Just Add “PHOTOGRAPHY”

The demise of a professional photographer…

The word is freely available in the English language, a term taken without consequence of meaning. It has a meaning obviously. But what is meaning without knowing by practice…

Here is the Story of Joe Soap

Joe Soap is a nice enough guy, he helps out in his community, works in IT or graphic design. He buys his milk from the farmer down the road and keeps it all local. He pays his taxes and gets taxed off his salary to provide cars and fancy parties for our president. Joe loves to take images, he has a passion for light. Joe has a computer at home with an internet connection and has the applied knowledge of how to process his images, add his name to them and upload them to social media for the world to see. Joe is a nice guy. Joe does what Joe needs to do to get by in life. Be like Joe.

But then Joe decides not to be like Joe and expand. Now this is good and bad for Joe, let’s see why:

Joe has a friend who is getting married, and knows about Joe’s love for the art of capturing light. With keen interest he decides he is going to do this! Sure his talents lie in the art of landscapes and perhaps wildlife, but he feels he can do this. And maybe he can.

So off Joe goes and photographs this wedding. As a novice he smacks out 2000 frames, hanging off curtain rails and jumping through fishponds to get the shots. Joe gave it his all. Joe spent 6 hours or more doing this. Then he went home, broken and tired and crashed for 12 straight hours. Over the course of the next 3-5 weeks Joe spent sleepless nights mastering his Lightroom and Photoshop skills and processed the crap out of his wedding images, handed over the final collection to his mate and got given his R1500.00. His reward for maybe 20-30 hours or more of his life.

Now Joe likes this. He realizes he has a talent that allows him to pick up a camera, aim it and fire it. And get some greenbacks. This is good for him, he has a few extra bucks in his pocket to go out and get that new filter or memory card or whatever pleases him.

Joe decides this is awesome and starts advertising to do more weddings, couple shoots or even a screaming few shots of a new born baby of his second cousin twice removed. Joe gets the work. Joe is cheap. Joe charges next to nothing, because Joe has his daytime job to pay the bills. Joe is one happy fellow.

Joe is wrong. Don’t be like Joe. Just don’t.

So what Joe does is first he makes a Facebook page, and perhaps even a free do-it-yourself website. Joe makes a fancy template name with his mad Photoshop and graphic design skills and slaps it on every image he posts on the internet, well because that is what people do right? JOE SOAP PHOTOGRAPHY is all his friends see when they browse the timeline of the inevitable Facebook.

Joe is wrong. Don’t be like Joe. Just don’t.

I see a page, or branding on an image that says the word “PHOTOGRAPHY”, I expect this to be a company. One where the person has the skills, knowledge and know how to run it as a company and not some sad excuse for marketing. PHOTOGRAPHY at the end of your name does not make you a professional photographer in any way. The word professional is one that is earned and also basically describes that you are a working class hero that makes his bread and butter from the words that follow it as a title.

This is also the dictionary definition just out of interest.

Now sure Joe has the mad skills to shoot an awesome wedding, perhaps better than some working class shooters. But does Joe have what it takes. Firstly equipment, I am never one to go and say the best gear will make your images better, however having the right gear does. Joe has the latest NONAMEBRAND DSLR camera and 2-3 lenses, a flash and maybe a spare battery. Joe has spent around 20 grand on his gear, as have most.

Just don’t be like Joe please.

I can rock up to a wedding with maybe 130k of gear and not even take half of it out my bag ever. Sounds like a pretty big waste of time hey? But, it will happen to Joe at one point or another, he is focused in on the exchange of vows, that moment before the magic. Joe’s heart is pounding and the sweat on his brow shows his concentration. And then nothing. Joes NONAMEBRAND DSLR says cheers. Goodbye. OVER. For whatever reason, or maybe the lens decides it has had enough and is due retirement. Joe is stuffed. Joe takes out his fancy iPhone and finishes the job.

Joe gets fired, sued and disgraced.

Joe is an unhappy person and a failure and he knows it. Having backup gear is so essential for this type of photography. I travel with normally about 8k worth of batteries alone to a wedding, a bag full of extra lenses and a spare body. Memory cards galore and every trick up my sleeve to make sure I can use this word effectively when I market myself. GUARANTEE. A strong and powerful word.

Joe is taking chances.

Joe decides to charge a client R650 for an hour shooting, and a couple dozen prints, maybe more. He needs to get his name back out there. Joe takes market value of what he does and cuts it down massively. Joe thinks he is going to coin the market. Don’t be like Joe.

Just Don’t.

Undercharging is a serious offense. Sure, make a deal here and there, barter and give the friends and family a nice rate. SURE.

What has Joe actually done? Joe has become one of the sheep that take the market value of what professionals do, drop it down to silly low prices and become part of a group of many many many wool bearers that sell their coat with their soul. Joe just added to the death of a profession. Joe is bad.

Don’t be like Joe.

Joe and his friends in the “weekend warrior” industry and charging peanuts, and giving the full package. Well mostly they are. Joe does not know the rules. Joe does not know about copyright and legal image legislation. Joe is at risk, but, does not even know. Joe takes his second cousin once removed out for another shoot. A pregnancy shoot with artistic proportions. Joe makes magic with his camera. Joe is a legend. He does some implied nude work and makes this pregnant momma look like the gift of creation. Joe is a happy man. So is the client. Joe slaps his “JOE SOAP PHOTOGRAPHY” logo on a bunch of the images and hits the upload to social media button and smiles, puts his legs up and has a glass of celebratory pineapple juice and his mom’s homemade cookies.

Be like Joe, he is a hero.

Please don’t. Just don’t…

Joe’s second cousin twice removed has a husband who works in the law department of some fancy pansy firm in Sandton or wherever and notices there is a bit of nipple in one of the images and gets his Angry Bird anger on. And he knows the law, there was never a contract that says hey, Joe soap can use these images he ultimately paid for, as his own marketing and personal gain. Joe does need second cousin twice removed husbands permission to even use these images to market with. This is a fact. Joe made a mistake and will now be made accountable.

This goes for all sorts of various types of photography you provide to a client. It is a necessity in a lot of areas to protect yourself as a person or a business.

But wait, we added the word “PHOTOGRAPHY” to our name so we should be ok right? WRONG!!!!

So here we are, looking at this wonderful word we can add next our name, and what does it mean? Adding that word does not make you a photographer. It makes you a marketer of false pretense. You want to be honest??? Change the name to “The Photography of Joe Soap” so people don’t confuse you as being a professional. Want to act like a professional, charge the price that is worth. Don’t kill an industry that is older than your grandmother and her cookie recipes. Do the right thing.

Don’t be like Joe. And if you do, well I hope you read this. I would hate to have been the guy that designed the braking system on your car because of my love for vehicles and the hopeful fact that my opinion on the design got taken seriously because of my charm. But seriously, I can design braking systems, I have seen one or two, how hard can it be right?

Safe Travels and brake safely

Warren Fleming

Photographer at Large

(yes, a working professional)

Back to Basics

Back to Basics

The 1-2-3 of photography and destroying the myth that better gear makes you a better photographer…

For a long time I have wanted to write this, but have always approached this subject with clenched teeth. As I am guilty of a lot of the opposite of what I say, and so are all photographers in many aspects. We all look at stunning images on the net and are amazed and aspire to create these sort of images. Mind blowing sharpness with silky smooth bokeh of a bird in flight, or the landscape image worth a thousand words, where a small fortune of LEE filters have been used and the processing time in Photoshop is longer than Kim Kardashian's marriage. But do we need to have this price tag to create really great images that we can look at and be happy with? Have images we can print and be totally satisfied with for years before we advance to a new level of knowledge?

The 1-2-3 or even the A-B-C’s of photography have not changed since the birth of photography. Understanding the Bermuda Triangle of photography is the key element and the success of every great photographer. Aperture, Shutter and ISO (ASA for the oldies) are, and always will be the only three things to control the capture of a great image. I don’t care what software advancements your camera can have, and I do love gadgets like this, but these stepping stones are the key of every image. Whether that be a cell phone, a mirrorless or a DSLR that costs close on the price tag of an entry level Volkswagen, the concept is the same.

Understand the relationship between choosing an aperture, and what artistic effect it has. Or choosing a shutter speed, and how to use it to create magic and not just have blurry images. And then add ISO to the mix, understand what it means, how it works and how far your camera can push it and you will have the recipe for success with every image.

Sure this sounds simple and easy, and yes it takes time and practice, as well as failure, lucky shots and frustration to master. However, look at learning to drive a car, at first you stalled, missed gears, or had difficulty focusing on the road and operating all else right? But after time you never glanced to see where the clutch pedal was, or where the gear lever slide into place… It all became automatic. The same with a camera, after spending time with it, making it an extension of yourself, all the controls become natural and an action done without thought. An extension of yourself. Setting up the various buttons allows you to master the controls, creating your own starship enterprise if you will. All the bells and whistles are there in artistic modes, color settings and contrasts. But do any of them matter at the end of the day? Not really, it’s about the basics, right amount of light, and right shutter speeds with the addition of the correct ISO setting.

So at the end of the day, expensive and fancy gear that costs you a second mortgage, or the sale of a kidney is not always the right way. I have seen many, and have many images that are world class that are taken on “kit” gear. So don’t fool yourself by thinking that money makes a better shooter.

Yes on some occasions and situations, those pricey additions can help and be the key, but not always. Knowing how something works will most times give you the result you are looking for. Take a kit wide angle lens. Shoot it as F5.6 and cry when you get home because the most epic sunset turned into deleted images. Find the sweet spot, perhaps it is at F8, or F11 or maybe F16. Maybe you had your lens stabilizer on and forgot to use a self-timer or shutter release. All elements come to play, but understanding is the secret and the ultimate goal.

Getting to where the image is sometimes more work than anything else, and that alone can be the reward. Ask Hougaard Malan…

Shoot to satisfy your passion, however shoot to fulfill the knowledge you have.

Peace and light

Lion Encounter at Rooiputs

About 1:30 am I awoke to the sounds of Hyenas in the distance, although clearly it was not this sound that had woken me. Very quickly I hear the distinct sound of the male lions "cough", very close to my tent. My 2 mates who had joined me had also woken and had called to me that there were lions outside to which I whispered to them to keep silent. One of the guys , my mates cousin was on his first trip to a game park and was his first night. He had never even pitched a tent before...

Soon I felt tugging and pulling on my tent. I was uncertain of what was going on and then realized that it was probably cubs that were being nosy. but then they got a little too nosy and were chewing on the ropes of my tent, severing it and causing it to collapse a good section of the tent, then they were tugging on the air mattress as the bulge was sticking through the tent.. a very frightening thought so early in the morning and in pitch darkness. I remember my heart was racing and my mouth was dry and I could barely breathe.

after a while I noticed the cubs were chewing on the zips and heard one of them give way, this being the cover of the tent, as well they were having a right good time with other apparel that we had at camp... I had a small tear in the fabric of the fly screen, maybe 10cm vertically, and when I could see that the cubs were finding some interesting to have a look at through the rip I was scared they would rip it further so I kept flashing my flashlight at them though this gap.. this seemed to scare them off and they disappeared. However I think the disturbance got the interest of the large male and he came to have a look, pushing at least half of his head into the tent through the rip making it now over half a meter. I took my flashlight and was going to shine it on and off in his eye to try and blind him a bit, but at the time actually hit him on the face just above the eye. after that he left me to some small amount of peace.

About 10 minutes or so passed and I called to my mate in the tent next to me to see if they had all left and he said that there was still a male laying not far from my tent. Not having heard anything in 5 minutes I asked again, to which he said the same thing. Thinking he may be having a laugh with me I had a look out the tent and the coast looked clear. I climbed out and shone the torch around, not realizing that in fact his tent faced the opposite direction to mine, and true as bob there about 2m from where I was standing was the male lion having a sit down just staring at me. I did not even think and just made a dash for the vehicle which was parked just off the other side of camp. I then started the engine and drove around to the tents where the male was, he got up and walked off. I then took a quick drive around Rooiputs with the spotlight and saw a group of cubs about the size of a border collie and a group of females and another male, about 12 or so in total based on the number of eye reflections at the time.

After that I got my mates and we drove to have a look but only the one male was still about and one of the cubs in the long grass.

The next day we checked out of Rooiputs in fear of another 2 nights that we had booked. However our fear slowly left us a few days later and we spent our last 2 nights of the Kgalagadi back at Rooiputs, although I did sleep in the car as I felt that having a half meter rip in the door of my tent was just not a grand idea for Rooiputs.

The first morning of our stay back we actually saw the pride on the horizon at sunrise and managed to get some magical photographs and also had the big male that I believe visited me sitting just a few meters from us in the long grass just half a kilometer for camp.

Hope you enjoyed my story, if sounds like a lot of fun, but I can tell you I would never wish to go through this again. But in a way glad I did.

The Cinderella Effect

Photography in the digital age of fancy equipment…

A subject I am so guilty of, as is any amateur, novice, advanced shooter, semi-pro, professional and gear junkie like. In some way, we have all been part of the Cinderella Effect. Yes, this topic will offend some, it will be crass and very close at home to the point and probably earn me no points whatsoever to anyone. But, it will separate the few from the many, it spans all areas of photography and processing…

The debate has gone on for long enough, however, will never stop. Canon, Nikon, Fuji or Olympus. Apple, Windows, Adobe or otherwise. There is always going to be a debate. And a heated one. Windows releases their latest all-in-one epic amazing machine and for a second she is wearing high heels and a glamourous ballroom gown and steals the show. Fuji throws the XT2 out there and wins the heart of the prince. Olympus counters with the EM1mkii and loses a glass slipper and everyone wants to know the size of her foot to see all of her beauty.

The point is when a nifty piece of tech is released we all hold our breath and for a minute it is the star of the show. The Cinderella effect in place. Then we get all the tech bashers on the internet that tear it apart and scrutinize every aspect of the release. Take years of hard work and try to make it out as a pumpkin on wheels.

The best thing I love about this effect is all the internet bashers on any new gear is the actual concept they have in photography. An evil stepmother who has nothing good to say who only posts in 72dpi and shoots for the web is so concerned about 4K and massive image IQ and has a database of unsung internet hero images? What has happened to the industry?

Why is everything the in thing for like a minute and then not good enough? 3 years ago full HD was almost over the top and now if it does not do 4K it does not feature. Then they all start doing 4K and everyone downscales to 1080p. Make up your mind or turn into a mouse and eat cheese.

These camera companies are working so hard to create a product you want and the moment they do it is not good enough. There is always something to say. Sure when they release a new model it’s the Cinderella effect, and then back to The Hunchback of Notre Dame…

If you don’t like any of this then suck it and go back to film and manual focus a total of 3fps on a bird in flight and come back with 1 out of 36 exposures in focus and most likely overexposed. Stop complaining and start creating. Shoot like no one cares, love light and enjoy composing.

Images are not there to please, they are there to educate, inspire, expose and to be remembered. If you have to pull out a flippen ISO of 25600 and have a dirty as hell picture so flippen what. I guarantee if you had to do it to take that once in a lifetime image you would. And it could make you famous. It could get you like on Facebook, or even a 98% rating on 500px. Effing good for you.

Stop being a pawn in the Cinderella effect. I am guilty, I love fancy tech gear. So do you. I know you do. But it will not make you a better photographer so step up your game and become a better photographer.

I challenge you, scroll your social media page. Look at the images with thousands of likes and hundreds of shares. What does the image tell you? Most of the time it will be nothing, it will just be a great image that was the result of a fast super shallow DOF lens or something along those lines. Find the ones that make you look once, then twice, then a third time. Then you will bookmark it and keep going back. That is an image. I maybe have a few of those, or at least I hope so. I have a number of bookmarks. What is your best image you have ever seen? Please feel free to comment with a link or suchlike… Here is one of mine from my portfolio shot recently….