Initiative is no bad thing

It’s that time of year again. The time of year when my inbox is inundated with speculative emails from not just the usual year-round would-be photographers and studio hands, but a legion of just-released-from-uni new graduates, out there seeking their first industry jobs.

These emails range from the polite, considered and professional through to the mis-spelled, abrupt and downright rude. I recieved one this very morning from one hopeful which began “Hey, I was wondering if you have any photography work going at your studio right now? I’m a music photographer from ******* and I would love to help out in a photography studio. Wether it’s taking photos or just helping with the editing that would be great!”

Whatever happened to “Dear…” or even “Hello, my name is…”? And what happened to spellcheck? This particular email went on to say, “Please take a look at some of my work here, also some quotes from bands I’ve worked with…”  followed by the URL of her website.

Yes!!! You are just the person I’ve been looking for! I really need a semi-literate oik with no relevant experience (as far as I can tell from the scant information included) who doesn’t even sign her name on her email, can’t be arsed to attach a CV or examples of work, or even a proper link! My clients will be so impressed by your professional manner, I’m sure. Start at 10am tomorrow! Is £30k a year okay for starters?

Email deleted.

Actually, on this occasion I did have a look at the sender’s website and the work was ok. Irrelevant but not bad. But I would never dream of having this person working in my studio. I’ve discussed this with a couple of photographers and studio owners over the last couple of months and the concensus seems to be that any email that starts with “Hey”, “Yo” (yes, I swear I get these too), or other, similarly inappropriate over-familiarities, plus those that leave out such pleasantries altogether, are headed straight for the “Recycle Bin”. I would add any “check out [yuk!] my website/Flickr…” emails to that too. As one photographer mate asked “What the f*** are they teaching them at college?”

So these are my tips for anyone sending speculative emails to photographers/studios for work…

• Find out a bit about who you are writing to. Yes, we are a bit vain, but it also helps if we don’t think you’ve cut-and-pasted the same hastily prepared drivel to every photography-related business that google throws up.
• Be polite!!! Imagine you are writing a letter. Or write a letter! Use traditional terms of address.
• Say what you can do, what you can’t, and anything else you can offer (Maybe you’re reliable, have an ethical standpoint, live locally – these things are important).
• Attach a CV, or offer to send one in a follow-up email. Or include important details about age, experience, qualifications. If you don’t include these, you’re expecting the recipient to ask – but they probably won’t bother, and might imagine you just don’t have anything to offer or you’d include details.
• Include your name and contact details.
• Attach an image or two. Don’t expect anyone to follow a link to your website - these can be virus-ridden, and businesses have better things to do than spend hours browsing other people’s websites. It may be hard to believe, but they might not be waiting around for you to drop into their lives. You contacted them, not the other way around.

Yes, photography is part of the creative industries – yes, I go to work in jeans and a t-shirt most days – but that doesn’t mean that basic professionalism and courtesy goes out of the window. I don’t care how great your photography is, if you come across like a chav, I won’t even meet you. I try to reply to everyone who sends me an email about employment. After all, I was in that situation once and I got a break (eventually). But I’ve now decided, in true grumpy old man fashion, that I will not even take the time to reply to people who: can’t be bothered to find out anything about the studio, don’t include a CV or even offer to send one, don’t take the time to compose a respectful and polite email.

By contrast, I have been known to take on interns who, in one case, admitted he didn’t have much photographic experience but highlighted other skills he had that might be useful to the business. He knew what we were about and what was needed. He had lots of ideas and was a real breath of fresh air for fotofilia (this is you if you’re out there, Ben). What he lacked in actual experience he made up for in enthusiasm and willingness to learn.  I’d much rather work with someone who has little experience but a keen professional attitude than a “fully formed” photographer with bags of attitude and an amateur disposition.

So there it is. Woe betide anyone who addresses me with a “Yo” tomorrow. Grrr.

Now I like a “baby bump” shot as much as the next guy (especially if the next guy has a strong constitution) but…

Creepy?

Did you see the comments? Another one…

Mmm, bet she’ll treasure this one forever. Perhaps stick it to the fridge door when she’s on a diet.

And I couldn’t exclude weddings, could I?

Is that us?

Here’s a cert for that coveted over-fireplace slot…

Remember children, choose your background carefully… and your wedding venue… and your props

Aw! Good old Shep. Or is it Lady? Or Spot? Who the hell can tell?

You may have read in previous posts about the occasions where I’ve brought in a model for a shoot and decided to do the whole thing on my iphone and leave my trusty Nikon in its nice comfy bag. Well someone (who I won’t name, but you know who you are) said “Ooh! I wish I could do that!” And so the idea for a phone-only studio evening was born.

Daisy, from a previous iphone shoot.

This event will be on Monday 18th June and will give five people the chance to shoot two models in a studio environment with their phones only. In fact, DSLR’s are banned in the studio that evening.

We will be using lighting from comparitively powerful “constant” light sources which has the advantage of allowing more than one person to shoot at a time, unlike flash-based shoots where we have to take turns to hook up to the studio flash equipment.

Another advantage to this kind of shoot, and which I hadn’t really anticipated, is that even photographers who might feel a bit intimidated or nervous about coming along to what seem to the uninitiated like a relatively “serious” studio shoot for “proper” cameras, have said that they are much more likely to attend a phone-only shoot.

The equipment is obviously minimal (any phone with a camera will do) but what we’ve found previously when I’ve been recording studio evenings on my iphone is that there is quite a bit of discussion and tip-swapping regarding the best camera apps to use. As we now (finally) have wi-fi at fotofilia, attendees will be able to use it to download any apps that they hear about on the night and decide to try.

For more details see http://www.fotofilia.co.uk/#!learn Book your place now – but leave the camera at home!

Hopefully, this will be the first of many such events.

Various shots of Kat from previous iphone shoots (taken by me)

Sam Knight (by me and the iphone)

Image by Nettie Edwards

Fotofilia regular, Smethwick‘s second most famous celebrity (next to Julie Walters), and my good mate, Nettie Edwards returns to fotofilia this Sunday (27th May, 11am-4pm) for a kind of ”follow-on” to her previous iPhoneography courses, entitled “Next Steps in iPhoneography”.

This one, she tells me, will be more practical in emphasis and will include, among other things, printing and layering. So if you think you’d like to push your iphone photography along a tad, get yerself booked on to this workshop. Nettie is always entertaining, and as one of the country’s top iphoneographers, is the ideal person to spend a summer afternoon ishooting with.

Here’s a few more examples of her work to whet your appetite…

Image by Nettie Edwards

Image by Nettie Edwards

To get a place on the course, email me first to see if there’s space, then pay online at http://www.fotofilia.co.uk/#!pay

See more of Nettie’s work at http://www.lumilyon.blogspot.co.uk/

Bruce Gilden

The course’s participants were a truly international bunch and with very varied levels of ability, but all – I believe – benefitted greatly from the erm.. frank(?) …and forthright(?) guidance of Mr. Gilden. Each day, they were given an assignment and their efforts assessed the next morning.

Gilden is just about as close to the archetypal fearless New York Russian/Jewish street-fighting camera-in-face photographer (if there is such an archetype) as it’s possible to be. Hilariously funny but with a very sharp edge, he has charm by the bucketload and great anecdotes by the skipload. He is full of praise for his friends (Martin Parr, for instance) but is simultaneously scathing and/or dismissive of other “renowned” photographers, including some of his Magnum stable-mates.

He may be in his mid-sixties now but is as sharp as a tack, remembering everything said to him, every image shown to him, and by whom. Surprisingly, he has an amazing knowledge of british football teams. He’s also perfectly happy to stand up to any belligerent victims of his intrusive Leica, his swollen knuckles bearing testament to a lifetime of self-defence in the pursuit of his art among some of the world’s toughest characters. But equally, he’s a gentleman, who clearly worships his wife, daughter and three cats.

USA. New York City. 1992. Women walking on Fifth Avenue. By Bruce Gilden

So what did I learn from these “Gilden Days” in Wolverhampton? Here, partly for the benefit of my good mate Gareth Jukes, is just a few of the pearls of wisdom I picked up…

• Never answer your critics.
• Turn your shortcomings into strengths. Learn what you’re good at and stick to it.
• Never trust a photographer who isn’t working on at least one ongoing personal photographic essay.
• Never ask for permission to take a photo. TELL them you’re going to take it. Say “You don’t mind if I take your picture”. Note: no question mark.
• Pay careful attention to your backgrounds. Pick a good spot with good light and wait for the right people.
• Avoid visual cliches. Don’t take “tourist” photos.
• Pick subjects with character. People down on their luck (“bums”) don’t necessarily make good pictures.
• Be street-smart.
• If forced to choose between protecting your head or your camera, protect your camera.
• Be prepared to spend all day looking for a single image and not getting it.
• Just because you’ve shot it, doesn’t mean you have to show it.
• Don’t let your subjects “mug” for the camera. That puts them in control. YOU should be the one controlling the shot.
• Don’t have too much wasted space in the frame.
• Choose the height and angle of your shot with care.
• “Form” and the moment makes the image.

There. Hope that helps. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this week and have learned things that I won’t forget in a hurry.

You can see Bruce Gilden’s “A Beautiful Catastrophe” exhibition at Light House, Wolverhampton until 13th July. http://light-house.co.uk/calendar/2012/03/a-beautiful-catastrophe-by-bruce-gilden/

And if you want to get some idea of how he works, have a look at these…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRBARi09je8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-ETcSGZsE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI-xKkCu3-c

Image by Bruce Gilden, from “A Beautiful Catastrophe”

Many thanks to Kathryn at Light House for this wonderful opportunity.

Bruce Gilden: Afraid? Moi?

The workshop coincides with his “A Beautiful Catastrophe” exhibition at Light House which opens this week, beginning with a talk on Monday evening. Sadly, I’m unable to attend this as we have an f2 club meeting that evening, but I’m sure I’ll be spending plenty of time with “Mr. Gilden” in the following three days. The course itself costs £360 per head but is a very rare opportunity to study at the feet of a true master. I understand there are still 2 places available for this course, which has attracted participants from as far away as central Europe. But the group size is still very small, ensuring plenty of feedback and interraction from the man himself.

Image by Bruce Gilden

It’s been suggested by a couple of photographer mates that I might like to take along some running shoes. Gilden is known for his in-close, even confrontational, approach. He says: “I’m known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get.” Gulp.

I’m obviously delighted to have been offered this opportunity and look forward to reporting back once the course has ended. I see this as some welcome “professional development” time – something that I try to squeeze in at least once a year in addition to my own project work.

http://light-house.co.uk/calendar/2012/03/bruce-gilden-photography-workshop/ - more information about the course.

Bruce’s Magnum profile: http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R1482X4&nm=Bruce%20Gilden

Image by Bruce Gilden

It became apparent over the last six months or so that I was going to need some help with the gallery side of things, as I’d rather been neglecting the exhibition programme since the autumn while I concentrated on the rest of the business. So I brought in Jack Nelson and David Shepherd, both 2nd year photography degree students at the University of Wolverhampton, to become our in-house curators.

Since then, they’ve arranged, hung and unhung a few exhibitions. The most recent of these, being the one that neatly fitted in between two other exhibitions and features the work of David and Jack – plus fellow Wolves Uni student Anna Tedesco, who, rather conveniently, has also been working here over the last few months on an intern placement.

So here they are, hastily photographed during the launch of “Glitter and Doom” on Monday…

David Shepherd

David’s the one behind converting the main gallery room into what appears to be a cheap hotel room, complete with bed, table lamp, and repeats of “Last of the Summer Wine” on the TV.

Jack Nelson

Jack’s images occupy the lobby area at the moment.

Anna Tedesco

And Anna’s work can be seen in the corridor. But Anna is also responsible for “Gladys” who is in our front window…

“Gladys”

And Gladys, Anna’s mannequin, is responsible for attracting a great many puzzled looks from passers-by.

So we’d like to welcome David and Jack aboard the good ship fotofilia.

And to wish Anna, whose stint as intern ends this week, all the very best for the rest of her studies and future career in photography. It’s been a pleasure working with you.

I pinned his CV to my notice board, resolved to bringing him back for a shoot at some point. Eventually I called him in for a couple of CLUB and f2 shoots, during which I had the chance to photograph him. Sam has an acting background and it really shows when he’s in front of the camera – he’s not afraid to perform when needed.

But something else came out of those early shoots: I noticed an ability that Sam has for turning on quite an intense and… well, sinister… alter ego. This, coupled with Sam’s pale grey eyes, gave me an idea for a shoot – a Vampire shoot.

So I set up a vampire-themed studio evening, with the date set around Sam’s availability. And then set about finding his female counterpart. Again I already had someone in mind and she had initially agreed to do the shoot but eventually dropped out (as I suspected she might – she’d dropped out of a shoot once before). But then I realised I knew someone else who would be ideal – Chloe Avon - who, when I asked her, joked that everyone thought she was a vampire already. I had my dream team.

So here’s an image of Sam from the shoot. I should point out that he doesn’t actually look this normally – this is the result of a little bit of Photoshoppery and Sam’s stage fangs (yes, he had his own set!)…

Sam in vampire mode

You will notice we haven’t gone for the Hammer House of Horror/Karloff/Christopher Lee-type vampire, but have instead used the recent TV fashionable vampireness of “Twilight” and “Vampire Diaries“ etc as our reference point.

Just to finish off, here’s a shot of the lovely Chloe, before and after a bit of digital jiggery-pokery. Done quite quickly as a bit of fun but hope you like it…

Chloe before and after being vampired.

As luck would have it, the studio was available between 11 and 12:30 and so I booked her in, asking for the client’s name. “Cirque du Soleil“, she replied.

The next morning, the lady with the nice accent came in, along with the person I was to shoot – a new member of the team who needed publicity images for various press releases. I always enjoy photographing people involed in the performing arts, whatever the level, because they are usually fun and creative shoots, plus the subject is rarely camera-shy as proved to be the case on this occasion. This means the images are often successful from the first shutter click and the shoot is more productive than when one has to spend time “drawing out” the subject.

Because the images were intended for various international media, we shot a range of different styles and outfits, some more conservative than others. At the end, they asked if I was busy the next evening (Wednesday). I replied that I had a client meeting booked at 6pm, but that this might be moveable if necessary. So they offered me two free tickets to the opening night show of “Alegria” at Birmingham’s NIA. A couple of emails later and I managed to re-arrange my appointment (thank you, Rachel!) and arrange a babysitter.

The show was, as I’m sure you will know if you have ever seen a Cirque du Soleil performance, absolutely spectacular! Funny one moment, and jaw-dropping the next. We loved it.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be professional of me to show any of the client’s images from the shoot here, so instead here’s a stock image to give you some idea…

One doesn’t get too many “perks” in this industry – the pleasure of doing what you love is usually enough anyway – but this was a very welcome and unexpected bonus. And to top it all, I received a message the next morning saying ”How was the show? Your photos are great! Thanks!”

My sincere thanks to Gen and Claire at Cirque du Soleil.

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/alegria/default.aspx

Increasingly, we are told, people are leaving the compact camera at home and using their mobile phones to take their everyday snaps. Don’t take my word for it – there are figures to back this up, not to mention the recent news that Instagram (a phone-based photo editing and sharing app which I may have mentioned briefly here in previous posts) has just been gobbled up by the mighty Facebook for a billion dollars. So people are taking – and editing – more images on their mobile phones.

Photo editing apps are accessible and simple to use, as they have to be – they are used in the main by non-photographers. One of the things that I’ve often thought about since I started using my phone to create photographs is “Just imagine how great it would be if these editing apps were available for laptops and PCs”. Well, now they, or some of them, are.

One of my favourite iPhone apps has been Snapseed, which iphoneography supremo Nettie Edwards once described as “like having a darkroom in your pocket”. In fact I reckon that three out of four of my iphoneography images goes through Snapseed at some point. It’s a wondrous bit of phone-based software, and all for just a few quid.

Here’s the best bit: Now it’s also available for PC and Mac – and for less than £20.

Snapseed’s desktop/laptop version is, as one might expect, very similar to the phone app. There are ten adjustment tools (3 “basic” and 7 “creative”). Each tool has a number of preset options, which in turn can be tweaked. Here’s a rundown…

Tune Image (“Fix/Repair/Adjust”): Use this tool to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, ambiance, shadows and warmth. Adjustments can be added globally or to a selected area – so for instance, you can lighten a face by using the brightness tool to a selected area (the size of the area can be adjusted too), in a similar, but simpler way to Photoshop’s dodge tool.

Crop & Straighten (“Re-compose your shot”): Like it says on the tin, plus image rotation. When cropping, you can select the usual aspect ratios as presets.

Details (“Sharpen your photo”):  Sharpening, which I never use, personally, but this does it fairly sensitively if needed.

Black & White (“the classic”):  Convert your shot to mono with 6 presets plus brightness, contrast and grain sliders. Also, you can add colour filters as you would in traditional black and white film photography.

Center Focus (“put your subject in focus”):  This is a very cool tool. Add gaussian blur to as much or as little of the picture as you like, leaving only a clear “sweet spot” that you can move and resize easily – no masks, no clumsy selection tools – easy. You can even add a simple vignette.

The Center Focus tool

Drama (“better than Broadway”):  Snapseed’s easy one-touch pseudo-HDR. 6 presets, all of which can be tweaked on strength, brightness and saturation. From the subtle to the OTT.

Frames (“the finishing touch”):  Admittedly, Snapseed isn’t the best phone app for frames (I tend to use other apps for this), but the 10 basic options they give you are funky enough, and all adjustable (the size, spread and grunge effect anyway). A near instant transformation compared with the equivalent Photoshop process.

Grunge (“get a little gritty”):  I LOVE this tool. Use the “shuffle” button to randomly select grunge styles until you find one you like or drag the “style” slider across to go through the 1500 (yes, 1500!!!) or so grunge styles. Then you can tweak the look via the texture strength, brightness, contrast, and saturation sliders. There are 5 texture patterns to choose from and as usual, you can select how much of the image you want to stay relatively clear while the rest gets grunged. See how long it takes you to do something similar in Photoshop!

Vintage (“the past is new again”):  Replicate old film, or cross-processed film effects using the presets and/or the 4 texture patters and/or the 9 colour styles and/or the texture strength, saturation, brightness, vignette, and style strength sliders.

Tilt-Shift (“miniaturise your world”):  Intended to create a tilt-shift lens effect, which it does quite convinicingly. Funky, unpredictable (but very controllable) depth of field akin to that achieved with a “lensbaby” in that you can select a linear or eliptical effect. Not my favourite feature here but has its uses.

So all in all a darn good little package for the price (15.95 Euros including VAT for the download). Suits techonophobes as well as more ‘puter-savvy togs looking for something a bit different.

But there is one major drawback: For reasons I have yet to understand, your image will be shrunk within an inch of its life by Snapseed. Feed in a 10mb file and watch in horror as it is spat out at the other end as a 2+mb file. Hopefully, this will be sorted in the not too distant. Until then, this isn’t software you will use for high definition images anyway.

Conclusion:  I think this is the way that photo-editing software will go in the longer term. Apps will increasingly, I believe, migrate from phones to the household’s main computers, challenging the dominance of the bulky, over-priced, complicated editing giants. Who will want to pay £1200 for Adobe’s latest megapackage when much simpler and much cheaper options are readily available, even if it means multi-apping as one does when editing images on the phone? Snapseed can be mastered in minutes and can transform images in a much more user-friendly and intuitive way than anything Adobe (or, let’s face it, Apple or Corel) has yet developed.

http://www.snapseed.com/

https://webshop.niksoftware.com/1955315/t45PnfdskBQKO1Gw3njGFrPPv2jvZP/4DCGI/ezshop?sTICKCOUNT=431471184&action=productgroupshow&Productgroup_ID=178&groupID=0&ButtonName=&Beschriftung=&Suchstartpos=1