personal work /twenty four

Lately I’ve been much into improving on my personal photography work. It’s often very neglected as an aspect of the photographer’s growth. Yet, it’s one of the most powerful propellers when it comes to creativity, inspiration and technique. For many months, maybe even a few years now I rarely shot anything for myself and my own satisfaction alone. It was about time to get out and not think about anything else but capturing what I love, find interesting, challenging or simply different.

That’s how Twenty Four was born. It’s a personal project still in the progress and I have decided to not make the whole of it public. I want to stay on the safe side because the trademarks of some of the products I photograph are still visible. At the same time, it’s very interesting to be photographing something knowing that very few other people will see it, yet be very serious and intentional about it. Often we as photographers measure the value of our images by how the public responds to them. I think that there’s more to the whole story. An image ought to hold a strong value independently of what others have to say about it. While inventing, detailing, preparing and photographing the scene I, the photographer have been influenced by the process and then by the results. That’s enough for me to deem the photograph valuable.

Anyway, Twenty Four – it’s a project about the unusual and the unexpected among our daily lives. My challenge was to combine things we’re used to see during the 24hours of the day in ways we’re not. So, here come a few samples and if time permits, later as I progress I might share a few more.

Meanwhile, think of the place of personal work in your own journey as a photographer. It’s much more important than you might think.

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world photography day

Happy world day of photography (if you would like to narrow it down to one day, that is)! Don’t be shy to take a photograph today, read up on some of the history of photography or maybe even pose for a photo.

If you can’t recognize the photo on the left, you might want to start reading right here. In addition, there’s a special site (well, one of many I suppose) which celebrates the day and offers some more inspiration – that would be here.

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the engagement shoot – a prep for the wedding

Often an engagement shoot is offered as a separate package by photographers. It is a separate event (well, kind of) and sometimes it’s also far in time from the wedding day itself. Yet, for the times when the engagement isn’t happening too far in advance of the wedding or the couple simply didn’t manage to capture the moment in a special way, offering an engagement shoot as part of one’s wedding package can be a great win-win situation.

As a photographer one will benefit from the engagement shoot as part of the wedding package because it bumps up the value of the package itself while at the same time offers a less stressful environment to engage with the couple in a photographic relationship – to see how they behave before the camera, to get more comfortable communicating with them, to get a better understanding of their taste for pictures… even to see how self-conscious they are.

For the customer – the couple, it’s a good practice run before the wedding and a good number of professional portraits (which many couples lack) at a small increase of the total price.

Lastly, such an “engagement” shoot doesn’t necessarily need to be called that to be a part of a wedding package. An extra short 1-2hrs photo shoot before the wedding will be warmly welcomed by most couples. Give it a shot and see how it will benefit you!

Below are some samples from a recent engagement/pre-wedding shoot I did with a great young couple.

Click the link below to see the rest of the images.

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take a break

Coming back from a long (and very unexpected) break in photographing and blogging (sorry about that!) I sit and think about the consequences of it. Of this and all the other similar breaks I’ve had ever since I started taking photography seriously. It seems to me that breaks aren’t as bad as one might think (especially the workaholics out there). As long as they’re somewhat controlled, of course.

In the past years one thing has always come alongside of breaks – a leap in creativity. It’s odd, as most photographers (me including) say that creativity best develops while working. This is true. However, my creativity often jumps off the scale after a lengthy holiday. Or a pause from shooting for a month.

It’s a bit as if I’ve spent all the time of the break filling up with fresh angles and ideas. I never stop observing the world around me and I guess when I don’t output my impressions graphically after some time I’ve got a whole lot to work with. At least that’s the way I explain my creative leaps.

Unfortunately, a lengthy break does come at a price. Especially if you rely on this particular work to cover your living expenses. The question, I suppose is how much will the creative leap compensate for the time off… So far I’ve been pleasantly surprised. What’s your experience?

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two numbers

Microstock is much about numbers. So much, actually, that while looking for the top secret number to success (whether or not there is one) we can easily miss the simple guides along the way.

While analyzing my 2010 statistics and looking at the goals I’ve set for myself for 2011 I decided to not do what I’ve done so far… ie. fall for the overly complex equations. I wanted to focus on the plain, simple and solid data which was easily available. So I did.

I asked two key questions along the way:

1. How do you outpace the growth of the agency?
2. How do you evaluate the success of your portfolio?

So, first things – first. How in the world do you outpace the growth of a 10+ million image bank, where tens of thousands of people regularly upload new content? Quite simply – you don’t. What you CAN do, however, is outpace its growth in relation to where you stand. Or outpace the others like you, individually.

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steps to success in microstock

Yes, it really is that simple. That is, if you care enough to realize it and adjust whatever it is that you’re doing accordingly. The catch? Do it now and you’ll be ahead of the crowd, because far too many of the middle class contributors aren’t putting the three piece puzzle together just yet.

Why am I telling you all this, you may ask. Firstly, because I don’t want you to be stuck in the same spot I was for far too long. Secondly, because I believe the entire industry will be revolutionized if more of the people who depend on it actually took it for what it can be. So, read on and analyze your own situation as you do it.

#1 BE SERIOUS ABOUT IT. I suppose you can get just this part down and be as happy as one can be. This is the foundation on which you’re building – your hobby, your business, your holiday money… whatever microstock is to you, it stands on “how seriously you do it”. Ironically, this may be the easiest step to describe as it comes down to one short question: Am I going to make an effort to make this happen or not? Check these definitions of “serious” to see the picture from another angle. There is no some sort of “microstock secret” to being serious. Really, there isn’t.

Are you choosing to be serious?

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