure to back up and take over all shots to help capture the place you traveled so far to go and see.

Notice my shutter speeds are a little higher than maybe necessary. I grabbed shots and didn’t want them to be unusable due to camera movement.

Also, get super close. Please take photos of the food you eat and how it is served. Some traditions are different from where you grew up.

Don’t forget to capture things like the jewelry sold in the market and a closeup.

Be careful when you get super close. Your Depth-of-field will shrink. So the part of the photo in focus from front to back will get so shallow at an aperture of ƒ/1.4 that it can look out of focus. Here I shot the flower at ƒ/5.6. I could have quickly shot at ƒ/11, and the background would still be out of focus.

Carry extra batteries

Carry Extra memory cards

Carry them with you during the day

Every night is sure to recharge your camera batteries. Each morning, remember to pack the extra batteries and memory cards in some small case you can put in a pocket or a backpack.

Carry Pocket Size Moleskin Notebook

Get a good notebook. Mine stands up well to living in my pocket for a few weeks, no matter what I might be doing.

Carry a good pen

The pen must write with a very high level of reliability on the pocket notebooks that I use. “Dud” pens aren’t acceptable, nor are cells that sometimes choose to write only at a certain angle. These pens must be faithful and reliable, always writing when I pull one out to jot down a note.

I write down things like where I have been during the day. If I talk to someone, then I write their name down. Sometimes I get business cards and stick them in the notebook.

My workflow may be pretty different than yours, but I take time to be sure I put in the IPTC the location as well as some caption information so I can share this when I post a photo on social media, and it also helps me remind me where I have been and seen.

Book Cover – Buy the book on Blurb.com

Shoot for a coffee table book

While you may not do one every time, having something in mind will help you capture more variety.

Check out the link on the book above. You can see a preview of the book without purchasing online. Here is a blog post on producing a book I wrote earlier.

You can see how I combined some text with the photos to help me remember all we saw.

These are just some tips, and while there are many other things to share about the shooting, I hope this gets you started and excited about your travel plans this summer.

This is a Christian cross at the Masaya volcano, a caldera located in Masaya, Nicaragua, 20 km south of the capital Managua. [Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4, ISO 4500, ƒ/4, 1/100]

This past week Christians around the world celebrated Easter. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ and his teachings.

I have been reflecting on how my faith is impacting how I live.

I have been thinking about how Jesus came to earth and taught us how to live and did so by introducing us to deal with the most difficult of situations.

Matthew 5:38-48

Eye for Eye
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[b] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

When Jesus was here on earth, the Jews were under the rule of the Romans and treated much like slaves. Jesus also didn’t come as a warrior and take on the Romans. He used the opportunity to teach us how to live under the rule of others.

Most of us are not in positions of authority over others. After running my own business for more than fifteen years, I am more aware of this than ever. I am very much like a servant to my clients.

These verses in Matthew 5:38-48 remind me of how Jesus was teaching us the power of serving while being mistreated.

Luke 11:46

Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

Jesus also talked to those in positions of power and pointed out how they create burdens for people and do nothing to help them. 

What I find interesting in the scripture is that Jesus appeals to each person’s heart to do the right thing and doesn’t use the power play to change them.

I am thankful for my faith. I am grateful for having Jesus Christ as a teacher. As I read the scriptures, I realize that these are not stories of way back when but examples that help me live today.

No matter how much I struggle due to others, I must take on these burdens with love. We truly live out the Christian faith through our love of those who persecute us.

I often feel like this man on his cart being pulled by a horse surrounded by cars. I think the burden of trying to live with so little often while it appears those around me are in such luxury.

Then I am reminded of what a wonderful family I have and the vacations we have taken.

Have you got $2200? In this world, you’re rich. Assets (not cash) of $2200 per adult place a person in the top 50% of the world’s wealthiest.

If you have sufficient food, decent clothes, live in a house or apartment, and have a reasonably reliable means of transportation, you are among the top 15% of the world’s wealthy.

You earn $25,000 annually in the top 10% of the world’s income earners.

You earn more than $50,000 annually in the top 1% of the world’s income earners.

What is remarkable about Jesus is he taught us how to live no matter our status. His instructions, if we choose to obey them, will change our lives from the inside out rather than from the outside in.

Here are a couple of verses about obedience to Christ’s teachings for the Christian:

Romans 2:6-8

6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

John 14:15

15 “If you love me, keep my commands.

Romans 8:26

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

We have been given Jesus as an example of how to live within this world. He showed us how to pray because I think he understood how our life is so complicated that we need God to navigate it each day.

Jesus taught us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” and the only way to do this is, in my opinion, through a lot of prayers.

J. K. Rowling wrote in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.”

Long before the writings of J. K. Rowling was the Gospel writer Mark wrote to Christians who said, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Inside the Artic Circle, 1967: Eskimo child chasing ball. [photo by: Don Rutledge]

What a moment this is of a little boy playing with a ball. No matter where you are from in the world, this captures a moment of joy that we all experienced playing ball.

“Photography is not like painting,” Henry Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,” he said. “Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

Cartier-Bresson published a book in 1952 called The Decisive Moment. In the preface, he quoted Cardinal de Retz, “Il n’y a rien Dans ce monde qui n’ait un moment decisive” [“There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment”].

If you have studied photography, you will know about Henry Cartier-Bresson and The Decisive Moment. If you haven’t, you will most likely have no clue what it is all about.

Today I was hit with the problem that when we as photographers start talking to our clients on our terms rather than their terms, we lose them and often create a divide between us.

When talking to the public about capturing a “Decisive Moment,” I think we should say we are about capturing a “Touching Moment.”

You will hear people say “What a Touching Moment,” more than ever, and hear them say what a “Decisive Moment” is. You will see what I am talking about if you Google the two.

The Decisive Moment search yields all the stuff about photography, and the Touching Moment will turn up photos and videos about emotional moments.

While the Decisive Moment is more than just a Touching Moment, you still take time to educate your audience about what you are talking about and, in the exact moment, never give it the justice it needs.

I only suggest using “Touching Moments” as something the average person understands more than trying to educate them on what I call a “photographic term.”

I am often guilty of digging in my heels and trying to explain my position. If you want to win people over, learn their perspective and talk about your position from their perspective and not yours.

A little girl lost in her thoughts while in her family’s corn field in Togo, West Africa. [Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4, ISO 100, ƒ/1.4, 1/2000]

A few things produce such anxiety in my life that physically affect me. Going to the dentist for more than a cleaning creates high pressure in my life.

My blood pressure rises, and my heart rate increases.

This anxiety response isn’t limited to my fear of a dental procedure. My friend Brad Moore posted this just the other day on FaceBook:

Brad’s responses let him know that not only did we all suffer from this, some people gave them their solutions on how they have learned to deal with worrying.

When I was studying social work, we had to be trained to help people with their worries and anxiety. We learned to unpack those thoughts, creating fear. Worrying about something can help motivate you to do something, whereas stress can shut you down.

Let me talk a little more about Anxiety and then get back to worrying.

During this training, I learned about two types of anxiety-producing thoughts. There are first those things we have control over, and then there are those we have no control over.

When you let those things, you have no control over taking control of your thoughts; they can freeze you and send you into anxiety-produced depression. If you do not want to be motivated, you need to see a clinical counselor like a social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist.

You could be in this situation not due to your thinking but because of your genetics and how your body chemistry is set up. You can be very depressed just because the chemicals in your body are out of balance. A medication under medical supervision can bring you out of that deep depression.

Learning that I need to categorize something as in my control or out of my control helped me more than anything else I learned in the lesson. Once I could determine something was out of my control, I knew that no matter how long we pondered it, we were not going to do anything but waste our time.

However, there are things we can do for some things that cause us to worry.

One of the ways I addressed my worries was to create separate cases for my lighting gear needs. I have a chance for video LED lights, another issue with my Speedlights, stands, and umbrellas, and then this one pictured here for when I need a lot of power and might not have the ability available.

I still have two other cases that allow me to bring larger lights for those big jobs.

Worrying about my gear isn’t the only anxiety freelancers deal with regularly.

Remember, there are things out of your control, and these are the things that often still keep me up at night.

When these thoughts start affecting our bodies, like my time in the dentist’s chair, this can produce anxiety, which can be debilitating. Stress is like a hamster wheel that spins us around but doesn’t lead us to productive solutions.

Worry and Anxiety come with living

My personal experience has taught me that I will never get rid of worrying and anxiety. Even these tips are not enough. Life can be just overwhelming at times.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

–– Matthew 6:34

I turn to my faith as my way of navigating these times of stress. While scripture tells us not to worry, it also has the Lamentations.

A Lament in The Book of Lamentations or the Psalms may be seen as a cry of need in a context of crisis. Another way of looking at it is essential: laments simply being “appeals for divine help in distress.”

These laments, too, often have a set format: an address to God, a description of the suffering/anguish from which one seeks relief, a petition for help and deliverance, a curse towards one’s enemies, an expression of the belief of one’s innocence or a confession of the lack thereof, a vow corresponding to an expected divine response, and lastly, a song of thanksgiving.

I struggled with fear and worry for years. But through time, I began to find that the things that once would have sent me down an anxious spiral no longer had the same effect. It didn’t happen quickly but over days, months, and years.

I read words – of life – of truth. I was soaking them in, over and over, praying them out loud. Until they became so familiar, they replaced the other things in my mind that I’d battled against. There’s nothing magical about words and verses, but there is power through them.

“My God, My God, Why?” –Psalms 22:1

I see the laments as a time when we complain to God about something that isn’t right in our eyes. We then go on and request God.

I want to emphasize here that the writers of all the laments then go to the next step in their crying, where they express trust. This often is in the form of God. In the past, you did this. I know from my experience you do intervene. It is the remembrance of how God has taken care of them in the past, and they are asking for his deliverance from what they are suffering from now.

A Biblical lament, then, is an honest cry to a God who is powerful, reasonable, and just. It’s a cry that expects an answer from God and therefore results in hope, trust, and joy rather than despair.

What happens when I pray a lament?

I have had many sinus infections throughout my life, and this painful, disgusting condition is how I feel before I pray. While the response is not always immediate, I know that the answer to my prayer is like being able to breathe again.

The anxiety that froze me and kept me paralyzed is gone. I now am in a state of worry with hope. I can then think about what I can do that I have control over.

So on those nights, I cannot sleep because I wonder where my next check will come from; I can get out of bed and start writing emails. These emails may be pitching ideas to clients and potential customers or something else I haven’t done before.

Once I have written those emails, I can go to bed and sleep.

I believe God helped me get unstuck and even possibly have some ideas.

Summary

Stanley’s Stages of Freelancer’s Anxiety

1. Feeling of being overwhelmed, which leads to anxiety that depresses me
2. Please list what I can do and what I have no control over
3. Take action on what I can do

While these three things sometimes work, more than often, this is really what is happening.

1. Anxious thoughts which paralyze me
2. Depression due to realizing how much of this is due to my past decisions putting me in this situation. [Beating myself up stage]
3. Tears begin to flow that I have no way out of this situation.
4. Brought to my knees in prayer, where I am often yelling at God
5. Slowly I can tell God what the problem is about
6. Asking God to take action
7. I remember how God has helped me before. This reminds me to trust that God will help me again
8. While the problem doesn’t disappear, God has helped me become un-paralyzed.
9. I can think of some things I can do to take action
10. I realize I have done all that I can think of doing
11. I can relax and have hope. Because this happens at night, I can go to sleep finally.

I suggest reading the book of Lamentations in the Bible. Here are five ways it can help you.

1. They help you express your feelings in honest and healthy ways.
2. They help shape your senses, helping us interpret them in light of God’s redemptive plan for the entire world.
3. They teach us more about ourselves by revealing our greatest needs and how our minds and hearts influence our lives.
4. They teach us more about God, his character, and activity in us and the world.
5. They reorient us to the gospel’s truth and how it transforms us from the inside out.

This week I have had a few assignments. Each one needed one main photo that would work with an extended caption.

While I shot hundreds of photos around these locations, it came down to one main shot: if there was space for just one photo, I had to have one that summarized the event the best.

I like this first one for showing a brand new shipping container modified for a temporary drive-thru restaurant.

On Tuesday, there was a dedication ceremony where they unveiled the historical marker at the Original Dwarf House in Hapeville, GA. I arrived early, put my Nikon D5 with a 14-24mm lens on a monopod, and hoisted it up high to capture this shot. The fire the shutter, I just used the timer on the camera to trip the shutter release.

Now I had hundreds of photos of speakers, and people gathered around the historical marker, but all of them didn’t make the simple statement that this photo does. There is a historical marker in front of the Dwarf House.

The key to finding the photo is knowing the storyline. Now you cannot tell the entire story, but can you come close? Just think of what the audience needs to see.

[NIKON D4, 120.0-300.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 12800, 1/1250, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 270)]

Before you snap a photo like this, you must set your camera to the proper settings.

3 Settings: Exposure, Focus, & Motor Drive

EXPOSURE

Cameras today let you automate the exposure settings and concentrate on getting the moment.

You can put the camera into Manual mode, where you pick the Aperture, Shutter Speed & ISO. But first, I want to tell you why you want to choose specific settings.

First, you must freeze the moment for most of your sports photos, so I recommend shooting as fast as you can—1/4000th of a second. Of course, there are lighting situations that will not let you get that fast, but you must remember that shooting as quickly as possible is the priority.

Use a slow shutter speed only if you want to show the blur.

Second, choose a shallow depth of field to clean up the background by throwing it out of focus. Yes, there are moments when you may want a lot of depth of field, but this is the norm for most sports photos.

Third, too many people are concerned about a high ISO’s poor image. If you are shooting in daylight, this is not a concern with cameras made in the last couple of years. Take a look at the baseball player. Note the setting for ISO 1000.

What is essential is a sharp photo and focus more than if there is any noise in the image. You can live with noise more than with out-of-focus or blurred images.

The last thing I recommend if you have it is to turn on the VR [Vibration Reduction], often called OS [Optical Stabilization], which will help minimize the effects of your body movement on the image.

FOCUS

With today’s cameras, you can get many more in-focus cameras with autofocus than we could use manual focus.

First, set your camera to continuous autofocus rather than singular. The constant focus will keep the camera focused as long as you are keeping the camera active. The default setting for cameras is to push the shutter release halfway down. The back focus button activates your focus but doesn’t take the picture.

Many cameras offer a second button on the back that your right thumb can push. This way, you can enter the menu and separate the focus from the shutter release. You press the back button with your thumb, keep it held, and follow the action. Then, press the shutter release with your index finger when you want to take a photo. Using these settings will increase the probability of in-focus images.

I highly recommend getting out your camera and studying the Auto Focus section. Each camera is different from all other cameras and valid even if you own the same brand name.

Also, search the Internet by putting in your camera and looking for videos in which someone has already studied the camera and discovered the advantages of specific settings.

Motor Drive

You want to set the camera to take more than one photo when you press and squeeze the shutter release. I recommend going to the highest frame rate. After that, your camera will let you shoot.

Learn to anticipate and push the button milliseconds before the moment and hold the shutter to capture two or three frames. This way, you may get the ball popping out of the glove, changing the play from safe to out.

Don’t just keep the shutter pressed all the time. First of all, you will find the camera will stop firing. The camera must write those images to your media card, and you will miss better moments because you cannot take photos.

For those who own the Nikon D4, here are my settings for that camera for shooting sports. Next, here are the settings for the Nikon D5. Finally, here are my latest sports settings for the Nikon Z9.

My Gear for these photos

Nikon D5	Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 Sport
Sigma 2x

[Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, ISO 5000, ƒ/5.6, 1/250]

If you don’t know what you want to capture in a moment, then the odds are that you will not capture that moment.

Take this dance scene from the musical Oklahoma! I wanted to capture all the dancers in a peak moment where they were all in step together, and the light was good on their faces. Just as important was getting the best expressions possible.

It is difficult to capture the moment when all the dancers are in time together, and all their body parts, hands, and feet are in sync. As you can tell, I have a definite moment in dance numbers that I am looking for.

Peak moments with people almost always are where I can see their expressions, and the word brings more to the photo. I remember studying the cowboy art of Russell and Remington. The most significant difference between their work compared to other western artists was in the details of the expressions of their characters.

One of the photos I took, even my daughter’s friends, had fun with by creating a meme where the reference to this photo of Aunt Eller chewing out Ali Hakim looks a lot like Michelangelo’s painting of The Creation of Adam on the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. My point here, pun intended, is that significant moments are what artists throughout history have captured.

If you want to know what you need to capture, then study the master painters. The more you become familiar with these iconic images, the more you will recognize those real-life moments.

Now laughter and smiles are a good thing to always look for, but please don’t try and make all your photos “happy.” This is the fastest track to looking fake if you overdo it. You will have coverage that looks like the “Stepford Wives” movie.

Now the other thing you will notice in most situations is the lighting isn’t always perfect as in this photo. Will Parker is in the light, and Ado Annie is not as well lighted. Again you are going for the best moment.

In a musical, the actors do all they can to over-emphasize moments. In real life, you must really pay attention to people and feel their emotional state. This will help you anticipate moments.

Being easily deceived or tricked and too willing to believe everything other people say means you are gullible. You are easily deceived because you haven’t taken the time to observe people and pick up on those body language moments that tip you off.

All I can say is you must immerse yourself into storytelling. Watch movies, musicals, and plays, which will give you insights. To see moments study the masters in the arts.

An association is a conglomerate of professionals engaged in the same profession working toward goals that promote the best practices and ethical behavior and provide services for the general welfare and common benefit of all members.

But what happens when an industry starts losing jobs, as in photojournalism?

Photographers, artists, and videographers have experienced a 43 percent decrease in jobs since 2000, dropping from 6,171 to only 3,493 jobs in 2012 — the most significant difference faced by newspaper staffers, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE). Reporters and writers were next in line, dropping jobs by 32 percent. Copy editors, layout editors, and online producers lost 27% of all jobs.

However, while there are parts of the industry, shrinking photography usage is at an all-time high.

This year, according to the market research firm InfoTrends, global consumers will take more than one trillion digital photos.

The number of photos taken each year is exponential: It has nearly tripled since 2010 and is projected to grow to 1.3 trillion by 2017. The rapid proliferation of smartphones is mostly to blame. Seventy-five percent of all photos are now taken with a phone, up from 40 percent in 2010. Full-fledged digital cameras now represent only 20 percent of the tally and are expected to drop to just 13 percent by 2017, InfoTrends said.

Photographers produce and preserve images that paint a picture, tell a story, or record an event. To create commercial-quality photographs [photos people will pay you to take], photographers need technical expertise, creativity, and the appropriate professional equipment. Producing a successful picture requires choosing and presenting a subject to achieve a particular effect and selecting suitable cameras and other photographic enhancing tools.

I think each professional photographer either consciously or subconsciously looks at an organization as a way that will help them grow professionally and socially. The question about these organizations is whether they can meet those needs/wants and relationships that professional photographers desire.

NPPA, ASMP & SWPJC provided: [they didn’t do all these each of them, but collectively for me, they did]

1. Education
2. Advocacy
3. Networking
4. Benefits
   1. Health Insurance
   2. Camera Insurance
   3. Discounts with vendors
5. Benchmarking

EDUCATION

Before the internet, these organizations were pretty much it when it came to those services; after the internet and when it became easy for people to create their websites and share photos/videos, there was a lot of World-Wide competition.

Here are some people that put more on their websites for free photography education than the organizations ever offered:

1. David Hobby – The Strobist
2. Improve Photography LLC
3. FStoppers

Others came along and took their production of the content up to higher levels and then charged for their services. Scott Kelby was the biggest name in photography doing this, who started PhotoShop World and KelbyOne. More recently, Jeremy Cowart tells you not to spend money on a four-year college but spend it on his online See University. By the way, that isn’t an accredited school.

ADVOCACY

While I have been appreciative of all the work ASMP and NPPA have done on copyright protections, none of this helped me keep any staff job or assignment.

Professional Photographers would be lining up to join the organizations if the advocacy was helping the average photographer.

I am sure the lawyers and leaders of those organizations can point out how protecting copyright is necessary. However, for the last 20+ years, more and more clients are now more copyright-savy, asking for all rights or asking you to work for hire. We did a great job empowering those hiring us and had little to do with protecting our incomes.

I am also sure that without all this help from the lawyers, we would be even worse off. But then, Advocacy is seldom realized in a tangible way for a professional photographer to join an organization. They need help getting jobs and knowing how to keep them.

NETWORKING

Today with social media, we are more connected than ever before. We can organize with other photographers in our communities for free.

An organization/association can offer some requirements to be a member and, due to those standards, offer a quality environment for its members. This is one of the enormous benefits of an association. There is a filter so that those in the group are what you want to meet up with.

Benefits

It is difficult to get discounts without an organization that can negotiate this with vendors. The vendors want access to the membership, and the members need help keeping their costs down.

WHY?

The question people must ask is, “Why?”. Why do I need an association? Do associations need to be asking why they exist?

Once an organization can tell you in a sentence its purpose, people can quickly decide if that purpose meets their needs to survive.

Associations today haven’t caught up with where their membership lives. They lack focus that services their member’s needs.

BIG SECRET!!!!

The one thing people are looking for more than anything else is relationships that are genuinely enriching their lives. First, they want to be accepted by people as they are. They want those relationships to help them grow. Challenge them to get better and be there when things are difficult for them.

When an organization works hardest at treating people with honor, dignity, and respect–It will grow in membership.

Why did so many photography associations shrink? First of all, many jobs disappeared in traditional places. Second I believe the members were not all treated with honor, dignity, and respect.

People want in a relationship not so much to get something but to be allowed to give. Not everyone was welcomed or cherished.

The big secret is that people are looking for relationships. How respectfully will we be to nurture this so they and the organizations will grow?

Associations are greatly needed but cannot be like your father’s association.

Nikon D100, Nikon 24-120mm ƒ/3.5-5.6, ISO 200, ƒ/8, 1/180 – 4 Alienbees B1600s

I have been looking through some older photos. I started pulling all our pictures of our daughter for a project we are working on.

Most photos have been on CDs and DVDs, and I am putting them onto a hard drive. I will be going through them, selecting our favorites, and then putting them into categories like Birthdays and Holidays.

For these photos, I found I also had a picture of the setup. Here is that photo to see how I set up the lights in our garage in my older house.

Here are a few different shots from that day back on October 31, 2002.

The Nikon D100 had a 6.1 Effective Megapixel CCD for 3,008 x 2,000-pixel images. The D100 had about 7.5 stops of dynamic range compared to today’s cameras of about 12 to 14 stops.

Just a comparison of the Nikon D100 and 13 years later, the D5

Nikon D100 Key Specs	Nikon D5 Key Specs
Announcement Date: 2002-07-26 6MP – APS-C CCD Sensor ISO 200 – 1600 Nikon F Mount 1.8″ Fixed Type Screen Optical (pentaprism) viewfinder Three fps continuous shooting No Video Mode 780g. 144 x 116 x 81 mm	Announcement Date: 2016-01-05 21MP – Full-frame CMOS Sensor No Anti-aliasing (AA) filter ISO 100 – 3280000 Nikon F Mount 3.2″ Fixed Type Screen Optical (pentaprism) viewfinder 14.0 fps continuous shooting 3840 x 2160 video resolution 1415g. 160 x 158.5 x 92 mm Weather Sealed Body Replaced Nikon D4s

1:3 lighting ratio – Nikon D5, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/5.6, 1/200

When I teach lighting, I always teach the 1:3 lighting ratio. After I show how you set up the leading light and the fill, I show them some ways to change the background quickly using gels.

Now before I add the gel, I shoot this photo where the subject is on a white background. I will shoot with just the leading light and the fill light and then put both lights on with no background light so that the students can see individually what each morning is doing.

Now I will turn the main light off and then turn on just the fill light.

Now for the main light it was measured for ƒ/5.6. I didn’t change the exposure on the camera I just shot the fill light at ƒ/4 to show it is darker than the main and where the direction of the light is coming and how it affects the model’s face.

Then I combine the two lights.

Then we talk about how she is in front of the white background, but it looks like a light gray.

I put two lights on the background and then measured the light so that it was about one stop brighter than the main light. So the background here is ƒ/8.

This is the histogram without the background light. On the furthest right on the histogram, you can see that the value is a good amount away from the far right.

This is the one where I have the background light set at 1-stop brighter than the fill. Notice that most of the histogram is the same, but the far right is on the far right. This shows how the white value is recorded. If you are not butting up on the right, there will be a bit of gray or often a tinge of blue when you print out the photo in the background.

Now when I add the gels like this red or the blue above, we take a light reading of the background. We want the value to be 2–stops darker than the leading light. So here, the background is measuring ƒ/2.8.

You will notice that you need to move the person away from the background when using white for a background.

Now I demonstrate this by using a black background to make the color look like this; you need to be sure the background is 2–stops brighter than the leading light. So if this red background were black with the gel on it, the reading would be then ƒ/11, which is 2–stops brighter than the ƒ/5.6 of the leading light.