Thinking with your heart and not with your head
I like to think in extremes when considering balance. I've said before that one of the most important things is passion, but is there a line at which you have too much of it?
One of my friends is running a business in the creative arts industry unrelated to photography. He's really passionate about what he does, but at the same time he's been described as a shrewd businessman.
Despite others describing him that way, I would probably describe him more as a passionman. In the market that he's in, if he were truly a shrewd businessman, he could probably decimate the competition. His attitude and personality are like gravity - everyone I know is attracted to his style.
I see him going from success to success, but the one thing that stops him, and this isn't necessarily a bad thing, is he is passionate about what he does. He's the sort that will do things no businessman would because he loves seeing people share his passion.
Think of a cook that loves to make great food. "Try this dish! It's fabulous! And this one too! Or this one! You can't afford this one? That's okay, have it on the house!" While that doesn't describe my friend down to a T, it's further down the line than the description of a businessman. "Did you pay for that? You liked it? I think I'd better charge more!"
When I met with my mentor the other day, one of the things he told us was that without passion, you're just a businessman. I don't disagree, but with just passion, you risk becoming just another hobbyist.
It's made me realise that the agony of wanting to give away great work, or buying over-the-top gear to provide the best service, is really a reflection of passion within my field of work. It's always good to have someone to bring you back down to Earth and let you know you still have bills and rent to pay, but at the same time, knowing that's not just what it's all about.
Journey to Mt Kosciuszko
The world is conspiring against me.
Normally, I avoid taking my DSLR out when hiking. The potential for damage and the added weight usually means it's a bad idea, but since the hike to Mt Kosciuszko could be done in a single day and the weather report was for clear skies, I thought this would be an ideal time to do so.
That would have been fine, if the entire mountain wasn't completely shrouded in mist.
But nevertheless, I got some great shots in the early morning between 6am and 8am, before the clouds really set in. This early and the sun is just coming up or breaking over the horizon, making for some great pics. I'm usually not one to shoot into the sun, but it lent itself so well to it.
Time being a significant factor, there was very often little time to wait for that magic shot. However, the wind was blowing something fierce and the clouds were racing across the sky. You didn't have to wait long for the right conditions, but if you weren't quick, you missed it altogether! I have no idea at what speed the wind was blowing, but none of us could walk straight without being buffeted off track. You almost walked at a slant (and then stumbled when the wind died down).
I also found myself wishing I had a graduated ND filter for the first time. I'm not a huge fan of filters, but whenever I find myself shooting sunsets, sunrises, or really anything with that giant ball of fire in the sky, I keep finding myself needing to apply a grad filter in post and pulling up the detail in the shadows. Either that or taking multiple exposures and meshing them (yuck). With the clouds moving as fast as they were, it would also have been nice to get a nice long exposure just to see how they would've turned out. Might be worth getting one someday.
Couple of other problems with the mist included it's tendency to make everything seem washed out and lacking in contrast. I was a little disappointed with most of the misty photos I took.
Given that I didn't want to carry too much stuff, I ended up shooting everything on my 35mm. I feel as though I may have fallen into a bit of a rut after getting it. I've rarely touched my nifty fifty since getting the 35mm. Something wider would have been nice at some points, but I don't think I can justify the dollars at the moment.
All in all, besides the mist, the wind roar, and carrying my camera 20km for a handful of shots, I'm pretty happy with some of the pics. I don't really know the first thing when it comes to landscapes and I'm guessing landscape lovers are probably throwing up a little in their mouths, but for now, that's just where I'm at. =)
We went the long route this time, but maybe one day in the future, I'll take the short route, hop up the mountain again and see if I can get something from the top.
Jumping on the social media bandwagon
I've always found it annoying when people push their business on to others. As a result, I've really stayed quiet on my own business, Shinobi Photography. Perhaps a bit too quiet.
But I've jumped on the social media bandwagon and have decided to try my hand at setting up the page for it. I won't bug you too much about it, but if you'd like to see what I've been up to, please feel free to take a look at our Facebook page.
Since this is my own personal blog, I tend not to put up any domestic/commercial work we do. But if that's your thing, that's your destination =).
Our website still needs a bit of work and is going through a redesign, but we're hoping our web guy (not me!) will have that up soon.
Animania Sydney Mini 2011 – Cosplay and event photo round-up
I won't be writing up a report for this event this time around, but as promised, here are my photos from the day.
I've been having a look at a lot of other photographers' work and noted there have been a lot of instances where I've been standing next to someone, or in a couple of cases are in the edge/corner of a shot! Come say hi next time or leave a comment, I don't bite =)
Click through to see the pics.
Animania mini Sydney preview
Hi there guys,
Just a quick sneak of what's happening at the mini Sydney Animania festival. I'll be working on pics throughout the day, so check back later.
Here's a couple of shots so far. If you see me running around, stop me to grab a photo!
Some people had issues getting out of bed this morning.
And others took the doll display far too seriously.
Had some awesome weapons today.
And Who Wants to be over 9000 was pretty popular.
More if I manage to update later today, otherwise you'll have to wait for the final batch =)
Edit: Here's some more with some from WCS!
On having a mentor
I've been very slowly gathering momentum on my photography business, but it has been that - very slow.
I mentioned, possibly late last year, that this year I was going to mentoring classes. I managed to miss the first one due to a clash in dates, so yesterday was my first session.
I feel it's important to note that while I might write a lot about my opinion on how workflow, or what I think a professional is, I'm in that process of learning, of building, of making dumb mistakes and picking myself back up again. The reason I write at all, is because I love to share what I'm passionate about.
With that in mind, part of me felt absolutely crushed when I attended my first mentoring (mentoree?) session. My session is filled with people that I would consider successful, independent, confident and probably the last sorts of people I would imagine that would need help with their business. One lady was a single parent trying to do all of this at the same time!
Overwhelmingly though, it's forced me to look at the bar and raise it. Raise it high. I've never felt more determined to follow my dream now, leaving behind all that FUD - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. I've always thought to myself that even if I follow my passion, what about supporting my future family? What about paying the rent? "Love doesn't pay the rent", isn't that the quote?
But I'm in the presence of people who are doing just that. My mentor turns over more in a month than I thought would be possible in a year. He's genuinely passionate about what he does and genuinely cares about his customers. It's so very possible to follow your passion and still have wild success.
My mind is swimming. I couldn't sleep last night because of all the thoughts running through my mind. I still don't appear physically excited or animated, but I'm still working on that and it's certainly happening on the inside. My fire is lit and it feels like I'm spending every moment I can thinking about the business again.
It's going to happen.
I know it can happen.
Street photography
I know it's been a while, but I've been planning a few things during my off time.
I'm currently in the middle of another cover story for the magazine I work for, so time has been a little scarce.
Anyway, one of the areas of my life I've been trying to improve is how I interact with others, especially people I've never met before. Doing interviews as part of my job had helped a bit, but I've still got a long way to go.
So I figured why not combine that with my fear of approaching people on the street when I'm doing photography? And why not tie that into seven in sydney? And hey, why not post up how it all goes on here?
So hopefully there'll be something about street photography on here on the next few weeks.
I'll try updating this more as I go, but given my previous performance, that might be a little slow.
Straps and stuff
I've graduated from bag-aholics anon and moved on to strap-aholics.
You see, there'll be this period in your life where there doesn't seem to be one bag that'll work for you (and the honest truth is that there probably isn't a single ideal bag unless you always shoot the same stuff day-in day-out). You'll battle with it. You'll want the latest model. And just when you think you've got it all settled, suddenly you need room to fit that extra lens. Or flash. Or other accessory you wish you could've had with you.
I've come to terms with my addiction, thankfully quite early in the process.
Unfortunately, I now have the problem of straps. I got a Rapid strap and have been using that a little lately. The problem is, it's an attention grabber for when I'm not on a job and lately I've been trying to take it out more for general evening shooting and a bit of street.
I do have an Industry Disgrace from Crumpler, but that too is a bit of a stand-out piece. On the other hand, the stock strap is horrid.
I gave it a bit of thought and started going down the path of, "Oh, what if I combine R-Strap and a hand holster or something!" before realising this could all end horribly like my bag craze.
So perhaps the answer lies with simplicity. Just a simple leather strap or something along those lines.
For now though, I think I'll dig out my Industry Disgrace again.
The basics: Workflow
Only a few years ago there wasn't much involved in storing, editing, publishing (printing) and backing up your photos. These days, with huge file sizes and the ability to store everything digitally, it can be a little unwieldy.
So it's no surprise that one of the things newcomers to photography obsess over is workflow.
It doesn't have to be complicated, just consistent.
I'd recommend using Lightroom to manage all your files. Just be sure to only move files around within the program - be consistent.
I organise my physical files by date (year, then month/day) and let Lightroom take care of the actual content in the way of collections, flags and tags. This way you can daily dump your files while being able to add them to a larger collection that you may be building over several days or longer.
Publishing photos is possible either in Lightroom or by exporting to a separate folder. I export high resolution copies for client use or to send to the printers, otherwise built in publishing plugins for Lightroom allow you to publish straight to Facebook, Flickr or any of the other popular publishing platforms.
Backing up is simply a matter of making sure you have a copy of your physical files and your Lightroom catalog. This can be as simple as making a duplicate or as sophisticated as copying to multiple locations or to a cloud-based service.
Just be sure to back up regularly!
I use a little program called Syncback to periodically mirror my files on to a few drives and an online service.
Get into a system that you feel comfortable with and requires the least input from yourself. You'll be amazed how much you can automate everything, and the less impedance there is to getting your photos in an form for editing, the less likely you are to put it off.
Happy holidays!
Just a quick update to wish you all well for the holiday season and the new year!
I'm still working on processing photos from the shoot earlier this month, albeit at a slower pace as I've managed to injure my hand.
Fellow photogs, take care of your hands! Especially if you have a heavy kit to carry around!
Essentially, I slipped and impaled a gardening tool between my middle and ring finger. I don't think it went too deep, but the bandages do make using a stylus and taking pictures quite awkward. It seems to have closed up (and I've had the pleasure of getting a tetanus shot for my trouble) and I'm hoping for a speedy recovery to get back to work on those photos.
Plans for 2011 are a bit sketchy at the moment. I have a few jobs lined up, but what is really exciting me is the beginning of my mentoree session with my industry body. AIPP have a pilot program running in Sydney for the first time this year. Really looking forward to learning even more and passing that on.
Quite a few personal new years resolutions for 2011, mostly around getting fit, but photography will still be a very large focus of mine.
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Twitter (mukimu)
- Clocking off this arvo with a #technolatte podcast -- Facebook's IPO, Optus TV Now and cyber crooks' tips and tricks. http://t.co/7upIRDEw 2 days ago
- http://t.co/MbDSdFG4 My SO: "went to make tea, came back to this" 2 days ago
- Saw Tower Heist last night. My fav line: You've only been a lawyer for 3 days and you're trying to bribe the FBI? / Sharks are born swimming 2 days ago
- Love it when peeps let me know they got my enquiry and are on it. Prevents that limbo-ness of not knowing if anything is actually happening. 2 days ago
- Do you think it's time we did more about mobile malware? Commentary: http://t.co/CuUSwPgM 3 days ago
