Aspiring Photographer: Photography Advice and Inspiration

Become Re-inspired Through a Personal Project

A few years ago I found myself becoming very burnt out on photography. Creating photographs of children is usually an absolute joy, but even photographing the most beautiful subjects, which happen to be children in my opinion, can become tedious when you do the same thing every day, especially when you're creating the images to satisfy someone else rather than yourself. When you're starting out in your business, your workload is light enough that every session can be a new and unique creative opportunity. I remember being so excited and nervous for every session, and heading out to Hobby Lobby or the fabric store or a yard sale to look for items to include in the photos to make them new and fresh. Of course, once you start doing more sessions, you can't do that every time. First of all, you would eat up any profits you may have, and second, you don't have the time! So you learn which types of shots parents tend to buy, and you recreate them consistently for people. Each session and each image is still unique because each child is unique, but the initial excitement of creating images can wane, especially once you encounter a difficult client or two. Luckily for me, I fell into a personal project that greatly helped me to become excited about photography again.

My project happened almost by accident, but has gone a long way to re-excite me. It has opened up my audience to a larger population and has also gained me professional recognition. Your personal project can be anything that has meaning to you. In my case, something I'd wanted to do for years all of a sudden fell into my lap. I was hosting a birthday party for a friend of mine at my studio. While talking with a friend of the birthday girl, I found out that he was starting a project interviewing homeless people so that he could publish a set of their stories. I immediately blurted out that I would create studio portraits of each of the people he interviewed. I'd always wanted to photograph homeless people in the studio, but it wasn't like I was going to go out and find them on my own. He jumped on the offer, and my personal project began. All of a sudden I was learning how to engage and capture an entirely different type of subject, and I found it very creatively inspiring.

My first subjects I photographed through this project were Andy and Charlene. Still, of all the homeless portraits I have created, this portrait of them stands out as the most beautiful and moving. I entered the image into a PPA-style competition through the Professional Photographers of Colorado, and won not only a Judge's Choice award, but also the Kodak Gallery Award, and went on to be accepted into the PPA Loan Collection. Winning awards like these definitely helps to inspire me to want to aim even higher.

Since then I have also photographed another different type of subject -- dogs. I ran a little special at the studio offering a session and 5x7 print to anyone who brought me a $25 donation made out to the local Humane Society. My experience photographing all these dogs was similar to the homeless project, in that I learned how to work with an entirely differently type of subject, so to me the images were all new and fresh. The enthusiasm in creating images of these new types of subjects has carried over into my daily work in photographing children. Photography itself has become more exciting for me again. When I find myself slipping again, I hope I will be able to push myself to find another project that will continue to inspire me and help me grow as a photographer.

Oh No! They Didn't Like My Work!

I have talked to so many photographers who were frustrated because a session didn't go the way they wanted it to. Heck, I still stress out over lots of my sessions -- did they like their photos, or are they instead telling everyone what a lousy photographer I am? Maybe the children didn't behave, making it impossible for you to get something good. Or maybe the parents just didn't like the photos, even though you thought you did a great job. Perhaps you just didn't do your best work that day. It happens to all of us.

These experiences can sting.  They can lower our self-confidence. They can even cause us to give up on our dream to pursue photography as a profession. I have seen and heard countless photographers drive themselves crazy over one session that went wrong. They ask everyone they know -- “aren't these photographs good? What are they thinking? Why don't they like them? Don't you think they're being unreasonable?“ And most people will just respond with what you want to hear. They'll tell you the photos are great, and that the client is just difficult or picky. But I think your clients have a right to walk away with photos they love. What I'd like to see you do is to take these incidents and turn them into learning experiences.  Not everyone is going to love your work every time. In fact, not everyone is even going to like YOU every time. Our personality can't possibly resonate with every single person with whom we might do business. 

I believe that if someone tells us they don't like the work we did for them, we need to hear what they've told us and take it to heart. If you get all worked up over why someone didn't like the results from one single session, you're not giving yourself the chance to grow as a photographer and a business person. Offer to do a re-shoot at no charge. It might be inconvenient, but  it'll give you the chance to turn around a bad situation. I have read and experienced first-hand that ultimately the best clients in any business are those who complained and then had someone go above and beyond expectations to solve their problem.

Here are several ways to prevent some possible problems:

• Avoid naptime. Schedule small children at the beginning of the morning when they are at their best. If your session time cuts into nap time, then you're inviting a breakdown (by the kid, by the mom, and maybe even by you!)
• Set priorities for the session. Do not assume what photos and groupings the client wants. Talk with the parents at the beginning of the session to clarify the goals of the session. Take the top priority shots first. Let them know that you'd like them to prioritize in case the child decides he or she has had enough before you have a chance to get to all the shots.
• Provide session guidelines ahead of time.
• Take a snack break. Not for you, but for the kids! Frequently, a little drink and some goldfish crackers can turn around a cranky kid and save the day.

Believe me, I know it's miserable when someone doesn't like your work. But the more experience you have, the less often it'll happen. It really is true.

Preparing for the Certified Professional Photographer Exam

Oh boy, just three days left until I take the Professional Photographic Certification Commission's Certified Professional Photographer exam. How's that for a mouthful?! I'll be taking the exam at Imaging USA in San Antonio. Thought I'd share what I've done to study for it. Hope I'm on the right track! I've already passed the image review, so the exam is all that's between me and certification.

The main recommendation on preparing for the exam is to get a copy of Photography by by Barbara London, Jim Stone, and John Upton. It's around $130. Did I get it? No. Hoping that won't have been a huge mistake! So here's what I did instead. I signed up for the Certify with Sandy website, which is a forum created to help you pass the exam. I sat through all the webinars on there, where an instructor walks you through all the different topics. Then I went into the Online Study Group section of the forum, where they link to a study guide for the ninth edition of the Photography book. It has sample questions for each chapter, and worked through all of those (except for the stuff related to film processing, which I keep reading is not on the test). I also read through each of the study guide posts created by Constance Rawlins, where she touches on the important points from each chapter. They have also created a set of online flashcards, so I worked my way through all of those as well. The flash cards are extremely helpful.

At this point I'm feeling pretty good about passing the test, but am going to continue to study in my free moments up until I walk in the door. I'll report back on how it went!

Photo Contest: PPA's Summer Shootout

If you are a member of PPA, here's a fun little summer contest you might want to enter. The great part is that it is quite affordable to enter. It's $5 to enter, and then $5/image up to 20 images max. There are even cash prizes awarded for  first, second and third places in 4 categories, and a grand prize of $1,000. I've entered 5 images so far and am going to dig around to see what else I might feel like entering.

• 3rd Place: $250
• 2nd Place: $500
• 1st Place: $750
• Grand Prize: $1,000

Here's one of my entries! One of the other nice things about this contest is that you can pay an additional $10 to have Master photographers critique your submission. This is a nice way to start to see if your image submissions are "merit-worthy" for further PPA competition.

So hop on over to http://www.ppa.com/competitions/summershootout and check it out for more information.

-- Mary Lynne

Starting a Business Photographing Babies & Children | Job Satisfaction

There are so many rewards available to professional photographers. The opportunity to be creative, to interact socially, and to create a legacy all come immediately to mind. Of course, if you price yourself right, get enough people in the door, and manage your expenses, there's also the opportunity for financial rewards. But the real satisfaction I get from running a photography business comes to me from many different sources.

I believe we all have an inherent need to create, and photography presents us with unlimited opportunities to be creative. My time in front of the camera is just one small aspect of the creativity I get to express as part of my business. After I take the images, I spend even more time behind the computer cropping and enhancing the images in Photoshop to express my true creative interpretation of the image. Every time I create an awesome image I feel such a great sense of satisfaction. I often get sucked up into in and think "I should be working," and then I realize that I am working. We also get to express our creativity in the many aspects of marketing our business: creating a blog, a website and any printed marketing materials that we give out. Even creating a gorgeous marketing piece is satisfying, especially when you start getting positive feedback on it.

Some of my favorite things about my business are all the opportunities I've had to build relationships. I love watching children grow over time through my photos, and have such satisfaction when a client chooses to come back to me for additional sessions. It's really great when a little kid you've photographed over the years runs in and gives you a big hug. I also have made so many wonderful friendships with the moms of the children I photograph. There are many days when I marvel over the fact that I just got paid to spend a couple hours hanging out and chatting with some cool woman while we worked together on capturing images of her children. It may be a crazy, stressful session, but even that can help us bond and become closer. We worked on a project together and were ultimately successful. I feel like I have so many girlfriends, and sometimes my week seems just like a string of endless coffee dates with my buddies. I don't think most jobs offer that! Other relationships I've developed are those with other business people -- the coffee shop where I hang my photos, the parenting website where I sponsor a contest, the real estate office where I occasionally setup a studio and photograph their clients, and many others -- these are relationships I have truly enjoyed. Finally, my many photographer friends are some of my very favorite relationships. I've known many of them for years now, and we hook up every so often through photography seminars, print competitions, etc. If you haven't worked to form friendships with other photographers, that's one of the first things I'd recommend doing!

It's also very satisfying to know that you are creating a product that will be around for years to come. When people are decluttering their homes, there's not much chance that they're going to throw out your photographs! (And I do consider them MY photographs, even when they are a photo of someone else's children hanging in their home.) Knowing that you are creating something that will be handed down to the next generation is pretty cool. It's very validating to walk into someone's home and see photos you've created hanging all over their walls. 

So if you are just starting your photography business and have felt discouraged for various reasons, just remember that there are so many positive reasons to stick with it. I really do believe that photography is not just a business, it's a way of life. Enjoy!

Still Time to Enter PPA's 2010 Print Competition!

One of the best ways to build your confidence as a photographer is to earn the right to slap "award-winning photographer" after your name. And having confidence in your work is half the battle, right? One of the most recognized and respected competitions is PPA's International Photographic Competition. The goal of entering PPA's annual competition is to receive what they call "merits." Earn enough merits and you become eligible to apply for various "degrees" bestowed by the organization. PPA also selects what they consider the best of the best for their Loan Collection and Showcase books.

Earning a merit requires submitting a print that is both technically sounds and artistically impactful (is that a word?). PPA's certified judges look for 12 elements in determining whether or not an image is merit-worthy. These elemments include impact, creativity, technical excellence, composition, lighting, style, print presentation, center of interest, subject matter, color balance, technique and story telling. 

You can enter four prints each year. Be sure to read their rules and submission requirements carefully. Besides making sure that the print meets those requirements, you are much more likely to succeed if your print does not take up the entire 16x20 space on the canvas (and by canvas I mean the whole 16x20 space, not canvas material). In other words, make the image a smaller part of the entire canvas and mat it in a way that enhances the image. 

I've entered competition quite a few times, and admit that it can be massively painful, but it can also be a total blast if you do well. A panel of judges sits at the front of the room as each print comes up, each judge enters his or her vote into a machine, and then the score is averaged and announced. My friends and I sit together while our prints come up before the judges, hold our breath while we wait for our scores, and either breathe a sigh of relief or a sigh of disappointment as each score is announced. Usually, you're either crying or grinning from ear-to-ear after it's all over.

There are local state and regional competitions where you can sit and watch the judging and sometimes earn merits, and there is also the international competition where you send the prints directly to PPA. Even those prints that earn merits at the regional level must be sent on it to PPA by the deadline for the merits to count. 

Deadlines and fees for this year's competition are below:

1. $95.00 for PPA members received by 5:00 PM on  April 30, 2010
2. $155.00 for PPA members received after 5:00 PM on April 30, 2010 but before 5:00 PM on  May 21, 2010.
3. $160.00 for all non-members received by 5:00 PM on April 30, 2010.
4. $220.00 for all non-members received after 5:00 PM on April 30, 2010 but before 5:00 PM on  May 21, 2010.

Thanks to my photographer-friend David Bailey for alerting me that the deadline was so close! I have four prints I need to get out the door ASAP!

Great Inspiration from Mark S. Johnson

This site that I'm going to send you to has nothing to do with photographing children, but I just find the photos so gorgeous and inspirational. The color and composition are amazing, and the techniques he uses are terrific. So check out this gallery of images by Mark S. Johnson Photography: http://www.msjphotography.com/index.php/gallery/.

Enjoy!

Get Inspired by these Blogs

The Professional Photographers of America (PPA) is running a contest called "freshblog," where they are having people vote on their favorite blog from a list of entries. If you go to the contest page you'll have access to all of these blogs. There is a whole lot of great inspiration here, and you could pass many, many hours pouring through these. I'm a bit overwhelmed by them all, myself, or I'd give you a good recommendation as to where to start looking. So my best advice is to just go to their contest voting page and start exploring!

-- Mary Lynne