Lessons

Lesson Info

Life as a Photographer

I want to take a few minutes here towards the end kind of quiet it down and let's talk a little bit about photography we've talked about lighting we've talked about all of the fun things that we like to do I want to talk a little bit about photography in your life some final thoughts that I have about a life as a photographer um being a photographer can be a terrible job could be a terrible job it's an incredible life I don't most people who have a job don't think of their jobs as a life my life as a circle k clark is never going to be written maybe it could be an off broadway play maybe but no one gets up in the morning and says oh I'm going to be you know all this and all that we have all the different challenges we do photography is your life even if it's not your livelihood most photographers they know think photography day and night whether they're working with something else or doing you know he might be an I t guy during the day or a dentist during the day or on accountant or ma...

ybe they worked at circle k at nights but during the day the photography photography is a way of life and I absolutely love my life I have been doing it for a long time I would I can't even imagine having a real job when I did have a real job and I owned an ad agency and I was wearing a suit all the time all I want to do is go and take pictures with photographers I actually had to hire photographers sometimes that killed may take versus make take versus make some people take photographs as a matter of fact many people take photographs millions of people take photographs we make photographs now does does that mean a photojournalist who's on the run with their seventy seventy two three hundred and all hell's breaking loose out there and they're shooting and they're not lighting it and they're not they're not bringing lights are they taking you're making some people say they're taking I say they're making they're making because there's still choosing what not to put in the lens there still choosing where to put the focal length they're choosing where to focus how to make that image there ma making an image out of a chaotic situation and the amount of choices that go through your head when you're doing that are infinite someone who takes a picture we just simply take the camera hang it out the car door click the button a photojournalist even though they're under two rests and all kinds of things they're not lighting it and not bringing in gyms and booms and all kinds of cool things but they're still making that photograph there choosing where to place their exposure they're choosing where to focus their cameron they're choosing how to render that image it's a really powerful thing when you're a photographer because when your photographer you are an elimination ist most of photography isn't what you put in the cameras what you did not put in the camera a fifty millimeter lens might get mo but it doesn't get the rest of me of this thing here so when I focus on moe I'm eliminating probably ninety percent of my world to show mo I make a photograph I don't take a photograph when I say how do you see the image I mean do you see photographically do you see flat I do when I see things I see them as a photograph dangerous for oncoming traffic she had no one to turn it off but great for everything else when I look at stuff I think what would that look like how would that look uh the great really great photographer and love this guy's work was garry winogrand ah street photographer and he was at and he took tens or hundreds of thousands of photographs of mostly of new york he would go out on the streets in new york with his camera loaded up with tri axle bunch of tracks film in his pocket and he'd walk around and photograph things and he photographed and photographed and photographed they asked him once why he photographed just everything and I don't have an exact but the quote wass why photographed the world to see what it would look like as a photograph and I thought when I read that I thought well there's really no greater reason to take photograph just I just want to see what it looks like a photograph there's a fire hydrant over there and a little bit of light on it let's see what that looks like a photograph we filter ourselves and we miss tens of thousands or moments because we filtered ourselves and said level let's not take that shot are well you know I don't have a a frame or I don't have the time to pull the camera out gary also uh garry winogrand also would not look at his film for a year after he shot it would mark the date on it he'd process it a year later make a contact sheet and then look at it because he didn't want to remember taking the photograph everyone you know now I'm I gotta tell you there's a lot of merit in it but I don't have that kind of patients I'm kind of like I get home it's in it's in the computer I don't care if it's two o'clock in the morning it's in the computer I'm pulling them off doing my little backup workflow thing and I'm taking a look at him because I'm excited because I do remember taking them but I also like to markham and ever all of my stuff is by date so I know my months where things are and I like to go back a year later keeping gerry's gerry's wisdom in mind and pull open those shots and see what it's like maybe I missed something how much do you remember when you take a photograph I don't know what it is about me but I am for all of it now I cannot tell you the name of that model that I took a picture of twenty five years ago but I tell you what camera it wass and I can tell you what f stop it wass and I could tell you what shutter speed it was and I could tell you what film I was shooting and how I processed it every single photograph I have from forty years ago I could tell you that I forget names I forget names all the time but I can't forget that I just cant it just it's with me and it has to do I think with the reverence that I hold a photograph can you visualize the completed shot and that's the word shot that goes back under uh alex there can you visualize completely shot when you get upto pull like camera to your I do you see it as a finished photograph do you see it has a small print you see it is a big print do you think yourself all I'm gonna do this I'm gonna put him white matter around it oh I'm going to run this through snap seed or I'm going to do ah ah kind of uh bye hdr with it he's seeing the final picture you just taking the photograph your work will increase so much if you could see that final image what did you want to do with it where you're going to go with it before you start clicking it it also gives you more confidence while you're clicking because you've already seen it finished you know what's gonna come out you've already seen it finished and your head make sure that you work so hard on being able to see those finished images before you go printer screen I know a lot of people are screen only um print makesem prince go there's some great printing houses all over the country that do fantastic work for very little money back in the day we paid eighteen dollars for an eight by ten eighteen dollars and buy you a whole box eight by tens today that's the economy of scale things have changed and I got to tell you prince are our photographs to make you don't print it it's almost like the way what's that old joke no photographs it didn't happen if you don't print it isn't really photograph probably but not to me I just want to know that it's printed I really do and think about think about what a prince says to visual literacy some I love to talk about visual literacy means do you know what we're talking about when we talk about photographs I know it sounds hard but are easy or difficulty challenging or maybe just plain silly but do you know what we're talking about we're talking about photographs you know visual literacy is do you know what dimension is you know what light and shadow is do you know what transitions are do you know what grady ints are do you know what black and white is do you really know what black and white is do you know all these things because this becomes part of your visual literacy your ability to discuss images and art and graphics all tied up in the one thing visual literacy we know we're talking about we have to know it historical reference that's the part that gets dicey for a lot of folks well I don't want to go in I don't want to go and learn and read about much old stuff that uh maybe mayor may not have happened or old photographers it's a lot of work to go into history and all of those things but our history is our craft today how do we think and pay homage to those people who would before us fromthe henry fox talbot's to the image and cunningham's to the edward weston's patrick demarchelier arthur elgort steven meisel thes people blazed the world for us to come in and claim it we owe it to ourselves ls to know who they were who they were and what they did and to be able to take into our lives some of their beauty and part of the key is you don't have to look at everybody you like the fact you don't even have to like their work I'm not a big weegee fan but I know his work because he was important and I think it's important to know about the people who came before us how do we talk about visual literacy if we don't know what came before us and photography so it's a big pitch to get out there and learn about the people and I'll even just goto wikipedia and type in photographer and you're going to get a list of people click on one go read about click on another one due one a week if that's what it takes I love to talk about context context is everything in a photograph they have told you about the photograph of my parents sitting on my desk back in the office without context of knowing that it's my parents and knowing the story of my parents and it's a picture with no meaning it's a picture with absolutely no meaning context gives it meaning my question to you is how many of your photographs have context and how much context you willing to share a photograph without context just lives in a vacuum there has to be some context put around it now it is a picture of a clicker for a brochure we're not talking about those photographs there's no context other than did you light it right does it fit the layout it's a picture of a clicker hopefully you did it right so that is kind there is dimension and was fit to lay out but if it if you didn't and you have no context and your photographs what do you have just pictures one of the reasons why I rarely go to certain forums and certain websites anymore is that the pictures exist they're pretty they're pretty but the head no context for me trying to find pictures that have meaning it's my thing maybe I've looked at too many pictures but if there's no meaning there's no context to it it leaves me cold metaphors and allegories and if there's any questions that come in by the way from the internet or you guys have any questions what I'm talking about stop me um and engage me because I'll try to explain it metaphor in allegory um are your photographs better fours for something should they be ask yourself that are their metaphors and allegories running through your image on allegory is sort of an analogy ist story you're telling a story about what you're doing is there a reason for the metaphor you know ansel adams we know him as the great landscape photographer ansel adams would tell you he was not a great landscape photographer in fact the landscape held not that much interest for him the landscape was his palate for creating metaphors metaphors for life lightness darkness evil good bright dark happy sad there's pictures of ansel's when you look at him you just feel a melancholy that's pictures some rocks in the desert he created a melancholy out of it because it's not for him rocks in the desert something else going on keep that in mind telling a story I like to think that stories are are evident in my photographs I like to think that in my my my best work that when you look at it you think maybe a little little story pops sent and I'm not a full novel or a novella are even a comic book but some kind of little thing may be a aa few words or brings back harkens a memory back to something or you feel something that you haven't felt or seen and then you you see that in my photographs or in other photographs you'll like the photographs more um I see a lot of photographs that have no novel tomb there's no story it's a girl in a swimsuit standing on a beach and she's just doing poses that doesn't have a context for me doesn't have a setting doesn't tell me a story and so while it might be a cute girl in bikini it's like you're under the next thing when you look at the photographs of uh uh joel peter witkin for instance uh trust me you're going to the next thing that you remember that photograph and if you're not seeing the work you have to go look at it you know what I'm talking about the same thing with mary ellen mark's work when you see the shot you know there's something else and you keep coming back I have untold old book by mary ellen mark that back way back in the day they did these uh I think it was pop photo put him together but they were one photographer books and they would just take one for tyr brand you like a bio of it have won with mary ellen mark and annie liebovitz and this is way back and you leave the best one she's had just shot john lennon kind of things just really starting her her career and to see those works all those pictures just amazing joe friedman's book circus days where she went with a little small itinerant circus and photographed the people this circus this picture's hot me that book I bought forty years ago and I still can remember those pictures that's more important to me maybe it's that might place and time in my era but that's more important to me stories or personal too by the way you can create a story in your picture that only you know it's only your story everybody else is gonna bring their own story to it it's like reading a novel right when you read a novel and you you I don't know about you guys but do you see it in your head I mean do you pick like actors you know I do all the time I pick actors when I uh there was a goofy little book written a long time ago I say goofy because a lot of people like to make fun of it but it sold about eight hundred billion things called the bridges of madison county uh reason I read it was why about a photographer I read anything about photographers so I'm reading this thing and I'm seeing sam what was his name sam shepard is a photographer when it counts clint eastwood I'm like I'm a big clint eastwood fan one will know slight clinton's with sam shepard man get it right in my world it wass and other things stories of the universal stories that tell something everybody knows and you could do that with your photographs you could do that and you guys did that today with photographs you did today you took beyond just a picture and kind of got into talking about uh texture in the face and and the the light in the dark and of the different things in the blue blue is a color that means some absolutely put some names here for yeah joel peter witkin of course ansel adams minor white who if you look up wikipedia minor white he wrote a a book on the allegory of photography you must not a book but a white paper you must read it is one of most important white papers and photography of the last century um photograph things called photograph says better for photographs is allegory check wikipedia read it uh have heavy reading very heady reading read it twice you'll get it the second time what he's talking about seeking inspiration we all need inspiration this's simple read read literature do you see photographs when you're reading oh man okay you see photographs when you're reading go on do him go out and make him you draw inspiration from the characters in the novels and things that you read nonfiction go out read um I'm a huge I mean fiction I'm sorry because I'm because I'm a huge nonfiction reader I'm forcing myself to read more fiction but I read nonfiction like crazy I even read nonfiction and they make up characters I mean that's how bad I am right art of course art galleries you hit all the art galleries in your neighborhood all art museums you just pay attention to all that stuff was with two photographers in florida and there was a show on there it was the abadan show um I think it's called five decades and abadan from the fifty sixty seventies eighties nineties to thousands richard's work and I walked into that place in the big photograph of the front was davina with the elephant if you don't know that shot this beautiful model with her arm up in the elephant raised its trunk up she touched the trunk and he shot it this is four by five shot this is one of those moments that never happens again apparently it never happened again that was the shot was incredible um I'm not a really emotional guy stuff like that but I actually got tears in my eyes in that show realizing how amazing those photographs were and many of them were taken for fashion editorials in other words shot today runs in may thrown away done senatorial shot nothing worse than last year's belt you know where we make fun of the big hair where they were going to go look she's wearing last year's prada shoes that's what these shots were done for for an editorial and yet he was able to transcend that and make photographs that just were beyond that the davina and the elephants shot was an editorial fashion shot for vogue shot it gonna run in one issue is gone and I had also for gotten what a riel silver print look like silver hey lied crystals on paper I gotta tell you it's very emotional but we weren't done because in the next room over was paul fusco owes photographs of the jfk jr funeral train when jfk jr was killed I think I believe it was out in the west coast they flew his body back to boston then they were going to take the body from boston to new york for the cathedral tohave the big mass okay well it's going to be on the train the train generally goes about forty five miles an hour so many americans came out on the tracks to pay their respects that they actually slowed it down to about ten miles an hour apparently took about six hours to do it paul fusco was on the train his job was to photograph this thing for life magazine he trained his lens out the window and photographed people is one shot of some little boys they're standing upon fence posts tiny little fence post understanding and they're saluting and it just makes you cry it's unbelievable standing behind me were two guys going cesaire kind of out of focus okay well let's see he was shooting kodachrome twenty five from a moving train handheld photographing and overcast sky the fact that they're focused at all I think I'm going to go with the big thumbs up and what be what was his limbs were talking bobby kay's probably shooting with f four lens maybe a two point eight maybe didn't have any f one point to glass that type of thing it's a matter of fact when john f kennedy was killed what I'll call the retirees around uh remember the shot of jack ruby being shot what are all the photographers shooting with thirty five millimetre icons no speed graphics big four by fives with flashbulbs in um that was nineteen sixty nineteen six thirty three have come a long way since nineteen sixty three now everybody's digital but just forty years ago fifty years ago wow things change so that was a very emotional thing you should definitely listen to music and I know a lot of people listen to music but music has become so balkanized so channel eyes that you talked to some people today all I only listen to jazz or I only listen to road rock around it is a folk music and I would say listen to all music I listen to everything except banjos I'm so sorry just banjos just kill me but I was ill and breaking attest to it at the studio there'll be classical music and then followed by a jazz followed by a rock song it's just that it's everything because the more you put in the more diversity you put into your head that amore diversity you be able to pull out so don't limit yourself so what kind of music finds something you've never heard and listened to it get recommendations from people you admire and listen to what they have to say photographers wow find a new photographer a week find a new photographer every week and study their work just studying just find it and look at it and look at it I've got a couple of guys that I follow religiously because I love their work one of them by the ways from seattle area and I think somebody knows him I'm a huge nick oncken fan just absolutely love this guy's work he's just terrific nick menken jake stengel I love jake stengel's work dan winters I'll just well anything dan dan could like take a picture of a phone book and I don't want to look at it because I follow their work I don't know I don't shoot you note nick right you know I don't shoot like neck I have my style is totally different the knicks but I absolutely loved his work it makes me smile when I get it it really does uh george simoni is another one barnes matt barnes out of toronto you want to check out a diverse of very diverse photographer just knock your socks off charge george simonian matt burke barnes are amazing and the last one and probably most important is travel I just read a forum thing where someone said well I'm getting all this money back from the irs what should I do with it should I buy this lens or should I buy that lens ok you've already got three lenses and two flashes what I would do with that two thousand dollars is by an airline ticket to somewhere you haven't been get some hotel rooms and go make photographs that's what I do absolutely you could buy another piece of gear that just sort of sits there until comes next sunday when you go out for an hour and you get to play with the lens where you could go somewhere and make photographs I choose make photographs in fact you shouldn't do that every three months get in the car go somewhere spend the night and make photographs don't take significant others don't take kids don't take uh um people that are going to get in your way whenever I go somewhere and I have somebody with me I don't take his many pictures as I do when I'm all by myself and sometimes I really like being all by myself go somewhere and take photographs it's absolutely one of the most wonderful things you could do we still learn by writing things down my little mole skins I have dozens of these things filled with just notes and stuff and I've got notes here from this trip I come up with ideas I love to just write it down if you write it down I'm not talking about the other things we have on here everything else on here is secondarily to write it down when we write it down really do remember it but you can't write it down because you're doing something like you're driving down the freeway I'm driving down the freeway type on my ipad now that's really scary and um I'll use the mini video camera I've got like four of them everything every once in a while won't you know well you guys know dot com they have these sort of clearance things well dot com a couple weeks ago I had this like four little digital rc a video cameras for forty dollars ten bucks apiece half on our memory I bought him I throw him I got one in the camera bag one in the car whatever just won't go oh that's really cool audio's terrible video's not too bad point is I can just make a note and come back to it and remember where I wass voice recorders I have voice recorders with me all the time because if I come up with an idea I want to remember it and I'll talk into the voice recorder if I can't write um and of course um phones are now built in with cameras that's why I look at it my camera's got a phone in it cool huh don't you think don't you think it'd be cool someday if like nikon cannon and sony guys get a clue get a clue and put a damn phone and the camera and they got a camera what what would it take to put a phone in it you know put a gps you ready get screen on the back right put a gps in it come on guys like a workout great diary or block looked well look I missed one back down africa diarrhea block if you don't keep your thoughts fresh no one else will there your thoughts they're your ideas created blogged don't care about what your numbers are and if you do create a blogged this group right here if you do create a blawg create one for your client's not for other photographers don't create a blawg tell another for tigers about what f stop to use or how cool your new eighty five millimeter lenses because right now in your careers you need to be telling your client it's and potential clients how cool you are and how cool they are when they come and shoot with you and how you solve problems and there's a big difference no photographer I know of is going to hire another photographer to take a photograph so if you want to be the next um david hobby you're zacarias and write about what you do and teaching stuff that'd be great but I would also encourage you to go back and look at zac's blogged now he's talking to clients now nick duncan's blawg is awesome what's it called shoptalk shoptalk take a look at it he's not talking to us we can we go and enjoy it because you're he's talking to potential clients about how he solved problems how his vision works what's really fun and going on his life sikh community always always remember no man's an island the woman is an island if we don't have a community around us just kind of lost just kind of floating around out there it's wonderful to be able to pick up the my skype phone and and reach out to somebody in seattle and boston I'm talking to people all over the world how's it going what's going on here and doing something really fun because we've got this community going on and the ability for us to have a community cross all borders is just one of most powerful things ever finding personal power are you happy where you are photographically and I ask internet that if you're happy where you are photographically raise your hand you don't see too many hands out there uh unfortunately you're very happy with where you are or you would change it just simple simple and heart at the same time if you're not happy where you are find a way to change that don't read blog's that say oh don't ever go to a workshop workshops or useful useless what might have been useless for that guy may not be useless for you all don't go to this displace that's useless no buy that book that's useless don't listen to those people seek out stuff wherever you can anything you do in life is going to be is going to come back to you in equal parts of how much you put into it you can go to a workshop you could have come to this work done you guys busted your ass but you come down this workshop just kind of sat around like this you know going back so well I didn't really learn anything he didn't teach me nothing but you came out at at personal expense away from some of you are away from families on easter tomorrow um but you came out and you put your heart and soul into it and you go back with some knowledge qi is course take that knowledge your personal power comes from how much you engage yourself into your life and your photography you engage your self and the things that you do no one can live your life for you no one should live your life for you you do it yourself seeking a mentor is uh uh one of those things where it really helped for me when I went out and sought uh somebody actually had uh huh mette had met a graphic designer of more of a marketing guy and I really liked his work I liked everything and for about three or four weeks I thought I'm gonna call this guy and ask him to lunch and I reached for the fine now that's weird you'll think I'm strange you'll think I'm goofy uh that would finally I did it I said hey bill I'm uh my name's dungeon and photographer and I really like what you do you know I just like to take you to lunch and shot he said sure turned out he really really became a great mentor for me and my early part of my graphic design business days to the point where act in some cases they actually gave me some work past work on to may um seek a mentor when you're looking for a mentor it's got to be somebody who really believes in you are really believes in your photography and really believes in photography have you met any photographers to sarah now it's really happy business to be in right now boy photography's down the tubes man I'll tell you it's awful he um cia uh got to go now uh you don't need to hang around with that because number one it's alive uh number two it self serving for them they're letting you know that they're in a bad place they're in a bad place because they're telling themselves they're in a bad place they're opening themselves up to being in a black place and their brains going to make them in a bad place it's a real nice circle no time ever has it been a good time to start a photography business remember when things were really great the the prevailing winds were oh you can't start a business now there's so many photographers out there now things aren't so good it's like oh you can't start a photography business now there's no word off there's no work did someone tell nick on can there wasn't any work that someone tell george simoni there wasn't any work matt barnes shoots two or three jobs a week I guess he didn't get that memo there's work there isn't work for people sitting around whining about how tough it is but there's work for people who get out of the way get out of the shop and walk out the door and go do it go do it it's the on ly thing we have left to do is to get up and go do it if you're not living on the streets right now you'll be living on the streets when you make the break to be a photographer just kick in the butt to make you work harder I would there are certain things that would tell people not to do and there's certain things that would tell people to do what I would say is to make a plan work your plan and do it I've known several people from project fifty to one guy lost his job he wasn't planning on being a photographer he wasn't planning on getting fired either but he had some gear and he had some talent he got fired okay he took it out there and I'm glad to say I'm happy to say he's got his own studio cracking brick and mortar studio and he's holding his own he's on a trajectory that is up it is up constantly and soon it will surpass what he was doing before and I got to tell you is a dirty little secret of photography the worst day ever as a photographer is better than most of the best days ever at a lot of other stuff that people do it's guaranteed driving down the road you see those guys out there with that asphalt turning that asphalt over you know in the hot sun and phoenix the asphalt about one hundred thirty and it's about one hundred twenty coming on their shoulders and I think I'm sorry I'm never going to complain about that twelve hour photography job ever again seek someone who wants to challenge you and push it they don't believe in you and they don't love you they won't push you if they really like what you're doing they're going to tell you this is crap get off your butt and go on do it don't tell me you can't do it the tire is like to tell other for tyre is it's a terrible business to be in but I think sometimes it's just self serving teo try to eliminate competition that I see it too often there's plenty of people making a living at photography and I'm sure that someone on the internet is going to say oh yeah well my cousin tried okay good how about this because I couldn cousin couldn't cut it you know where the bar is now the bar for entry it's way down here and where the bar for excellence is that's way the hell up here there's a whole lot of stuff in between it used to be like this but now it's like this this is rarefied air asked chase jarvis what it must feel like to smell that rarified air I'm sure chase probably doesn't sit at home going um and it really sucks I bet nick conch and is back in new york today isn't going home and it really sucks they're going oh this is cool I get to be paid to make photographs that I love be involved be engaged I know how else to say it be involved in everything you do everything you do and then when you become a point b a mentor find someone and help him don't do it from selfish reasons do it for pure joy of helping somebody else you know they say they all talk about karma karma will come back at you I don't know if I believe in karma I don't know if I I understand all that stuff I don't care but I believe it can I believe if you're a good person and you help people you will be helped zig ziglar says no one cares about how much you know until they know how much you care about them when I work with my clients and advertising I tell them stop telling people about your widget how cool you think it is they don't care tell him how about how the widgets going to make their life better when you're selling your photography don't tell your clients about how many megapixels you have and how sharp your lenses are you tell your clients about how great your images are and how those images will help them sell something or be a memory that last forever it's not about you it's about them always the great ads always that have that have been with us the great photographers the great copy writers have always made things about us not about them lead lead by example don't cheat don't cheat clients himself don't cheat your family don't cheat don't pad the bill don't a cz one photographer I knew uh would go out on a shoot and clients tend to do this though you're out on the shoot noah they'll say well since you're here since you already have your camera out would you mind getting a shot of the conference room and this guy would say oh yeah no problem hey walk over the conference room in his head he's building them for it he's not saying anything because he's afraid if he says something I'll say oh well no no no we don't want to pay for it so we don't do it so at the end of the job what would he do that eight hundred dollars bid that he gave not sixteen hundred dollars and they say well you been eight hundred dollars he said well yeah but you made me should conference room don't do that that's cheap what you do is you pull out that change of work order that you keep in your bag and said I'd be happy to shoot that conference room are you the person that consigned to sign this change of work order but I'm on a job I'm not mr freebie give it away on the other hand I also gauge the client think it's a pretty good job pretty good job they've been really good to me I shoot the conference room I'm a hero I may shoot conference room not building for it there's no cut and dried method and again someone who tells you that there is they're lying to you or trying to sell you something there's no system and I mean that in seriousness I'm not making fun of anyone on the internet there's no system there's no one way to do anything there's no you've got to feel it in your gut it's kind of like being asked to do pictures for free my my feeling is this ah photograph has an intrinsic value if moans a place and wants to hire me to do a photograph for him and I look at the at moe's place and I look in my my charts of what what value that is that's a eighteen hundred dollar photograph he's going to run it has a quarter page ad for six months in a magazine okay that's great danny and comes in and says well you know I've only been a photographer for six weeks for six months for a month and a half I'm not really as accomplished it's him but I'll do the photograph for fifty dollars ok the problem is the photographs gonna be in that quarter page ad right what's that what's that ad worth it's worth eighteen hundred dollars the fifty dollars you take that shot for fifty dollars you just cut yourself out of something the photograph has an intrinsic value that goes beyond what we place on it the moment it's used in an ad it has a value that ad doesn't have a little thing at the bottom that says oh by the way this ad is really very good because I used the guy who's only been in business for six weeks it doesn't to the person looking at it it is the ad shot so how do I handle it my my advice he was shoot for free or shoot for rate don't shoot for cut rate shoot it either shoot it for competitive rate or give it away because when you're giving it away that's a present that's a gift can argue with gifts when you start going out there and shooting it for cheap then you're bringing the price structure down not for me because I'm never going to go down not for me for who just got gypped you did you shot it for fifty dollars it's an eighteen hundred dollars shoot your later you're much better you're great mo calls I want to shoot again you that's really great moments eighteen hundred dollars because what are you nuts I know you're good at everything I'll give you a hundred dollars that's twice as much as you paid me as I paid you last time shoot it at the rate I don't care if you're new I don't care if you've only been shooting for six months it has nothing to do with the photograph the photograph is a piece of intrinsic value inspire if you can lead by example be inspirational to the people around you if you can try to make it something that you want to do try not to be that photographer that sits around and tells everybody else how bad it is tell him how good it is you know people don't want to hang around you with you you think it's bad people don't even want to hire you if you think it's bad why would I hire a photographer who thinks it's so bad out there that that everybody sucks I used to hate it when I'm here for tires talk about um art directors all these aren't records they suck no I love these guys absolutely someone were different called to work with okay good that's why I charge a lot of money then some of my little thing called the jerk tex what the jerk taxes guy was really hard to work with last time all right this time I'll do the shot but I'm charging next to three hundred bucks because he's a jerk engage always engage with everything that you do engage kill the negative voices this is so important important so very important to kill the negative voices and I'm not talking about the voices from outside you can tune them out turn their block off you khun stop reading the books you could do it I'm talking about the voices inside you know I'm talking those voices inside that tell you I can't do this I shouldn't do this there's only three questions that you need to ask before you do something and I asked myself this all the time will this help me in my relationships both to my family to my friends to my clients will this action that I'm about to take help me in my relationships well this action I'm about to take help me in my business and well this action I'm about to take help me as a person as a human being on this planet if the answer is no any one of those why would I want to do it does that mean that everything you do has to be to help your family and to help your business whatever let's say mo weeks seven says I want to get a buy a ticket hey kimberly says I want to buy a ticket and I want to go to toronto I've never been there I want to go there and want to get a room for three nights and I won't take pictures all day now how does that help your business mom I don't know maybe how does it help your relationship well not sure how does it help you as a person well it helps your relationship because you really need to go to toronto and shoot for three days and your significant other says you know what honey I think you should do this that's a good relationship how does it help your business you might get some ideas fresh ideas for your book doesn't mean it you know I really want that eighty five one point two lens will that help my relationship maybe because in my wife won't hear me going around going following dead at eighty five one point two bins I would take the garbage out I would wash the car if I had that eighty five one point it may help it may help my business because maybe I need that lens for doing what I'm doing so there's always a reason but if you can't find a good reason and I'm talking about not talking to scapegoat can't find a good reason ask yourself why am I doing it why am I doing it turned those negative voices off those tapes that play all the time and the bad thing about it is they don't die they just go dormant and then they pop up and start playing again and you need to turn him off make your own voice be heard talk louder b louder than those voices yes I can yes I will sure I'm good enough to do that you know what they want they the answer usually is when someone asked me a question if I could do something answer is usually yes and then there's a little voice going you don't tell you're talking about and I say yeah I know but I'll figure it out by then never fallen on my face yet taking jobs I probably should have taken it took me a little longer than I should have taken into it but I got him done and I had him under my belt listen to serious critique ignore the the cow pasture stuff do it serious critique is not found on flicker I'm sorry to tell you that hey cool lighting isn't gonna work I once looked up the most commented on photograph and flicker and was a guy who had taken a picture of his wife on natural and this woman should never ever have been photographed on natural and I think it had something like twenty eight hundred comments of like nice like yeah right serious critique helps you serious critique isn't you should've made it darker dude serious critique can only be had on ly be had when you have shared with people what you were trying to do serious critique and only be had if you're the critique ir is aware of your goals did you meet those goals did those foot that the photograph do what you wanted it to do that's how you get a good critique just critique in an image without knowing anything about the goals of the photographer is useless don't tell me it's out of focus and that's the only problem maybe it's out of focus because I wanted it to be and I have a reason for it okay and be happy be happy life is short my friend's life is so short um for some of you who are much younger we think life you know it's forever boy sixty is forever I'll never be sixty yeah you will and the difference about being older is the pie gets smaller each year you're born actually dear you're alive it's smaller when you're ten years old the pie of your life has ten slices when you're ten years old they go yeah you can have a bicycle next year it's like fixed year our year when you're sixteen going what happened next year like crap I know year stand on my head because when you're sixty little tiny slice of pie is all you have left one slice of pie is it and it's a tiny piece of pie and so you just keep going and going and going so that's the thing for you is I want you to be happy with what you're doing you're happier when you know what you're doing and you're happy happier when you're doing what you want live your life it's all you have and you don't get a second chance okay and that's my presentation so I have some time for some questions and I buy what I like to think brett for coming out brett owns our eric aircraft company I think bread took some days off time thank you brett for coming out and working with me big shout out to nick who would have been here but for other problems so and john thank you wei have some questions well don I people are people are just giving you tons of comments and in awe of thie life lessons that you are doling out um not just photography lessons so I think that instead of instead of going with questions I think that was a an amazing place to end the day a couple of things that you talked about just really struck a chord with me plan your work and work your planet's only that my grandfather always said to me is a kid I'm not sure who who originally said that I believe it was carnegie things but I'm not sure I may be wrong but yes yes absolutely but on behalf of everybody out there you you said um no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care well I can I think I can honestly say for everybody out there we know how much you care um and that these three days have been incredibly educational as as well as inspirational and knowing how much you care about teaching um really makes everything that you are teaching us so genuine and so from the heart so um I've seen I've seen a lot of educators here and you are really something special no thank you on behalf of everyone around the world let's give dawn a big ground