Lessons

Lesson Info

Finding Yourself

I have this thing that I d'oh it's really twenty four hours but technically it's forty eight hours I travel every december the first week in december um it's kind of like a dart at a dart board and I throw a darts and uh whatever country it is I book a ticket to that location I pick a city and I'll book a ticket to that location now the rule is I can only be there for the ideas twenty four hours total but it typically depending on how far away I go it ends up being about forty eight hours by the time I land drop my bags off I don't pack a lot it's just a camera bag this is nitty gritty work here so I dropped my bag off in a safe hotel and then I hit the ground running I start shooting from the minute I get there so if I pick a city I start shooting shooting shooting shooting and then I typically don't sleep in the night unless I feel like it's not safe to be out on the road so most of the time I shoot through the day through the night and then into the morning and usually catch a fligh...

t the next day so so I have been all over the world doing this and most people think I'm absolutely not so I've heard things from your crazy why would you spend that kind of money you're wasting you don't I can honestly tell you that in a single day I seem or in a city than probably people who spend a week on vacation there because two things happen I have to become very methodical I have to pre plan what I'm going to do because I have to hit I want to hit certain things and make sure that I cover them um so I have about twenty four hours total time to shoot that city uh well interestingly enough I find now that when I travel when I do this trip it's the first week in december when I do this trip I tend to now be shooting is much video as because now that I can capture people and movement and it's kind of that cultural thing to really capture them I I find that it's a balance between the two but by far much more video and my goal is to capture the culture and to see what I can do and I'm not looking for a lot of images although I take a lot of images my goal is to have one single image that represents that trip one because my natural inclination is not landscape photography or architectural architectural photography it is people but I try to get out there and I try to capture this so I have been all I mean literally in so many countries everywhere from asia you know greece turkey I'm just tons there's a lot of countries out there haven't been and believe me in cities that I want to go to in fact this is a trip I've always taken alone it's my thing that I do and nobody could ever understand why I did this but I was in greece a couple of years ago my trip was grease and and sometimes there's irony to the trips like when I went to turkey my birthday was on thanksgiving and I'm a turkey baby and so that's how I got to turkey but and some countries I have to plan out a little bit better if I need a visa you know I have to think about it so it's something that I like the dartboard concept but the more cities I've been to the more I have to sort of pre plan it out a little bit so one thing I was thinking about creative live is now that I have so many friends all over the world you know it might be something that I'm ready to change and maybe meet wasn't geoffrey in india because I wanted to go to india last year and I didn't have a visa so that was where the dart hits so people have always thought I was crazy they think it the stupidest thing you could possibly do with your time and money and what I could tell you it is so life changing and I finally figured out in greece and that's why I shared that shown by the way it's kind of exciting never share the work like it's you know you shoot hundreds of captures nobody everybody I was I was like oh post pictures never has happened because I just don't it's not I'm not even sure that's why I do it the camera might be the wall I used to do what I do I'm not sure I'm not the social person that could walk up and say hey my name sandy I'm from america I can put a camera up and smile at a child and eventually maybe offer a money and so like the little boy that was making faces he kept doing that until I waved some money and then all the sudden he was he was happy so so I found that the camera is my guard it's how I protect myself but on the other side of it it gives me the opportunity to see things the way I want to see them so people have always thought I was crazy and I've been all over the world doing this but the other side of it is the financial people always question why would you spend so much money and and everybody needs to know it's not that I have tons of money in fact there have been times that I've done this trip that I have literally sold things had to get rid of things in my life to make it happen because I couldn't afford it and there have been times where I've said I cannot do it this year in fact one year I was like I cannot there's just no way we're not doing this and everybody's everybody around me that's been with me for years was like I could tell they were all nervous about it and write like not even two weeks before we're supposed to go everyone like please buy a ticket please because it wasn't that I was mean are mad but they knew that it would break a connection that I've had for years and years and years and so um everybody kind of rallied around me and said just go for it who cares what it costs just do it so so my point is not to say that I travel the world and that that I'm so lucky it's you don't have to go far to do this in fact we have a lot of photographers if you follow me on facebook you know that people post all the time when is your trip when is your trip and you've inspired me I I can't go around the world I will someday but I go you know I went to minneapolis and I went to the city and I shot at the city so so it does not have to be something that you go far you could do it within your own city what it is is separating yourself from everything and this trip to greece was probably the turning point for this trip and I haven't decided where I'm going to take it I think it does have to do with meeting other people now but the long and short of it is when I got here I was running running running I dropped my bags off and I never went to sleep in so it was just exhausting and the one thing that I find about exhausting yourself is everything is heightened your emotional senses heightened I'm extremely emotional extremely aware of my surroundings it's a safety issue when you know you're in countries like when I was in turkey you know I was a little more it's a little more intense and there were other places where I felt like a little more security was an issue I've had other places where you know the beach was an issue I'm just hanging out so it's just one of those things where in this place I was running and running and running and it was boats and buses and it was just this nonstop energy and and I had this experience where after I went to the parthenon or whatever it was the one that you saw um I was walking down the hill and I was absolutely losing and I was totally exhausted and my back hurts and I was tired and my hip is hurting and I happened to stop by this shop because I needed a bag in the fan of ten minutes walking down a hill I'd bought enough souvenirs for everybody you know needed require a suitcase that I didn't bring and so I stopped by the shop and this woman was there and right out of the gate she offered me what is the drink who's who's oh she offered you so when I don't drink and so I declined she clearly had had enough ouzo for both of us that day I mean she was definitely extremely tipsy and so she was really pushing it on me and I I wanted to you know be courteous and drink but I really didn't want to do it and so she started talking and we had this long philosophical conversation about greece and I explained why I was there and she was so fascinated with that she talked about her country and the situation there and the economics and and she was so sad because she said it's such a beautiful place and there's so much here really was very really really impacted me and so I continued down the hill back to where my bag where my camera bag was at the hotel and I kept thinking I was so tired I kept thinking to myself why do you do this to yourself like you're so tired you've got shoots in two days you gotta fly for a day and you have to go back to work why do you do this and all the sudden it hit me I realized that that entire forty eight hours of flying and running and flying home during that time it's the only time in the year that I actually listen to myself I am talking to myself and you know because you're alone and most cases you'd hit don't speak the language so to get to the bathroom you've got to have some pretty good sign language down and so you find that you're mental e communicating with yourself and trying to figure out how to do things you're starting to contemplate your life and what it means and why you're there and what you're doing what you're gonna do in the future what you've done in the past and in a very short period of time I have the on ly conversation with myself truly internally that I have in an entire year and when this hit me this was just a couple of years ago when this hit me it was a huge intersection if finally made sense why did this because I actually thought it was madness I thought I was crazy and that this was just some weird disconnect and I realize that this is the only time I listen to me so finding time to listen to you isn't it forton tw and you have to separate yourself from everything to do that quiet time is critical it's the thing that's going to give you and empower you to take care of the real you the one that lives in here your body is important your mind is important your heart and soul are important and you have to listen so I just in addition to that list I encourage you to find something you want to do um something that inspires you something that takes you to that next level and find that passion because this as much as it exhausts me it invigorates me every single time so I just wanted teo to remind folks are let folks know we did just post that to facebook the ten things very cool so head on over to facebook and fill that out to share with sandy derek I would love to see that thank you alright guys so we're gonna I think they had a five minute warning but we're going to stop here because we're about to go into a location lighting and I really feel like I'd rather shoot and get through the rest of the studio stuff and then we'll cover all location work someday I hope to come back and do a location siri's because I would like people to see that I don't just use backgrounds and lighting equipment but at least I can walk you through the process of when I do go outside what I take in what I do so if you have questions or things we want to cover that would be great just so many people making comments about you're travelling experience and how what an amazing idea that isthe everyone's like oh that's a great idea you want to do that re group session there you have to go by yourself though it doesn't work so a question from from t photos how much equipment are you carrying around with teo do those chutes on those twenty how do you get the video so stable so are you that was actually had and that was not that was the first year I this was the year of trying tto learn video so it's actually not that stable that's all handheld but and that's now I look at it I cringe but that's something that that's all handheld I do have a model pod that I love and its many photo mount apart and I'll get the number for it because it's a it's an incredible video slash stills mono pod but honestly equipment wise I have a small backpack it's ah low pro backpack that stays on my back it's the one that swings around and you could pull your camera out typically I take a couple lenses I want a wide angle I have the new like the seventeen millimeter go ahead shift swing tell lens that I've been playing with but yeah thank you but seventy two hundred miller meter which is the back killer that's the one that when you're packing it all day it's painful but and I have the lighter version the four point five but because I shoot through the night every little stop helps so seventy two two hundred millimeter I take some of that I was playing with the eighty five that year too I love the eighty five s o that I happen to have that I take a fifty when I was in asia last week I took the thirty five I was having fun with that so usually it's two to three lenses actually three sometimes for and I try to stick with that leads so for instance in asia this last time I tried to play with the thirty five the whole entire time and I made it almost all the way because what I try to do is learn the lens and that way because you know that seventy two hundred is such a luxury because you could make everything look pretty that I try to find how can I make a thirty five look pretty all the time and how do you compose and eliminate garbage and find that beauty so just a little bit of everything do you uh love the big tripod over your shoulder do not city happens mono pod maybe but honestly my preferences just handheld to go because remember this is for me I'm not gonna enter these um print competition there no no nobody's even going to ever see them probably until probably I pass away and somebody bothers two put together it'll be aaron and it'll be perfect but bothers to put together a slide show but it's just for me it's not even about starting in about the images that's just my barrier that's how that's how I don't have toe connect so I want to ask you a question for myself I've enjoyed the first part of today you know talking about kind of the big picture and I'm wondering as faras like you seeing yourself as a successful human being how much of it is the fact that you mark it well and you're good at sales and how much of it is things like having having this good attitude or having this war world view of life it's all the second part it's all the worldview because sales and marketing is what I do it's not who I am you might think I'm good at it from your perspective I don't always feel that way I get my feet knocked out from under me all the time there many times where I feel intimidated I feel heard I felt said I'm just we are you know people always that stupid word rock star it's the dumbest word ever invented because it doesn't even make sense you know what I really am I'm a mom with kids I just happened to be articulate and can share information but it's not it's not really about the sales and the marketing I'm very blessed that that came natural I don't have an education so that's a people think what I do have and this one could bring me to my knees is my parents are really who I am I got everything I am I my mom is the most giving person ever and my father is the most honest true hearted person ever and even though I was a hellion growing up I mean I was just the toughest little kid that never left me my my core never left me and eventually I was able to turn that angst in that that energy to positive work into making a difference in people's lives but but that that foundation is really what I am and the rest of it is just you know it's just uh business it's the work we do to pay the bills so that we can have some time and and I always want to make sure people understand that that's the nine to five and my heart and soul is the people and the difference is that I make in people's lives