Books, Books, Books…

I’ve been so incredibly busy lately, I haven’t taken almost any images in three months! My hands are itching and I have several ideas, but either the weather does not cooperate or I have boring stuff to take care of.

And I haven’t looked at many photo books lately either. Right now I have a stack of “unread” books on the side of my bed that weighs almost as much as I do. Here a few titles:

• Herb Ritts Work
• Sebastiao Salgado Africa
• Steve McCurry South Southeast
• Freeman Patterson Photography and the Art of Seeing
• Larry Bartlett Black and White Photographic Printing Workshop

Oh, and talking about books… I fear I’m turning into a collector of photography books. I used to have a few how-to books only, but the number of fine-art books has grown steadily over the past few months and the black and white ones are winning by a thin margin over color.

Dizzy Gillespie, Copyright by Herb Ritts

Djimon with Octopus, Copyright by Herb Ritts

Wanna Become a Better Photographer? (2)

I’m fascinated by “photographers” who almost never photograph, but instead theorize in various discussion forums about the significance of certain technical features or constantly browse the Internet for news about new bodies and lenses. Or by “photographers” who mainly photograph brick walls and line-pair targets and then measure resolution, distortion, vignetting, noise levels, etc.

Now don’t get me wrong — I’m not making fun of those people. Which camera you use and knowing how to operate it properly is of course essential to making good photographs. And if your hobby is talking about gear rather than creating images with it, then by all means, enjoy it!

But if you want to become a better photographer, then focus on the images.

In my previous posting I recommended that you concentrate on your own images: edit them to completion, print them, frame them. Naturally this is the ultimate goal, but if you are as emotional about your images as I am about mine, about their content and the circumstances under which you took them, you’ll probably find it very hard to be your own critic.

So today I suggest an easier first step — focus on other people’s images. Go to exhibitions, look at books, look at image portfolios on the Internet. Try to express in words what it is that you like about some images, why you dislike others. Talk to your friends. Discover the “old” masters, young artists and enthusiasts like you. Write image critiques, join a photo-group, let others critique your own images.

If you want to explore some Internet resources, let me suggest a couple. My primary source of amazing (black-and-white) photography is Lens Work. If you don’t want to subscribe, you could look at the names of the published artists and then google them. They usually have great web sites. Another place to discover current and past photographers as well as photographic books is The Online Photographer. And if you are looking for a photographic community, it’s hard to beat photo.net. For $25 per year you get a chance to store and show your images, look at great photography from all over the world, write critiques and get your work critiqued.

Of course these three addresses represent an absolutely minuscule portion of the web sites related to photographic art, but these are the ones that I frequent, and you might find them interesting too. I hope so…

Wanna Become a Better Photographer?

The quick answer is: turn your images into prints!

In October 2007 I came this close to buying a Canon 5D and a 24-105/4 IS lens. I was tempted by the full-frame sensor, image-stabilized lens, great zoom range, lower image noise and the additional 4,6 megapixels. But while a new camera is nice, it wouldn’t have changed my photography in a fundamental way.

So I bought an Epson 3800 printer instead. The reason was very simple — I was having trouble getting good prints with reliable colors and reliable borders on a variety of papers. And to be honest, I probably also needed a new toy.

Little did I know how that printer would change my photography! Now wait, you’d say — a printer is an end-device, it cannot turn a crappy image into a great one! Well, you are right (even though the printer manufacturers would like us to believe otherwise), but I mean this. Using a printer means printing an image. But which image? So the first thing was to look at my images critically and select the better ones. But once I had those, I didn’t just print them. No, you don’t just send a good image to the printer — you edit it and make it excellent. Then you print it.

And then came revelation number one. When you hold a print in your hands you see so many faults that you didn’t see on screen, you rush back to Photoshop and correct them. Repeat this a few times and you realize that you need to learn more about sharpening. So you do and you print again. The results looks so gorgeous, you are in awe. So you rush to the store and buy some frames. You frame the prints and hang them on the walls and it’s a great feeling. That’s revelation number two.

But a few days later you want another great print to go with the first one, so you take the camera and hurry outside. All of a sudden it’s not about pixel peeping any more, it’s about covering your walls with great prints. Revelation number four.

And the final revelation? In the eyes of your friends you are no longer the nerd with the camera, you are a photographer.

Good luck!

Being a Serious Photographer

There are various definitions of “professional photographer,” but most involve something like “at least 50% of your income is derived from photography.” Well, I’ve never sold a photograph or any photographic service, so I’m definitely not a pro, but in many other aspects I behave more and more like one. For example, I carry a large camera and sometimes a tripod, I keyword and archive my images, I take back-up equipment on important shoots and I have a photographic web-site.

But I also visit photographic exhibitions, jump into conversations about photography, I talk to other photographers when out photographing. And recently I’ve started asking strangers if I can take their picture, a picture of their auto, their boots, their house, their working place. Most times I got an affirmative answer, but also a few negative ones. I imagine that sometimes the people said “no,” because they simply didn’t want to risk some nut-cake taking their photo.

But what if I had a quick way of convincing these people that I really am a fine-art photographer and that I don’t mean them any harm. Even better, what if I could show them some of my work and possibly get them really interested? Well, I might now have found this way. And it’s nothing new really, but I’ve taken the time and done it.

The first step was to print a few of my images on 10 x 15 cm paper and carry them in my photo bag. And the second step was to make business cards and carry a bunch of those in my pocket. The cards are nothing fancy — a black-and-white image on the left and my name, e-mail address and URLs to my images and to this blog on the right.

Of course anyone can take a few postcards in their hands and put a name on a business card, but I think it’s a very different feeling if someone says “I’m a photographer. Here are a few of my images, and here, take this card so you can see more images and send me an e-mail if you like.”

Both of these things are so new that I haven’t yet had a chance to try them out. But I hope they might open a few doors that might otherwise remain closed: street portraits, junk-yards, repair shops, church steeples, etc.