A New Look at an Old Lens....

Sometimes when you are in the middle of what you have to do, you find that there is more you can do. Whether you can do it is the question. As a working photographer, your client is foremost. However, sometimes you are able to fit something in briefly that is purely creative and has nothing to do with the client. This was one of those situations.

While on a shoot recently, Betty (pictured above) was assisting us with people and other simple logistics. Betty is from Kenya, has striking features and an effervescent, bright personality. For a few moments between tasks, she was able to sit briefly and have her portrait taken. She was more than happy to do so, for which we were very grateful. 

Thank you Betty for spending a few minutes with us and allowing us to photograph you.

As much as I love available light, I have to admit to being thoroughly enamoured with the control of studio lighting. This is a very simple setup, and combined with some Lightroom processing, a simple but dynamic portrait has resulted.

What is otherwise interesting in this portrait is that while I used my Nikon D700, the lens was by no means as recent (although even my D700 is now beginning to look a little old...) The lens I chose to use for this shoot was my old manual focus Nikon E-series 75-150 f3.5 zoom. Yes, its 30 years old, but its such a beautiful thing. If you remember the classic image that the great Galen Rowell took of the rainbow over the Potala Palace in Lhasa, then also know that it was this lens that he used. This lens is small, sharp and has a constant aperture throughout. You can get them dirt cheap these days. If you are a Nikon shooter, you work in slow and controlled situations (such as studio) and you see one in good condition....buy it. Its so beautiful to use in the studio and if you are concerned that your eyes may not focus as sharply as they used to in manual focusing...shooting at f11 helps.

This lens had been sitting in the bottom of my filing cabinet for years.

Now, I wonder why. I have been missing out.

Well, it has its place in my LowePro Pro Roller now!

Yes, I do own the Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 zoom, and I love it. But its a cumbersome lens and completely unnecessary in the studio. In studio situations I much prefer this 30-year old lens designed for Nikon-using amateurs in the '80's than the 70-200 f2.8 with its autofocus and its Vibration Reduction and its blah blah blah. The 70-200 is a great location lens, perfect for wedding work, location commercial work, location portraiture and travel. But from now on, I will be very happy pulling this old amateur lens out of my Pro Roller and shooting with it.

The Camera Can Do It

There are times I feel a sense of loss for photographers who never had the benefits of shooting with film - back in the ooooooolden days. True, photography has come a long way technologically since then and even I can see that the quality of images I am producing with my well worn, 4-year old Nikon D700 is better than I ever achieved using my 35mm Nikons. However, learning the ropes using film had one distinct advantage - especially transparency film. Why?

Well, we learned that a transparency was the last word, the final result. What it revealed was the direct result of your shooting skills and your ability to produce an image using the camera and its direct accessories during the actual capture process. That lesson has been one that I have promulgated as a trainer and teacher of photography over the last 15 years, and also one that I still endeavour to maintain as a photographer.

Do I love PhotoShop? Lightroom? Yes! Do I love manipulating and finessing a RAW file? Absolutely! But I would never want to walk away from a shoot not having produced an image that I am proud of in camera. That is especially true when shooting portraits, corporate headshots and weddings. In this 'see it when you shoot it' age, a bride is encouraged to work with her photographer even more enthusiastically when she can see what you are producing there and then. For commercial clients, the advantage is obvious. Your reputation as a photographer who can produce and satisfy on the job is only going to win their hearts and cheque books.

The other advantage to this is, quite simply, time. The hours I hear photographers putting into their post-processing is often horrendous - chewing through their personal family time, destroying relationships, eating up profits and frustrating their customers. Aiming for the image in-camera reduces that workload dramatically.

The image above was recently shot in our Living in Pictures mobile studio, and produced entirely in camera, shot in jpeg fine and using the D700's monochrome mode. It is a straightforward and simply produced image and is a jpeg straight out of camera - downsized for this blog. It was achieved using a simple two-light system with a Photek Softlighter on the main light and a grid on the hair light. That's it. As an in-camera jpeg, it certainly does its job and prints beautifully.

I metered as I always would have in my film days, using my Sekonic flash meter. I balanced the ratio between the hair light and the main light as I always did, using my Sekonic flash meter. I added a Lastolite reflector, as I always would have....because the process and the principles haven't changed. To add antiquity to the mix, I used a 30-year old 135mm Nikkor manual focus lens I picked up at a Camberwell Camera Market a couple of years ago for $150. Damn, that thing is sharp.

We underestimate the humble jpeg and the cameras that produce them. I am all in favour of a RAW file, which is why I usually shoot simultaneously producing both. But twenty years shooting transparencies is a hard habit to break, even after ten years of shooting digitally. I still aim for the finished jpeg, in camera. I wonder if I will ever change. But then,  I wonder why I would need to.

Living in Pictures

The Reality of Shooting and Selling

The vivacious and somewhat crazy Lee Andrikopolous. If anyone can teach you the art of selling your photography,
he can. Don't miss our combined seminar - The Reality of Shooting and Selling!

In world that has commoditised photography, working photographers at all levels are having difficulty making money from their craft. There are several reasons for this, and many of them have little to do with the customers' perceptions of their abilities or the value of photography. In the hundreds of workshops I have run, I have learned that while there are many photographers who know how to create beautiful work, they have little if any real ability to infuse it with a dollar value and stick to it. Their fear of rejection often gets in the way of their ability to value their photography and sell it for what its actually worth.

That being the case, long time photographer and lecturer on this very subject, Lee Andrikopolous and I are running a day-long seminar that will change the way you create and sell your photography, enabling you to understand the process of appealing to your customer, creating the photographs they desire and then selling them at their worth. Along with his wife, Lorna, Lee has been running a life-changing business called Instincive Desires for several years, teaching photographers how to create and sell images and make a living from photography. For my part, I will be discussing the need for a photographer to gather the right creative skillset and in creating niche products. Combined, there is much to learn from our decades of experience in this industry.

The event is being held at Abbottsford Convent, Abbottsford, Victoria, on Tuesday the 23rd of October.

We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information, download the pdf here!

The Beautiful Wedding of Nav Sandhu and Georgia Main

The wedding of Nav Sandhu and Georgia Main.

The piano at Bram Leigh is a favourite with
photographers. This is my take on it....

A few years ago I was traveling home from an interstate shoot and sitting next to me was a very friendly young woman. Her name was Georgia and she was very friendly, intelligent and conversational. As 'we spoke of many things, fools and kings'...we naturally we talked about our work. I may have happened to mention that I was a photographer....

Well, on Saturday, Tash and I, aka Living in Pictures,  photographed her wedding.  Yes, on Saturday, the lovely Grace Kelly-esque Georgia Ellen Main married the very debonair and incredibly handsome Navjeet Sandhu, known affectionately to us as 'Nav'.

Hmmm... I wonder if his friends call him "NavMan" or "The Nav-Igator"?....

Ok. I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Our assistant for the day was Frankston-based photographer, Richard Ingram. Richard is an old (as in 'long time', not aged) Creative Photo Workshops friend/customer who had asked if he could come along on a wedding with us one day. Well, this was the day, and we were glad to have him along. Richard was an invaluable assistant and we were truly glad he was there for us. Choosing an assistant for a wedding day is not something you take lightly as they can very easily ruin your reputation. Their behaviour, work ethic and general demeanour can make or break the day. The last thing you want to worry about is your assistant. But Richard...you were awesome, mate! Thank you!

Hey, even my mother-in-law came to help out at the reception....and she was awesome too....Thanks Monika!

Georgia at home, pre-ceremony.

We started our wedding as usual with pre-ceremony sessions with both parties. Richard and I started with Nav and the boys, while Tash went on ahead to start the pre-ceremony preparation shoot with Georgia. Then, Richard and I met up with her at Georgia's home, continued the shoot and followed the bride and her entourage of bridesmaids to the ceremony. 

The wedding was held from ceremony to reception at Bram Leigh Receptions, a beautiful wedding venue that has seen some wonderful refurbishments and improvements in the last few years. I hadn't photographed a wedding there in some time, and it was a noticeable improvement under the new management. The ceremony was lovely, filled with laughter and emotion. The shoot itself was a little brief for our liking, and I would always advise couples to allow more time than they usually do for photography. After all, we don't come cheap, so you may as well work us hard!

But what time we did have we used to create some of the images you see here. 

The 'NavMan'...

The responsibility of wedding photography is not something you take lightly. A wedding day holds such promise, hope and joy within it that a photographer needs truly know his or her craft. They need to be always ready, always a step or two ahead, always thinking, creating, preparing and enjoying. 

And yet, at the same time I am not sure that any photographer is always 100% happy with the results from any wedding. There is always that shot you missed, that pose that is slightly wrong or the opportunities that time would simply not allow to come to fruition. 

That said, wedding photographers need to work as hard as possible, past exhaustion if necessary, to honour the role that they have been asked to fulfill and the craft they purport to know and offer. Wedding photographers are problem solvers, diplomats, acrobats, comedians, therapists, flower arrangers, tailors and yes...even image makers. Their role on a wedding day is to be what they have to be to get the work done and to provide the bride and groom with the best experience possible on the day, followed with the best images they can create and supply. It is an honourable profession, but one which, in my opinion, too many quixotic neophytes are seeing as a chance for an easy buck, much to the detriment of the profession and the eternal chagrin of their clients.

Thank you Nav and Georgia for the honour to be a part of such a beautiful day, and for the privilege of being your photographers. We look forward to our Trash the Dress shoot when you return from your honeymoon!

One of my favourites from the day...

Georgia and her entourage at the reception...

Success as a Photographer - How?

When the client demands an image and it presents a myriad of problems, can you still create it?
This cover of Australian Traveller required sunshine on a rainy Melbourne day.
The client doesn't care how you get it...just get it.

The client wants a sunrise, but there isn't one. The photographer
needs to impress. Can he create a sunrise when there isn't one?

I would imagine that the world holds 7 billion creative souls - or thereabouts. In saying this, I mean that all of us are creative in one way or another. It is designed in us. Its part of being human. We each express that creativity in different ways. Music, architecture, the visual arts, sculpture - and the many other means of personal expression that we are given in this life. Some are creative in a variety of ways, able to express our inner person through separate and distinct forms of art. Me? Well, I chose to channel my creative expression through the medium of photography. While I have devoted my creative time to that form of expression to enhance its success as a career, I have also spent much time expressing myself musically, although with much less success in terms of its creative outcome and none whatsoever as a career. This was my choice, and the time I am given in this life to be creative has been spent in photography. It had to be the case, as it became the form of employment that would feed my family.

We are all creative, but to succeed in creation we need to understand the science of each type of art. Musicians study the differences in sound between types of materials used for their instruments, the combinations of them, the size and build of their instruments. They study the mathematics of music and the relationships between keys and chords, melodies and harmonies. Sculptors study the grain and colour of wood and stone and the instruments they use to carve their imaginings into them. The list goes on. But this academic study of their art enables each of them to create in art form what ebbs and flows within them as a desire of expression.

In the many years I have spent teaching photography, I have often said that photography is about 5% creativity and 95% problem solving. The creativity flows naturally and uniquely within each of us. But the ability to make an image happen is only borne in the ability to see what is needed in terms of tools and techniques and the employment of them in the creative process.

While on a recent shoot for Stile220, a boutique fashion outlet in Melbourne's upmarket district of South Yarra, problem solving was 100% of the shoot, as the almost 'conveyor belt' nature of the photography required little, if any, creativity. We needed to shoot as many clothes on a mannequin as we could in the time my client's budget could afford. (Yes, building a website and adding hundreds of images to it can be a costly thing and photography is up there in the costs.) The shoot required that we set up a portable studio in the back of the shop itself and shoot clothing against a pure white backdrop. The last thing that either Tash or myself wanted to do was shoot first and fix later. It had to be as right as it could be in the camera. This also meant that we could confidently reveal to the customer the professionalism he expected to see on the backs of our cameras. There is little use in telling a customer "Look, it doesn't look so good here, but imagine it when I have fixed it!" 

A quick capture of the setup as taken with the iPhone,
and before the flashheads were elevated.

Any photographer knows that producing a pure white background in camera is not easy, and getting that established on the first night of the shoot required some real problem solving skills, considering that we were working in a very confined space. We tried two softboxes, evenly spaced across the narrow white backdrop, and it was relatively successful but inverse square laws  made the clothing very bright on the edge and a little muddy in the middle. So I thought to remove the softboxes altogether and simply bounce the light off the white ceiling. Now, the light was too bright on the top of the mannequins and too dark in the middle and closer towards the floor. So my wife came up with the 'reflector protector' idea. Essentially, we attached a large Lastolite reflector on top of two light stands and placed the flash heads higher than them so that the reflector would not actually catch any direct flash. There was about a 40cm gap between the white roll backdrop and the reflector. So, when the flash fired, the light hit the ceiling, came through the gap and bounced around merrily within the area of the white paper floor and the white reflector ceiling above the mannequin. The backdrop? A perfect, even white from top to bottom.

Voila! That done, the rest of the shoot was 'f11 and be there'.

The resulting evenness of the lighting, and about ten seconds of Lighroom

On the second night of the shoot,we simply set up the same system and shot away, taking dozens of images for our clients - each one consistently illuminated with an even white backdrop from top to bottom. The 'blinkies' on the back of the camera made sure of this. The items of clothing had texture and colour and even the white shirts stood out against the white backdrop - something which many photographers struggle to achieve in camera. 

Yes, successful photography is found in your ability to solve problems, not create pretty pictures in your head and then hope they turn out. If you are a photographer and you are reading this, ask yourself  "How much about my craft do I study academically? Do I devote time to understanding the process as much as I do in getting inspiration? If I was asked to do this shoot in this time frame under these conditions, could I have done so in camera?" Do I dream of creating images I am constantly unable to create? 

These are important questions to consider as I am always going to believe that successful photography is 5% creativity and 95% problem solving. The creative part will get your images churning in your heart and in your mind. But the skills to create them are often purely academic.

Its the coldest wedding day ever.....Can you solve the problems?

When a KFC Family Meal is Worth More than a Photograph...apparently.

Is this what our images have been relegated to?

Yes, its an interesting title. But I have to be honest - its an interesting story, one which, as photographer, I am saddened to relate. Here is how it goes.

While we were on a shoot a couple of weeks ago, I took an incidental but rather beautiful portrait of someone who was there at the location. It was beautifully lit with studio lighting, captured in a wonderful moment and taken with 30 years of experience. Yes, it was quite lovely, even if I say so myself. Little were we to know then that it would be the last photograph taken of this person. Yes, within a couple of weeks, this person unexpectedly passed away. When this happened, we naturally got a call from the grieving family. "It is a beautiful photograph", we were told. "Its how we want to remember (this person)".  A moment like this can make a photographer feel like they have done something that has lasting and positive results. 

My wife and I have gifted our photography many times. We have often done this as an act of gratitude, or perhaps as an act of compassion. However, in this case there were reasons why this was not possible.  But there was the opportunity to reduce our price, which we did. When the woman with whom I was speaking asked me the price of a print, I reduced it significantly from our usual price and explained to her that I had done such, with compassion and sympathy. The woman then paused with apprehension, told me that she would consult with her sister about the purchase, and get back to me. Now, her reduced price for the print was being halved due to the fact that her sister was being asked to contribute. This brought the print price for each to below that of a family meal at KFC!

Knowing that the funeral was being held in the next few days, I contacted the family again, asking if she wanted to me to rush the print over so that it would be there for the actual service. I was kindly told that the portrait was not wanted. Suddenly, a photograph that allegedly meant so much became something that meant nothing at all. Why? Because it would cost her about the same as a meal at KFC. The last photograph taken of the person she loved so much, an image that honoured, dignified and beautified this person, suddenly became completely unwanted....unless it was either free, or perhaps significantly less than the price of a family meal at KFC. 

This being the case, I have to admit to feeling glad that I did not offer the print as a gift of sympathy. Gifts are hopefully appreciated. While I certainly can empathise with their loss, I find it difficult to comprehend their perspective on the worth of this beautiful and final portrait of someone they apparently loved so dearly, especially when it had become so affordable. I am left wondering what she thought the price would be? Would I just hand it over as if it required nothing to achieve, no costs and no time on my part to arrange? What would you pay for the final photograph taken - particularly one as beautiful as this - of someone you loved so much? Where will your family meal at KFC be in a year? Ten? Twenty? The portrait of your loved one would still have shone from its frame during all those years.

In a way I feel sorry for this family, whose complete lack of appreciation has cost them this memory of their lost loved one. And then, on the other hand, I am saddened and insulted on  behalf of the person who has died. 

While my heart goes out to the family as a result of their loss, all I can say to them with regard to this precious photograph, I suppose, is....'Enjoy your chicken'.

-Shelton Muller

Living in Pictures

Is Your Business a 'Non-Profit' organisation?

The digital era has turned photography into a commodity.There was a time when photography was mysterious, a skill to aspire towards, an art. Now, an image costs nothing to take, so it means nothing to own. Many of today's photographers are coming out of the woodwork with little understanding of light, lenswork and composition, adding a funky Lightroom preset that makes it look 'arty' and hoping that people will rave about their images on Facebook. No wonder professional photographers are struggling. The entire concept of the value of beautiful and masterful images by photographers who know their craft has been lost on the masses. Apparently, if you have a good camera, you can do it yourself. And yes, if you buy your pencils from the same place Shakespeare did, you can also pen a beautiful sonnet.

So, if you are a photographer who creates masterful images, or you are at least aspiring to that endeavour while in the meantime trying to make or supplement your income, you will need to know how to value your images yourself and then sell them confidently. This is why I have attached the image above.

Its a portrait of Lee Andrikopoulos. Along with his wife, Lorna, Lee runs a business called Instinctive Desires. He is one of the most inspirational and effective speakers I have heard on the subject of the emotional sale. While spending an afternoon recently in their home having lunch, Tash and I embarked upon a few portraits of them. What the heck....I am too lazy to get my lighting gear and backdrop out of the car, so why not drag it all into their living room and do a few portraits? After all, its fun too!

Well, thanks Lee and Lorna for using this one in your latest promotions for a seminar I hope I can attend. I am honoured!

If you are struggling to sell your work, it may be that you are struggling to value it yourself. It may be that you need the skills that enable others to value it as they should. If you can make this seminar, do so. If not, at least connect with this motivational couple and their business. You won't regret it.

For the seminar, click here

Deliberate. Simple. Beautiful.

Dancer and model, Sarah Hardy, at Black Rock, Victoria, Australia.
One flash, camera left. Nikon D700 with Tamron 10-24 lens. 

Successful images often result from the combination of simple techniques which become something greater than the sum of their parts. It is the choices we make within that process that become the difference between failure and success, and can also be the difference in interpretation of a scene or its desired outcome. I have often been in places and times with fellow photographers who interpret the same scene completely differently. Nevertheless, it is the choice of techniques combined within each image that complete it successfully - or not.

In the years I have spent training photographers I have to admit that it is this process - the combination of techniques - that is the real learning curve. I suppose it is the same in every creative endeavour. What it means for the photographer is a deliberate series of decisions that come together to create the image - which until completed - is only seen only in the fog of the creative mind.

The real situation, captured on my iPhone

The image above is naturally a combination of these kinds of decisions. Allow me to elaborate. Light is the first choice, and because there was no light to sculpt this beautiful young dancer - the lovely Sarah Hardy - a single flash and wireless receiver were placed on a stand just out of frame. Naturally the exposure setting was established for the flash, which was then balanced to underexpose the ambient light.The next part of the process was lens choice. A Tamron 10-24 wide angle lens was used, and the lower viewpoint selected to empower Sarah and simultaneously include the cloudy sky. Sarah's pose was naturally a collaboration between photographer and dancer, she being the expert in dance and me being the one with the eye in the viewfinder. 

Without this simple combination of tools and processes, this image as you see it simply would not exist. And while each of these decisions and techniques is simple, it is a very deliberate process that combines the techniques and tools to result in a final image.

When I was a teenager, I worked in photo retail in Melbourne city. One day a customer walked into the store with a large Nikon F2AS, complete with its large and heavy motordrive attached, swung neck-breakingly across his chest. Over the top of its photomic head was a Dymo label he had printed that simply said "THINK". After 30 years I still remember that customer and that Dymo label. This photographer was reminding himself that every time he lifted his camera to his eye, his mental and creative processes needed to combine to create the image he desired. For him, this was not a haphazard process. It required him to think. It is that process, combined with knowledge, tools and experience, that creates the images in our cameras that, until the moment we press the shutter, dwell only in the misty backblocks of our creative mind.

Portraits that Matter to You...

You know how mechanics often have broken down cars, carpenters often have leaky roofs and painters often have scratched and dented walls? The same can often be said about photographers, who never seem to have beautiful portraits of the ones they love. Well, a few evenings ago we turned the TV off, set up a portable studio in our living room and took a few portraits of ourselves. A friend of mine recently gave me a beauty dish, so it was a great opportunity to try it out. 

I decided that for this portrait of Tash, my wife, I would use the diffusing sock that came with the beauty dish, just to soften the specular highlights a little. Add a hair light, a portable fan and her lovely, smiling face and Voila! A portrait is made! While there, we did portraits of Annabel, my stepdaughter and I even shot my mother-in-law....with a camera....OK? Don't call the cops just yet. The image above is the jpeg, pretty much straight out of camera, resized and watermarked in Picasa. 

If you are a photographer and you are reading this, thinking 'Ya know (insert your own name here), I don't have professional portraits of my husband, wife, partner, my children, my parents, my friends....',  well, here is an idea. Turn your TV off and spend an evening with a bit of lighting, a portable backdrop and your camera in hand. Its gotta be better than watching those stupid reality shows. This is YOUR reality. Capture it, honour it, live it.

Does One Size Fit All?

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. Tamron 10-24mm at 19mm.

In the fifteen or so years I have been running workshops and seminars, podcasts and presentations, there has been one constant issue that has featured among so many of those who have attended. This constant has been a lack of understanding of the nature and the true value of lenses and optical nuances. 

Now, let me make one thing very clear. I am not speaking of the technicalities of optics as I am not an expert in the field. Thats's for the guys in the white jackets. I am speaking of the benefit of lens perspective, angle of view, compression and depth of field. When it comes to creating successful, interesting, dynamic images, there are, in my opinion, few techniques which come close to the importance of the correct choice of focal length and f-stop.

Photographers will argue black and blue about lens sharpness, chromatic and spherical abberation, bokeh, blades and barrel distrotion. Blah, blah, blah. Yes these things are important, but there is a lot of snobbery in photography about technicalities, brands and types of lenses. Photographers will argue over the most ridiculous and irrelevant technicalities of lenses, little realising that they make little if any difference to the creative delivery of their images. Often these are the same photographers whose images are so ordinary and uninteresting that it wouldn't matter if they had used the bottoms of old Coke bottles inside a toilet roll. These days, if a lens is bad, its famous for being bad. This is especially true because of wonderful websites such as DPreview, and the internet in general. A lens manufacturer could not survive in this kind of environment if a lens was produced at a certain price and did not perform as expected.

A few short years ago I was in Patagonia running a photo tour on behalf of Darran Leal, a personal friend and well known Australian photographer and photography tutor. Tamron's Australian agent had recently asked me to try out their new Tamron 18-270 f3.5-6.3 zoom with vibration compensation. Having just acquired my Nikon D700, I knew I could not use it on that because the Tamron is designed for a crop sensor and not a 35mm size sensor. So I brought my trusty Fuji S5 and had it permanently fixed to that. I have never been a fan of superzooms, but I was pleasantly surprised with this lens' optical and physical performance. In fact, I was very pleasantly surprised. If I had to travel the world with one lens and one camera, I could see myself seriously contemplating this as the lens I would bring. The three images below show Cerro Torre in morning light, captured using the Tamron 18-270 f3.5-6.3 at its widest (which is approximately the 35mm equivalent of 24mm), then somewhere around 70mm, and then all the way to 270mm (which is the 35mm equivalent of approximately 405mm). I was impressed. I still am, and would happily trust that lens to take me around the world if it was all I could use. 

Cerro Torre, Patagonia. Tamron 18-270mm at 18mm. Exposure 1/800th, f10.

Cerro Torre, Patagonia. Tamron 18-270 at 70mm. Exposure 1/800th at f10

Cerro Torre, Patagonia. Tamron 18-270 at 270mm. Exposure 1/640th at f10.

Model: Sarah Hardy. Tamron 70-200 f2.8 at f2.8

But the fact remains that there is no such thing as a 'one size fits all' lens for photographers. Why would anyone want that anyway? To me, there is nothing more beautiful than a long lens with a wide aperture, such as a 70-200 f 2.8, for example. Even my trusty old Nikkor 85mm f1.8 is a gorgeous thing and I still love it after all these years. We are inseparable. While doing some portraits for a client the other day, I brought out my old manual focus Nikkor 135mm f2.8 because it was the ideal focal length for the situation. It is sharper than many new lenses I have used and much sharper than my newer AF Nikkor 180mm. I am certainly not going to bow to the discussions and debates about lenses that many photographers climb into. If a lens is good, its good. If it does the job well, I will use it, no matter the brand, the age or the technology. Lenses are the tunnels that allow and alter light. That is what they do. The rest is completely irrelevant. 

On the other end of that scale, I love a good wide angle, and have used everything from 14mm on my D700 to create images that I love for their unique perspective. Again, I have been impressed with my Sigma 14mm, very impressed with the Tamron 10-24mm and I love my  AF Nikkor 20mm f2.8 prime. Lenses that do their jobs are like excellent employees. Their names and physical attributes are nowhere near as important to your business as their abilities, their potential and their results. 

Playing cards in Baktapur, Nepal. Sigma 14mm.

Learning to 'see like lenses' is as valuable in the previsualisation process as composition, or any other technique. Generally I try not to officially judge at photography events, clubs and societies. I suppose its because I am not a big believer in the process. If I were, however, I would imagine that my greatest complaint would be that of poor lens choice or lens use. Lens use is a 'make or break' technique in the creation of our images which usually suffers to convenience rather than deliberate choice. Most photographers, I believe, fall foul of the old 'stand there and zoom' method as against choosing the lens that actually makes the image succeed and walking toward or back from the subject. Nothing kills an image more than lens laziness. If you are reading this and you would like me to elaborate, I would be happy to add more blog posts about lens choice and the fine art of 'seeing like lenses'. There are, in my opinion, few components of image creation that matter as much as focal length and f-stop.

My trusty 85mm Nikkor at f1.8, doing its thang...

Takin' it to the Streets

There are some wonderful faces around. Just a walk through a city street will reveal faces by the dozn that you would love to capture. Well, why can't you? Is there anything stopping you? "Yes", you say. "I feel a bit apprehensive about asking them if I can photograph them."

These days, suspicion about a photographer's motives is not uncommon. Taking your camera to the beach or to the swimming pool to photograph your own children is tantamount to a criminal act as those who look on, eyebrows raised, wonder what you are really up to. It is sad situation and one which reveals that despite all our efforts, the wrong kind of people have won. The innocent are left to maneuvre their way around the simple act of photography because a sick few have ruined it for the rest of us.

But that does not mean that you can't photograph people in the streets. You can do so candidly, with a long lens - the ethics of which are entirely up to you. You can also do one simple but incredibly clever thing. You can engage them in the simple act of conversation. Has anyone ever heard of something called a 'greeting'?

Yes, establishing a rapport with an individual through conversation and honesty is not difficult. That only takes a few moments, and then you can pop the question. 

"Would you mind if I took a quick portrait of you?"

The worst thing that would probably happen would be a firm and unequivocal "No". And that's ok. No harm, no foul. Somewhere in the middle you may get an embarrassed question about why you would want to do so. Somewhere way up at the top of the list will often be an agreement. It may take a little explanation, but there is no harm in that either.

Successful photography requires much more than technical skills. It often requires that we step out of our comfort zones, take a risk and enable ourselves more with each experience, growing more confident, socially adept and strong with each image captured. Perhaps the lesser of the benefits will be the portraits you take.

But then again, maybe not. You may just create some timeless and beautiful works of art. You need only to ask.

What are your Instinctive Desires?

Lee Andrikopoulos of Instinctive Desires. Nikon D700, Nikkor 85mm. Photek Softlighter.

Lee, being unusually demure...

The title of this blog post not intended to be controversial, or some kind of double entendre. It is a simple question that each of us needs to examine in life. What do we really want? The easy answer to all of that is....success. 

'Success' is an interesting concept. It is a personal concept that many equate to financial wealth. That is a part of everyone's idea to some degree I imagine, as life in this world without money is impossible. Life without enough money is difficult. But the endless pursuit of it is equally inane and difficult. 

For photographers, success has to do with both creativity and financial return. For most I would also imagine that it would include other, very personal rewards that vary from person to person. But if photography is your profession of choice, your desired career, you will need to know more than just the technicalities and creativities of each image. For you to make money, you will need to know how to firstly value and ultimately sell your work. 

This is where Lee and Lorna Andrikopoulos of Instinctive Desires come in. There are some great photography workshop companies around, but who is going to teach you how to sell those wonderful images that you have learned to take? Who is going to help you to value your work and present that value with confidence to customers who have become used to the commodity that photography has become? Lee and Lorna at Instinctive Desires, that's who. That is what they specialise in and one look at their website will convince you of that. Their courses and consultations have dramatically improved the financial returns and successful workflows of the photographers whom they have assisted. 

We spent a fun filled afternoon with Lee and Lorna at their home on Sunday. It was an afternoon 14 months in the making and their hospitality knew no bounds. We ate goat and corned beef, potatoes, pumpkin and cauliflower, drank wine and giggled incessantly. Tash had promised to update Lorna's portrait so we brought out the Bowens flash heads and the fold out backdrop in their living room. When Tash was finished with Lorna, we decided it was Lee's turn. He is rather crazy...but that's fine with us. So are we, really. 

If you have read this post and you live in Australia, you would be wise to contact Lee and Lorna. If you live in another country and read this post, you would be wise to contact Lee and Lorna at Instinctive Desires. I am sure that they can hop on a plane and come to you, especially if you live in some beautiful and exotic location and there is access to red wine. Either way, your business will never be the same, and your skills in the viewing room will result in high sales and higher profits. 

Oh, and the pretty face on their website and Facebook banner....that's my wife.
Yeah... I just had to put that in.

Yeah...its the Mona Leesa....