Lessons

Lesson Info

Final Q&A

Let the internet askyou some final questions so in the first one that I have for you is from marty tate who asks what is the hardest part of your job oh well what's the hardest part of my job staying creative trying to push yourself to get the next level not becoming complacent uh staying on the age um that's the hardest part I think not not when you get press not believing the hype staying humble um the hardest thing actually is stopping work to stop work because I don't see this as being work I love it so much so it's hard for me to cut it off sometimes like even that it's gonna be hard to stop and leave here and get on a plane and go back to l a that's going to be hard because I love this stuff I love having great talent shooting pictures and getting paid to do what I love um it's hard for me to cut it off um I hate saying um uh but but you have to cut it off right teo to read a balance you have to have balance and it's hard to stop doing that I always want to shoot it it but I'm go...

nna also have downtime where you recharge your battery because when you stay fresh and that happens for me when I travel I love travelling that's why can get away from the phones? Faxes, e mails twitter and experienced life then come back recharged and ready to come back and shoot again question from jean snowden in london uh jean says this shoot they can feel the chemistry between you and the models and did it occur previously in your career when there was absolutely no chemistry between you and the models? Oh yeah, absolutely in the very beginning uh I hadn't learned how to create the chemistry and I was indecisive and timid and shooting and I was thinking about what my client wanted and I was always trying to work on what they want, what they want what do you want, what's the look that you want and then switched where I learned to beam or, um decisive about my vision versus indecisive then things changed when I became comfortable in my skin and shooting how I feel about the world and I haven't to fit into any mode or let people put me in a box and say, oh, you only shoot this way or you can only shoot that I love doing what I do period so my next question builds on that question quite nicely from k g w if you had to describe what sets you apart from other pro photographers your brand in a few words, how would you describe it? So how would you break down what your vision is, how I break down my style what what I do my brand um my drank my brand is feel good uh it I think across the board through the fashion beauty portraitists so let me work the common thread through all of that work even my travel the common thread is feel good I want you to feel good feel beautiful that can capture that moment even if I'm in a location shooting somebody in india or in uh iceland I want to capture a feel good moment or in japan I capture a feel good moment in studio shooting a celebrity shooting my parents I want to capture a feel good moment I think that's the common thread that goes to my work cool jessica lark from philadelphia I would like to know what characteristics do you find our most essential for a photographer to be successful as a business do you ever feel like the art is in conflict with the business side oh yes I do yes I do what does it take to be successful in business? Photography is a business and it takes uh being on top of it you can't just be art and no commerce uh has to the nice little mix so having a good team around you and being aware of every aspect of the business if you're a fortune five hundred company they're looking every quarter at the numbers and as a businessman businesswoman and photography is the same thing if a big company is right the problems they make adjustments right away cut staff could overhead same thing in photography you must be a business person first first foremost um but also you know artists so it's that little mix but you must be on top of the business as well so you read books that help the business and the creative creativity side uh books like thinking grow rich uh how to win friends and influence people um when my favorite books is not about photography and it's a book about warren buffett is called buffet ology is what helped me so much in my business life seeing how others I love green biographies because I love hearing people stories of how they made it and it helps me to that how has your, um, strategy and business changed from like we're just starting out so obviously we're a lot of it focuses on self promotion and getting our stuff out there you are a household name so to speak and so we have well we think you are so you have that piece down so how does that how is that different for you now that you've gotten to kind of that point in your career well the study is always changing because the business world is always changing what worked thirty years ago won't work today you have to adapt to change as the world and business environment changes you have to change and change your strategy what's up on time with thirty years ago, promotion was on ly doing a flyer and created in the mail that was traditional marketing flyers in the mail, buying an ad in a book like the book or the black book or the gold book showcase that was traditional, marking thirty years ago everything's changed now and you to change your strategy was what happened? What worked back then won't really work today by itself now there's social media so you incorporate social media with those sort of same old things as well. You always change and adapt to the new technology and put it into your strategy for business way talked about this a little bit yesterday with chase jarvis, but mama mia has asked, knowing knowing what you know now, what advice would you give the matthew jordan smith of twenty five years ago? Oh, knowing what I know now, I would definitely have ah spent more time studying the master's I've spent more time if I could go back twenty five years wasn't much more time really diving in to study other photographers work. I did that later on I wish had started that when I was no in my team it's studying people's work like abadan and herb rips and no matthew ralston, these photographers had studied that then versus later, so I could be that much further along um I would done more research I wish I knew about research twenty five years ago I wish I knew about storyboarding twenty five years ago I wish I knew about the language of opposites twenty five years ago because it's right in front of your face and I've seen it for years and never saw it until I pointed out to me I wish I had that knowledge then vivid clicks who's uh rush me from london don't rush me rush me do you have one photo that you've taken that best represents your style and emotions and who you are I get asked that question or similar potion all time with your favorite picture so one picture that defines my style is right now there are pictures that come into my head right away um there's a picture that keeps popping in my head and I should be defines my style but it's the picture that's screaming at me right now if you look at my work on my website there's a picture of a man named gordon parks um it's a portrait it's not fashion beauty it's a portrait um I love that shot I love that shot for different reasons I love that image I think it's very very powerful um he's not a young man I shot him when he was in his late eighties it's not fashion and beauty but it does embody how I feel deeply to see if there was one shot that says everything about my style I don't know I have to leave that to a guest to the critics and uh to the public to help decide what is the shot that that uh speaks to my style and vision I think still creating those images I think my personal project that I have not revealed to the world yet price shares mohr of that vision than anything else and hope that be sharing that soon the world we're so excited to see that one I must go the short everybody very excited show that it's coming kind of a follow up to that and not sure if you already answered it so that's okay from jade member is is there a particular style of photography that you would like to try that you have never done before maybe it's not just this personal project but some other stuff I've never done that like to try I do like trying new things that's for sure um if there isn't yet I'm sure they will be uh experimenting uh I always have my mike interns experimenting and we go to do things and then sometimes are absorbed back to things that that work I get started in this new series of portrait it's um I guess shot in artists in los angeles and I want to get a body of work based on that and to do that my interns and I were experimenting with lights and doing things that I've never done before and I found a formula that I love light wise so the first siri's of those portrait ce is on my side on my website now under the portrait section and I shot one person so far and the guy's name is chazz gets he's a famous a painter, so I want to assume the portrait in that style because I really love that and that style was part of my beginnings in my career and I'm kind of gravitating back to it question from one of our friends here accretive live yes would like to know do you like me in front of the camera? And who would you ask to take your portrait for your biography of a funny story about being in front of the camera or even speaking? So I'm doing this to the whole world right now so uh in two thousand one I put out my first book cpu dreams at that point I had never spoken to a room or group of people are on a podium I never done tv nothing at that point two thousand won so the book comes out and I'm so happy about the book me out and then my publisher says you have to do book signings like I do he's like yeah, what have you go to midtown manhattan for the first book saying they would do a tour and all this stuff and then nine eleven happened and the book tour was killed by students from some book signings the first was in midtown manhattan still uh in the fifties fifth avenue midtown manhattan my first book signing they want me to speak about the process of making the book so I'm so nervous is that the book signs that like two or three o'clock in the afternoon I'm so nervous that day I can't eat a thing I'm so nervous so I get to the book signing they have my book in the front window of posters like oh my god so I go I walked down where having the book signing and they pry ten people there and not a lot so I get there and I try to memorize what I was going to say and I go to the podium and I start trying to recite what I tried to memorize and it all goes out the door and there's only ten people there but I'm petrified and I'm speaking to them and I think word's coming out but all of a sudden the room so it's getting dark in my hearing's what's fading away and then this thing I know I've passed out right there my first book signing on then they wake me up and I've been fine ever since now the bigger the crowd the easier it is but I guess that got me over my fear of speaking and uh and then top model happened and all of that and I don't know but things change and did you tell us who you'd like to shoot you for your biography? Who would I like to shoot me? Wow as ransom the messages last night so I was asking condition my portrait why was still here in seattle that's like oh wow who would I like to shoot me oh man I would have liked for gordon parks to shoot me I would have liked for ah abadan to shoot me I would have liked for irving pin to shoot me today who like to shoot may I would look for her bridge to photograph me today um I would like for a living wants to shoot me I've got a long way to go to get that level with you want to shoot me but I would like first my that level to shoot me yeah, the photograph may not shoot me the photograph. All right, so one more question for you before we go back to shooting. So you just talked about who I presume are some of your photography heroes um that you would want to photograph you but bob from the uk is asking who are your heroes today that are not photographers? Oh wow who might use today who are not photographers thank you for that question. There are a lot there are a lot you find guest, the one warren buffett I love. Ah, reading about people who are very successful. Um, warren buffett is definitely at the top of that list, but I've learned so much about business and doing things differently by reading books about him and business, totally away from photography. But I've learned so much from how he does things. Uh, if you don't know, warren buffett is gonna look him up. But he's, the on ly investor in the world in the entire world, who's made his billions solely off the market. Born during the great depression, he's, the only one, and he's also the only guy who's not living in working on wall street, he's in omaha, he's doing things differently and that's, a sixty success. The secret to success, doing things differently, and I love that.