Category: Photography

Common portrait mistake made by photographers

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
 
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/4.8, 1/500

When making a person’s portrait, people often end up with a photo like the one above. Instead, they are looking for an image like the one below.

 
 
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/4.8, 1/500

As you can easily see, the background in the first photo is quite distracting and competes with the face of the person. In the second photo, some people might even say the subject just “pops” out of the picture.

Notice the camera settings are identical.

The difference is the distance the subject is to the background. For example, in the first photo, the person is right next to the background, and in the next one, the subject is 30 feet away from the background.

If you have a very distracting background like the brick wall, move the subject very far away to be able to throw the background out of focus.

Even if the background is a plain solid color wall, pull the person away from it, so you do not see the wall’s texture.

Don’t be a Naysayer

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 

This photo is of the Mexico/US border in Douglas, Arizona. Many children are now crossing the Mexican border without their parents. You can read more about this here. Why? They are desperate to solve a problem they have, and even risking their lives in the middle of the desert is better for them than remaining in their situation.

I mention this to remind us that when people come to you with a problem, you are either part of the solution or not.

Naysayers

nay•say•er: a person who says something will not work or is not possible : a person who denies, refuses, or opposes something

For many years while I was a staff photographer, people classified me as a “naysayer” due to how often people came to me to ask me to do something, and I explained why it wasn’t possible.

I remember when it finally hit me how negative I was when my co-worker jokingly said that I always was saying no. While the comment hurt me, I realized he was right.

Are you a Naysayer?

My experience has been there are more naysayers on staff than freelance. You cannot grow your business by saying no. It would help if you learned how to say yes. Those freelancers who say no too often are soon looking for another career. However, being on staff is a little more protection than being negative. However, this has a time limit as well.

A good clue that you might be a naysayer is other people are starting to do what you perceive as your job.

“Why are they bringing in an outsider to do what I am supposed to do?” is a question you might be asking if you are a naysayer. While working as a staff photographer for a college, I couldn’t understand why the admissions office was hiring freelance photographers to shoot their recruiting catalogs.

Hiring an outsider is not always due to being a naysayer. Many colleges around the country have staff photographers who do most all the work for a school. However, when it comes to the school’s advertising, they are looking for a particular style. You should be fine if you offer to help them and the photographer is coming in to shoot.

If you feel threatened by this outside photographer, take a deep breath. Ask yourself if anyone has come to me and I answered them with reasons their request isn’t possible. If you did, then you should feel threatened.

Too often, people take the attitude that it is their job and the rules say I have this responsibility. But, unfortunately, you do have this until you become an obstacle to people in the company trying to get their projects done.

Be an Optimist

The opposite of the Naysayer is the Optimist. When people come to you with requests, learn how to turn their proposal into a reality. While someone’s request has some vast problems look first for something positive. A big clue is that if nothing seems good about their request at the bare minimum, you can start by being excited that they came to you with their idea.

“I am honored that you thought of me to help you with your project” is a great way to start on a positive note.

When addressing an obstacle, talk about a solution. For example, let’s say you don’t have a particular piece of equipment to make that happen. Tell the client if we can rent or buy a part you don’t have that would make it possible. Maybe you need an extra hand to make it happen. For example, for me to move the couch from this room to another, I need some help carrying it, would you or can you find someone to help? I am more than willing, but I am busy now and could use some service to find another person.

The trick is to let them know from your experience that we need to address something for success. I am more than willing to help you, but my boss has me working on these projects. So while I can ask them to let me help you, it would be better for you to request my time.

Remember Storyline

Looking at the storyline elements will help remind you why you need to be the Optimist and not the Naysayer.

The person coming to you has a Conflict/Task and is looking to you to help them as a Guide/Resource. If you say no, their issue doesn’t go away. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, she will move down the yellow brick road to find the solution to her problem.

The difference between the Optimist and the Naysayer is the Assignment they give to the person. Please give them the solutions [Actions] to help their story turn into a comedy, not a Tragedy. You saying no is just not an option for someone who needs to solve a problem.

When someone proposes a new program that will compete with your schedule, tell them how you want to help and need to understand their goals. Also, ask for their critique on how the current program you are doing isn’t meeting those needs. Don’t be quick to defend your program.

If you listen, you may learn that your program isn’t serving all the needs, or maybe you need to tweak the communication about your program to show how it addresses those needs. Either way, there is a perception that it is not meeting the audience’s needs.

Your role may change going forward, but learning how to listen and adjust makes you more valuable to them and the organization.

As long as you are helping the organization address the new issues facing it, you are part of the solution and will have a job in the future. If you try and protect and keep things as they are, you are not growing and slowly helping the organization die.

The most under utilized setting on a camera

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 

Your photos might look much better if they look sharp in the viewfinder. This dial is how you make sure they are in focus.

Most cameras today have a diopter adjustment dial near the viewfinder. For example, this arrow points to the diopter adjustment on the Fuji X-E2.

The camera comes with diopter adjustment in the rangeof  –4 to +2 m–1 to accommodate individual differences in vision. Rotate the diopter adjustment control until the viewfinder display is in sharp focus.

Fuji covers this in the basic setup of the camera, right after you set the date and time for the camera. It is more important than all the other settings like ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Focus settings. Why? You need to see the subject and know if it is in focus and read all the information they provide you in the viewfinder.

First Steps 

  1. Attaching the Strap
  2. Attaching a Lens
  3. Charging the Battery
  4. Inserting the Battery and a Memory Card
  5. Compatible Memory Cards
  6. Turning the Camera on and Of
  7. Basic Setup
  8. Choosing a Display
  9. Focusing the Viewfinder 
  10. Adjusting Display Brightness

The great advantage of the mirrorless Fuji X-E2 over a conventional DSLR is when looking through the viewfinder, you can do everything through it. So once you adjust the diopter, you don’t need your glasses to review images or change settings in the menu; use the EVF instead of the LCD screen.

Photography is about anticipating

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 800, ƒ/5.6, 8.6 sec.

I posted this photo on Facebook last night, and a friend said, “I love this photo. It looks like a postcard. What are the settings you used?”

The Facebook comment makes me want to say Patience Young, Grasshopper. If you are not old enough, in the 1970s was a TV show called Kung Fu. Here is the scene that I loved:

It would help if you had the patience to make the photo I created. So often, when people travel, they see a beautiful scene and take a picture, and few will return to the spot to take it at a better moment.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm ISO 200, ƒ/22, 1/10

While I love this photo just as much as the nighttime photo, I like it for different reasons. It has a different mood in the picture.

I also took this photo later in the week while in Kona, Hawaii.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/5

I realized that if I could wait and capture a car driving down the hill in the frame, I could have their headlights light up the road, and the red tail lights add just a little color.

I tried the photo with cars coming up the hill but felt the headlights were too bright. Maybe you like this better. Here is one of those photos.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 800, ƒ/5.6, 7 sec.

To take the photo, I put the camera on a tripod and then timed how long it was taking cars to go down the hill. I wanted between a 6 to 10-second exposure to have the lights move enough through the scene. So I played with the ISO, ƒ-stop until I found something that worked to give me about 7 to 8-second exposures.

The other thing is that this must be done at dusk and not too late, or the sky will be black.

The lesson here can apply to all photography. You must find a good composition and wait for the action to develop. You are anticipating what will happen.

Nikon D100, Sigma 15-35mm, ISO 400, ƒ/6.7, 1/180

I arrived early for a basketball game to put a camera behind the backboard and four strobes in the ceiling to light the basketball court. I then had to wait for what I had anticipated would happen in the game.

Ansel Adams called this pre-visualization. I have seen many scenes before, and now I would plan to capture them.

What will you photograph today that will require you to arrive early and wait?

Client’s memory is very short

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 640, ƒ/4.8, 1/500

Friday 13th

Tonight there is a full moon, and it is Friday the 13th. For those that are superstitious, I guess this is a Freaky Friday.

The June full moon is frequently the one nearest to the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 this year. Unfortunately, because of a neat bit of galactic geometry, the full moon on Friday will be the lowest in the sky in 2014.

Something that I am starting to notice is how clients can be Freaky. Clients and people, in general, are very demanding.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.5, 1/340 [photo by Chelle Leary]

While I have been on vacation and relaxing, I have had to give assignments to my friends to shoot for my clients. I never tell my clients I am unavailable without always finding someone to shoot the work for them if I am unavailable.

We can go back to Biblical times to see how the Israelites became restless when Moses went up the mountain.

Exodus 32:1
32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

Only Good As Your Last Job

You may have heard the old saying that you are “only good as your last job,” but I would say the lesson is to work hard at keeping new work in front of your clients. Could you not rely on them to remain faithful?

In the movie Ten Commandments, based on the Bible events, the people continue over and over to become restless even after significant miracles performed by Moses. For example, to get the Jewish people out of the slavery of Egypt, there were ten plagues. As they were on the run, Moses parted the Red Sea. Still, throughout their time in the desert, the people complained.

I cite that story to say, don’t be surprised when your clients move on without you, even if your work is the best in the industry.

Importance of personal project[s]


While one of my projects was a series of videos on a coffee cooperative in Mexico near the Guatemala border, I continued to shoot more videos all the time.

Blogging

While I continue to create new content by shooting daily and creating videos weekly, I also create new content on this blog three times a week.

eNewsletter

Each month I create an eNewsletter to connect with my clients. Here is a link to the most recent one that I sent out.

Phone Calls

I learned from my good friend Ken Touchton a while ago that calling your clients and prospects each week was a great way to remain in front of your clients. Ken told me that each Sunday evening, he took a few minutes and made a list of five clients and five prospects he would call that week. Two phone calls each day to a client and one to a candidate.

Doing this helped him to build a great client base that grew through the years.

emails

Today I also connect with clients by checking in with them through emails. I do this regularly.

Social Media

I also connect with and follow my clients and prospects through social media sites like Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, and Pinterest.

So what are you doing to remain in front of your clients? Remember, even God had a difficult time remaining in the minds of his people.

Going freelance and pricing advice

by Stanley Learybusiness / Photography / pricing
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5, 1/100

Editorial Note: Writing to you while on vacation in Emerald Isle, NC. The photos are some from my time here.

Questions just this week

Question #1: if someone wants to buy a digital copy of a photo and not a print, what is the recommended price to charge them?

Question #2: I have always had a strong desire to shoot full-time on my own, so I am praying through if this transition is right for me. Would love to hear your thoughts.

First Pricing

I heard it put once very well when it came to pricing. The photographer was talking about portrait and wedding photography. First he pointed out to me that this is a luxury and not a need.

Since no one needs your photos to survive then you shouldn’t feel bad about your prices. He believed that you want to be known as the most expensive photographer just like a jeweler wants to be known this way. Mind you Walmart still sells more engagement diamonds, but unless you can be a volume discounter this is a hard way to realistically build your business.

The photographer then went on to tell me your goal is to get all the money you can from their pocket to yours. Sounds a bit greedy, but they explained this as you want to get the most you can for your work that they can afford.

If the people who are talking to you about your work are minimum wage workers barely getting by, then your prices that you can realistically charge are most likely not enough for you to live on. However, if the people you are talking to live in a penthouse on 5th Avenue in New York, then you are able to charge a larger amount.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5, 1/250

What must you charge?

Now we know you can charge just about anything depending on the ability of the client to pay, what must you charge? You need a minimum price that you need to charge or you lose money. Do this too much and you are out of business or even worse you go bankrupt.

Basically you figure out what it costs you to live plus what it costs you to run your business. This figure will be very different if you choose to live in Beverly Hills, California or in Lizard Lick, North Carolina. If you choose to drive a Rolls Royce or a Nissan Versa.

I break down the parts of an estimate here in an earlier blog post.

Here is another blog 9 things you need to do before going freelance full-time, which I also recommend for reading.

Must Charge vs What Can You Get

The Gap between what you must charge to pay the bills and what you could charge is where you negotiate your price.

In assignment work and stock photography the best place to help get some industry ranges is fotoQuote Pro.

When someone wants to use one of your photos, you don’t need a number pulled out of a hat, you need help to get paid fairly for your work. You need fotoQuote, the industry standard photo pricing guide for stock and assignment photography.

The fotoQuote photo pricing guide is the only source of photo pricing information for photographers that includes powerful coaching help for every category. The fotoQuote price guide not only helps you come up with a fair price for your image license, but it also gives you the negotiation information you need to help you close the sale.

Numbers by themselves don’t mean anything if you can’t convince your client that your image is worth what you are asking.

The license for each image can easily be copied so that you can embed it into the metadata for your image, illustration, or video clip. The license can also be pasted into an external invoice or document. It will look like this:

Usage: Magazine Editorial.Consumer
Circulation: 25k to 50k
Size: Cover
License Duration: 1 Year
Territory: US Only
Industry: Publishing-Periodicals
Rights/Exclusivity: One-Time Non-Exclusive
Release Information: No model release

The rate fotoQuote gives you for assignment work is what you charge on top of your “creative fee” or base price.

Hobbyist → Part-time Photographer → Full-time Photographer

Timing your transitions from a Hobbyist to a Part-time Photographer is much easier than going full-time.

First let me try and talk you out of doing this. Seven Reasons Not to Become a Freelance Professional Photographer

I highly recommend keeping your day job while starting your freelance business on the side. When your day job is REGULARLY getting in the way of your FREELANCE this is when you should consider going full-time freelance.

In 2002 I was laid off from what I considered a great job. Well truthfully I was very frustrated with the environment for the last few years I was on staff. While I enjoyed the opportunities to shoot a variety of subjects, I was finding myself out of sync with my coworkers.

I should have left earlier, but I didn’t think I could made it as a freelancer. I liked having people just give me things to photograph and go home and come in the next day and do it again.

When I got called in and told that my position had been eliminated I was devastated. I called my wife and friend to come and help me pack up my gear and books and move out. As we were packing up my things my friend was trying to comfort me and made a very profound comment. “Stanley if you put in the amount of effort you have been doing here in your freelance, you will be a very successful photographer.”

I thought about his comment a lot that first year of freelancing.  He had said it to me with such conviction that I realized he really believed it to be true. Later even my wife would comment and say that he was right.

My life did change and each day I got up and worked hard.

By the way my freelance was starting to really pick up before this happened to me.

Tips for the freelancer

  • Keep a similar work schedule to the one you had on staff. Get up and go to work. While you may not have to drive anywhere to commute, still get out of bed eat breakfast and then take that commute to another part of your house/apartment.
  • Get dressed for work. One of my friends Ken Touchton told me in those early days that he used to get dressed and put on a tie just to go to the next room. It helps put you psychologically in a different frame of mind.
  • Create a calendar of events. Just like you had in your last job, schedule time for different thing you need to be doing. You need to create; meetings, lunch dates, and find events from things like the Chamber of Commerce to attend in your community.
  • Create a database of clients, prospects, and family/friends. You may need to buy a list to add to your present list. You may need to go to the library and find those resources with contacts in them for your niche´. Remember this formula that for every 1,000 contact names in your database only 100 of them will be interested in your services. Of those 100 contacts only 10 of them will become a client.
  • Create a plan on connecting to those in your database. Another formula is to know that it takes about 6 – 8 touches with a contact before they remember you. Therefore you need to have a plan on how to contact these folks in a way that is positive and not annoying. I recommend mixing up your arsenal. I use: Phone Calls, emails, eNewsletters, Blogging, Postcards, and events as ways that I can make contact with my prospects and clients.
  • Develop an elevator speech. You need to be able at a moments notice explain to anyone what you do. Here is a link to mine.

Freelancing is like a farmer. You will be plowing the fields, weeding and doing a lot of work long before you will be able to harvest the crop. 

If the farmer doesn’t put in the time and investment then there is no harvest.

Just like the farmer you can do everything right, but there are things outside your control. Most of the farmers I know have a tremendous faith in God and know that while they can do everything right there is much out of their control. They pray for guidance and wisdom. Most of all they pray for grace.

A Photographer’s Quest to Capture the Mood of a Place

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 3200, ƒ/4, 1/500

No matter where I adventure, I always want to capture a photo that encapsulates the mood I felt about the location.

This week my family is enjoying a vacation at Emerald Isle, NC. You can see the ocean from our front porch, and from the back porch, you can see the Intracoastal waterway. Get the sunrise and sunset over the water.

The downside of our location is seeing all the telephone poles and the wires stringing along them and cluttering the view.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/30

Our neighbors up and down the coast are all in what appears to be vacation mode. None is in a hurry. Even driving down the road, people are way below the speed limit rather than in a rush. It is peaceful and very relaxing.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/7.1, 1/640

Couples enjoy time together in the surf and walking along the beach. Here I enjoyed watching the team from our 3rd-floor balcony.

I can feel some of what I captured in the photos, but still, I am not entirely satisfied that I have an image that truly captures the mood of the place.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/75

There are no ships, just quiet times along the beach in the evenings.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/8, 1/800

I am also enjoying capturing the moments of the youth of today, reminding all of us that are older of the times we spent playing football on these same beaches years ago. Here I have captured my nephew with our new member of the family who married my niece. I think the activity captures a mood and takes me back.

Are these just memory joggers for my family and me, or are they capturing universally understood moments?

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/5, 1/1800

Do the umbrellas on the beach capture what people around the world can relate to? Does this help take people to their vacation memory?

Visual metaphors are what most photographers who shoot with a photojournalistic intent look for when trying to capture the mood of a place. Travel photographers, street shooters, and photojournalists are looking for those triggers that create a mood and capture a moment.

Stay tuned and see what else I find during the rest of my vacation on Emerald Isle, North Carolina.

Photographer’s Ingredients for Creativity

by Stanley LearyPhotography

Inspiration from Photographers

I have many different things that I use to keep me inspired and keep those creative juices flowing. Another photographer’s work is one of the best ways to be inspired. One of the photographers I have followed my entire career is William Albert Allard.

There are two things that I continue to learn from him. First, I am inspired by his vision and capturing moments. The thing that made his work stand out from so many other photographers through the years was that he could control the exposure in such a way as to create a mood with his photos. He is one of the few photographers of his generation who spent most of his career shooting color.

When I think of his color photos, I think of Allard shaving the exposure ever so slightly to make the reds richer or going the other way and making it more of a pastel.

Preserving people’s dignity is the one thing I admire most about the subjects of Allard’s camera. He often romanticized the characters and made them hero’s by the camera angle, the light, and the moment he decided to capture for the audience.

When I started, I thought I would pick up the camera, walk out the door, and do the same images he captured. Now I understand that William Allard had to get permission to capture those images even more. He didn’t use some technique to squeeze off a frame without them knowing he was there.

Allard wove himself into the fabric of their lives. Once I discovered this about his work, I wanted to hear him speak and find out how he got that kind of access.

Recently I was inspired by Christopher Capozziello, or as his friends call him, “Capi.” Capi decided to do a very personal and intimate story about his relationship with his twin brother Nick who has cerebral palsy. The result was a short film and a book. The book The Distance Between Us is something I would recommend to any storyteller.

Willing to tell your own story as Capi did with his brother Nick really will help him going forward, in my opinion, for a few reasons. First, it showed that he was willing to be vulnerable and transparent. You can tell he was careful to protect his brother, but at the same time, looking for moments that would be appropriate to share helped tell of the struggles not only for Nick for also for Capi himself.

Do I have the right to tell anyone’s story if I am unwilling to be as transparent as Capi?

Inspiration Gear

It is costly to get inspired, but I cannot dismiss this as a way to get those juices flowing. I know of photographers who are frustrated that they have tried almost everything for inspiration to change to a new camera system.

One of the primary driving factors of the mirrorless camera is many photographers are finding their present DSLR cameras limiting them in some way. One of the most significant factors is the weight of cameras. Bill Fortney, retired Nikon Rep, is using the Fuji system. Read his latest blog post-Fuji X-System REPORT CARD – One Year In.

Carrying around a lot of heavy gear all day can keep you from wanting to shoot anymore, so equipment can help keep you inspired.

Inspiration Websites

http://www.daveblackphotography.com/

I go to websites like Dave Black’s for inspiration. Dave is always trying to figure out ways to take his vision and capture it using light. He is constantly pushing the limits using high-speed sync, painting with light, and studying his subject to find those unique moments that he can capture that sets his work apart from the rest of the industry.

Inspiration from Subject Matter

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/2.8, 1/5

Taking my camera with me everywhere I go lets the places I visit help inspire me. So whether I am in Lisbon, Portugal, or my hometown of Roswell, GA, I take photos throughout my day.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 5000, ƒ/3.6, 1/500

Sometimes the photos are just goofy and fun. For example, this I took of us on an airboat in Jacksonville, Florida.

This is a cropped version of the photo below.

What does all this have in common?

Work is what it all has in common, and it isn’t something that drops into your lap.

Inspiration comes from sweat.

Photographers: Speaker’s Kit and Camera Club Kit

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 

Here is my traveling speaking kit. This kit has two speakers, a projector, cables, and a spare bulb inside a Pelican 1650 case with dividers.

Be sure you have the best quality you can afford. So, for example, you would hate to continue to tell the audience if you could see it on my computer screen, you would appreciate it much better, or if we had some speakers, you could hear this much better.

If you are a camera club, invest in a kit that you use to show your member’s work. If you speak to groups, always carry your gear just in case the place you are saying isn’t prepared or has a cheap projector or sound system.

I use two of the Roland CUBE CM-30 speakers [$219]. Two speakers let me have stereo sound out of the sound system.

I have a 1/4″ jack running out of one into the other. I have the audio from the computer running into the Aux 1 jacks for Left & Right.

I can project my voice pretty well, but if needed, I plug my Shure Wireless Lavalier into Channel one and can now also project my voice if required.

This photo is my Shure FP Wireless Bodypack system.

I have an older Panasonic projector [Panasonic PT-LB20VU Projector] that works well. I recommend at least 2000 lumens for light output unless you are projecting to 10 – 12 people in a tiny dark room. Expect to pay between $500 to $1000 for a decent projector.

Here is a link to a collection that might work for your needs.

For a screen, well, this varies a great deal depending on where I am speaking. I have used 11′ seamless paper, white walls, and large screens and often will carry my 5’x7′ fold-up white/black background.

Photographing Concerts I Prefer the Balcony

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.6, 1/45

From a higher perspective, I can see everyone that is performing. While I am back much further, the angle to see everyone is much better than when on the floor.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.6, 1/50

As you can see from the second photo, I miss seeing everyone.

From up high, I chose some overall shots with my Fujinon 18-55mm, but I also spent a lot more time using the Fujinon 55-200mm lens and picking outperformers.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.4, 1/25
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.5, 1/45
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.7, 1/40
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.6, 1/45

As you can see, you can see people’s faces from shooting slightly above them. Now, if the performers were on risers, you may get away from shooting on the main level with them.

While I prefer the upper shots, they are not the only ones I take. So you see, I like to move around and shoot some variety.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/30
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/40

In the lower view, you pick up the heads of the audience, which lets you know there is an audience. The leaders also give a layering effect, so you create more depth in the photograph.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/45

I had to move from the floor to find a shot between the audience’s heads. Go to the balcony if you like to pick a seat and shoot from there. You will be more pleased without moving as much as I had to do to get the variety you see here.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.5, 1/45

Still image is still king in social networking

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Hotel Avenida Palace, downtown Lisbon, Portugal [Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/90]

I am returning after a week-long Visual Storytelling Workshop in Lisbon, Portugal. While doing the workshop, I started watching how the students were already engaging their audience, and then it hit me—The Still Image is King in Social Networking.

 

You can see how Esther Havens successfully shares a photo and gets more than 86 “LIKES” on Facebook. Note one thing different than most people who share photos—CAPTION!

A short caption with a strong image engages enough people to click on “LIKE,” This doesn’t include all the people who saw the picture and may enjoy it even more, but just don’t click “LIKE.”

 

My friend John Spink, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution photographer, shares a personal photo and adds a small caption. Look at the number of LIKES—73 total.

Again the key to pushing those likes up is a robust photo and good caption that entertains those that follow him.

Another friend Chuck Burton, Associated Press Photographer, shares a photo of his dad. Again please notice the image is interesting, and the caption adds more information making the picture more impact. 68—LIKES.

After talking to the students about how they already have an audience, but just to post strong images with a short caption that tells a small story Amanda Ross, one of the students, started doing this and experienced for the first time her posts taking off with “LIKES.”

 

This screenshot is that post that she shared. WOW, 8,2—LIKES.

Social Networking Tip

People enjoy Social Networking because they enjoy the small snippets to catch up and keep connected. The key to being what Seth Godin calls a sneezer is entertaining. It would help if you kept it brief in the social networking circle. If you want to post longer posts, then you need a blog.

If you want to understand the idea of a sneezer, read Seth Godin’s book Unleashing the Ideavirus.

To show how to make your idea infectious, Seth, in his book, examines what makes a powerful ‘sneezer,’ how ‘hives’ work, and applies the concepts of critical velocity, vector, medium, smoothness, persistence, and amplifiers. As Godin shows, the now-familiar idea of viral marketing is one particular form of Ideavirus marketing. Most businesses will not be able to engage in proper viral marketing, but all can use the Ideavirus approach.

I recommend diving into understanding how social networking operates for successful people. For example, we are no longer living in a world where a marketer can effectively just push their agenda. Instead, it would help if you were interested in creating a following.

Read The Power of Pull, which explains how you must create something of interest for people to pay attention to. Just telling people, they need this is not as effective as creating content that draws them to you.

There is another book I would recommend to those trying to get their work viewed and make them relevant for clients to hire regularly.

Seth Godin wrote another top-seller Tribes:We Need You To Lead Us. 

“Real leaders don’t care [about receiving credit]. If it’s about your mission, about spreading the faith, about seeing something happen, not only do you not care about credit, you actually want other people to take credit. There’s no record of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi whining about credit. Credit isn’t the point. Change is.”
― Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Most of the photographers I am meeting are wanting to change the world through their photographs. Many of them call their work humanitarian photography.

If you are wanting your images to change the world let the work speak for itself. Share those images and give people something they can digest in a quick glance on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or whatever social network you choose. The key is the photo, if strong, will stop them and then read your caption.

When people move from “LIKE” to “SHARE” you are now creating change.

What follows after you do this for a while? People will follow you on Twitter and request to friend you on Facebook. If you goal is to get people to follow you then this is where creating a separate page just for your photography can be a good thing. This way you are able to post those images with captions and create a following separate from your close friends.

You can also just share with your friends or the world. Just choose when you post if you want the Public, everyone, or just your friends to see the post.

Why the Still Image is King?

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read short 140-character text messages, called “tweets”. The reason for the success of Twitter is the short message. Instagram even in the name communicates that keeping it quick and short will be more successful than a larger post.

Instant Messaging also is successful due to the brevity of the message.

YouTube has grown as well as it’s own social networking platform. My recommendation is to build a following on a project with still images and captions over a period of time that builds up to the release of the video.

Your audience will be more interested in taking the TIME to watch your video if they have an idea about what it is about. Keeping your teaser short is why trailers for movies exist. Think of the still image as quick trailers that will create the audience for the release of your video.

Your audience will more likely stay tuned into the video if they are willing to commit to the time to watch it. If you are successful as a person worth following they will commit to watching it.

Photos from Sintra, Portugal and Moorish Castle

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 250, ƒ/13, 1/125

We are having a lot of fun here in Lisbon, Portugal, working on our Storytelling this week. We have taken some breaks like here, where we went out to grab some snacks and, on the way back, stopped and got some photos of the landscape.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 800, ƒ/13, 1/500

Here two of the students climbed on top of a van to shoot over the chainlink fence.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/280

Here is one of the pastries we enjoyed while taking a break and learning more about the culture of Lisbon.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 1250, ƒ/16, 1/500
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/3.7, 1/1000

Later today, we went over to Sintra, Portugal, where we went to the Moorish Castle. Here are some photos that I took while climbing around the castle.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/3.9, 1/850

Some tips I can tell you from our outing are to be sure you have your camera with you all the time and to be ready for those special moments. I took with me on the excursion today the Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, and the 55-200mm. I also had two extra batteries, and I did need one of them.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/3.6, 1/800

Most of the time, I had the 18-55mm camera, which let me shoot semi-wide-angle shots and then some portraits of this lady in front of one of the shops.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/4.4, 1/500

I love using the 55-200mm to pick out some close-up shots of elements around the streets of Sintra, Portugal. You can isolate things from all the clutter of the streets.

I hope you enjoy some of the places we have been with our class on Storytelling this week. Later I hope to share some of the stories the student have put together this week. They are still interviewing people and editing their projects. Stay tuned.