I got a taste of this blog from Rob at APhotoEditor. If you don't know his site you should. The taste led me to find the original blog and I read it. It's exactly what I feel about photography, postprocessing, etc.
http://www.derekshapton.com/planet_shapton/?p=1204
Read and discuss. But remember, it's Derek Shapton's blog, not mine.
Today is the first day of SXSW. Thank you to all the people dressed in black who've come here to learn, create and add dollars to Austin's tax base. We love you.
http://www.derekshapton.com/planet_shapton/?p=1204
Read and discuss. But remember, it's Derek Shapton's blog, not mine.
Today is the first day of SXSW. Thank you to all the people dressed in black who've come here to learn, create and add dollars to Austin's tax base. We love you.
7 comments:
Yeah, Derek is cool - have his blog RSS-bookmarked since a while. I also recommend Laurence Kim.
cheers,
Wolfgang
I agree with Derek. More is just more, not necessarily better. I also like that philosophy and method of working.
There are a lot of people making good money selling PSActions and DVDs to people who mistakenly think more is more.
When I hear a photographer friend ask me about what my favorite actions/tutorials are...
What I WANT to say is "get and use a tripod. Get and use better lighting. Practice. Then Practice more." ....
But somehow, that never seems to come across the right way...?
See, this is another case where your honesty is infringing on your business. You don't get rich by telling people how to save money. (Imagine Charles Schwab telling people to just go buy no-load index funds.)
You won't be getting many checks from GE or Sylvania for showing off what you can do with fluorescents. On the other hand, if you showed people the exact same pictures, and then offered to sell some Elinchrom D-Lite kits for only $1000, those same idiots lecturing you about safety could be happily lugging around some 400-watt strobes for their "professional" pictures of dogs and flowers.
I would agree - there's way too much focus on technique, and too little about making images. I was at a portfolio review event earlier this week, and all the CDs, ADs, and ABs agreed on one thing - do something that is different, a new point of view, something that cuts through the noise, push the image another 10%.
You don't get there by using the latest gizmo - guess what, any gizmo that is being sold, has to be sold at least a few 1,000 times to make money for the guy who invented it. That means that makes the same to at least another 1,000 guys out there shooting. Same thing for anything discussed on a blog. That blog has 1,000 readers, all of which will copy that lighting setup, that Photoshop trick. Ignore it all, just do your own thing.
A good quote I read on a forum of folks working in the motion picture industry - on the importance of lighting (and how much time is spent on lighting vs. camera vs. other stuff): "Frankly, just about anybody can shoot today and make amazing pictures with easy to use high definition cameras. Only a few can actually improve the telling of the story with camera technique, and an even smaller group of professionals can actually contribute to the story with lighting. For me, it's always been about the light. If you can't light the scene you can't influence the performance or the story."
You want to be in that last little group...
I've all but stopped going to workshops, I've become very selective in terms of buying books, I don't read many blogs by photographers anymore (compared to blogs from my client's industry and photo business blogs), I haven't bought a new camera in quite a while.....
Jan, Dammit. Keep reading my blog. I know I'll come up with something useful eventually. KT
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