Rediscovering the lost art of play

A week ago I had the extreme pleasure of going to After Dark Education in Charlotte.  Expensive trip, sure, but as I've spent the last week just trying to sort out all the things that I saw, it should prove to be money well spent.  After Dark is a collection of about 35 different photographers that come together to teach everything from studio basics to advanced business topics.  Over three days, you get to pick what you want to learn and who you want to see to get the most out of the experience.  It's all about getting up close with the mentors to talk, ask, and play.  This isn't your typical corporate conference, unless you work in an industry that keeps going strong until 3am every day.  There were a few big points that I picked up on while I was there.

"I'm right, they're wrong."  There's the saying that there's more than one way to skin a cat.  My three days in Charlotte burned that into my mind.  From 1:30 to 3:15 I'd hear one teacher say to do something one way.  From 3:30 to 4:45 I'd hear another person say to do it a completely different way.  For the students looking for a black and white "this is how you do it," their heads were probably spinning.  There are a ton of variations you can throw into the way you photograph things.  If anything that should be encouraging.  All it means is that you need to experiment and do what works for you.  The whole point is that you need to know exactly why doing things certain ways will get certain results.  


Why these people are "professionals."  Everybody has a camera now.  There are 250 million pictures uploaded to Facebook every day.  It's easy to think that since we have the tool, we're right up there with the big guys.  I'll tell you as somebody who has read countless books and taken huge numbers of pictures, that the difference between "I have a shiny new camera" and "I'm a professional" is bigger than you'd imagine.  I saw more than one teacher at After Dark look at a subject and estimate the proper aperture/iso/shutter settings within 1/3rd of a stop.  There's a big difference between creating an image in your head and using tools to bring it to life and using tools to just hack away at something.

"Go play"  I've used this phrase before and I love that it was used at After Dark.  Think about "play" as a child might.  It's that sense of uninhibited creativity that we're after.  Do things that you've never done, go places you've never gone, imagine, create.  Grab lights, a model, a piece of rental equipment, and go to the roof, or to the parking lot, or to a peddle boat.  The corporate world spent four years squeezing the sense of "play" out of me, so it was amazing to rediscover that feeling.  The great thing about "play" as an adult is that now I can infuse things like discipline and technical knowledge into the game to push things further and learn more from the experience.

The world is full of exciting possibilities.

Go play!

My Fatty Photographs

My trip through the small town south yielded enough images that I got one on the cover.  It's not National Geographic, but it's still something of a milestone knowing that the first thing people will see on newsstands is your work in nice glossy print.  This is a first step, a confidence booster that says "hey, that wasn't so bad, let's do more."  It's also nice knowing that some of the little shops I took the pictures in sell this magazine, so they'll get to talk about their features and show off to their customers.

This week I'll be heading back out to Lafayette for a couple of nights.  There's a party I'm photographing and then I'll be out looking for trouble and/or non-trouble related interesting things to take pictures of.  Charlotte last weekend, Lafayette this weekend, Ohio next weekend.  Look for more photo-awesomeness soon.

How to Choose a Wedding Photographer

I wanted to share some information that will hopefully help you along as you search for your wedding photographer. There are a lot of photographers out there and you could drive yourself crazy trying to compare everybody.  On a basic level, we all take pictures, but there are vast differences in styles and abilities; how we run our businesses; and who we are as people.  How do you settle on just one?  Well I’m sort of a nerd who likes to reduce things to formulas, so I recommend you follow the “3P” formula.  What’s 3P? 

Person + Pictures + Prices = Your Photographer

These are the three factors you should consider when comparing photographers.  Too many people try to reduce things to a price, which can lead to a lot of unhappiness.  I guarantee that there’s somebody out there that will photograph your wedding for free, and you’ll get what you pay for.  If you only want the lowest price, then have all your friends and family send you their iPhone pictures. Bam! Done.  Since this is more than just a dollar for dollar comparison, let me expound on the parts of 3P. 

Person:

Most photographers will start their wedding coverage by photographing the bridal party getting ready.  They arrive at the house or hotel room where the girls are applying makeup and admiring the dresses; and the guys are enjoying a scotch while trying to figure out how to attach a boutonniere without drawing blood.  The photographer is first on the scene and with you when you’re not perfectly put together.  Depending on how much coverage you have, they might also be last on the scene to document your grand departure from the reception via horse drawn carriage, classic limo, tandem bicycle, or whatever conveyance you dreamt up.  In between, they’re going to be moving you into different light, twisting your body for the best angles, and coordinating your gathered friends and family into the big group photos that couples might not appreciate, but mom really wants. 

In short, you will spend more time in close contact with your photographer than any other wedding vendor.  As a photographer I always try to spend some time getting to know people before I point a lens at them, and you should do the same before you hire somebody.  Meet in person, have a video conference, talk on the phone.  Read their blog if they have one.  You’re trying to figure out if they’re somebody who can confidently get the job done, working within the crowds and chaos of a big party, while being pleasant and having fun at the same time.  Keep in mind that bigger studios will likely have multiple photographers, so make sure you talk with the one that will actually be working with you.

*You want somebody that you like, and believe me, for the best results, you want them to like you, too!  Positivity and fun leads to beauty and creativity and extra effort; negativity will lead to a professional getting the job done and getting out. 

Pictures:

This one should be obvious.  This is what you’re ultimately getting for your money.   Photographers should have plenty of work available for you to check out. There are the technical things you can look for – are the pictures too bright, too dark; the colors over or under saturated; are they stylized with different colors; do you like the lighting; do the people look awkward or uncomfortable?  These are the sorts of things that photographers will nitpick other photographers’ work on.  What might mean more to you is do the images convey feelings? Do the moments look sincere?  Unless you have some education in art or photography, you might not know specifically how to describe what you like or don’t like, only that you like it or not when you see it.  If a photograph stirs some sort of emotional reaction in you, then it’s doing its job. 

Keep in mind that pictures are supposed to tell a story.  Most photographers, regardless of how they describe themselves, will take a combination of candid, photojournalistic, and posed pictures as they document your day.  Looking through a photographer’s past work should make it apparent whether or not they can tell your story the way you want. 

*Photography is both a creative art and a highly technical skill.  Ask a photographer to explain how they made some of their images to get some stories and see how much or how little went into making an image.  Sometimes less is more, sometimes more is more. 

Pricing:

Everybody has a budget, so you should determine yours by starting with a couple of questions.  Firstly, what is photography worth to you? This is where I remind people that while the food gets eaten, the flowers wilt, the tux gets returned, and the music vanishes into the air, you keep the pictures.  Albums and prints from your wedding will become part of your family’s heritage.  I didn’t get to taste the food at my grandparents’ wedding, but over 50 years later, I still see the pictures from their wedding on display.  That said, I know there’s a practical element to your budget.  Discuss with your spouse-to-be, your parents, or any other benefactors you might have.   

So you have your numbers, now what?  You can check out ten different websites, some will have pricing, some won’t.  Some pricing will be in packages, some won’t.  Even packages that look similar can have a lot of differences.  Some photographers make their money up front, some try to make it on the printed products, some on the rights to the photographs.  Unless you’re in the industry, it will be very difficult for you to do an apples to apples comparison from photographer to photographer without really digging into the details.  You should take the time to talk directly with the photographer and have them explain their products so you really know what you’re getting.  A few components to look at:

Albums:

The variety of printed books and albums available is immense, as are the price ranges.  Two packages might both offer a “12x8 20 page album”, but those albums could have different cover types, different papers and finishes, different page thicknesses, and different numbers of images allowed.  One of those books could cost three times what the other does to make.   Ask to see an example of exactly what you are getting. 

Prints:

It’s not unreasonable to ask for a photographer’s print prices.  Portrait photographers make money by selling prints, so will tend to have much higher prices.  Wedding photographers tend to charge more as a base, so will often have lower print prices

*DO NOT compare these print prices to what you can get at Walmart or your local drugstore.  Firstly, Professional photographers go to great lengths to calibrate their computer monitors with their printers to ensure the quality of the prints.  Secondly, all you’re paying for at a Walmart is the cost of paper and ink and a machine.  Purchased through the photographer, you’re buying the right to their intellectual property.

Digital Images:

Many photographers will sell DVDs or USB sticks with the files and some sort of rights release.  You’ll want to inquire about what the release includes (whether you can print anywhere, copy the files, post them on the internet, alter them, sell them, etc.).  You’ll also want to ask what quality the images will be.  “High resolution” might only mean that you can make up to an 8x10” print. 

Hours of coverage:

Many packages mention a certain number of hours of coverage, with extra hours available for purchase.  Most people want their whole day documented from beginning to end.  Others try to time things so coverage will end as soon as the cake is cut.  I try to warn people that I’ve never had a wedding day last fewer than six hours.  More often I’m on the clock for eight to ten hours.  I’ve seen ceremonies run late causing receptions to start, and causing the vendors to chase down stressed brides for extra money to stick around.  Neither you nor the photographer want this to happen, so make sure you hire them for enough hours to document your day. 

Extra photographers:

Extra photographers mean more angles for important events, catching more people in candid moments, and additional hands to help the primary photographer do their thing more efficiently.  If you’ve got over 150 guests, more than six bridesmaids, or an unusually large venue, a second photographer is good to have. 

Extra sessions:

Some photographers with big packages will include extra sessions such as engagements, bridals, or trash the dress.  Have you been engaged for a year already?  Will your dress not be ready until two days before the wedding?  You should be able to pull these sessions out if you don’t want them, or buy them separately if they’re not included.  Actually working with a photographer on short session before the wedding day can be a good way to become more comfortable in front of the camera.  Some of the same price questions apply with these sessions as with any other.  How long are they and what do you get?

As you can see, pricing and packages can get pretty complex.  Try not to be overwhelmed.  Talk with some photographers, see some examples, and try to figure out exactly what you want and don’t want.  Find a package or a la carte option that gives you just that. 

There it is.  3P - Person, pictures, and price.  I hope this has been of some help.  I keep my inbox open to anybody that has more questions about what to ask or what to look for in photographers.  I promise, I try to give honest and unbiased responses.  If I sent this to you directly, I probably already sent you my shameless, totally biased, self-promotional piece anyway. 

Best of luck!

Steve Hronek

Photo Steevo

steevo@photosteevo.com

www.photosteevo.com

Gearing up while gearing down

400ft drop off into a volcanic crater.  Definitely no net here. 

So what does one think of when they’re three and a half weeks away from exiting the corporate world and entering the mad scramble on their own? Getting things lined up, making and executing plans, stocking up on Ramen noodles? There’s a phrase in the entrepreneurship world that goes “If you jump, the net will appear.” While that’s somewhat comforting, I’d still rather be on the ground weaving the net before I take the dive.

In no particular order, here’s a list of the stuff that’s rolling through my head. Some of it is actionable during the off hours of my last three and a half weeks of employment, all of it actionable within the next 60 days. And I’m leaving some of this intentionally vague. I can’t give away all my secrets yet.

Things on my mind:

• New Business Cards (found a printer I like, need to finish organizing images)
• Website Updates (rewording, reformatting, adding content)
• Marketing Plans - Ad Creation (multiple targeted ads); Placement (appropriate to respective targets); product offerings (there’s a separate list for this)
• Existing Contacts (reach out to existing patrons in my circle as well as those long shots I know on the edge)
• Lead generation – Another “net” maxim for success, this time from fishing instead of acrobatics: Cast a wide net. I’m open to a lot right now. There’s another separate list for this.
• Tax issues to get in front of– Anybody known a tax accountant in New Orleans who’s good with freelance businesses?
• Organizational Involvement – Professional, Educational, Social

None of this even touches on self directed continuing education, which, probably more than anything else, is what makes me, me. My library reading list is taking shape, Toastmasters meetings are on the schedule, other lists of technical skills and portfolio fillers are coming together.

So far I'm only certain of two things.  (1) I'm going to be busy, and (2)  I seem to like lists.

p.s.  I love all of the crazy ideas other people have been throwing my way.  Keep them coming!

Krewe du Vieux: Mardi Gras Begins!

Last weekend I made it out to the Krewe du Vieux parade.  One thing I've come to learn as I've seen more and more Mardi Gras parades is that the experiences from parade to parade can be wildly different depending on both the parade itself and where you are when you see it.  Krewe du Vieux is a walking parade with small horse drawn floats and is known as one of the more 'adult' parades.  We elected to watch it in the Marigny, an area where Mardi Gras costume making is a year long activity.  The combination of the parade and location made for a very different experience than at the bigger motorized parades.

At what age do kids learn what sperm are?

This is very bad spectator etiquette.  There's no reason to dig through horse poo and broken glass to get beads. 

Some friends were kind enough to let a group of people stay at their house the night of the parade; a kindness we repaid by drawing on everything they owned with sidewalk chalk.  

Fence Silhouette Theater

One of the benefits of not having grass.  

Peppers, baby!

I can honestly say that I had a full and productive week.  What a nice feeling.  Unfortunately, that nice feeling is somewhat offset right now by the bad feeling that comes after drinking cheap wine and pushing off brand whiskey shots on people.  What can I say?  I'm a mountain of class.  

Yesterday morning I got the urge to replace the stock photos on the wall by my dinner table with original work.  Half an hour later I was returning from the grocery store with $12 worth of a variety of delicious looking peppers.  A couple hours after that I was hanging the prints on my wall.  Pretty darn quick turnaround on this project.  The best part about working with food though, is that you get to eat everything when you're done.  Granted, I was stabbing these things with pins to get them to in position... but I'm pretty sure I took all of them out.  

I did baby pictures this morning which was something entirely new to me.  I had no idea how I'd respond to working with a mini person, but it actually seemed to go well.  The two situations I didn't want to happen, didn't happen (I neither damaged the baby nor got pooped/peed/puked on).  As tends to happen, a flood of ideas started coming in right as the baby decided he had had enough of all the flashing lights.  It was a good experience and something I'd do again, based on the assumption that all babies are well behaved and cooperative like Max was.  

Time to use an Abita Strawberry to help shut down the brain in preparation for another busy week.  

Reality, for better or worse

One of the things I most enjoy about photography is its ability to capture those moments that are absolutely and unequivocally real.  No fake smiles and skinny-arm poses; no huddling together waiting for a flash; no opportunity to look at a tiny screen and say "aw, that's cute."  I get to use plastic and glass to share the genuine moments that people would love to forget, but can't deny that they happened.  

That's it.  The rest is up to the viewer to decide.  That's where the "reality" of pictures like this gets interpreted, reinvented, and flat out fabricated to suit the viewer's own point of view.  Time to make up your own story for why these two are passed out on the bench.  

And before you go laughing at somebody else for how they look while snoozing, remember that you most likely resemble a slobbering infant yourself while you sleep.  I certainly do and there's proof thanks to unnamed a**holes that commandeered my camera one night. 

Life lessons from event photography

A year ago I was walking into building I'd never entered, to find somebody I'd never met, to do something I'd never done.  Sure, I'd taken my camera out to a lot of different places and taken a lot of different pictures, but this was the first time that I actually had to produce and deliver photos according to set specifications.  How all that was going to work was an unknown to me.  I figured I'd follow my normal procedure:

1. Show up
2. 
   
3. Celebrate because I did such an awesome job

Fast forward through a year and over fifty events.  I've learned a lot, only, not at all what I expected to learn going into this.  I'm going to have to break this into multiple parts because it's getting a little too long for my taste.  The first part here will be the non-picture taking learnings, starting with this -

Experiences of almost any kind follow the same pattern.

1. You start off in the honeymoon phase; you're nervous and excited, you learn a lot in a short period of time, and you love what's going on.  
2. After a while, the excitement goes away and you enter the dreaded "this is bull sh*t" phase.  You realize that things aren't perfect, that there are more challenges than you thought, you want to quit and retreat into your comfort zone.  
3. If you make it through phase two, you end up in the acceptance phase.  This is a leveling off of emotion where you're not distracted by the highs and lows, but find a balance in what you're doing.  This is the stage where you start fine tuning and improving things.  This is where you get good at what you're doing.  

After reflecting on my experiences over the last year, I realized that I've gone through this pattern with a lot of things - travel, work, exercise, hobbies, and most definitely photography.  Not everything makes it through the phase two, but persistence and experience and a drive to make things better usually yields results.

People.  Yes, just "people."  I'm not a naturally boisterous and gregarious person, but going into crowded events with masses of people I don't know has helped define what I enjoy about other people and myself.

• I enjoy that I can be the pillar of calm in a chaotic environment.  The phrase "herding cats" comes up a lot during my events.  The contacts I work with are often apologetic for having trouble getting photo subjects together for me.  I get to tell them "It's normal.  If you see me getting stressed out, then you're doing something wrong."
• I enjoy that I've learned to appreciate truly nice people and that I've developed patience for unpleasant people.  We humans cover a very broad spectrum of personalities, some more tolerable than others.  Face it, some people are just dicks.  Minimize your time with them and move on.  
• I enjoy that I've had to question how I deal with others.  Do I do like some people who treat me like an idiot when I ask them to spell their simple names (Jon Smith v. John Smithe)?  Or do I empower them to get it right by actually spelling out Kharamapakiev for them?

After having dealt with doctors, hospital owners, politicians, chefs, lawyers, grammy winners, athletes, actors, and all manner of businesspeople, the main lesson is simply to make eye contact, extend a hand, and smile.  If there's a human on the other end, they'll normally respond in kind. 

Part Two - The finer points of photographing parties will come later.  

Galas and parties and balls, oh my!

Most of my photography "work" comes in the form of covering local events for a magazine.  Most of the events are in the form of charity auctions and fundraisers; those fancy gatherings where the well-to-do of the city get together and give away their money.  Regardless of the state of the economy, I still see a crap-load of money being given away.

I have set images that I have to deliver, so the photographic aspect of these events isn't all that interesting.  More interesting is getting to travel around New Orleans attending events that I would otherwise lack the pecuniary depth to witness.  As interesting as that can be, most of the time I'm in and out in less than an hour.  Every so often I get to go to fun things with celebrities and and athletes and politicians and I do my best to catch them making stupid faces.

October is going to be a busy month.  There were 18 events up for grabs and I took 13 of them.  It's going to be a lot of running around in addition to other travel and real work that I have, but I'm happy that photography has become a self funding activity.  I smell shiny new glass before Christmas :)

(For those of you not from New Orleans or not into the NFL, that's Saints head coach Sean Payton in the picture.)

Tastes awful, but it's good for ya'

It's an interesting reality that most often, the things that are good for us are also a huge pain in the ass.   Go out for a jog?  Sure it's good for my long term health, but eating frosting out of the can is more immediately gratifying.  Read that book?  I can probably find somebody reenacting the Cliff's Notes version on YouTube.  Sure I'll learn less, but I'll learn less in much less time, leaving me more hours to watch ninja cat videos and musicalized versions of IQ draining crap.  Take that class?  Well, that brings us to to the point of this post.

I've taken a few photography classes at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts.  I like having a fixed day of the week to do photo-y stuff.  The most recent one I signed up for is called "finding your vision"...something, something, something...  It has more of a fine art tilt than I've previously been exposed to.  That creates a problem for me.  I've never considered myself an artist, nor do I envision myself pursing such purely "artistic" endeavors.  I'm not going to get into my philosophies on the arts here.  We all have our motivations for doing things, and those motivations can be vastly different.

We're supposed to try to pick a common theme for the class and then use the bi-weekly lecture topics to shoot a few images relating to that theme.  The images will be presented and we'll get feedback on whether we're being effective in communicating whatever it is that we're trying to say with our images.  Challenges:  (1) I have no idea what theme to use, and (2) I've never given much of a thought about what I'm trying to communicate with my pictures.  Sure, sure, every picture is supposed to tell a story, but can't I just enjoy capturing things, people, places, moments that are interesting to me?

This isn't going to be easy.  After one class, it was clear that I just don't think like an art school guy. I spend my entire work day using logic and data to accomplish things (not that it always works).  Sitting still is difficult enough for me (I'm the annoying guy drumming with my knife and fork at restaurants), but I can't even think of a decent analogy for having to sit still while listening to people subjectively interpret hypothetical images.  I get to enjoy this change of mindset after a nice long day of dealing normal work challenges; after work hours I could be spending eating pepperoni slices and watching MacGyver reruns.  Why do this?

Like exercising or reading or getting a full night of sleep, it's going to be a pain in the ass, but it'll be good for me.  Forcing yourself out of your comfort zone forces you to learn; to learn about yourself, or in the least, to learn about others.  After however many weeks this class goes, I'll probably have been stretched out of my comfort zone enough to admit that I've learned something even if I bitch about it every step of the way.  I think the old Popeye cartoons are a relevant analogy in this case.  That canned spinach must have tasted like crap, but it always helped him overcome his obstacles.  Hopefully this class will be as good for me as the steroid infused super-vegetables that Popeye used to find violent solutions to his problems.  I'll be sure to keep you posted.

**Side note -- as a result of setting up this picture I now know that my cat likes eating spinach.  Must formulate optimal blend of greenery and fish and sell recipe to cat food moguls.