Pros don’t spot pros due to gear; they spot them due to work habits when shooting.

One year, I was covering a workshop for college students in Nashville, TN, when I walked into a theater; everyone in the class was down the front, and the teachers were sitting on the edge of the stage. So after shooting a few photos around the show, I went up on stage behind the teachers to get a good shot of the students listening to the instructors.

Just as I did that, the entire class broke up laughing. Talk about an awkward moment for me, but quickly Anacleto Rapping, one of the teachers, let me in on the laughter. He had noticed I was covering the meeting and was teaching these photography students that if they just waited, Stanley would come up on stage and take some photos.

My walking on stage to take photos in that situation would be very typical for a photographer doing reportage on the event.

When I teach students, I am teaching actions that will give specific results if they do. Put light and the subject here, and you will get a unique look.

What is critical to understand is while the results will vary from each photographer, most all successful photographers will fully explore a subject. They will move around the object and, due to physical limitations, will most likely avoid similar photos.

Photo by Dorie Griggs

How a photographer holds the camera is often a giveaway that they know what they are doing.

Would a professional photographer acknowledge that you are a fellow pro or a ranked amateur just by watching you work?

Most all professionals will not conclude that because of how you shoot, you are a great photographer; what they are completing is that from your actions alone, they would approach it similarly.

I can spot a pro even when they are using a point-and-shoot. Can you?

A few blogs earlier, I discussed the importance of picking a good subject. Here is a link to that blog. Once you have your subject, construct an outline of how you would tell the story. Here are some photos from my last coverage of Mexico’s coffee farmers’ cooperative. I am going back to do more stories on them in November. 

As the coffee growers brought in groups from churches and civic groups to see how their cooperative was doing, that helped them add water filtration for their communities from the profits.

Take these categories if you need to as a starting place and fill in for each of these things you would shoot.

1. Opener: Sets the scene for the story
2. Decisive moment: The one moment that can by itself tell the story
3. Details: Besides being like visual candy to the report, help often with transitions–especially in multimedia packages
4. Sequences: give a little variety to a situation
5. High overall shot: Gives a good perspective on how the elements all fit together.
6. Closer: Besides the classic shot of the cowboy riding off into the sunset, there are other visual ways to help bring the story to a close
7. Portraits: These photos are great for introducing the characters of the story

Because I had a list of things that coffee farmers’ families benefited from when I saw this moment of the kids taking their projects to school, and the joy on this girl’s face let me know I could check this off the list.

These are from a story I did on coffee farmers in Mexico that formed a cooperative. Before the cooperative, they made so little money many of them were crossing the border as illegal immigrants so they could work to earn enough to feed their families, which usually stayed behind. 

Part of the process of coffee is spreading it out on concrete slabs and letting it dry. No need to shoot this over and over; I had it.

I needed to tell two stories. First, about how the coffee the cooperative grows is the finest Arabica. I also needed to tell the story that after joining the joint, the lives of the farmers and their families improved. 

I am working on the story of the cooperative coffee farmers in Mexico when one night, we go and enjoy a meal with some of the coffee farmers’ wives. They have formed a cooperative and run a take-out restaurant. While the photo isn’t stellar, the concept of the joint moving beyond just coffee shows the power of creating a cooperative.

As you are there, one day, this incredible moment happens that you had not planned for or even knew happened. You make a portfolio shot even. You add this to the package. In the end, putting your total package together might cut, and it might not. You can go off script, but the writing helps you tell the story. You may even change up the outline as you are shooting. The system helps you start and navigate the story better than getting up in the morning, grabbing your camera, and just waiting for something to happen so you can capture it.

Here is a brief outline of what I had before shooting the story on the coffee cooperative.

1. Showing the coffee on the plant and being harvested
2. Removal of what is left of the fruit from the bean
3. Drying coffee on slabs of concrete
4. Roasting the coffee
5. Bagging the coffee and grinding the coffee
6. Coffee farmers working in each of those settings
7. Coffee farmers in their homes
8. The families and what they do (mainly to show before and after)
9. Show how dangerous crossing the border is for a person
   1. Showing them remembering all those who died crossing
   2. Showing putting water in the desert for crossers
   3. Maybe show some in the desert waiting to cross in darkness
10. Show what happens when border patrol finds them

Without a list, you may spend 80% of your time just growing the coffee, but by having a list, you can divide your time and have a storyline that will come together.

Talking of bad photographers, I have often heard it said that one of their characteristics is that they look at their contacts in order to discover which is the best picture, whereas a good photographer examines each frame on a contact sheet and asks: why is this one not a good picture?

[Jay, Bill; Hurn, David (1997-10-01). On Being a Photographer]

I am reading the book On Being a Photographer. You can get the Kindle version through Amazon for $5.95.

The book is in its third edition; I cannot recommend this enough for young and seasoned photographers.

Here is a link for you to get the book.

The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar had Jay Maisel down to speak one year. He had recently switched to digital and loved it. I remember we were talking, and he pulled out of his breast pocket a memory card case and said this was all he needed compared to all the instances of the film he used to have to take on jobs.

Then he talked about his shooting the day before around his place in New York City. He pulled up his camera and gave it to me to look through what was the raw take.

David Hurn’s experience and mine have been that bad photographers don’t want you to see their raw take, whereas the seasoned pro welcomes it.

Jay Maisel demonstrated it by just giving me his camera and letting me look through the images.

36 – exposure 35mm film contact sheet of mine from 1987

In the book, Hurn talks about the “Contact Sheet.” Well, for the most part, these are things of the past when we all shot film. For example, most editorial photographers would shoot 36 exposure rolls of film and then make a contact sheet after processing the film.

The “Contact Sheet” was our first time seeing the images. Of course, now you can look at the back of your camera and see individual photos, but ingesting your pictures into a browser like PhotoMechanic or Lightroom lets you see the entire take as a whole, which is where you learn more than any other place in photography.

There are a few things seasoned pros all have in common, no matter what we shoot.

Most will shoot a frame or two as notes to themselves. It is common to see a scoreboard during a sporting event, so I know when something happens in the game. The play-by-play notes that I have at the game that I can access after the event will help me match the frame up to the time clock. Also, it makes it easier to write a better caption.

It is also common for me to shoot a frame that is just personal notes for myself.

While shooting a subject, things will change to where you will see the photographer explore the topic. So while the audience will only see maybe one photo of a scene as the final selection, the photographer didn’t just walk up, see it and click.

Assuming photos are just one click is what most bad photographers and beginners think or do themselves. As a result, they fail to explore the subject.

If it is a static subject like the Lincoln Memorial, the photographer will walk around it looking for an angle that evokes the emotion they feel. Then, they may come back later and shoot it at night, as I did here many years ago.

As we look at all the images we took before making corrections, the seasoned pros will look consistent in exposure, sharp and good color. Then the pro will go from frame to frame, pondering what they could have done to improve the photo.

Should I have stepped to the left or right more? Should I have been closer or further back? What would it have looked like with a different lens?

When the subjects are moving, I look for a moment when everything is coming together to a peak moment. Enlarge the first photo at the top of the grid of images. Then look from frame to frame. Which picture is better than another photo, and why? Now, if you were there and knew what I was trying to capture because of the conversation, this would help guide you to pick the photo that best communicates.

What happens if I realized that the photo would have been better if I had done something small? A moment is what most seasoned pros will tell you. They are looking for the perfect print and realize there is so much they cannot control that they only get close.

If the subject is static, there is less room for not getting it perfect, but when the subject is moving and you are capturing life as it happens, you get close and rarely obtain the ideal image.

By studying the contact sheet or thumbnails in a group, we can know how to anticipate better rather than react the next time we encounter something similar.

The more you study the whole take and evaluate your work, the more you realize how vital planning will help you do a better job next time.

Another thing most seasoned pros do is, after reviewing their work, they put it away for a couple of days when possible.

Hopefully, you are starting to see that professional photographer isn’t shooting all the time. However, they are doing a lot of planning and evaluating their work, so the next time they shoot, the odds are more in their favor.

Stanley on top of Grandfather Mountain [photo by Knolan Benfield]

 “Say goodbye to full-time jobs with benefits” was the headline on CNN’s website on June 5, 2010. The writer, Chris Isidore, said, “Doug Arms, senior vice president of Ajilon, a staffing firm, says about 90% of the positions his company is helping clients fill right now are on a contract basis.” Not all staff jobs will disappear, but the clear indication is that contractors are growing in the percentage of the job market. 

A couple of years ago, the local WSB-TV reporter Jim Strickland interviewed me about being a freelancer. They were doing a story on the rise of contractors versus staff jobs. 

On May 30, 2013, The Chicago Sun-Times shocked everyone when they laid off their entire photo department. Two weeks after the Chicago tabloid laid off its photo staff, the Southern Community Newspapers Inc. chain in Georgia closed its photo department. 

Change has happened 

When I left college, my career plan was to work for a newspaper for a couple of years and then work for a missionary agency as a staff photographer telling stories of missionaries worldwide. Just shy of two years at a newspaper, I got a call to come and work for the missionary agency for the Baptists in Richmond, VA. The Commission Magazine was their flagship communications piece that won 3^rd place in the Pictures of the Year award while I was on staff as best use of photos by a magazine. Right behind National Geographic and Sports Illustrated. Five years later, it was the end of 1989, and there was a slight recession, and I lost my job.

My plans had no contingency for this situation. Looking at what seemed to be a weakness of not being a seminary graduate in the missionary agency, I went on to seminary. Three years later, the landscape had changed by 1993. 

Loyalty to a Profession, not a Company 

The years of layoffs and downsizing have changed how people think of their jobs. For example, it is more common today for people to feel loyalty to their Profession than to their employer. This is because they are working on advancing their career but no longer see doing this with one company. Many of my colleagues feel called to photography, specifically to the visual storytelling of nonprofit or faith-based organizations.

While twenty years ago, they could find a staff job doing this type of work, those jobs are scarcer than ever, and sadly those salaries haven’t changed in more than twenty years. 

Tentmakers 

The most famous missionary in the Bible was the Apostle Paul. Many do not know that for most of his career as a missionary, he was also a tentmaker. He was a bi-vocational minister. 

Today for people to follow their calling and use their talents, the best path for them may be that of a tentmaker. One of my friends, Greg Thompson, sees himself in this role as a tentmaker. Read about him and follow some of his blog posts here http://tentmakercommunications.com. The advantage of this bi-vocational/tentmaker is the ability to pay your bills and still fulfill your call. 

Balance of Lifestyle and Vocation 

Too often, I talk to young photographers who want to pursue something that would be a very lonely life for most of them. A few have wanted to be war photographers.

After getting them to refocus and tell me what type of lifestyle they wanted when not photographing around the world, it was only then that I could help them see pursuing war photography would require sacrificing some of their lifestyles. I

advise anyone wanting to be a professional photographer to determine what lifestyle they want and then look at what type of photography can sustain this lifestyle. The other way is to look at what you feel called to do in photography, then come to terms with the lifestyle needed to lead to pursue it. 

Due to the shift from staff positions to contractors for most organizations today, you need to be an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur means you must learn how to run a business first. 

Entrepreneur versus Staff Specialist 

Many of my friends who went to seminary to become missionaries studied scripture and preached. However, most didn’t learn how to run a business and do marketing. The seminary didn’t teach business acumen because organizations sent out missionaries for many years. 

Today missionaries may have an organization that endorses them, but most missionaries are no longer staff missionaries; instead, they are in an even worse position than most freelance photographers. They must raise all their support for the ministry and pay their bills. In addition, a portion of their funds must go to the organization that endorsed them. 

Sadly many great missionaries and photographers are having a similar problem; the lack of entrepreneurial skills for running a business has them leaving their professions to find a job to support themselves.

Take a Leap of Faith 

Soren Kierkegaard encouraged Christians to stop turning inward, contemplating their faith, and taking action. This called on them to take a leap of faith. If you focus on paying the bills and security, then I think you have turned your back on using your gifts. But unfortunately, using those gifts is not something that will be easy. I leave you with this scripture, which I hold dear to my heart because there are many days when life throws so much at me that if not careful, I will also focus on my security and not on my calling.

These were just some of my favorite photos from this weekend when I photographed my niece’s wedding.

I am looking for a different angle. I wanted something a little dramatic, so I am using the ceiling leading lines to help, and then I anchor the photo just below the couple. For depth, I have the head table in the background to give another dimension to the moment.

I like capturing a bridesmaid on her smartphone, where she keeps everyone unable to attend the wedding up to date on what is happening.

Everyone likes doing the jumping shot of the bridal party, so I guess this is a right of passage nowadays.

I needed the 85mm for the shallow depth of field, but I needed the wedding party so far back that I could have used just about any lens since the ƒ-stop was ƒ/8. I didn’t want the bride and groom to be unrecognizable.

This detailed photo shows the flowers and some of the bridesmaids’ shoes.

While today everyone was shooting the bride’s dress hanging up, we went one further with all the bridesmaid’s and the flower girl’s dresses. This photo was my wife’s idea, and she was also one of my lovely assistants. The other assistant was my daughter Chelle, holding lights and light stands throughout the day.

Of course, I shot the dress as well by itself. Give the wedding couple something new in addition to the stock photos. That is my motto.

The sky was so dramatic that even the bride’s father commented. I knew I needed to capture that in the photos, so I backlit the bride and put her right in front of the sun and then just used a fill-flash with the Alienbees B1600 to act as the leading light. So the sun became an excellent rim light for everyone in the photo.

Time is of the essence with wedding photos, so rather than coming up with super-unique images in many different locations, I modified them to help us get more pictures of the bride and groom.

While at the bride’s home, I set up in the backyard after they got their hair and makeup done so I could take a few photos here and save some time later in the day. Again, I am using the sun as a second light to rim light the people and the Alienbees B1600 as the leading light.

Before I did the photos of the bride and the bridesmaids, I took many family photos in the same place. It helped me double-check the lights and squeeze in a few more pictures making everyone happy that they were getting photos of themselves dressed up for the day.

Now while the lights help the photos, what distinguishes me from many photographers is my emphasis on capturing moments. So here the bride is with all the women just moments before her dad sees her.

I ran behind a pavilion to get the photo of the bride’s mother putting sand into one jar. The sand in a jar was in place of a unity candle since it was outside to help represent the coming together of two families.

Here I capture the twin sister and maid of honor giving her toast and capturing a moment again.

Here are some tips I would pass along

• Have a sit-down meeting with the bride and groom or whoever is paying the bill.
  • Plan a shot list
  • Have some parameters to help them with timing. For example, I tell the bride for formal line-them-up photos to allow about 3 minutes per photo, but for the fun pictures like jumping in the air, this can be around 5 minutes per photo.
  • Please encourage them to get photos before the wedding of some of the groupings. Help them understand you want them to have as much time with their guests from all over for that day to see them.
• Use off-camera strobes for formal and group photos.
  • For outside, I recommend the Alienbees B1600 with a Vagabond battery
  • Inside or dusk photos, you can use something like the Nikon SB-900 and fire them with PocketWizard TT1 and the Flex TT5, giving you TTL control. Also, use the AC3 to control the flash output from your camera.
• Use a tripod when possible. The tripod will help immensely in group photos where one person in one photo blinks, and in the next shot, someone else does. You can combine the two images much easier when grabbing the head of someone to put in the other picture with PhotoShop CS6.
• Use custom white balance all the time. I use ExpoDisc. Custom white balance will save you an incredible amount of post-processing time.
• Use high ISO to help open up the background. Unfortunately, so many photographers are obsessed with using the lowest ISO that they sacrifice capturing the environment that gives depth to the photos.
• Use assistants. They can alert you if a flash isn’t working. They can help spot someone’s tie or dress that is not straight and help adjust it while you stay behind the camera.
• Overshoot. Shoot more than you ever promise a bride. Shoot the shot on your list, and throw in some fun photos as you have time. Just do a severe photo and then ask everyone to make a funny face for one. Just doing that will give some variety.
• Plan for an online gallery where they can give the link on their social media. I gave the family a link and a password for them to see the gallery. They can order prints and things like key chains, mouse pads, T-Shirts, and coffee mugs, for example. They can also order downloads for social media size and request a high-resolution photo.
• While I didn’t do this for this wedding, I might even offer to post the photos during the marriage for an upgraded package. Real-time photos are a way for all their family and friends who couldn’t make it to see it in almost real-time. As you saw in the photo of the bridesmaid posting to her Facebook, today’s brides are interested in the here and now and not so much long-term.

As promised and after shooting with the Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game, this is my opinion of the lens.

Remember to read my earlier post about calibrating this lens HERE. If you don’t calibrate, you will not see how sharp this lens can be.

Build

I need to agree with almost all other reviews of the lens when it comes to your first impression of the lens. It is well built and I love the new black matte finish as compared to the earlier finishes that Sigma used on their lenses.

Unlike the predecessors, this lens comes with a lens cap, which I prefer over the fabric one.

The lens hood is more prolonged and substantial with ridges inside, which help keep light from bouncing around and give you lens flair. In addition, the attachment to the lens seems much more sturdy.

The good news is you do not need to buy another 1.4 or 2x converter if you already have one of the Sigma ones. My earlier 1.4 converters worked just incredible with the lens.

The tripod mount is more substantial than the earlier model.

This lens update compares a tank to a truck if you compare the current model to earlier Sigma 120-300mm lenses.

Bokeh

The Bokeh on this lens is much silkier than I had with the early version. When shooting wide open and close, the background of clutter goes to a smooth, soft tone.

Color/Contrast

I think the color and contrast are also an improvement over the previous model.

Focus

The four photos above are all part of a series I shot of a long touchdown run. There were more than 30 images, and all were in focus. So the lens and the camera combination kept up with the play. Not always possible with lenses.

I know this is quicker than the earlier version and faster than the first Nikon 200-400mm ƒ/4 lens. However, it is one stop brighter than the Nikon 200-400mm, so it may perform a little better with the Nikon D4 in low light, which was the case at the Georgia Dome.

Sharpness

Since photographers tend to talk about how sharp a lens is by something like you can see the sweat bead on the face, I chose to show you can count the threads in the patch on the end zone for my comparison.

I think this is highly sharp after calibrating the lens with the USB docking station that Sigma sells.

This lens also has Optical Stabilization, which helps keep those images sharp when the action is way down the field, and I am using a 1.4 converter and the 2X crop mode on the Nikon D4. I was optically shooting at 840mm ƒ/4 during much of the game. At that distance, just small vibrations affect the sharpness of the photo. The OS helped me get sharper images than I have in the past.

Bottom Line

For my Pixel Peeping skills, this lens rocks. For $3,599.00, this is a no-brainer for me to buy over the Nikon 200-400mm, which sells for $6,500.00. I will not consider the pain for the Canon shooters looking to the new Canon 200-400mm ƒ/4 for $11,799.00. Anyone putting out $8,200.00 more for the Canon lens had better be selling many photos for that price.

The new lens is not comparing apples, so it has it over the Nikon for me.

With a 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 starting point, I can easily just put on the Sigma 1.4 and now have a 168-420 ƒ/4 lens. Instead of the 1.4, I could stick on the 2x converter and have a 240-600mm ƒ/5.6.

The lens design makes the lens three practical lenses for different venues. I have used my Sigma 120-300mm in the past for meetings where the 70-200mm ƒ/2.8 was just not enough to reach. I put my 70-200mm on the shelf for the past ten years due to owning the Sigma 120-300mm. However, on rare occasions, I thought the 70-200 was more warranted than the 120-300mm, which was more due to weight issues.

I recommend that if you are in the market for a lens in this range, this would be a great lens, even if it was the same price as the Nikon 200-400mm because it is more versatile and makes it more valuable. Being $3,000 less in price makes this a no-brainer decision for me.

For the Prime Lens Lover

Rumor has it that Sigma is coming out with a new 300mm, 400mm, and 600mm, announcement shortly. So if you like primes, then one is on the way that will be custom calibratable with the USB Dock.

Photo by Dorie Griggs

The last shot was made by my wife when I was in the press box shooting some photos with the lens of the field.

The day before a big game like the Chick-fil-A Kickoff, I am getting my gear ready. I am charging all the batteries and ensuring I have all the equipment packed before the next day.

One of the things we are now more aware of with digital cameras is the front or back focus of a camera. When the camera and lenses ship, they have some tolerance which gives you reasonably acceptable images, but if you want to get the sharpest images, you need to calibrate. This diagram is from Nikon’s website showing you the concept of calibrating I am doing.

You go to the wrench in the Nikon D4 menu and then Fine Tune. You will adjust the settings here:

Watch this video on how you adjust your lens using Fine Tune on the camera. Sometimes it is easier to adjust the camera by just +/- 10 or 20 points which might be all you need to do, than to go and adopt 16 different focus points. Another issue is you may have gone +/- 20 points and still need more adjustment, and this is where the combination of the two can give you more range for calibrating.

This is OK with fixed lenses, but for zooms, just not enough. Sigma allows you to calibrate even more than with camera calibration.

Before tomorrow’s big day, I am calibrating the new Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S lens.

I am using the Sigma Optimization Pro software coupled with the Sigma USB docking station to calibrate the lens and the Fine Focus on the Nikon D4.

To check the focus point, I am using the LensAlign Pro system.

I set the Camera and LensAlign Pro at a distance I will need to focus and then parallel to each other. The LensAlign direction helps you set that up.

Then I shoot at one of the four zoom positions with this lens: 120mm, 150mm, 200mm, or 300mm. Then there are four focus positions to choose from for each focal length you desire. When you have done all the possible combinations, you will have 16 different customizable calibrations to get the sharpest image possible with your camera.

Now you will find that by fine-tuning your focus at 300mm and the furthest focus point,  ∞ you have a long way to walk to set up the LensAlign Pro.

I would do a test shot that might look like this, and then I needed to zoom in on the photo to see the detail of where the focus point was for the image.

Here you can see the focus point is slighting in front of the 0 where I wanted it to be.

I open the Sigma Optimization software and put the USB dock on the lens, replacing the camera. Going from Camera to Computer is why you need a tripod to do this; you need to lock everything down, make the change, and then reshoot to see if the custom change worked.

I moved the focus point +4 further from the lens in the screen grab. So the software gives you pictures to see what you are doing, which helps.

After doing this a few times, you can see where I ended up with focusing. So now you repeat this 15 more times with 120mm, 150mm, 200mm, and 300mm at four focusing points: Closest, farthest, and two in between.

Stay tuned for my results from the Chick-fil-A Kickoff with the new Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S lens.