Blogging

I've come to realize lately that photography blogs are not an easy creature. The most successful blogs out there are the ones that are on a specific theme/topic, where photography is a very broad topic. As I look through others blogs - photography blogs seem to fall into a narrow field.

• A picture a day type blog - which I've done

• An instructional blog (however I'm no expert in any one field)
• An inspirational blog
• A showcase of the latest jobs that they've photographed

I'm still not sure the full direction I hope to take with mine, but I think I'm going to be looking at a bit more of a mix of inspiration, thoughts and musings on the industry and some showcasing of recent works (however I'd like to keep that side of things to a minimum - client shoots are for clients, however the occasional sneak peek may come in)

Testing

Photography is all about vision, and it is our unique vision that sets us apart from one another. It is also our vision which lands us our jobs. But how do we develop our vision and our signature style? How will you know that this is a Mike Campbell?

This is a question asked by many. Many of us will shoot a lot as photographers, but most of that shooting will be intended for someone else. We change how we shoot based on what the client is looking for. But when all is said and done, you will be left with a body of work and portfolio that is indecisive and doesn't show a unique vision or style - it will be a collection of styles that others have wanted from you. This also exists when you look at graduates of photography schools, where people are taught different styles, lighting and subject matters - but their portfolio doesn't show themselves.

To grow as photographers and actually define our work as ours, we need to shoot for ourselves. I've heard too many photographers complain that they are too busy to do any other photography than their commissioned work. This excuse is unacceptable. In every other profession you are required to undergo continuing education of some degree to keep relevant, and the same is true of photography. We need to grab our cameras and go out there and shoot what we love, what we hate, our desired subjects and subjects that are new. We need to experiment with new techniques, either through lighting, composition or post processing. There are times where we must shoot with no purpose at all. We must do test shoots!!

A test shoot is just that, a test of something new. Something that will push our creative boundaries or to explore something new that is too risky to try on a paid shoot until you know the results you'll get. Please note that this is not a portfolio shoot. Do not be photographing with the intention of adding any of these images to your portfolio. Our portfolios are supposed to showcase what we can do as a photographer and be a concise collection of our visual style. We test to develop our style, but until we're proficient in it, a test is not our style.

I recently had the chance to do some experimentation with multiple large lights. I have played with them before, but here was a chance to test with some different 3 light setups and multiple light qualities. I was not shooting for portfolio images, in fact, little consideration was taken in creating interesting compositions. You'll even catch bits of equipment in the corners of the frames of a few of these. I do use some similar techniques in my daily photography, but this was an excuse to push it a bit further. You will also notice some use of different post processing techniques. Nothing has gone to photoshop, so this was an excuse to try a few different Lightroom techniques.

Style

As photographers, and artists in general, we are always trying to develop our style. This is what sets our photographs apart from others. Many at the get go start by trying to define their style through different techniques, be it lighting or post processing. I've been noticing the more and more I shoot that a different style is emerging in my photographs and that is contrast. I tend to gravitate towards images that have high contrast. I will allow blacks to go to pure black. I think that what's not shown in an image can say as much or more than what is shown. I also came to realize this past weekend while speaking to some of the models at a video shoot I had the privilege of photographing that there is another type of contrast in my images. I like showing contrast between subject and location. Be it a beautiful model in front of a decrepit background or an object out of place, I try for a contrast within the image as well.

I will leave you with this - Images from that music video shoot...enjoy.

Shaking the Tree

Lately I've been feeling like I'm in a bit of a rut photographically. I'm working on changing that and getting back into gear with building a business out of it. This afternoon inspiration was found from Chase Jarvis. Reading one of his recent blog posts was just what I needed. Click here for the post.

I've decided to take on a few of the suggestions.

The first one being taking a picture where ever you were when you read that post and sharing it with the world.

The next suggestion will be a bit more involved and will involve renting some equipment, but I'm planning on some fun shots. It will involve shooting film, and I'm excited for that step back. I haven't shot film in awhile.

I've also done a bit of work to get back on track even before having read that post. I had the privilege of getting to photograph at the filming of a music video this past weekend. Along with that was the updating of my business cards. So hopefully getting back sorted out.

Fashion World

So part 2 of my musings on [FAT] and the fashion world in general.

I think that the fashon world will always be a world where I'll be an outsider looking in. Never one of those movers and shakers (if they really are that). There are some things about the fashion world that are not 'me' and I will never be able to accept.

Let's start though with my interest in the industry. Many people say that I always maintain a level of being well dressed. I keep an eye on the world and create my own ideas of what styles I like and then choose the aspects I like to dress myself in. But the question is why? Why not just wear stained jeans and a t-shirt all the time? My reason is that I dress myself based on my personality and to stand out slightly from the crowd. I'm not that loud boysterous person who's the life of the party. So I dress well to stand out in my own way. I still don't dress flashy to seek attention - I still dress to match myself.

My other interest in the fashion industry is this. I have always been interested in organizations that have been given power by the masses. This is included in the church, in governments, in fashion. These are areas where we, the masses give a select few the power to make our decisions. So here we are, we have created and supported an industry that is a multibillion dollar industry. We have agreed to outlandish prices and over the top styles and parties and lifes based on clothes. This industry is now the one that dictates what is 'beauty'.

This is where in the problem lies. The views that the industry promotes as beautiful quite often conflict with my views. Fashion is about flawlessness where I find beauty in our flaws and uniqueness. Weight and dress sizes become unobtainable dreams. Thin is viewed as beautiful - unhealthy thin though. It supports unhealthy habbits in both the general population and those that model within it. It also bothers me how this world encorages people to belive that they can get by in this world by looks alone. It creates a state where people feel an entitlement to the spoils of the world without the work and sacrifice. In the few dealings I've had with 'fashion models' it's become quite obvious that they're not concerned about creating beautiful images or showcasing the clothes or creating something creative. They are much more concerned with what they get out of it. Many are not willing to accept that they may have to pay from time to time, and that photographers quite often front a much larger amout of money for a personal shoot than the model could ever imagine. Not all are like this, but a good portion seem to have this attitude (in my experiences).

This is why I like asking real people to model for me. I like to capture the imperfections in someone and show them as beautiful. For them it's about creating fun and interesting pictures much more than it is about building a book so they can walk the runway. I also love the idea of showing someone themselves in a different light. Too many of us say that we hate how we look in a picture - but when someone is given the full fashion shoot experience, they will sometimes see the beauty in themselves that others see daily. Light someone well, give them direction infront of the camera (other than the night club "smile" type picture), show them an image that has had proper color correction and post processing and now they see themselves differently. We rarely get the photo shoot experience after our high school grad photos have been taken, so this is a time to have fun infront of the camera in this environment.

So where does that leave me after all of this rambling? Why fashion? I enjoy shooting the fashion images because it's a field where you can be creative, where you can be outside the box in the creation of your images. For me it's about creating a beautiful image. I think I want to be telling stories in my photographs. I think I want to be shooting commercial advertising photography. So fashion is a door in - I hope. But I believe that I will always be an outsider looking in on the industry.

Fashion

Just a quick post tonight...
[FAT] alternative fashion week is now in town. Now in it's 4th year, I'm finding that the show that is all about inclusion is now starting to become much more mainstream. It's developed an atmosphere of having to be someone to get the best seats and to get noticed. It's loosing it's alternative edge that it had just a year ago.

I will elaborate on this more in the next few days...

Catching Up

I apologize - It's been almost 2 months since my last posting here. I have fallen behind in both my reading and posting. It's time now to catch up.

In the past 2 months I've been working to pick up the camera more often. I've managed a few fashion shoots in the last few weeks...

A set for a friend who is hoping to walk the runway at [FAT] this spring...

Others for someone missing a friend fighting overseas...

I've also been re-falling in love with Toronto. I didn't grow up in the city, but when I came here from school I fell for the city and never left. Every winter I tend to go into hiding, traveling through the city's undergrounds to avoid the harshness of winter. It's been in the last few months that I've slowly been sneaking out of underground hiding and re-exploring the city I live in. It's nice to be able to venture out again and find new restaurants and interesting alleyways. I have a fascination with cities. I love the hidden nooks, the pace, the pulse of a city. They have a power and energy all their own. Each one distinct, but each one invigorating. I look forward to this summer...plans to explore more cities ;)

Some recent exploring...

I've also been noticing that my buying habits at the book store are changing. I realize that I'm looking more and more at the photography greats books. Buying the Vanity Fair Portraits, or Richard Avedon's Performance. I don't know if it's a growth in my photography, or a change in my desired subjects. With that - I will close things with this:

We all perform.

It's what we do for each other all the time,

deliberately or unintentionally.

It's a way of telling about ourselves

in the hope of being recognized

as what we'd like to be

- RA

- more soon - less wait...

Bitter Sweet Pt 2

The bitter...

Bitter Sweet

I did 2 shoots today - 1 was a product shoot, then the second was on the runway.  I was quite happy with the product shots, not as happy with the runway shots.

The Sweet...

In the Zone

We all work to get into the zone.  That area where things are flowing and working well for us.  It's where we're comfortable and where we're having fun.  But could the zone be the comfort zone.  We're safe here, things work, we don't push boundaries.  Now, we need to have this bit of comfort and safety - especially when we work for ourselves.  We need to be sure that we are meeting clients needs and getting the work, but we also need to step outside of that comfort zone.  Without pushing out of the comfort zone we don't challenge ourselves.  We need to get outside of our comfort zone.  It's where we grow, both personally and professionally.  

I'm going to be working on getting out there, getting out of my comfort zone and seeing what happens.

I Challenge You!

This being the eve of one of those events that will change the world, I figured this would be a good time to present this project to the world.  I am trying to get others to reply in kind to this picture.  I am looking for people to take a self portrait with a word written somewhere visible on them that is meaning something to them.  I don't care if this is shot with a Hassiblad or a web cam, use what you have.  When done, I ask that the image be forwarded to me.  All replies will be collected and showcased online - everyone being given credit for their image. 

I chose the word "Change".  I believe 2009 is going to be a special year bringing about some big changes.  I think that the world will be a very different place by the end of this year and I'm excited to see what that will be.  I'm also hoping to bring about some change within my own life, but I'm not letting that cat out of the bag quite yet.

I'm excited to see everyone else's reply!

Here and Now

Sometimes it's beneficial to do your photo editing in a coffee shop.  I edit using Lightroom and Photoshop and do my major work using a wacom tablet.  This is enough to draw attention from most passer-bys.  For the most part, people will just take a glance over my shoulder as a paint skin smooth or occasionally ask me about what it is I'm doing.  Other times people take notice of the big camera on the table and the subject matter that I'm retouching - and ask about what kind of work I do.  The second type are the exciting type, cause these are the people who start to become contacts, who realize the importance of a photographer.  They are usually also part of the start up business world too - as we're all sharing our communal coffee shop office.

Happy New Year!

Greetings and Happy New Year from NYC.  I haven't had the opportunity to do much for New Year's eve for many years because of my work schedules.  This year I am off, so I have chosen to jet to NYC and experience the new year in Times Square.  Pictures to follow soon.

Happy Holidays :D

Merry Christmas

Just wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!

Now to leave you with a few images from around Toronto this past snow fall...

Happy Solstice

Happy winter solstice.  The longest night of the year is drawing to a close and I'm quite thankful for that (especially the really short days are awful when you work shift work).  Here in Toronto we usually celebrate it by a street festival and parade through the streets of Kensington Market - the festival of light.  Unfortunately this year the festival was canceled.  The reason being as best I can figure is due to the extreme cold weather we were experiencing.  The official cancelation didn't stop there being a bit of a party, and music playing in the streets, but it was quickly dispersed when organizers reminded everyone that the party was a no go and they were taking legal responsibility for themselves as they ran through the streets.  I was also disappointed with myself photographically tonight.  As always, my camera followed me out into the freezing night, but I was missing my focus, shooting too late, moving the camera on long exposures...I came home with far more rejects than keepers.  Even my posted picture, I've missed my point of focus and due to shooting at 800 ISO even with heavy noise reduction in place it's still too noisy for my likes.  

I guess we all have bad days from time to time...

Musings

So I mentioned earlier that I've got an idea for an upcoming photo shoot and that I want to be starting to build a portfolio.  I managed to convince someone the other day to stand in front of my lens in the coming weeks.  I'm getting excited at the idea of getting to do some creative shooting that will be meant to build my business.  The first steps are always the hardest when you're not sure if you're ready to leave the nest (mixing metaphors - gotta love it).  I am excited though and I know it's time to do, not say I'm going to.  In preparation for the upcoming shoot I've been upgrading or replacing some of my lighting equipment.  I've got a flash bracket adapter that has served me well, but it's also the piece of equipment that broke my SB 600.  It's also poorly made and the plastic housing has become stripped so it no longer will support an umbrella (without taping it into the adapter).  So I've now upgraded to a new metal umbrella holder, and along with that I've gone with a small shoot through umbrella.  I like the control that is provided by a shoot through over a reflective umbrella and how I can get that light in much closer to my subject (who am I kidding...I'm almost always my test subject).  I'm looking forward to the coming shoot now.  I know that I'll be able to get the look I'm after from it :D

- ttfn

The D3x Strikes Again!!

The D3x strikes again.  The controversy continues.  A good friend of mine and a Nikon D80 shooter is now playing with a canon 30D. Has Nikon alienated it's customer base?  Are we loosing more Nikonians to Canon because of the D3x?  I think that we should all be given free D3x's to keep the Nikon consumers happy!

Very Quick

I've fallen behind in postings because I've gotten lost in the world of my day job (day/night/weekend job to be more specific).  There is a portion of my work schedule where I work 6 12 hour shifts in a row and I find I loose touch with the rest of the world during this time.  

What's new though.  I lost the bid I had in to shoot a wedding for someone I work with.  I can't say I'm upset though.  I'm not a wedding photographer and have never advertised myself as one. I actually am more relieved than anything else that I didn't get this job.  This leaves me more time to focus on the building of the editorial/fashion/portraiture portfolio I want to build.

Speaking of portfolio building, I have got a shoot idea for what I'd like my first shoot to be (or one of the first).  It's a very clean look, monochromatic with these splashes of color.  I want it to be a very powerful yet elegant and sexy looking set of images with just a hint of mystery.  There are a few things that I will need in order to do this shoot, most importantly will be the model (everything else I can arrange on short notice).  So this is a bit of an invitation to my readers - if you've ever thought about modeling, or what you would look like in a fashion magazine layout, this is your chance.  I want to find normal people to photograph as high fashion - so if you think you're not model material, then I'm looking for you.

The last thing that I've been thinking of lately...there is a lot of talk out there these days about working for free, and I'm also making considerations to do this in order to build the portfolio that I want to have.  But with this I started thinking about image delivery.  For the most part, I like to have a hard copy of my images printed properly.  There is something special about giving your client that perfectly printed and framed image that just speaks of the moment.  With this we end up giving our clients price lists as means to provide images to them.  $2 for a 4x6, $10 for an 8x10...  I think this practice gets confusing to our clients...especially our clients who are the general public.  What I'm now considering is this...For paying jobs I will be charging a production fee (that is the cost of the shoot, my fee for the day, retouching/developing, overhead, etc) and I will be charging a licensing fee which will be a per image fee based on the intended usage of the image.  With this, my clients will be purchasing a finished digital image suitable for printing in what ever form necessary in a media/market/timeframe that's been pre-arranged in the license on the image.  For hard copy materials, books, prints, etc I think I'm going to be removing any profit from these items and charging the client cost on them.  This will make the prints more attractive to a general public client...they get their pictures that they can put up on facebook, they've payed for the images, so if they choose to get prints from me, they're getting the same price they can get from their photo lab.  The only difference being when I get their prints done, it's an opportunity for me to retain the control of the image look from capture to print...where Walmart may give a very different look to the image then I had ever intended.

- ttfn

--edit--

Just a follow up to the above.  Obviously anything that is produced as a fine art piece, a proper fee would be charged with no digital copy available to the buyer.  In that case they're there to buy the print.

Saddened by the Photographic Community

I am deeply saddened by the photographic community today.  Recently Scott Kelby announced on his personal blog that Nikon had released the Nikon D3x and it was coming with a price tag of $8,000 (US).  Many of the commenters felt that a price for a 20+ megapixel camera, that was priced comparable to it's direct competition, is $2,000 over priced and that Scott is directly responsible for the price tag.  What saddens me is that Scott has been sharing his passion for photography and giving the inside tips of how the pro's do things FREE OF CHARGE since 2005 and that people felt the need to personally attack him on his own web site.  Do we really need to have a 23.5 megapixel so bad that we need to blame everyone who talks about it for how much it costs???  I fully believe Nikon is right on the money with the price they have decided on for this camera.  These 20+ megapixel cameras are starting to bridge that gap between 35mm format and medium format shooting.  It's allowing these high end fashion/commercial photographers who need the resolution of 20 megapixels the power and speed that a 35mm format camera offers...it's a treat to be able to shoot 9 frames a second and keep a high paced and energetic shoot moving forward instead of the 1-2 seconds per frame that a Hasselblad offers (with the $20 - 60,000 price tags).  

This news comes on a day where I have managed to become excited about my photography again.  I decided to go out and shoot some landscape shots out along the harbourfront this afternoon.  It was a lucky day in that for the first time in a month we had blue skies with beautiful clouds.  The only part that sucks is how at 3pm I was shooting sunsets.  The above photo is my favorite of today's set.

- More soon

Hello again.  I'm getting tired of the negativity lately - it's pulling me down deeper.  My 9-5 (or more specifically 6-6 am or pm) job is becoming less and less of a draw for me.  I work very closely with another person, and when they're never happy, it's very difficult for me to enjoy my work constantly being affected by this other individual's negativity.  I also am being affected by the lack of control I have over my day to day work.  I don't get to do anything that will advance my career and that's why my own business seems to be more and more attractive these days.  Work for myself, building something that means something to me.

So - onto some more fun stuff.  Nikon has announced the D3x and I'm drooling.  Now, I know that for the photo world this is already old news and the camera hasn't even hit the shelves.  This is obviously a toy that I can't afford to be running out to buy on it's release date, or for that matter any time shortly after it without winning the lottery.  I am happy with the camera system that I am currently using though.  A Nikon D2Xs isn't anything to sneeze at.  

I'm almost at the point where I've been a full month since 365 of Mike ended and I'm having a camera nic fit now.  I spent my evening tonight learning about the basics of creating a web site, and now I'm hoping to start putting some of that to use to create an online portfolio. Along with this I'm starting to brainstorm for ways to be shooting more.  I've been wanting to do some fashion/beauty shoots and so I'm thinking of trying to convince people I know to stand out in front of my lens and get the fashion treatment.  It's time for me to stop saying I want to and start saying I am.  

I was slightly discouraged recently when I created a slideshow to showcase some of my recent wedding day photography as an advertisement to my style.  Along with the prospective client, I emailed it to a wedding photographer that I know.  The discouragement came when my style of photography was quite bluntly criticized.  I appreciate that I'm not a full time wedding photographer - and I have no interest in shooting weddings full time to be honest - but to criticize my style hurt.  It's always discouraging to hear others in your field provide negative criticisms without any positive words.

Last but not least - I will leave you with a video done of some pictures I did for a local charity.  Here's the video - I hope it works.