Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 8:53AM One of my shots was featured in a sweet little blog, Beauty in Everything! It's really lovely to be recognized (even for an outtake!). Thanks, guys! I've been wrapped up in so many shoots that I've neglected the blog. But, stay tuned, I've got big news! -xo
recognition in about me, pro talk Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 5:07PM Lots of fun things going on around here!
--xo
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 5:55PM I've had a post brewing for the past few weeks, but I haven't quite gotten it to come together. Instead, I get distracted looking at photographs like this:
This is a picture of my daughter sitting on my feet and my son sitting with his feet in between her feet and both of them laughing. I'm laughing, too, which is why this isn't maybe exactly in focus.
Focus shmocus.
Sometimes I think about what photography is now, and what it will be in the future. I think about how it might become more rigid, or more flexible. I think about how cameras in phones have made the whole photography world so topsy turvy. I think about how much easier it is for me to be present and enjoy a moment and still capture a beautiful image--without reaching for a large DSLR.
Do you ever think about that? A cell phone is damn near ubiquitous today; tiny cellphone cameras, therefore, exist along side us nearly everywhere we go. No one has to remember to carry a separate camera, or race to find a camera, or stick a big, intrusive lens and flash in your face. A small, effective camera is with you all the time. You don't have to have a break in the action in order to capture it.
I appreciate that about technology. Seamless integration is more than efficient--it's transformative. My kids don't flinch or react or rethink or retract or withdraw when I pull out my handy iPhone (and, sometimes with my large DSLR setup, they do). They stay immersed in where they are. I don't have to pull out of the moment to become BIG FANCY PHOTOGRAPHER. I stay where I am, and I still get to take a photograph, just the same.
This makes me think of Muriel Barbery's book, a book whose title I borrowed as a consequence of my own postmodern habit of pastiche :). In her book, she effectively investigates not just the elegance of that which is unexpectedly graceful, but also the grace of that which is unexpectedly elegant. Does that makes sense? I think, today, I am amazed at the elegance of something that is unexpectedly graceful. I think of cellphones as many things: invasive, meddlesome, loud, aggravating, and addictive. But what grace! How they allow the device to also, at times, disappear into its own function! An iPhone is elegant in design, to be sure, but graceful--truly a "courteous goodwill; or an attractively polite manner of behaving"--that is a shockingly different characterization for me. (I don't deny, you know, being an iPhone addict.)
I will think about that the next time I use any camera. Does this camera place itself in between me and my subject, or does it gracefully enter the background because of its own elegant ubiquity?
Here's hoping you pick up your cameraphone and capture something in the moment, of the moment. --xo
families in about me, iphone photography, pro talk Monday, August 8, 2011 at 2:44PM Someone just asked me a really great question:
Why, WHY would you start a photography business right now?
That's a big question. I'll break it down a bit into some bite-sized portions:
Well, first and foremost, I'm a good photographer. In fact, I am a pretty darn great photographer (with plenty of room to get better, believe me). I love it, I work hard at it, and I want to share that on a broader scale. Playing devil's advocate, I can see why the proliferation of pro-level cameras and equipment is making photography something that everyone believes they can do. And general market wisdom is correct: everyone can take a photograph. But it probably won't be a great photograph. I still believe that talent, training, and expertise make great photographs. So, I'm a professional photographer. If you want professional photographs, you still need me.
Second, I love to start businesses. I currently own a consulting business, a real estate investment business, and, now, little o photography. I am an entrepreneur. It makes me happy. And, as an added benefit, I can teach my children about entrepreneurship by example.
Finally, I see a need. I have a unique model: I give all of my clients the full files of, and rights to, every image I shoot. I don't charge for printing, copying, thinking about printing, maybe-doing-an-album, wait, how can I license these for a slideshow????, etc. etc. I charge you for my time. I'm not just a photographer--I'm a consultant and a photographer. One bleeds into the other. I keep low overhead and manage my resources, so I don't need to make money on printing and printing rights.
This makes me a rule-breaker. I'm supposed to charge you fees, fees, more fees, and package prices that make you wince. It's not wrong to work that way--I just believe that for family portraiture, it's outdated. Fine art photography? Sure. Commercial use photography? Sure (but Getty/Flickr are coming for you). I want to do something different because it serves my clients more effectively, and also creates a competitive advantage for me in the marketplace.
That's why I started a photography business, even in a tough economy, and even in a field where everyone believes themselves to be imminently qualified. I bring my clients something special--and that's why I'm booked out for the next 3 months :) I hope that trend keeps going!
I'm grateful for hard questions and the forum to give the hard answers. Here's hoping you have a person in your life who challenges you to do what is right, and to be able to say why --xo
*Erving Goffman--again!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 4:43PM Have you ever read Erving Goffman? I've been kind of obsessed with him lately. This photograph reminds me of something he once wrote in the book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life:
The expressiveness of the individual appears to involve two radically different kinds of sign activity: the expression that he gives, and the expression that he gives off.
Goffman takes hundreds of pages to gloss this statement (he does so beautifully--please go read the book--it is great for geeks like you and me). Since I am now facing the world as a photographer, I have worked through his densely packed text by (quite sensibly) taking photographs:
That's not, technically, a PERFECT shot. Not even close. Hell, not even remotely close. It's an imperfect shot of imperfect subjects at an imperfect time in an imperfect world. Yet, I love it. I really treasure this image. Why?
Like Goffman said, we are the sum of two aspects in any conversation: what we say ("give"), and what we portray in and around and behind what we say (or "give off"). A picture of a mother, with her child, and her child soon to be born--that's what I'm saying. That's what the subjects in the picture are saying. But, what makes me look again and again at their faces, their hands and feet and knees--it's what they are portraying that makes the image whole. Two people, loving, comfortable and comforted, facing a future of siblings and uncertainty and happiness while wholly connected. That's what this image "gives off".
I'm going to keep thinking about that. I come into photo shoots with goals: take pictures of X subjects with X types of shots with X poses in X locations. These are FAMILY PORTRAITS. That's what I'm saying. But what is the other aspect of the conversation? How is what I am expressing both what I give, and what I give off? --xo
