Who Can You Talk To About Photography? Ten Good Ideas...

We all need to talk to someone. In my house they do it when I am in the john - no end of conversations seem to be vital to the other members of the family whilst one is sitting down. The only way I can think of breaking of this habit is to open the door but this involves some loss of dignity...

For photographers, talking to someone is essential. Around your birthday you talk to the family about how you really, really need the new 12-2500mm zoom lens that has just been announced at Photokina and how much better it will make their lives. Sometimes this works.

Of course there are different divisions of photography and it occurred to me that each one has a different form of conversation:

1. Family photographers talk to the family. Initially in soft sweet words and eventually in parade ground tones.

2. Good portrait photographers talk to their subjects. Bad portrait photographers talk to their assistants.

3. Landscape photographers talk to themselves.

4. Food photographers talk to themselves but in different voices. Sometimes the voices talk back.

5. Sports photographers talk to the St. John's Ambulance  attendants.

6. Fashion photographers talk to the models. Slowly, and with little words.

7. Leica photographers talk to the Almighty. Once, in the morning, to give orders for the day.

8. Camera collectors talk to their cameras.

9. Darkroom workers never talk.

10. Photography Art collectors talk to their brokers.

If you wish to add any to this list please pop it onto our comments section or onto the Facebook page attached to this blog.

Uncle Dick

A Modest Business Proposal

I was greeted at my doorstep today by the cat meowing loudly. He was covered in feathers and behind him on the mat was a freshly killed dove. I did the right thing - I closed the front door, exited by the side entrance, and left it for my daughter to discover when she goes to work. 

When I pulled into our parking lot at work there was a medium-sized hawk sitting on one of the old iron frames - under him was a freshly killed pigeon, opened like a boiled egg. I had interrupted breakfast...

Professional photographers in the wedding and fashion game will recognise the scenario instantly. We've all been working away at whatever assignment is to hand and all of a sudden someone swoops on us. If we are lucky it is only an art director or director of photography - I always keep a silver crucifix handy and they vanish shrieking. Sometimes the interloper is an amateur unsure of whether they should stand in front of you with their iPad after you have organised the wedding group. I find that if you put a Metz 60 CT on full power on the seat of their trousers and hit the open flash button that it does all that needs to be done.

Unfortunately sometimes the predator is a competitor looking to get the images that you set up so that they can peddle them to other people. If you are going to be careful in post-production and they are not, they can have your images out there before you do, albeit in shoddy form.

How do you stop this? If it is a closed studio shoot, have Security grasp them and eject them. Wipe their card before tossing their camera onto the road in front of them. If it is outside in a public venue have them chased away by teenagers - the teenagers will do this for a modest fee and the opportunity to injure someone. You needn't set limits on this as they are under age and will be dealt with by a children's court.

If the piracy is taking place in a church, temple, or other place of worship, you must respect the sacred nature of the situation and refrain from any untoward reaction. I find it is best to be pleasant and encourage the other photographer to take as many pictures as they like. Indeed, give him the best spot and lend him a speedlight if his is not working. While he is occupied ring up Paul of the Grey Company and ask him to send Asgoth the Abominable to lurk outside the church door. I should wait a little after the offender exits the building before going out. And watch where you are putting your feet - blood ruins shoes.

Beauty Is As Beauty Does

I thought I was committing the height of folly a decade ago when I bought a 44 cm Softlight Beauty dish for my Elinchrom studio flash heads. After all, I had three lights with 18 cm reflectors and umbrellas and a soft box and a snoot. I mean how many more looks could there possibly be in the studio...?

So when was I going to use this thing?

Luck would have it that I had a job at a costume society dinner that week. I was given a small stage area to put up a backdrop ( faithful old three-part framework and mottled muslin...the muslin gets more mottled every year. At the end of the decade I am going to boil it for soup...) and one power point. As I was to be within a metre and a half of the subjects i decided on one 250 w/s head and the beauty dish. Best decision I ever made.

The curve of the dish that close to the subjects allowed for a slightly specular light that dropped down from the crown of the head but still curved into the eye socket and under the nose. It was almost like having a main and fill in one piece. With only a very small amount of light shifting I was able to light all the different people in their different costumes and it was one of the most successful sessions for that club.

Last night I decided to put into operation a lighting scheme that Matt Koskowski recommends in one of his Photoshop books; two medium strip lights at the 10:00 and 2:00 position in relation to the subject  and a beauty dish at 6:00. He shows in his book that it will facilitate easy selection of the subject for subsequent compositing. It seemed to be contrary to what I had done before but what the heck...

The heck. It works. The heading image is one of he first off the screen, and as it was done on a double martini and late at night, it could stand a bit more care, but it is a lot easier than any thing else. Of course it helps when the subject has definite curves and a glorious costume and is heavily armed, but then doesn't that describe a lot of dates...

SALES POINT. Beauty dishes work - they make people look like cover girls - even when they are little wizened gnomes or large hairy madmen. I mention these because I shall be showing some of the other images from the shoot in future posts. In the meantime consider one for your Elinchrom or Profoto lights as the ideal solution for a one-light setup.

A New Year's Resolution

New Year. New financial fear. Added to accounting for a new calendar year, new religious year, and new car license year...every year...it is a wonder that we can remember anything that we have resolved. I have taken to putting stickers around the house to remind myself, but I sometimes forget where I put the stickers...

Never mind. If we are enjoined o make moral resolutions for the religious new year and practical ones for the calendar new year, I guess we can make financial ones this month. Here goes.

I have a bundle of old camera equipment that is sitting in the studio and the safe - unused for 5 or more years. If it was socks there would be moth holes in them - as it is there is figurative dust accumulating. It is time to turn these still-fine items into new items that I actually will use.

I'm lucky - I have gear that still has some intrinsic value - not much, but a little. I can offer it for sale knowing that there are actual customers for it. My resolution is that I will get off my rusty and actually do it. The return of some money will be one thing, but the real benefit will be that it will clear the mind of sitting and wondering what to do with it. Once gone and converted to a new lens I will be off to new adventures.

May I suggest the same to you? If your old gear is truly old junque...I realise these are strong terms, but we are adults now...give it to a charity. Or take it to the Workshop Camera Club camera market and set up a stall and learn a great deal about human nature in the space of a morning. One tip - sniff. If granddad's dear old 35mm Flapoflex or your automatic film compact smells like vinegar or old socks or a rabbit hutch in hot weather, ditch it in the bin.

If it is not bad and not cheap and not broken, a professional dealer may express some interest - but generally only if it will have a profitable resale. Be honest with yourselves - if no-one wants to buy it from the newspaper or Gumtree or the camera market, they are not going to buy it from a shop. Time to be realistic. Bin.

So where has this blog gone? Round in a circle, I daresay, but at a tangent from that circle will be some benefit from the turnover of the gear that is just sitting there. I am sentimental about it, but then I am sentimental about Curtis Lemay and the 21st USAAF and that never gets me noticed at parties either.

Change.

Good News - The End Of Professional Photography

Whew, what a relief!. I thought that would never end. At last someone has freed us from the shackles of the past.

The CEO of Yahoo has stated that there are no more professional photographers. I can't tell you what a weight this has lifted off my shoulders. I'll bet there will be celebrating in studios and editorial offices all over Perth - not to mention in the Uni's and TAFE's. I feel like declaring a national holiday. They've flooded the Shoot Photography Workshops main studio with beer and we're all going to get our swimming suits.

No more having to ask for money from people, no more ABN numbers or keeping accounts. No more paying off leases on equipment or premises, and no more advertising in expensive wedding journals for jobs. The former fashion and food photographers no longer have to put up with the precious antics of their clients - they can kick the anorexic tarts out and throw the Tuscan casserole pots in the bin.

Most of all I hear a cheer from the former wedding workers - now they can turn up at the church dressed in tracky daks and thongs - or not turn up at all if there is something on tellie at the time. And aren't we all going to enjoy the first time we get to slap a flower girl with a wet fish...Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. "Whack".

I suppose it will be a little bit of wrench for the animal and baby photographers as they generally seemed to like their models, but I suppose there is nothing to stop them from opening their own kennel  and keeping a pack of babies.

As for me, I am going to go off and photograph hot rods and pretty girls just because I can. Won't be showing them on Flickr pro, but then, I never did. I preferred to have my images stolen from other websites...

You Have The Power - With Godox

Today is Earth Day. You all know what that means. Time to have your wall sockets and extension cords checked by a qualified electrical contractor.

While you are thinking electrical, consider the Godox power inverter. We have the LP 800-X model in stock right now and the price has dropped from $ 995 to $ 895.

Do you have studio flashes that are locked into your studio? Or a computer that needs mains power to run? Or  hot lights that need 240VAC to operate? Are you sick of having to unreel 25 kilometres of extension cords from your house to the beach for a location shoot - and then having to reel them back up again to go home?

Here is where the Godox inverter is your frend. There are three standard AC sockets on one side and three USB sockets sockets on the other - see images. The power inverter locks onto the top of the dedicated rechargeable battery and pumps out 750 watts continuous or 800 intermittent power. You can draw off 110VAC 60Hz or 240 V Ac 50Hz. There are overload and short circuit protectors in operation. There is even a low voltage alarm to let you know when it is time to change batteries.

The change-over couldn't be simpler - just unclip four safety locks at the sides of the inverter and lift it off the battery. There are spare batteries available and as it only takes three hours to trickle charge one, you can have a spare ready to go.

This is the type of solution that means you can have studio flash power and effective light shaping wherever you have a location shoot - and you don't have to change over your current equipment.

Current equipment. Earth Day. Ooh, they're coming thick and fast today...