The tumult surrounding the World Press Photo awards for the last couple of weeks has been quite earth-shaking. An Italian photographer, who had been awarded for “Contemporary Issues” was, finally, disqualified for having mis-labelled where a picture was shot (not in the town of Charleroi which was listed on the entry but 30 miles away in Bruxelles.)
What if I told you that it's not the industry, the bad economy, where you live, what camera you shoot with, how many lights you have or how small your Facebook following is that is holding you back. None of those are truly capable of stopping you, they are only challenges for you to meet -- the same challenges everyone who creates art or starts a business has to meet and beat.
Have you ever seen your parents' or grandparents' wedding photos? Chances are they were printed on photographic paper either as individual prints or presented in a wedding album. They're priceless family heirlooms and they'll likely outlast much of today's wedding photography.
Every day about 200 million photographs get uploaded to Facebook. That’s almost double the number of all the books that have ever been published in human history. And that’s just Facebook, I’m not even mentioning Instagram, Snapchat, or just the photos everybody takes and doesn’t even post online.
While taking all those pictures, most people don’t really think about what they’re actually doing, or how the process works. But if they did think about it, I guess their reasoning for that process would be somewhat like this...
Photos of a frog riding a beetle have been flooding the Internet over the past month. Think it looks cute and adorable? Reactions to the series of photos have been split between blind praise and outrage over the authenticity of the photo-story and welfare of the subjects. So, did this scene really occur naturally as claimed? We don't think so, and here's why.
Earlier this year, I dropped my Minolta 28mm f/2.8 in the ocean where it sat submerged for at least two minutes. I don’t have any tools on hand to tear it down to clean it out. I let it sit overnight on the air conditioner. The next morning, it had drops of water all over the inside elements and the aperture blades were sticking.
“World Press Photo is committed to supporting and advancing high standards in photojournalism and documentary photography worldwide.”
That's what the "About The Foundation" page on the World Press Photo says. Now follow this timeline of recent events.
Let’s discuss the reality of being a working wedding photographer. I’m not talking about being a ‘rockstar’ photographer who charges 25K and shoots a single-digit amount of weddings every season. I’m writing from the perspective of a hustling wedding pro working day in and day out in the thick of it all to earn a decent living.
Before I dive into how wedding photographers have also become stand-in wedding planners and how I have changed my business to accommodate this need (and create a nice selling point to potential clients), let me tell you where I am coming from.
The question I get asked the most is: “Wow, nice pic! Which camera are you using?” Does that sound familiar? In the past, every time I heard this question I would answer in the same way: by telling people which camera I was using, but that it didn’t really matter in my opinion.
There comes a point in a photographer’s life when publishing a book seems like a logical step. The coffee table book represents a platonic ideal for a photo project that is both long-term and worthy of considerations by others. Yet, even with the advent of high quality on-demand solutions like Blurb, book publishing is still fraught with challenges. Here are three different approaches to book publishing in the 21st century.
Support is a funny thing.
As an artist, 96% of our career is spent dealing with rejection. Rejection from friends, family, other artists, and even the art world itself. Making a living from art can be a very long and lonely, misunderstood journey, especially in the beginning, and having a decent support system can help make that early journey a little more bearable.
But just as we’re often learning the ropes of how to be an artist, we also know that you’re learning the ropes of how to best support us. We need you, and here are the best ways you can help us out.
Rooftopping: we have all seen the dozens of media articles and blogs about this, so this one surely is not the first, it won’t be the last, and it is not going to be the best.
Scams targeting photographers are nothing new. There’s one that we’ve seen for a few years in which the “client” asks if they can send you a check for more than they owe you so you can pay some other vendor for them (they then bounce the check and you end up having paid the vendor scammer your money). Another one out there tries to sell you an interesting or desirable domain name. There are other more local ones (fake Craigslist ads or eBay sales for instance).
There has been lots of discussion recently on how to brand what it is that we do, since so many of us are doing multiple things. Do we brand each thing or genre we do, or brand it into some sort of ‘holding company’ title? That’s a lot of work.
Passion won’t keep you in business.
There, I said it. I’m sorry, but it had to be said. #sorrynotsorry
Author's note: Warning: I wrote this last night when I was sleepless, sick and snarky.
Dear Bridezilla,
It was great to meet you yesterday! I still can not believe that 6 photographers you have spoken to said they may not be the "right fit" for you! I thought you, your mother, future mother in law, and 12 bridesmaids were lovely! It was so cute that your Uncle Joe came along to take some photos of our meeting for your scrapbook. I sure hope he brings his iPad to the wedding just in case I miss something.
When photographer Jim Stimson and I started our Winter in the Eastern Sierra photography workshop at Mountain Light Gallery we knew the drought conditions would provide a challenge for us to come up with “wintery” scenes for our clients.
A major storm was rolling in and much of California was under flash flood watches. We were under a high wind advisory with rain and snow to follow. A power transmitter was blown down in the strong erratic winds and soon a wildfire was raging out of control.
Here's a common complaint: "Why is wedding photography so expensive?"
One of the most common complaints about wedding photography is that it’s too expensive. I’ve seen this sentiment uttered from all corners of the Web. I’ve also seen just as many photographers jump at the opportunity to defend their prices by writing articles that only an accountant could appreciate.
This post is a curmudgeonly look at the current state of landscape photography.
I was in Munich yesterday, munching on some bratwurst and drinking a beer in a place where a huge TV monitor on the wall was playing a slideshow of landscape photos. I couldn’t keep my eyes away from it, as the photos were really beautiful.
You know the type of photo: amazing locations, wonderful light, colorful sunsets, starry skies, waterfalls, ocean waves, tropical beaches, brilliant colors.
2014 has been a year of some dramatic disasters around the world - Ebola, Gaza and aviation to mention a few - and by no means do I place what happened to me among them. Saying that however, when something happens to you in first person - you will always be more effected by it.
I was a month and a half into the photography program at the Art Institute of Colorado in Denver when I decided to skip school for a day for a concert. I had a ticket to see Mumford & Sons playing in Laramie, Wyoming, before they hit Red Rocks in Colorado.
At the time, I was already contemplating dropping out of school, due to feeling that I would never be good enough to make it in the photography world, and would just be wasting time and money.
Author's disclaimer: This article is aimed toward commercial, business-to-business photographers. Consumer photographers may get something from it as well, but there are different market forces at work in that genre.
Yes… it is sort of a “link-bait” sounding headline, but I worked hard trying to figure out how to say it without sounding like I was tricking you into reading something far off the mark.
And here is why I think it is on the mark; photography has become ubiquitous. It has become the ordinary and the mundane, the avocation and the whimsical. With the advent of digital, 80-90% of the tools photographers needed to make photographs were eliminated. The learning curve was now no more than a bump for those wanting to simply record what they see as a photograph.
The first mistake I made was hate on film photography when I knew nothing about it. My earliest experience with 35mm was on my 10th birthday. I got a point and shoot camera from my family overseas as a present. Went on a day trip with my school and shot half a roll before I opened the back and ruined whatever was on there.
I shot a second roll and all the photos came out blurry, some of which were double exposed. I never used that camera again and didn't fully get back into photography for over a decade.
GAS, also known as Gear Acquisition Syndrome, is very common among photographers. It simply means that you just can't get enough new lenses, equipment and upgrade your camera as soon as possible in order to have more options and - according to the seemingly prevalent opinion - become better.
But have you ever thought about the opposite side of this imaginary disease - the Gear Avoidance Syndrome? A syndrome that might even be good for you and your photography. And your wallet.
One of the most important decisions a photographer can make is picking a camera, and with all the different kinds out there, everyone has options. You can look up reviews, talk shop with colleagues, and take your time in the very subjective process of picking out the best camera for yourself and your needs.
But what about building the best camera for yourself?
Every year the barrier of entry for music photography seems to get lower. This isn't a bad thing, in fact I think it's awesome. But what it means is that the number of people working toward becoming music photographers is much higher. It's not an uncommon thing to be a music photographer these days, and there are thousands upon thousands of us.
The year was 2008. I was still a novice with a camera, and the basics of photography were still very unfamiliar to me. I knew what my eyes liked, even if I didn't understand how to get the camera to capture it. On March 1 of 2008, I snapped a photo looking north on 5th Avenue in New York City.
At the time, I didn't have a Tumblr page to share my photos, and I didn't have Flickr, either. The only place my photos lived was on my computer's hard drive, and occasionally it would show up in a Facebook post to my friends. There was one other place, though.
Here's a quote from a recent article I read titled "'Do What You Love' Is Horrible Advice": “It’s easy to confuse a hobby or interest for a profound passion that will result in career and business fulfillment. The reality is, that type of preexisting passion is rarely valuable.”
Um…no.
“If you don’t want your photos stolen, don’t post them on the Internet.”
This is an argument I have heard over and over again, mostly from people who have never had their work borrowed. Which of course is like saying, “I know you were home, but if you didn’t want your belongings stolen, you shouldn’t have left your door unlocked.”
I’m going to be real here. When I first started taking photos, I never aspired to be a wedding photographer. But in life, one thing leads to another and all of a sudden – BAM! – you’re a wedding photographer (or at least a very good pseudo one).
Hello fellow photographers. My name is Joshua Resnick. I am a stock photographer, but what I am going to tell you potentially affects all photographers. I wanted to bring to your attention a lawsuit I am involved in that I think could put the whole industry at risk if things don’t go well.
I am being sued in federal court for hundreds of thousands of dollars by a model I worked with in January 2013. This is a model that I paid, and who signed a release allowing me to sell her images through stock photo agencies. Why I am I being sued? It revolves around images that got misused or were just outright stolen and the model is blaming me for it.
The world is going to pieces and people like [Ansel] Adams and [Edward] Weston are photographing rocks! -- Henri Cartier-Bresson
What better way to conjure up a longing for freedom than to evoke the name of that avuncular figure of American photography Ansel Adams. It’s a name synonymous with photography, with stunning landscapes that leave one with an unbounded sense of liberty. So why not use Ansel’s name to grace a bill that sets forth to “restore the first amendment rights of photographers?”
Launched back in 2013, Unsplash is a site which posts ten handpicked photos every ten days and these photos are absolutely free. By “free” I don’t mean “free to download” — they’re free to use everywhere and in any way you want. Commercially and whatnot.
Which is a great thing, right? Finally, a place with photos hip enough to use on a lifestyle blog or design agency’s website. I’ve seen hundreds of sites using them, including ecommerce. I’ve also seen them used in magazines, on T-shirts, in books and as prints. People are now earning money from unattributed Unsplash photos — everyone, it seems, but the photographers who took them.
They may look like fitness models, but they aren’t.
They’re everyday people — office workers, programmers and mothers who took the chance to try something they had never done before.
I love New Year’s. Halloween, Christmas and National Cat Day (obviously) are high on my list too, but New Year’s holds a special weight for me. It’s the resolutions that I’m so addicted to.
I love making them. I love hearing them. The idea of a clean slate, filled in with good intentions and exciting possibilities just makes me bubble with anticipation. Yes, I realize I sound like a delirious 12-year old, but my entire personality is a bit like a delirious 12-year old…plus the New Year is here and I’m all sorts of giddy!
I got a $2,100 Canon 85mm f/1.2L for $145 earlier this year. To be honest, it was more like $145 plus a couple trips to Starbucks, but it was still a great adventure... and the secret to how I get most of my gear with what little budget I’ve got.
Here's how I did it: trading.
My name is Abe Van Dyke. I am a photojournalist who was arrested by the Milwaukee County Sheriffs department for being on Interstate 43 photographing protestors on 12/19/14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is my story.
Street photography is one of the most difficult forms of photography out there. Not only do you have to rapidly compose, frame, and approach strangers, but you have to do so with the risk of “injury.” They might injure you verbally (threaten to break your camera, give you a dirty look and call you a creep, or curse at you) or they might injure you physically (try to grab your camera, hit you, shove you, etc).
Guardian columnist Jonathan Jones is a master of sparking controversy in the world of photography. As you might remember, he's the guy who keeps arguing that photography is not art... a year after calling it "the art of our time."
His latest target is the above photograph showing Prince Harry shooting with a Fujifilm X100 during a trip to Lesotho in Africa. Jones argues that it's "as arrogant as any colonial portrait."
In photography, many of us start our journey by studying and learning from the masters of the art. But …
(Newswire, December 13th, Las Vegas) -- A group of leading photographers, curators, and general taste arbiters has determined that Peter Lik's sale of a photograph may constitute torture under the Geneva conventions.
The photograph in question, an open edition of a mundane Southwestern landscape, sold recently for $6.5 million, the largest figure for a photograph in history.
Multimedia artist Jeff Frost sold his major masterwork, “Standing in the Circle” in photograph form to a collector for 6.5 million dollars and ten cents last week, exceeding by one single dime the previous world record of 6.5 million recently set by Peter Lik Photography.
I am not at the top. I’m not even skating the middle, but I have been doing this photography thing for a while, and there are some things I've learned along the way that I thought I would put out to the universe. Mainly because these things were bouncing around in my head and it’s nice to put things out there... so here they are.
About 6 months ago, I put an ad on Craigslist trying to sell a 2x12 guitar cabinet. The next day I got a response from a nice guy named PJ who was interested and the transaction was soon under way.
While at my house to pick up the equipment, PJ noticed my Canon 7D and various other camera gear sitting on my desk. He then proceeded to tell me that he too was a photographer and that he used to take a lot of photos of bands on the East Coast in the mid 70s early 80s.
The airways and Internet tubes have been filled with news that Peter Lik has sold a black and white photo of Antelope Canyon for a record setting $6.5 million, raising eyebrows amongst many photographers. This tops the previous record holder, Andreas Gursky, by nearly $2.2m.
On July 14, 2012, I received a desperate email from a photographer whom I had only met once briefly at a public appearance. He was terribly distraught, and nobody would help him. In his letter, he said that I was his last resort.
His name is Nelson Tang, and he is a very gentle soul, kind and soft-spoken, a new immigrant from Hong Kong with only a rough command of the English language. At the time, he and his wife were adjusting to life with an 18 month old son, she was a server in a restaurant and he worked for a non-profit. Financially, they were living paycheck to paycheck.
Two recent camera releases have me scratching my head. The first is the M-A, the latest model from Leica. The primary selling point seems to be that this is a completely mechanical camera. No battery, no meter, no LCD, no autofocus, no frills. What the camera lacks in modern features it makes up for in mechanic precision and simplicity. Instead of busy screens you "read the shutter speed and aperture directly from the camera and lens and so fully concentrate on the subject."
Is it the best job ever? Well yeah, sometimes, most of the time really, but it also comes along with some bullsh** that not everybody realizes. I know that most people would imagine being a photographer is all glamour, all fun, all exciting... well here's some things that really happen...
This moment, this light, in Cape Churchill last week: it didn’t last long. You can photograph it, or let it pass you by. But you may never see it again.
Last week I was sitting in a tundra buggy not photographing polar bears. The bears, driven by a months-long hunger were out on the sea ice, hunting seals. If we’d been there a couple days earlier we’d have had more time with them. But you can’t do anything about the weather, and you never know these things in advance. What you do know, is what’s in front of your face, and that -- at least for one day on this trip -- was polar bears.
I was immune, I thought. Having been looking at Photoshop tutorials for over a year, I thought I knew all the tools needed to make a photo “pop”. I had also been reading up on a bunch of photography theory so I thought I knew the dangers of over-editing.