there's a bonfire tonight alll the way up on the north side of the world.
expect photos late or tomorrow.
i can't wait!
photos today are behind the scenes stuff from the news-press offices taken over the summer while i was working there. Ya'know, people being edited photo shoots, the such.
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a while back
sagelike31 asked if i could give soem tips on going pro. So here's what i've got to offer.
First and foremost, you need to make sure that this is what you want to do and that you're dedicated to do what it takes to make it.
The Social Aspect
sadly like any creative job how you sell yourself and who you know are more directly related to how successful you'll be than simply skill alone. I know more photogs who are "pro" that are amazing salesmen/women and simply
okay photogs than those that are good and can't sell themselves or interact with people.
so how do you meet people that will give you jobs and furthermore just get your name out there?
Maybe join a camera club or hang around the local camera store waitign for some pros to wander in or ask the employees there about ones who come in. They'll be able to give you a pretty good idea of how well they shoot and if they're looking for help. If you've got a taste for rejection (and a serious pair, hahaha!) you can call up local studios and newspapers and ask if they're hiring and in the case of newspapers if they'll look at your portfolio and consider you for freelance. Oh, and don't call up big name studios like Bryn-Allen or Nautilus they're chains and will hire almost anyone who says they like to shoot. sorry charlie!
the second one is what I did and it took a long, long time. you've got to noty let them get you down though and throughout all of this you need to KEEP SHOOTING. can't stress that enough, shoot shoot shoot. Thats the only way you'll get better. Also, while you shoot, try to find pople who know more and more about photography to edit you and tell them to tear into you. Yes, it sucks getting torn down but if they're good they'll give you compliments about what you've done right in addition to what needs some work. That means that while everyone on deviantart might think you're amazing, you could show it to an editor in real life and they might give you five or six areas tht need heavy work. Remember that no one is perfect and while you may like something, they may hate it, photography is a subjective art and the more that you're edited they better you will get.
Try to talk to pros, call them up and explain yourself then ask if they have a minute to talk sometime. this is where you need to be calling some smaller portrait studios or if you're going to try to call news photogs do it towards the end of the working day when they're most likely winding down. most of them will be glad to let you sit down and ask them some qustions of how they started and how long they've been shooting. this is the kind of informal meeting that you want. their advice can give you more tips than any book. That's not to say that you should take it as the word of god, but give it some heavy weight...they've been doing this for money a lot longer than you've even held a camera. Yes, some are weird or some are stuckup assholes but take it in stride they all can give you some good advice. Oh, and if they don't want to talk to you becuase you're new, then they're not only jerks but more than likely really crappy photogs to boot.
Pros share their clients and tips because they know that living in a bubble is not going to help them make money one bit. later on, when you're a big portrait photog, you can call up a close buddy and offer them a shoot if you're seriously overbooked and out of curtosy they other photog will help you out later on when both your main and backup body go down on location (true story, happened to my old wedding photog boss as she was on a shoot and another photog came out and loaned her what she needed for a day).
PS. I keep my portfolio on a memory key on my keychain so that way if i run into someone i can show them on the spot. Also, I keep business cards in the car for just an occasion. You never know when you might get that big break.
The Gear
Nootice that up until now i've said nothing about gear. That's because in reality it doesn't matter all that much. Sure, Canon and Nikon would love for you to believe that if you buy a 10,000$ 600mm f/4 fixed telephoto lens that your photos will be allover National Geographic but that isn't the case. This, brings me to my nex big point:
Don't Be A Gear Whore!!
Just because you can afford it doens't mean that you can get it. If you take shity pictures with an entry level D50 (nikon) or an original Digital Rebel (canon) doesn't mean that getting a pro D2x (nikon) or 1Ds MkII (canon) will make you amazing. On the contrary, it'll make you look like an idiot with waaaaay too much cash.
Here's an example:
What good is a a 50mm f/1.4 lens if you already have the 50mm f/1.8 lens? Ask yourself, do you really need the extra half stop that lens is going to give you? Do you even know what the difference is or what F/1.8 even means and how it affects your photos? If you can justify it with use, then go ahead and get it, otherwise you're fine with what you've got.
Good photos come from the person behind the lens, not the camera itself.
When you start out, the best thing you can do is BUY GOOD GLASS (lenses)!! Those make a difference on the quality of your photos! Then with whatever cash you've got left get whatever body you can afford to put on those awesome lenses.The body's job is just to get out of the way while you make good photos. Yes, it's kind of sucky not having that big awesome body that looks all pro but were you really going to use all the features anyways?
Yeah, i'll admit it, everone loves to buy new stuff and it feels good, but don't get caught up in the cycle of constantly having gear envy, get the lenses you know you'll use and then save up for a cool body.
As for lenses you know you'll use all i can say is this: It depends on your style. For those starting out, if you can afford it get the awesome telephoto and wide zoom lenses, otherwise get a middle of the road zoom telephoto (read: long) lens and a middle of the road wide zoom (read: short lens) and after amonth or so of shooting a lot, look at your stuff and see where your photos fall. are they up close with your wide lens? (mine are) or are they far away with your zoom like a widelife photogs? (not me) When you know which of those you naturally use mroe then you know which lens to buy the expensive pro one first.
If you do this, then you'll ahve the lenses that suit your style the best.
This is what i did:
I bought a middle of the road body (D70) with a middle of the road lens (18-70mm 3.5 - 5.6). Then about two years later when i was seriously into things, I bought a pro zoom lens because i could justify the uses of it. Then about two months later, I bought a very fast pro 50mm lens because i needed it for low light and i tend to shoot a little better with a fixed (nonzooming lens). About a month after that I was looking at my stuff, and saw taht i had all these awesome lenses so i went out and bought a pro film body (F100) to use them on because i'd used the next film body down and i didn't like it at all.
Education
educate yourself! read as much as you can about photography! read pop-photo and Black and White so you get a good spread on what good photos are. Disregard any of the reviews in pop-photo though, they are too reliant on numbers.
Get books that explain the basics of what F/Stops and hypoerfocal distance is. Just because the book is 20 years old and makse you do everything by hand doens't mean that it doesn't apply. Appreciate tha you have an awesome autofocus body with an auto meter that does all the hard part for you.
If you want to lear the formulae and theory behind the mechanics of photography, then by all meas go ahead. It might actually be a good thing because you can use an old box camera from the 50s and still get great photos. That's not to say that you have to know that stuff, but it might help one day.
The bottom line is, just make sure you know about photo and the terms and some of the early greats in the art before you get into any of the stuff above. There's nothing worse than looking like a fool when someone asks you about your settings for a shot and you can't answer them because you don't know what your shutter is from your depth of field preview button.
I hope this helped, and please dont' be afrad to ask questions, i'll be more than hapy to answer!
EDIT: please excuse the spelling, there's a reason i'm a photog and not a writer! :)
