Gregory Heisler is a professional photographer known for his portraits. Long before 2007, when David Hobby started his blog “The Strobist,” Heisler was already doing some incredible work with strobes.
Heisler is most known for his 50 Time Magazine covers.
Today many photographers will quickly pull out their large softboxes for portraits. While even Greg Heisler will use this on occasion, he prefers to light things so that they look natural.
Heisler introduced a new lighting term used in theater and movie sets lacking in still photography.
Heisler heard while on a movie set the director said, “Motivate the Practical.” Of course, the practical is the light fixtures within the frame.
Heisler pointed out to those in attendance that when you go onto a movie set, you rarely see a giant softbox. The reason you don’t is the same reason when you go outside. You do not see light boxes all around us. So while the lightbox is wonderful light that looks like an ample window light, it isn’t the norm for most places we see people.
Heisler prefers light scenes to look like they would in a natural setting. He even goes so far as to make his studio at night look like a poolside photo during the day for a picture he did of Julia Roberts.
I was pleased to not only hear Greg Heisler speak I also was able to get him to sign a book for me.
This photo is an example of where I worked to create what would appear to be window light from the sun coming in the window. I put a strobe outside the window to generate sunlight on this rainy day.
I would have taken off the umbrella if I wanted a more complex light.
While in theater and movies, they would call this “motivating the practical.” I am creating a light that looks natural rather than just making great light.
I, too, prefer using “Motivating the Practical” over most any other type of light. It looks the most natural, and the more realistic the morning, the better the chance of it helping to create a “real moment.”
“What could be so bad as to try crossing the border?” was asked over and over by our group. We only spent three hours walking some of the paths that illegal immigrants use, and we were doing this in daylight, yet we were tired.
In the top photo, you can see some of the terrains our group had to help each other over in sunlight, and many who cross will do so at night. Many will break ankles just on the landscape alone.
The fence slows down someone for about fifteen seconds if they make it. Sometimes many fall and break legs and arms trying to go over it.
Imagine fathers and mothers often will leave their children behind and families to take this horrible trip that will most likely be around six days in the desert. Then the rest of their time in the US, they will constantly be navigating ways not to get caught and sent back.
Agua Prieta, Mexico, and Douglas, Arizona, are towns divided by a fence. Agua Prieta is the most crossed area of the Mexican border.
Drug cartels hire young people who are US citizens but of Mexican heritage to carry drugs over illegally and then just come back through the checkpoint to do this over and over.
People come on this trip to understand the root causes of this problem. We listed to learn about how NAFTA had its flaws. For example, the Mexican government stopped subsidizing crops, yet the US continues to support major corporate farms.
What took our country a hundred years to change from an agricultural society to an industrial one, Mexico did in less than ten years. The farmers could not compete and had to leave what they knew to do something else, which they had no skills in.
We are seeing one small success through a cooperative formed of coffee growers in Mexico. The nonprofit Frontera de Cristo helped raise the money for a roaster. 100% of the money is staying in Mexico with the farmers.
Those families are no longer looking north and are now helping save their communities.
Here we are touring the roasting facilities in Agua Prieta, Mexico. Later we will fly to the Chiapas area of Southern Mexico to visit the farmers and their families. We will see coffee being grown and how this transforms their lives and communities.
Here is Robusto Coffee which is higher in caffeine.
The lower photo is Arabica coffee which is common in caffeine and smooth to drink. However, how you roast it can change the levels and taste.
Here Adrian Gonzalez, manager of customer relations, talks to us about how they not only sell whole beans but also grind the coffee by request of some customers.
They put the farmer’s names on the bags of coffee, helping to create a relationship between the customer and the farmer.
Stay tuned for photos of the growing process in Salvador Urbina and El Aguila, located in the Chiapas region of Mexico.
People go to convenience stores like this one and buy a cup of coffee every day. However, this coffee here is “More Than Just Coffee.”
Raul is the owner of this convenience store in Douglas, AZ. This town is the largest area on the Mexican border, where illegal immigration is a problem with drugs and people. Raul is pleased that this local coffee company Just Coffee is helping address some of the concerns, and everyone like the taste better than we had before.
This week I am following a group of Americans from all over the country as they explore, from the Mexico-USA border to the Guatemala-Mexico border, the immigration issues. They are walking along the wall from the people’s fence to see the vehicle fence.
The tour group is diverse in age, political, and ethnic backgrounds. They are here to see firsthand the issues around immigration.
They are also here to see how one solution is helping restore a coffee-growing community in Chiapas and Agua Prieta, where they roast the coffee. Like many others, just Coffee is a coffee cooperative because 100% of the profits stay in Mexico.
From a little over ten years ago till now, the families are no longer looking to the North to solve their economic problems; they found it through building a cooperative.
Alive After 5 is the Third Thursday each month, April – October, from 5-9 pm on Canton Street in downtown Roswell, GA.
I love living in Roswell, GA. While we are in one of the most extensive metro communities in the United States, Roswell has a slight-town feel. We have events like the Alive After five during the summer months where the community comes together to experience each other, music, arts, and food.
Here is Seth Gamba, orchestra teacher at Elkins Pointe Middle school, playing the drums with the orchestra. The group plays on electric string instruments and even plays some rock tunes during the Alive After five event. My daughter plays in the group on viola. Proud dad, as you can see.
The community loves to do positive things together. Today people are seeking out experiences. Walt Disney understood this when he built Disney Land and Disney World.
Here is my wife with the Paranoia Haunted House crash at Alive After 5 to promote their business.
My wife loves to post photos like this to her Facebook account, and from the number of likes and comments, I know the rest of her friends also love this.
Role of the Journalist
Webster’s Dictionary states, “Journalism is the activity or job of collecting, writing, and editing news stories.” In addition, Wikipedia says journalism “serves the purpose of playing the role of a public service machinery in the dissemination and analysis of news and information.”
In the broader sense, the media’s role is to help communities connect. So I see journalists as assisting people in plugging into their community network, and the connection is being made through the media.
The pie has many slices when you look at all the content a local media outlet should cover in their community. One of the slices journalism serves in a democracy is to inform the community to better play a role in their government.
Wikipedia says, “In a democratic society, however, access to free information plays a central role in creating a system of checks and balance, and in distributing power equally between governments, businesses, individuals, and other social entities. Moreover, access to verifiable information gathered by independent media sources, which adhere to journalistic standards, can also serve ordinary citizens by empowering them with the tools they need to participate in the political process.”
I fear too many journalists only serve their audience a slice of the pie. They want more than just the things in their community going wrong. If you were to graph out the story coverage of many media outlets, I think you would find that there is a lopsided coverage on the squeaky wheel.
Could you take media coverage of their community, and would it reflect the exact percentages of categories of stories taking place daily, or would it be slanted?
What about work communities?
Most communication offices within corporations serve as the media for their community. I find my role within a nonprofit was very similar to my position at the newspaper. My part working for a large corporation is also very similar.
The breaking news story in the nonprofit and business world are the stories that management needs to tell. While we do not have investigative journalists looking into leadership and reporting this to the community, we have companies realizing that transparency is the best way to build customer affinity. As a result, you are finding more PR professionals communicating where their company has made a mistake and how they are acting to correct it.
Audience
|
Medium
|
Storyteller
|
Subject
The common theme for communications professionals is serving as the subject and audience conduit. The most powerful way to make this connection is through the story. Therefore, we use some medium to deliver that story to the audience.
Mistakes Storytellers Make
All you need to do is look at those four words above: 1) Audience, 2) Medium, 3) Storyteller, and 4) Subject. If anyone diminishes these in importance, then the connections are not made. The result of this, over time, is a community that lacks cohesiveness.
I believe many professional communicators misdirect their thoughts to either the medium or the subject. They buy the latest gear and try fantastic shots and forget the story. Sometimes they get so attached emotionally to the topic that they lose their objectivity to know the story.
I believe the audience is the most overlooked part of the puzzle, more often than the medium or subject.
I believe Steve Jobs was one of the best business people who understood the audience. When he rolled out new products, they were not what people wanted or needed. No one talked about a computer with a graphical interface before he helped to introduce the Mac. No one knew what a tablet device was before he introduced the iPad.
What Steve Jobs did know was how to help improve the lives of his audience. He saw how they lived and how he could improve their lives. Great storytellers need to know their audience just as well. This way, when we tell them stories of subjects in their community, they will line up just like people do when Apple releases a new product. They know it will be a great story because yesterday they gave me a great experience.
The secret about your audience
When you immerse yourself into the community you are covering; you find your subjects for the story.
Even businesses like Starbucks and Chick-fi-A train their employees to learn about their customers and to connect with them. For example, watch this video done by Chick-fil-A.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v0RhvZ3lvY]
I encourage storytellers to discover their communities. Find where they congregate and those who want and need to communicate with those groups. Then become an expert on the subjects that they cover for those audiences.
Deb Pang Davis, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University
In Deb Pang Davis’ comments to the National Press Photographers Association Business Blitz at the Grady School of Journalism, she encouraged photographers to be involved in social media. Social media is one of the best ways to join a community. People get to know you, and you get to know them and share content.
The client will enjoy seeing choices when you get hired to shoot an environmental portrait. Having options is even more important for designers.
Some of the variations you give to the client are only you moving to the left or right to compose the photo from a slightly different angle.
For this environmental portrait, I want to show the subject works at Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters in Atlanta, GA. So I am using this logo to help establish his employer.
When using a wide-angle lens like the Nikon 14-24mm ƒ/2.8 lens, you can do portraits with the lens, but you want to keep the face closer to the center than to the edges. Here you can see the hands a slightly distorted when they are on the photo’s edges.
What I like the most about the wide-angle lens is it brings the audience into the scene and gives you a more intimate look.
Nathan McFarland
This photo was taken with the Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.4 lens. In this photo, I am shooting at ƒ/1.4 aperture. Now while it pops the subject out from the background, I am starting to lose the logo, which helps to establish the workplace.
Nathan McFarland
I liked the effect of popping the subject out from the background, but I wouldn’t say I wanted the logo to be so blurred. I then closed the aperture down slightly to ƒ/2.8. Again, I like this the best of these two options.
Before you shoot–TEST.
Your subject will most likely not have the time for you to take all day running around trying different locations. The best thing to do is have an assistant or ask for a volunteer to stand in for your test shots. Work out your lighting with them. Find all the locations before the subject shows up.
I had an assistant stand in for the subject, and we worked on locations together. I would shoot and show the assistant and ask for his feedback. Sometimes you miss something, and having another set of eyes will help you catch any distractions.
Here are some of the test shots I did about an hour before the subject met me.
Time and time again, the most consistent comment I get about my photography is my ability to capture the moment that tells a story.
The second thing that started to help define my work was my ability to use light to improve moments.
My photos defined what I could do for clients.
I was photographing things like lasers you cannot see with the naked eye, but I was capturing this in photos.
I continued to grow and try new technology to solve the problems of clients trying to connect with their audiences. For example, I added 360º panoramic interactive pieces for the clients to put on their websites.
I then started to add just audio to slide shows that were easy to host on almost any website and more economical to produce over traditional video.
I added video and mixed this with still images to help an audience connect to the subject and feel the story.
Am I just a “photographer” anymore? I am a problem solver. I am at the core of what I do, an expert on understanding an audience and the subject and figuring out creative storytelling to connect the two.
When potential clients get to see what I do, they hire me. The trick is to lead with visual examples. I want to be “Remarkable,” and to do this; I must spread ideas. To understand what that means, watch this TED Talk by Seth Godin.
Maybe I need to tell people I am a “Communications Handyman” who is there to solve your problems. I not only can come in and diagnose your communications crisis and understand the pain, but I can also fix it.
The downside to “Communications Handyman” is that it sounds like you will fix your problems the cheapest way.
Maybe I could use “Special Forces Communications Operative,” but you may think I do war photography.
While I have picked for now “Visual Storyteller,” people want to jump and then say so you are a photographer.
Maybe I take a risk, target an audience to serve, and find a title that works with that audience. Maybe with my seminary degree, I will go after the religious market and call myself a “Visual Evangelist” or “The Visual Preacher.”
Successful Communication has four components.
Audience
Communicator [photographer]
Medium
Subject
Addressing all of these is necessary for success. Unfortunately, too many photographers often forget one or more of these. They can get caught up in the medium [gear head] or usually emotionally wrapped up in the subject with all their time. Your purpose is to connect the audience and the subject and get yourself out of the way. Now use this same model to address your marketing to an audience. Again, you are the subject, and the audience is your potential customers. Now let’s go back to those four elements again. So often, a photographer is wrapped up in the subject and forgets about that audience.
So you are shooting a picture for publications geared to women in their 40s and 50s, and you go and shoot a Punk Rock Band. How you cover it shows either you understand your audience or you do not.
So taking the photo above shows my emphasis on subject and medium. Using lights to create just an excellent image.
Here is another example that I have taken a fantastic photo of.
I am showing how popular they are, but am I connecting with my audience? For example, why would middle age women be interested in the bands?
But then I took this photo and now have my hook for the audience. My wife loved this photo so much that she used it as her profile photo on Facebook. The story for the publication audience is how these bands, who can look scary and make you wonder if your child should be near them is to explain why they appeal to your children. This is of interest to the audience. I would lead with this photo before leading with excellent photos because this connects to the audience.
You the Subject
If the professional team were to work with you and help you be more successful, then you become the subject, but who is your audience? Too many photographers again fall in love with the medium. I like taking pictures.
Two Approaches to be Big Fish in a Small Pond
Move. Let’s say you are a wedding photographer in Atlanta, Georgia. It would be easier for you to find another city to move to. Atlanta may have as many as a thousand or more wedding photographers. Maybe you look for a place where the number of photographers per population is lower.
Specialize. It is better to find a subject where few photographers if any, are providing services. Mark Johnson, the head of the photojournalism program at the University of Georgia, told me about one of his students that double majored in photojournalism and horticulture. They went to a horticulture company and sold them why they needed to bring them on board to be their communication specialist. Now that company has a better website showing their product to their audience.
The formula for success is simple. First, you have a subject and an audience in mind. It would help if you had ideas worth spreading in this arena. So go out there and be remarkable.
God, the one and only— I’ll wait as long as he says. Everything I need comes from him, so why not? He’s solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, An impregnable castle: I’m set for life.
—Psalm 62:1 MSG
One of the greatest blessings I have found in my life is anxiety. I have talked about this in many ways on this blog.
When editing my work, I become anxious because the photos don’t fully capture the event with the emotional impact I felt. When I awake in the morning, I am often stressed because I am unsure where my next project from a client will come from. Over the past few years, I have lost more clients because of their dwindling budgets.
There is an interview done with Malcolm Gladwell by the Religious News Service that you can read here.
Sarah Pulliam Bailey writes, “Gladwell said while researching the book, he began rediscovering his faith after having drifted away. Here, he speaks with RNS about his Mennonite family, how Jesus perfectly illustrates the point in his new book and how Gladwell’s return to faith changed how he wrote the book.”
The difficulty many without a faith perspective will struggle with is how this one review by J. Gomez put it, “I have a tough time buying the notion that people succeed because of their difficulties, “The second, more intriguing, possibility is that they succeeded, in part, because of their disorder–that they learned something in their struggle that proved to be of enormous advantage.” So I see it as overcoming challenges, making the best of what you have.”
Malcolm Gladwell gave a TED Talk recently on the classic story of David and Goliath. When revisiting the story, he discovers some hidden truths he missed growing up in the church hearing the story.
Making the best of what you have is total self-reliance and the belief that you completely control your circumstances.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
—Saint Augustine
I believe that those with a very close relationship with God have a healthy balance, as St. Augustine so eloquently put it. The tension is in the part that it is often a collaboration between man and God.
Many questions why a loving God would ever allow for evil in this world.
If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will―that is, for making a real world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings―then we may take it it is worth paying.
― C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity
I have never been in a place where I was entirely at peace. But, unfortunately, in the tension of life, we can choose to see our glasses as half empty or half full.
Recently I wrote about how seasoned professional photographers look at their contact sheets and look for what they could do better. They are aware of the shortcomings of their images to what they felt and saw with their own eyes. Their struggle is an enormous advantage over the lousy photographer who looks only for a good idea.
As iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens another. ―Proverbs 27:17 MSG
I wrote earlier about one of my greatest struggles with Aspergers. Here are links to those two blog posts
Asperger’s Syndrome It would not be until the adult years that I understood that I had Asperger’s Syndrome. Early on, I went for psychological testing because of my behavior in the classroom. They suspected I had Autism, but
While many think that those with Asperger’s Syndrome lack sensitivity to others and lack empathy, I believe just the opposite. While their outward social skills are lacking, they know many things people do not see.
Today you are facing many things which create anxiety. Don’t be the person who thinks you alone can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. To overcome the fear that pressure brings into our lives, you need to know you cannot do this alone.
I recommend reading this prayer today and every day. Make it your prayer, and you can overcome the anxiety of this world.
The Serenity Prayer
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
―Reinhold Niebuhr
One of the critical things I have been struggling with has been my identity and how I describe myself to others.
As a side note to this thought, you might not be aware that the Jewish people try not ever to say the name of God because by just saying it, we limit what God can be. Theologians call this putting God in a box.
If we were indeed created in God’s image as written in Genesis, then it would appear that we should be as careful about putting not just God in a box as we are. Is it possible that the reason for much of our anxiety is that we may define ourselves as photographers alone, and this has limited our abilities?
What would have happened if David had been older and allowed adult thoughts to limit his ability to kill Goliath? The key to the story of David and Goliath is that David acknowledged that all his victories were not his own but because of God. David said, “God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”
David wasn’t thinking about being a shepherd or running to be king. Instead, David saw the anxiety of his people and believed the God who protected him while in the battle for his sheep would allow him to take on Goliath.
If you have lost your job as a staff photographer or are losing clients for various reasons, don’t limit yourself by defining yourself as just a photographer. That is how David’s brothers tried to explain and send him home. David was not a shepherd; David was a faithful follower of God and trusted God to deliver him every day as he watched his flock of sheep.
Why am I grateful for the stresses of this world that create anxiety in my life? Because without them, I wouldn’t need to get on my knees today and ask God to give me the wisdom to know what I should do today.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
―Philippians 4:4-9 [NIV]
“This idea fascinates me,” says David Hurn; “the idea that a few seconds of watching a photographer in action can tell you their status in the medium. And it’s true. If you watch a photographer of merit working an event, they do not look like an amateur ….”
–Jay, Bill; Hurn, David (1997-10-01). On Being a Photographer
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?
The arabica coffee is grown in high altitudes under the shade, as you can see with this plant in Mexico.
Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.
–Thomas A. Edison
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.
Opener: Sets the scene for the story
Decisive moment: The one moment that can by itself tell the story
Details: Besides being like visual candy to the report, help often with transitions–especially in multimedia packages
Sequences: give a little variety to a situation
High overall shot: Gives a good perspective on how the elements all fit together.
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
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.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
― Benjamin Franklin
Here is a brief outline of what I had before shooting the story on the coffee cooperative.
Showing the coffee on the plant and being harvested
Removal of what is left of the fruit from the bean
Drying coffee on slabs of concrete
Roasting the coffee
Bagging the coffee and grinding the coffee
Coffee farmers working in each of those settings
Coffee farmers in their homes
The families and what they do (mainly to show before and after)
Show how dangerous crossing the border is for a person
Showing them remembering all those who died crossing
Showing putting water in the desert for crossers
Maybe show some in the desert waiting to cross in darkness
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.
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.
Giving yourself some downtime serves to distance me from the emotion of the picture-taking moment so that I am better able to see the image dispassionately. Too often, when we look at our pictures, we remember the event’s excitement, which becomes mixed up with our calm judgment of the results. Then again, if an image was tough to shoot, we justify it: something so hard to achieve must be worthwhile. For these reasons, I like to show the contacts to a photographer I respect. This person is unaware of my feelings, can cut through my memories and fantasies, and will only see what is in the image itself.
– David Hurn
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.
Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 with Sigma 1.4 converter, ISO 12,800, ƒ/4, 1/500, 630mm
Caption for the photo above: Woodward Academy War Eagles #13 Elijah Holyfield, the son of famed heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, takes to the outside, leaving Blessed Trinity Titans #73 Andrew Cornell on the ground and #87 Logan Craighead going for a tackle on Friday, September 27, 2013. Final Score Blessed Trinity defeats Woodward Academy 27-17.
I decided to try another high school football game tonight and some even higher ISOs than last.
Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 with Sigma 1.4 converter, ISO 51,200, ƒ/5.6, 1/1600, 480mm
Caption for the photo above: Blessed Trinity Titans #5 Milton Shelton scores the second touchdown with Woodward Academy War Eagles #4 Matthew Clopton and #1 Antone Williams chasing him on Friday, September 27, 2013.
Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 with Sigma 1.4 converter, ISO 51,200, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000, 630mm
Caption for photo above: Woodward Academy War Eagles #3 Arrington Farrar tackled Blessed Trinity Titans #5, Milton Shelton, in the first quarter on Friday, September 27, 2013. Final Score Blessed Trinity defeats Woodward Academy 27-17.
Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 with Sigma 1.4 converter, ISO 36,204, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000, 262mm
Caption for photo above: Blessed Trinity Titans #6 Chris Keegan scored the first touchdown with Woodward Academy War Eagles #6 Marcus Hyatt and #1 Antone Williams in hot pursuit on Friday, September 27, 2013.
