Author: The Photographer Clay

How does one become an expert in a topic? In most cases that I have known, an expert is on who has the experience, extensive training, and then recognition by someone or an agency with the authority to bestow the designation. In photography, it often appears, that one can merely designate themselves as an expert, especially in certain social media forums. There are organizations for photographers where you can “take a test” on your knowledge of photography and be “designated” as a certified professional ( I used to be a member of one of those organizations but that is a topic for another time).

Nowadays it appears as if we are surrounded by experts, especially in the photography world. Is this a good thing? I believe so. The reason I believe it is a good thing that we have a growing number of expert photographers is that it expands our world view of good photography. As such, I suggest finding a wide variety of experts to follow, even those you may disagree with most of the time. I can think of a couple that I absolutely despise most of the time. So why do I follow someone I disagree with most of the time? I do so because hearing this photographer’s opinions on topics causes me to reconsider what I have been taught and learned. Sometimes, I am swayed to change my opinion other times maintain my original opinion. Many times, especially when the view is controversial I will perform my own tests and research.

Find your group of experts and study them then develop your own expertise based on the knowledge and experience you gather.

Something that I see very often in my photography circles, both in social media and amongst photographers I know is a topic about getting paid for our work. How many times have we heard, “Hey we’re having a such and such, could you bring your camera”, or “I have a great idea for blah blah blah would you take the photographs and put the project together?” The first example is clear they have no intention of paying and it often makes me wonder if I’d be invited to such and such if I didn’t have a camera. The next is often disguised as a “When the project sells I’ll pay you a percentage of the sales”. What I frequently see is the person doesn’t have a market for the project and no advanced sales on the said project.

Far too many people believe that taking photographs is merely pointing a camera at a subject and pushing a button. Photo editing, ah it’s like Instagram, just click a filter and you finished. In my opinion, it does little good to try to explain to such people how much work, training, experience, and time goes into taking high-quality photographs. They don’t respect you or your talent. If you approached these same people with the same offer they would never take on the offer, but far too often photographers allow themselves to get caught up in the process.

I preach this topic as often as I can because I have been caught up in this in the past and I’ve got a lot of friends who are photographers who get caught up in the scheme. We all want to do projects that interest us. It can be both challenging and fun, but when it comes to someone approaching you on a project that makes them money, we need to get paid for our work. Look out for these types of schemes.

Have you read the manual for your camera? How about your other gear? Do you even know where the manual is? I used to keep the manuals to my camera bodies in my camera bag for reference until I discovered PDF versions I can keep on my phone. I didn’t sit down and read the manual cover to cover like I would a novel. I use it as a reference book like it is most likely intended. The reason this came up is that I have seen a number of questions posted in social media groups about asking how to do you do such and such when the answer is typically available at your fingertips. I don’t mind helping out but it seems to me that you would get an answer faster by looking it up in the manual.

The internet and social media are great for some things, you get to interact with people you may have never been able to before. I know, sometimes it may not be a good thing but for me most of the time it is.

We see this debate virtually every day in photography circles, cellphone cameras versus “real” cameras, which is better? I see it far more often in groups that are primarily focused on digital SLR cameras, which often leads me to believe it is a way to feel superior or to justify their choice. For me, who cares. It makes little difference to me what tools you use to create your photograph. A good photograph is a good photograph regardless of how or on what device it was captured. Are we gear heads or are we, photographers/artists? I would like to think photography is more important. Think about it, our modern cameras are huge advances in technology from the cameras of 25, 30, 50, 100 years ago.

Let’s worry less about gear and more about the art.

I hear and read the word success a lot. That photo was a success, he/she is successful, become a success. Many times it is disguised in phrases like, published model/photographer. We all are proud of being a success but we must all define our own success rather than what defines others as a success.

Society has attempted to define success in financial terms. To become wealthy is often viewed as being successful. Being wealthy is an achievement but it’s only a portion of being a success, at least in my book. Success, to me, is a matter of achieving one’s goals, yes goals not merely a goal.

To me, creating art is a goal. Sharing my knowledge with others is a goal. Helping others to recognize and achieve their goal(s) is a goal. Having a safe and comfortable place to live is a goal. Having food to eat is a goal. Having a positive relationship with family and friends is a goal. Becoming a success, to me, isn’t just about opening one door but many doors. Establish your life’s goals and start opening the doors, once you do that your creativity will flow.

I recently watched a video asking if smartphone cameras were going too far. The author suggested that because some of the built-in AI (artificial intelligence) features were making it too easy to change an image, The author was suggesting that because an image could be modified and change a person’s appearance or could possibly superimpose a reference image onto your photo (the moon for instance) giving you a better result.

In the past, we have had the ability to manipulate photographs and could change any number of elements. In the olden days, it may have been more of an art with airbrushing and darkroom techniques but it was still possible. Today, we have the ability to perform all the old techniques digitally. There are abilities available today that may not have been possible in the years past but is it too far? Who decides what is too far? For me, I believe these are exciting times. We are opening up the creativity of many more minds and perspectives and putting it into the hands of the masses.

This morning was like most every morning. I get up and do my usual prep work before I start to write, make coffee, brush my teeth, do routine hygiene, turn the computer on browse the morning news, some social media posts. The first thing I see on my home page looking at news headlines was a link to “trending now searched”. Amongst the trending now searches were “famous photographers”. Okay, I’ll bite.

Most of the names from the link I recognized. I browsed through some of their works and then I thought, “what makes their works so much better or worthy of fame than my work or the works of others I know?” Yes, many were compelling photographs but they didn’t appear to be more compelling than many others I have seen from photographers who are displayed at the Museum of Modern Art. Is it marketing? Is it being at the right place at the right time? Is it time? Is it knowing someone (politics)? While it would be a great honor to have work displayed in some major art museum does it may our work any less than the so-called famous photographers?

I would venture to say that much of the work you and I do is just as good, often better than those we hold as the “masters” and famous photographers. I would also venture to say that we have the tools via social media and the internet to reach a much wider audience. We have the potential, with just a bit of work on our part, to become influential to current trends and the history of photographic art.

Support your local photographer, including yourself. It is easy to get discouraged, it is easy to lose your motivation especially as the colder weather moves in. I don’t mean financial support but moral support, encouragement. Most of us have a circle of friends or know other photographers or are somehow engaged with other photographers on social media. Start a conversation about some of their work, ask for input about some of your work, exchange ideas. As many of you may be able to tell I can talk to virtually anyone, but it hasn’t always been that way. One of my prior occupations sort of thrust the ability upon me. I then became an instructor and public speaker.

Photography can be a lonely hobby or business. We often go out on our own in search of our sometimes elusive photographs. Even if we go out with a group we wander off from each other to set up to shoot a scene. I believe we can often get better photography by talking with each other. We may have many different views of society, the world, art, politics, and other aspects of life but we do have a common ground in our interest in photography. By reaching out and talking with other photographers we may open our creativity to new ideas and concepts thus expanding our art.

I’m no different than anyone else. We don’t always like the hard truth. During my photography courses, we were required to submit photographs pertaining to the lessons for review and critique by the instructor. I was really proud of the photographs that I submitted and thought they turned out very well. Then I got the critiques from the instructor. While the images fit the requirements and guidelines of the project they were chocked full of technical issues and did I hear about it. It felt like a gut punch. Needless to say, I was very depressed and down about the first project, after all, everything I had heard before starting the course my photography was “very good”.

We all like to get compliments and support. Both keep us going, but sometimes we need to hear what is not so good. We need to hear about our errors, omissions, and failures. Not to bring us down or to belittle us but to help us recognize them so we can work towards growing and becoming better, should we so choose (I put that part in there because sometimes we just learn to accept some of our faults and failures). It is often very challenging to point out errors, omissions, and failures without being either too soft in our words or too harsh. Done improperly it can feel like we’re being belittled or picked on but it can also feel like it’s not important.

One of the reasons I stopped offering a lot of critiques is because far too many people either don’t want to recognize that there may be some components of their photography that need to be improved upon and would rather listen to the “likes” rather than words. When I do a critique I spend a lot of time looking at the photograph I’m critiquing. I make notes along the way. I then gather my notes and begin to write using the method I was taught in a course on critiquing photography. I cover what I thought to be good and bad. I offer suggestions on how the bad could be improved. I write about what I thought the intent of the photographer may have been. Then you get the “cute” comment and that is the only one that gets noticed. I should add that I’m not saying my opinion is better than anyone else’s opinion but if critiques are specifically requested, “cute” is not a critique, and when those become seemingly become more important than an actual critique the photographer really didn’t want to hear what may be the hard truth.

All that to say, sometimes we need to hear the hard truth. I can’t speak for others but sometimes I need to hear it. It keeps me motivated to do better, to become better.