The Meaning of Photography 2011-10-19

No, those lights aren't representative of her Xi. They're just pretty. They frame the image well, and they let me play with depth of field.

So I was just having a Facebook conversation on a friend’s wall about what photography is for, and what it means, etc.  Oh dear.  I just noticed he deleted all my comments.    This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I have some strong opinions about it, so if you’re fragile, kindly click the “back” button to get back to somewhere safe.  I decided to just write a blog about it, because people tend to feel attacked when you disagree with them in an open forum, and since I’m working on a project at present with this particular friend, I don’t want him to think I’m attacking him personally.  He’s hardly the first artist to express the kind of perspective I intend to basically rant about here.

The quote which he posted, which brought the subject up, is as follows:

“Ultimately photography is about who you are. It’s the seeking of truth in relation to yourself. And seeking truth becomes a habit.” Leonard Freed

This hits a chord with me.  And so has it when about 75% of my teachers have made similar assertions about how “Art is not about making images.”  Of course it’s not.  That’s why we don’t make images in art.  “It’s about looking inside yourself and discovering the parts of your soul that need expression, and sharing those secret feelings with the world.  It’s about learning to see yourself in the world around you, and connecting with the earth’s inner-energy.” 

I can understand that for some people, art is a great way for them to express feelings they don’t know how else to handle.  For them, it’s like a journal they write in, but are so afraid someone else will read it, that they only write in vague, general terms.  I think this has its place under the art umbrella; however, what about what I do?  I had a fabulous childhood.  I don’t harbor anger toward my parents.  I don’t have a spouse who cheated on me, or the death of a twin.  I’m a regular guy with balanced emotions.  But I like to make art, too.  So what of that?

In the quote, it says, “It’s the seeking of truth in relation to yourself.”  First of all, I have no idea why photography is that.  I can honestly say I’ve never pressed the shutter release immediately following the thought that it would somehow reveal some truth that I had theretofore overlooked about my inner workings.  Were people incapable of introspection prior to the invention of the camera?  Probably not.  I, for one, did all my self-discovery as a kid and as a teen without any help from photography and I think it worked out swimmingly.

What’s this stuff about the truth “in relation to yourself?”  As if, to me, the world is something other than what the world is to someone else.  Experience is different.  Perspective is different.  But the truth is constant.  And so it is with art.  Certainly the skill, experience and perspective of an artist comes through in the images they make (again, why do we waste our time making images?), but I fail to understand how making a pot or taking a photo of a model with slices of kiwi on her clavicals teaches me or anyone some outrageous truth that could be found no other way.

The way I see it, we artists just feel so devalued by the world that we, and our insecurity, want to raise our value.  Not by actually increasing it by study, innovation, practice and business savvy, but rather just by making it sound like we’re amazing.  And what better way to do that than to add mysticism and inter-demensional energy and deep, secret emotional expression to the mix.  Who can argue with any of that?  “Hmm.  At first I thought this painting was total garbage, but then I read the artists statement, and now I understand that to him it represents a journey from the ashes of disappointment and misery through a marble ocean of emotional turmoil and an eventual triumph of reunification with the forces of the astral universe.”  Puh-leez.  If that’s what you wanted to convey, shouldn’t the painting convey it instead of the little paper next to the painting?

My last beef, is that I see a pattern among the most serious adherents to artsy hippie culture.  That pattern is that they aren’t very good at traditional techniques.  Whether they take up the nebulous, arbitrary assignment of meaning to poor work because they can’t do any better, or whether they can’t do any better because they make stuff up to excuse poor quality I’m not sure, but it’s quite a rarity to find someone with mind-blowing technical aptitude, a strong customer-base and an eye trained for realism talking about their work like it was blessed by an ancient, extinct culture through psychic channels.

I’m just a guy who likes to take photos.  If my work isn’t good, you’ll be able to tell.  And I don’t believe any amount of creative writing is going to convince you otherwise.  If it will, I don’t care.  If I wanted to write special things like that, I would be an artsy poet instead of [not] making images.  It is much more important to me to spend my time actually improving the quality of my work, than making up crap so it will impress people in its current, mediocre state.  In the professional realms, if there are two schools of thought about this, and I can stand with the side with the best technique, and creates work that speaks for itself, stands on its own and communicates ideas all by itself, that’s where I want to be.

Zombie Photoshoot at the Salt Flats 2011-10-20

So I don’t have much time to write here, but I just wanted to share some of the shots I took at the Salt Flats last weekend.  I didn’t have any lighting or anything, so I mostly just assisted other photographers with reflectors, etc.  The scene was beautiful, but not really what I think of when zombies are the theme.  So for a couple of them I darkened things up a bit in post.

So her hair and makeup weren't bad, but it was so bright and beautiful. Not scary.

So I added some drama and texture to this to give it more of a horrific feel.

Her makeup was white, but not very white, so I did some whitening in post.

This was one of my favorites.

When I wasn't assisting, I was mostly shooting the landscape.

This is what I used to replace the background in the first image, not that you'd ever know it.

My battery is supposed to arrive today, so I’ll be prepared for some shoots I have coming up.  I’ll be returning to the Salt Flats for a shoot very soon.

Tips For Better Photography – Honesty 2011-10-21

I’m only calling it that because, let’s be honest, this blog is designed to give Google an excuse to bless me with hits.  Really, these are tips for getting better at anything, and just generally being better.  When I think of  pro basketball players prepping for their next game, I don’t picture them standing around looking in the proverbial mirror.  That would be a waste of time, right?  One of my recent posts was about how I do not believe that the purpose of art is to look inside ourselves and channel our fears and feelings.  I don’t think that’s a prerequisite for art at all.  I do see where some may get that idea.  Because whenever you spend time and effort improving at something you care about, you will do some introspection.  It’s part of the process.  You have to be able to look at your technique, your strategy, your motives, etc. and pick them apart over and over again.  But this doesn’t make the purpose of trading stock options or framing buildings an opportunity to look within ourselves.  It’s just part of the process of improvement.  I’m big on breaking this down, and I have enough to say about it to write a book, but here I just want to talk about one part: Honesty. 

You may think you look foolish, but honesty is the cone that lets your wounds heal. The most foolish sight is a dog that can't stop biting himself.

Imagine a world where a large government who represents itself as the pillar of freedom and righteousness was killing innocent people.  In terms of what is better for the improvement of that government, is it better for the government to acknowledge its problem and fix it, or to act with hostility toward or silence the person who pointed out the flaw?  So it is for us.  If I have a hang-up which keeps me from achieving my next level of improvment, and someone points it out to me, should I get angry with them?  Well that all depends on whether your pride (aka insecurity) is priority 1, or if genuine progress is priority 1. 

One thing I love about the teachings of Jesus and most major religions, is that the principles fit perfectly into an effective plan for progression.  Almost as if the purpose of religion is to teach us to become forever more than we are.    We think of the meek, humble or lowly of heart as the weak, shy and insecure.  But this isn’t the case.  For anyone to achieve a high level of skill, humility and teachability are requirements.  If, after learning to move the pieces, you think you’re amazing at chess, and spend all your time soliciting recognition from your peers who haven’t learned to move the pieces, you’re spending no time asking for help from the masters, or practicing, or studying.  You may have moments where you feel good about yourself, but the real goal should be growth, not artificial aggrandizement.  One of the symptoms of dimentia is an unfounded sense of grandeur.  It’s delusion.  And how silly do we look when we haven’t scratched the surface of a subject, and pretend to be an expert?  Especially to those who have already sacrificed their insecure feelings in exchange for critiques and advice?

The last thing I want to say about this is that we should surround ourselves with other honest people.  If all our interactions include promises that this dress definitely doesn’t make me look fat, we will never get a new dress, and we will never buy a butt-master.  So both are important.  Honest advice from others who are ahead of us, and the humility and the objectivity to not make others sleep on the couch when they’re honest with us.  Especially when we’re young, and realizing we don’t want to be insecure the rest of our lives, we begin to say things like, “Stop caring what other people think.”  I understand what is meant by this, but it’s really not a well-worded statement.  In my opinion, it is VERY important what other people think.  I would be offended if my wife didn’t care what I thought, or my parents, etc.  And certainly I care what they think.  Other people and what they think is an excellent resource for making very appropriate changes to our lives (going against another popular teenage mantra “Stop trying to be what you’re not!”).  If you want to be more than you are, you have to change something.  Seems simple enough to me.  And other people, who have already learned the lessons you’re up against, are certainly the best way to accelorate your progress.  Better might be, “Stop basing your self-worth on fickle, unreliable sources!”

If you’re content with praise-based self-esteem and mediocrity, you don’t have to be honest with yourself.  If this is what’s important to you, I hope you’re never alone.  If you wish to really work toward mastery, I recommend sitting down, spending a little extra time, and asking yourself, “What are my flaws?”  Then answer brutally.  For others the challenge is being honest about your strengths.  Don’t pick and choose.  Just be honest.

Provo Bridal Photography 2011-10-09

Saturday I had the pleasure of working with Tyson Rollins (assist) Emily Bytheway (Model/Bride) and Candice Jean (Hair/Makeup) to get some updated photos for my bridal portfolio.  I’m planning on advertising early next year, so until then I’ll be doing shoots like this one so I have some excellent work to display.  I have done bridals plenty of times before, and it’s often a struggle to get the right setting and shots, because too often the bridal portraits are done the day of the wedding, and it is very difficult to get images of this quality in 30 minutes, as the bride often takes longer to get ready than planned, and is trying to escape the shoot to go be with her groom.  If you’re planning a wedding, I recommend doing bridals well in advance of the wedding.  This takes one more thing off your plate during the rush, your photographer will feel appreciated since you’ve set aside plenty of time, and the images you get will be much, much better.  Going into this shoot, I planned to experiment with the lighting to create a steep falloff from light into shadow, from the face to the floor.  I also wanted to do some natural light shots, since I didn’t have any window shots prior to this.  The venue is The Chillon in Spanish Fork, which was a fantastic place to work, and Cameron, the owner, let me shoot for free in exchange for images of his recent remodel.  What a guy.  This was my first time using my new camera, and although the buttons’ new arrangement was confusing, I’m really pleased with what I’ve got.  Now I just need a computer that doesn’t choke on the new image filesize.

Here you can see the falloff I was talking about. Light on her face, but below the window falls quickly into shadow.

I've also never done bridals with a mirror, so I played around with that a bit.

Here's a shot using my lights. There was a window nearby, but I wanted some shots with this look, which is difficult to get with natural light.

Here's another example of the quick falloff, but this time using my lights. I don't have grids yet, so I had to be deliberate about how I aimed the lights.

Here she is on the couch, but now using the natural light from the window. With dimmer light like this, I opened up the aperture to blur the background a bit.

I was absolutely in love with this photo when I shot it, but found later that it was a bit out of focus. With a little work, it turned out okay.

For this shot, I wanted a nice, soft core shadow running down her arm, so I had Tyson hold a reflector to her back. Worked out great.

Nothing fancy here. Even if you're shooting with a disposable, just stick your subject next to a window and they'll look great.

This is also in front of the window, but no matter what camera you're shooting with, it will never pop out looking like this.

How To Pick A Wedding Photographer! 2011-10-05

I hear frequently about families, newlyweds and actors who hired a photographer and were wildly disappointed with the photos they got.  How does this happen?  In one of my previous posts, I explained that I was that disappointing photographer at the very first wedding I shot.  But at least the couple knew I was completely new to photography and had no wedding experience, and they paid me almost nothing.  After every wedding I’ve shot since, I’ve gotten loads of thanks and praise followed by too many exclamation points.    In any case, it really is the responsibility of the consumer to distinguish between a hack with a camera who calls him/herself a professional and someone who has legitimate ability.  So how do you know?  Let’s go over some common techniques people seem to use.

“They said they’re a professional”.  Having gone through the self-education process years back, I can tell you that this is what we’re told to do to make the transition to a full-fledged business person.  Start calling yourself a professional photographer, and soon you will be.  I’ve read this online, and been told in classes in college to do it.  So I know this is not only meaningless because you don’t need a degree or any creds to shoot for money, it’s also meaningless because it’s a deliberately diluted by an army of photography hopefuls.  If someone tells you they are a professional photographer, just smile and pretend you didn’t hear that.

“They have a degree in photography.”  This is better than the reason above, as it indicates that some time has been spent with a camera, but having spent some time in senior-level college photography courses, I can tell you this isn’t a great indicator either, and for multiple reasons.  Firstly, there are just some people who will take pictures, or play a sport, or whatever it is, for their entire lives, and never get better.  There are rules to improvement.  If you don’t follow the rules, you won’t improve.  In high school I played chess.  I started out losing every game, and ended up the state high-school speed chess champion.  Our team won the team championship.  Although a few of us improved greatly, with much effort, study and practice, some team members never improved an ounce, though they played as often as I did.  This is a pattern I’ve observed in school, and in circles of photographers I shoot with.  Some are content to simply call themselves chess players, or photographers, but have no interest in improving, so long as they’re getting the attention and validation they crave. 

Another reason this isn’t a good indicator of quality, is that universities tend to focus on theory rather than practice.  You can talk all day long about composition, exposure, color, etc., but until you get out and shoot in real life to try it out, it doesn’t stick.  Also, who is teaching those classes?  50 year-old hippies who call themselves traditionalists so they don’t have to learn to shoot digitally or edit their photos.  When that’s who you learn from, you tend to agree with that mindset.  I frequently see poor-to-mediocre photographers online talking big about their portra 500 or some expired film they shot with.  As you can tell, I am not a film shooter (though I taught myself originally on a film camera) and have more interest in the end result than the process.  It’s not the camera, sensor or film I’m shooting with that makes me an artist.  When you look at your wedding album in 30 years, will you look down teary-eyed and say to your kids, “I love these because they were shot with 15 rolls of expired 1993 Kodachrome on a Zeiss Icon.  Swoon.”  I don’t think so.  They’re more likely to wonder why it looks like they were taken through three sheets of cellophane.

“They charge a lot.  So they’re probably good.”  First of all, how much is a lot?  If $500 for wedding photos is a lot to you, you should know that this is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to pricing.  I charged that much for a long time because I had little experience.  If you want someone who is trying to break into the business, you’re taking a risk.  But even the best photographers have to start somewhere, so you’ll have to use some of the other criteria to judge well and mitigate your risk.  Second of all, photographers set prices arbitrarily.  Yes, we consider our costs, but let’s face it.  Once our (very expensive) equipment is purchased, our editing workflow is silky smooth, and we have a flow of less experienced photographers asking to assist with weddings, we really don’t have a lot of costs.  So the charges become based on demand, what segment of the wedding market we want to target, and how much we have to make to stay alive and feed our families.  Also beware: I personally charge more for things I don’t like doing.  I love shooting weddings but there are other kinds of work I don’t love doing, and charge extra to make it worth it to me.  So if someone charges a lot for weddings, it may be because they don’t like doing them.  You really need other information to make a good decision.

“They have a cute website with some nice bridals.”  Guess what?  With how many photographers there are around, there are just as many (if not more) aspiring models.  Spending two hours with an experienced model in a controlled environment when she’s not in a hurry to escape with her groom is very different from doing bridals or couples shots the day of the wedding.  Having a nice website is key for photographers.  Currently my website is crap.  Heh heh.  This is one of my biggest deficiencies at present.  I have plans to hire someone to make it more professional, probably next year.  The website, however, doesn’t determine the quality of the photos. 

“They have really nice equipment.”  Here’s another one that applies to all kinds of endeavors.  I used to play table tennis heavily.  I still have two paddles I had custom made for about $130 each.  Equipment obviously makes a difference.  Equally obvious, is that a player with little experience using my paddle will lose to me every single time, even if I use a $5 SportCraft paddle from Walmart.  What matters the very most is a person’s skill.  Photography is no different.  If you give a Canon 5D to a bad photographer with no editing workflow or eye for composition, and give me an iPhone, my pictures will still be better.  Every.  Single.  Time.  So if someone brags to you about all their sweet gear, pat them on the back, and then start asking some other questions.

“So how do I know?”  The only sure indicator of a photographer’s quality and consistency, is the work they have to show.  If a photographer puts up dim images from their weddings where the bride has big zits and hair all over the place, rest assured the photographer put it up because that’s what he or she is proud of.  We only put up the ones we like.  If you see some really nice images, don’t stop there.  5-10 nice shots from five 1000-photo-weddings is not a good ratio.  When I look at other photographers’ work, which I do frequently, I look for a wide body of images.  Best-case-scenario, they have at least 10 really pristine photos of each wedding, so you can see that they got more than 1 great photo at each wedding.  If this isn’t there, a lot of different ACTUAL brides (not models) who look fantastic because of lighting, composition, editing, focus, etc., is helpful.  If you’re wowed by a photo because the bride has a nice figure and excellent cheekbones, try to remember that a good-looking woman will look pretty good in any photo, even on a cell phone, and that’s not to the photographer’s credit.  It’s about color, composition, lighting and direction (her expression, etc.).

So if you find someone you’re interested in working with, but they don’t have a website or work to show, insist that they show you in person, or by email, work they’ve done.  It may seem rude not to trust their word, but it’s not.  It’s savvy.  Even if they are a good photographer, you may not like their particular taste, which can result in regrets.  We don’t want regrets.