Shooting Like a Pro class
The Shooting Like a Pro class that Scott Rouse and I taught finished this afternoon and I must say that everything went very well. Most of the last two days we spent developing each student’s ideas for a project or two (or three!) and as I went around the room I was impressed with not only the quality but the richness of each of the ideas. These will be the projects they will pursue when they get home and now they are fully armed with all the knowledge and know-how for getting their ideas into print, on to walls and inside their books. We heard about project/story ideas about horses, rivers, Dallas, San Antonio, Indianapolis, symphonies, Africa, Narraganset Bay, harbors, San Francisco, fog, farms, chefs, small town Texas, lakes and love, waterfalls, the Rockies and New Hampshire. This all from only 10 people! I am tempted to give you more details of their ideas but I don’t want to spoil them for when they debut as magazine pieces or for when there is a book signing at your local bookstore. I will say that there were several ideas that I found to be very intriguing, intriguing enough for me to really enjoy doing them. The class spent one afternoon on the farm where I did my recent book with the assignment or photographing a story of what was going on that day. these images are just part of each of their stories. [nggallery id=10] Another morning the classl came up to my place and tried different photo techniques on two horses with the considerable help of my friends and pro photographers, Lisa Cueman and Jeff Wendorff. [nggallery id=11] All of these images were taken by our students with a purpose in mind. The class wasn’t about taking even more pretty pictures, it was about telling stories and discovering that there is so much more to photography than taking an endless string of individual images. In fact, that was one of the themes of the class- photographing purposefully. I will post some more images and a short video of some of the other things we did during the class soon. Thanks to all of my students- nothing is better for a teacher than having attentive, enthusiastic and bright students.
A New England Celebration
Its been almost 12 years since I came back east so perhaps a bit of reflection is called for. Before I returned east, I grew up in upstate New York, I lived for more than 15 years in Colorado and Oregon and loved every minute. My first books were done out west, I became an established professional while I lived out west, I explored all the nooks and crannies I could find and had wonderful and magical experiences regularly. A big part of my heart still lives in the Northwest and always will. When I decided to move back east many of my peers and students either said or implied that it was nice to know me but my nature photography career was done. “There is no nature east of the Mississippi” is what I was told. What I heard was “there are no pro nature photographers east of the Mississippi.” This would be big news to John Netherton (now deceased), Joe McDonald, Adam Jones, Richard Brown, Tom Blagden among others. Yes, there are far fewer in the east than in the west but I saw that as an opportunity not as an impediment. Well, in the last 12 years I have begun to explore New England and I couldn’t be happier. I am working on my 5th New England area book, there are more in my head waiting to come out and I haven’t even explored most of this very small but very photographically rich part of America. I have hardly looked around New Hampshire (especially the White Mts). and Connecticut. The Berkshires and beaches of Cape Cod I have just scratched around a bit. Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, the lake country of Maine, the coast of New Hampshire and the Isle of Shoals lurk heavily in my thoughts. [nggallery id=24] And do realize that I not talking just about nature photography- there is so much more to photograph here! Perhaps that is what defines New England for me- diversity. New England forced me to open my eyes and f-stops to all the other imaging possibilities that I don’t think I ever would have noticed if I stayed out west chasing landscapes and wild critters. Thank goodness! Now don’t get all huffy and think I am disparaging where you live. Spend any time in any region of America with open eyes and f-stops and you will discover all kinds of riches to photograph. The catch is that too many photographers lust for what is over the far horizon and ignore what is close to home. If you restrict yourself to staying within 10 miles of your home you over 300 square miles to explore for photographs! If you make it 35 miles than you will have an area of more than 3800 square miles! You aren’t going to try to tell me that you can’t find all sorts of wonderful things to photograph in 3800 square miles are you? So photograph your own love letter to where you live. Go to different spots, photograph different things, try different techniques but stay close to home. As your eyes open so will your heart and there is nothing better than that. [nggallery id=8]
Shooting Like a Pro class
Hello Everyone! It is my third day of a week long workshop I am teaching on thinking and shooting like a professional photographer. The class is full-10 people- and all are exciting and very enthusiastic. It is a long day for these poor souls (they have to listen to me blab and blab and blab)- we start at 8:30 and go to 5 everyday, most of the time sitting in a classroom. This is what we were talking about today- evaluating and trying out a potential area of focus for a project. Later today I am letting them out of jail and we are going up to the old farm I did my book on so they can get some sun and take pictures. Tomorrow we go around and begin to develop the student’s ideas they have for their projects. I’ll keep you posted. Project Development 1. Choose Project 2. Evaluate Project Are there well-defined parameters? Geographic, goals, time, vision b. Are there similar projects? None? Many? How current? What quality? c. Are there good information sources? Written, oral, pictorial, local, web, Local experts, organizations d. What is the marketing potential? In-place marketing: magazines, newsletters, websites, tourism companies, Supporting organizations: sponsorship, mailing list, support, presentations e. Image acquisition? Ease? Seasonality, commonness, effort, permissions, Variety? subjects, colors, sizes, kingdoms Appeal? Cost? f. Income Possibilities? Potential for: presentations, articles, calendars, magazines, book, tours, work shops Immediacy: Need 10/20 images to start Need 100/200 images to grow Need 1000/2000 to sustain 3. Envision Outcome(s) 4. Come up with working title 5. Start collecting information & contacts 6. Start courting organizations 7. Start collecting images Review and evaluate regularly
Fuzzy Bears
“Michael, that is a nice shot but you missed the focus on the bear. See how the background is in focus but the bear is not? I think the bear moved and you didn’t move your autofocus bracket to keep it on the bear so the autofocus grabbed the background and not the bear.” “My what?” “Your autofocus bracket” “What’s that?” “What’s what?” “What’s my autofocus bracket?” “The little box in your viewfinder, probably red, that tells you what the camera is focusing on.” “Oh, that is what that little box is for. I never knew what that was.” “How are you focusing if you are not using the autofocus bracket?” “Oh, I just let the camera focus where ever and then I tweak it by hand.” “So you let the camera autofocus and then you manually unfocus to focus?” “Right” “That make any sense to you?” “No, but the red box usually isn’t where I want it.” “Ah, but you can move the box to where you want it to be.” “I’ll be darn. That makes much more sense.” This was an actual conversation I had with a student during a critique in my last workshop. Please understand that the problem is not with the student but it is with me, the teacher. I am the one who is in the dark. Avoiding being in the dark is the essence of effective teaching. A good teacher has to be able to figure out what his or her student doesn’t know and then teach them that. If not the teacher is an idiot, teaching way beyond the student or way below them. This is what I have seen in many workshops; teaching based not on what the student doesn’t know but what the teacher does know. No matter if the participants need to be taught about composition or histograms or blinkies the workshop leader has a program to present and come rain or high wind, that program is going to be presented. A good workshop teacher tries to figure out what a student doesn’t know and then teach that. A good teacher fills in the holes, he doesn’t just heap more on hoping it will spread to where it is needed. This would be a good point to tell you that this was Michael’s second workshop with me. It wasn’t until my 7th or 8th day with him that I figured out he didn’t know how the autofocus worked in his camera. Not very sharp of me, huh? But this is the riddle of teaching. What don’t my students know? How can I figure out what they really need to know? What do I teach that will be most helpful to them? And what do they think they know that they actually don’t know? People don’t know what they don’t know. We are completely ignorant of the holes that exist in our knowledge because we paste over them with weak patches and move on to more interesting things. But eventually, there is going to be a bear in your viewfinder and you are going to have to keep it in focus as it shuffles around in front of you. Best to be prepared. Do you know what all the little dials and icons and buttons and letters mean on your camera? Do you know when they might come in handy and when you can ignore them? You don’t have to be a tech weenie you just have to have a general idea on what your camera can do. So next time you are out shooting with friends or on a workshop take the time and ask questions. The more you ask, the more you will know. Otherwise, your next furry bear will be a fuzzy bear and that isn’t good.
Old Haunt Hunting
Yep, I was back in Maine prowling around one of my favorite places- the little harbors of the coast. Why? I could tell you that since I am working on my next book, a photo book of the Maine Coast, going to the coast to take pictures seemed like a good idea. And while that is true the last place I need to go to photograph is a harbor because the really last thing I need is more pictures of yet another harbor. So, not letting reason get in the way of passion, off I went straight to the closest, nicest part of the coast I know- Cape Porpoise to Biddlefordpool. And what did I find on the way? An old lobster shack covered in old lobster buoys with old lobstermen inside! Just exactly what I don’t need and what I can’t resist! I did eventually get back on track and have a pretty successful photo trip getting many pictures I need for the book (see my next post) but I lingered at the shack first. Nobody has ever said I was a reasonable person!
Back to the Quarry!
Well, I went underground again, camera in hand, prowling the dimly lit cathedrals of blocky marble half a mile under Danby Mountain in my little hometown in Vermont. I am not exactly sure what I am going to do with the images but the place is intriguing and there are stories lurking, I just know it. Right now I am just exploring and giving myself time to begin to see what the possibilities might be down under. I am also giving the quarrymen time to get used to me being around with camera in hand. Both of these things are essential for any long term photographic relationship. This time I walked down into the deepest part of the working quarry and watched the guys cutting out giant 20 ton blocks of beautiful white and gray streaked marble. Some of the shots I took were examples of the operation so I could give to the quarry manager as a thank you and some were me just playing with the creepy dim light and seeing what I would get. The others were just plain awful, trust me. I”ll keep you posted on what ideas bubbles up in my small but perfectly formed brain. For now it is both fun and thrilling to be down there and that is good enough!