In building my music portfolio, I figured that I would run into artists that had worked together, were fans of each others’ work, or knew each other. I just didn’t think that it would happen this soon! When Josh responded to me, one of the first things that he said was “I see you’ve shot my friend Marktavious!” And just like Marktavious, Josh brought the looks, poses, and energy as well. And he was nice enough to grant me a second shoot shortly after our first because I wanted to re-shoot the green jacket photo. I look forward to being able to work with Josh again in the near future!
Okay, this is going to be a list my reso–actually, I’m tired of saying that word, let’s substitute goals. Here is a list of goals that I want to accomplish this year. Not in any particular order. I know that we’re three four months into the year, but I’ve been late with a lot of things in the past; it’s how I rolled:
I didn’t get a cell phone until 1999, and I never had a pager; if I wasn’t at home you were going to talk to my answering machine
I didn’t start using digital until 3 years ago, and I bought a old D1X(which was 6 yrs old at that time)
I waited until age 33 to actually get serious and try to make my dream (photography for a living) a reality, why didn’t I try 10 years ago?
My 2010 Photography goals:
1. Get physical with my imagery – Since these days so much is done digitally, alot of my photos just end up on my hard drive, or on this blog, nothing like the old days, when you had physical results from taking photographs. You took photos,
You ended up with negatives or slides. Some of those ended up in the form of prints
I want to make something physical – maybe put on my own show somewhere; something small, but something where I have an end to go along with the means. Maybe I’ll do a photozine or a book, but something that I can hold in my hand, and in turn hand to someone.
2. Film – A while ago me and my wife were watching Kalifornia, in that movie Michelle Forbes is a photographer, and she spends the movie shooting with a Nikon F3 (I believe) and she asked me if I missed shooting film. Even though I tailed off shooting film seriously over the last 10 years, it took me a little by surprise. I did miss film somewhat, I recently ran a roll of slide film through my F4, I had forgotten how colors pop on slides! So, I’m going to shoot more film this year, I’ve collected enough of it over the past 5 years that I haven’t shot
And I’ve accumulated more than enough film cameras…they need to be shot with.
3. Get project oriented – Come up with some projects that interest me, and then make them happen, not sitting around saying “I wish I could shoot, blah,blah, blah, maybe I’ll get to do that someday…” Why does it have to be someday? And when I start it, finish it. What good is a project that you start, attack with full steam, and then just give up? Even if it doesn’t work out like I envisioned – at least I can say, I finished….
4. Keep a creative journal – this I’ve actually started:
and started:and started: and started
But it would be nice to keep it going, not write a page, or couple of pages, but actually have a book that I can come back to for inspiration. And when I put ideas down in it…actually come back and try some of them
5. Take more personal photos - life moves so fast it seems these days, the only way that we can remember the little details is to write it down, video it, or take pictures. Like these of my wife and my niece decorating Easter cookies.
Something little now, but how are they going to feel about this moment looking back on these pictures in 10 years? 15 years? How am I going to feel?
6. Network – get myself out there to other photographers, become part of the community. It’s how you learn and how you find and create opportunities.
7. And probably the most important thing on this list; getting comfortable with at some point I’m going to have to tell people that I’m a photographer. Saying that phrase is heavy; there’s so much expectation attached to it. You can read the books, take the workshops, the classes, do the TFCD work, do the photo zines, the 365 projects. All that is so you can live it. You can love it, because it’s what you are. The moment you say that phrase, it’s what you do.
I recently ordered a Shootsac, a great way to solve a problem every photographer who shoots with multiple lenses faces: What to do with your extra lenses while you are shooting? When I’m at a wedding, I usually carry a 17-55, a 85 1.4or 1.8 and a 70/80-200 2.8. That was when I was shooting DX, but due to a recent investment, I joined the Nikon FX camp with a brand new D700 and now I’m back to shooting primes. I’ll be carrying a 24, 35, 50, an 85 and a 80-200. Five lenses. In the past, even when I was carrying only 3 lenses, it was always a problem carrying the other lenses around, I would usually sling a smaller camera bag on my shoulder which was a pain. Especially because you would have to keep the lens caps on when you put a lens back in the bag. Enter the Shootsac, it’s made of neoprene firm enough to hold the lenses in place, and soft enough so that it doesn’t scratch the glass. When I got home today I found a box from Adorama on my front porch.
I was wondering how I would wear the ShootSac along with theR-strap that I usually wear when I shoot, two straps crossing each other across my chest, but I’m anxious to try it out during a live shoot!
I loved the tip card from Jessica Claire, I wonder if you get a different one for every product you order. You can change out the covers for different patterns, the majority of them are more feminine, so I stuck with the basic black, can’t go wrong there! One thing that I did notice walking around with it, the neoprene gets hot against your body if you wear it messager bag style. I’m going to have an opportunity to test it out fully in a little under a week and a half, can’t wait!
Being an amateur photographer, I’ve experienced when I’m out somewhere taking pictures of something, anything and someone sees what I’m shooting with, I get asked if I shoot ____ (family portraits, weddings, etc). Last October I was at my niece’s birthday party, at Incredible Pizza, and one of the people working there was getting married and she asked me if I had a business card because she was looking for a wedding photographer. Business cards? They’re something that I know that I needed to get at some point in time, but also something that I stressed about quite a bit. I wanted them to be perfect. Did I need an image? or several images? Which ones? Did I have “those” images that I could put on a card to advertise what I do? What about text? What about color? Vertical or Horizontal? I was sent an invite to attend a Pictage group meeting (which people who weren’t members could come, I’m not rolling like that….yet!), where the topic of discussion was going to be second shooting/shooters for wedding photographers. Hmmm, I’m trying to be a wedding photographer (along with other subjects as well), and I’ve been looking for opportunities to second shoot for someone, and there’s going to be a discussion group on this topic, with plenty of networking opportunities. As I was getting more and more excited about attending, I noticed a sentence saying “Bring lots of business cards”….Again with the Business Cards! There’s nothing like short term necessity that motivates you to action doesn’t it? Thanks to the advice ofAshley Kinney (who also passed me along the invite to the Pictage meeting), she recommended VistaPrint, who just happened to be running a free business card promotion, free cards! so I created an account, and had them rushed to me 3 day FedEx, and I must say for free business cards, I’m pleasantly surprised and happy with the way they turned out!
As I’ve been working on developing my music portfolio, I’ve been replying to ads like crazy, it’s what you gotta do sometimes! Marktavious was one of a couple of responses that I recieved; so on a recent cold and gray Sunday, we took to the streets of Dallas and shot some photos….First we stopped at a downtown parking garage and went all the way up to the 11th floor, the security guard that rolled up on us was pretty cool, he was just making sure that we didn’t jump off!
I totally think that the one on the right could be an EP/Album cover photo….not tooting my own horn or anything, it just has that feel to it. After these, we made our way into Deep Ellum where I had seen this awesome red brick wall and I knew that it would make the perfect background, especially when I hit it with a 20 degree Grid spot….
This was a great shoot, Marktavious brought energy from the moment that I told him “Stand right here” and snapped the first test shots. Looking forward to working with him again in the near future…hmmm…maybe we’ll get in the studio and throw down on the white seamless!
Oh, yeah, if you want to support local artists/music; Marktavious has a single for sale on Itunes, check it out right here.
I just opened an account with FullColor Lab out in Dallas. I know that it’s probably something little, but when you have to fill in a URL for your blog/website and then a day later you get a call to say that your account has been approved and that they’re ready to fill my first order, I was a bit excited! It’s just the little things that give you validation… I didn’t know what I wanted to print, but I know that I wanted to see how they did black and white so I picked a fairly recent image that I shot toward the end of last year:
The packaging was first rate, as well as the delivery time; I placed this order on Saturday, it was printed that day, and in my hands on Tuesday…very fast turnaround.
I’m very happy with the tones of the print; from the deep blacks of the shadows, to the greys, all the way to the whites of the highlights!Just have to size it next time so that I can have a border around the edges, I’ve never been too fond of borderless prints, it was extra to have them resize and add it, just need to take an extra couple of minutes in post next time….
Even the grain is showing through nice. I can’t wait to use FullColor again! Maybe a gallery wrap next time…
Oh yeah, KRS-1 will end this post (for those that might not know the reference of the title of this post, just give a click and listen)
I’ve been waiting for it seems like forever to go to a camera show, but it’s not like none have come around these parts; they have. I saw that this past September, there was a show in Grapevine. I just always seem to hear about the shows AFTER they’re over. It’s been years since I’ve been to a show, they’re always a good place to pick up little odds and ends that you might have a hard time finding in your local camera shop, and you didn’t want to pay full price from like B&H or Calumet Photo. Plus if you want to get some old film or early digital gear, there’s no better place to get it. I was excited because my favorite place to buy my gear KEH, was going to be in the house – buying gear on the spot and paying you in cash, then and there. So I unloaded a couple of D1-series bodies that I stopped shooting regularly with when I bought my D300, and I said goodbye to my Tokina 12-24. A great lens, I just wasn’t using it enough to justify keeping it. Now that KEH put some cash in my pocket, I’m torn about what I should buy…I know that I’m getting a lens, something in a focal length that I’ll use. I’ve narrowed it down to either the 85 1.8D, or the 20 2.8D….choices, choices.
I came across this one dealer’s table…well he wasn’t really a dealer. He was a collector who was trying to sell off some of the cameras that he had collected throughout the years. He was worried what would have happened to his collection if he passed away, that his kids would sell it at a garage sale, not knowing the value of the items. He had a lot of great stuff, he let me shoot some photos of his items:
He had a lot of old Nikon manuals for lenses and for some of the motor drive models, and I wish I had bought that old Bolex! Everything that he had was in immaculate condition…
He had 3 of those Speed Graphics, 3 of them, all in excellent condition. Check out the box of KodaChrome II movie film by the old Bolexes! And he was telling me how cool I would look with that Nikon 300 2.8 attached to one of my Nikons….I don’t really have any use for glass that long, but I couldn’t disagree with the coolness factor!
Other than the cold hard cash that KEH put in my pocket, the only other thing that I left with was something else that is easy to find at camera shows: old film. I saw a vendor selling rolls of film for $1 a roll, so I bought four rolls of Ektachrome 160T:
***Yeah, you’re seeing that right Expiration date: August 1984. I’m curious to see what kind of results I can get from 26 year old film, see how much color shift I get! Even though those eighties Kodak boxes are awesome as well, I hate the thought of cracking them open to get at that film inside.
I know that it’s been a while since I posted anything – and I don’t want to let this blog just sit here with nothing for the new year posted. I’m prematurely excited for 2010; I’ve had this feeling for the last couple of months that I’m sitting at a crossroads. Both personally and professionally. I have this feeling that something is going to happen for me this year, this is going to be the year for me. I have a couple of posts in the works right now:
I had a wedding December 26th(yes the day after Christmas), that I shot as a second shooter!
I’m going to post my new year’s resolutions.
I know, I know (about the resolutions) everybody is making them and posting them on Facebook, Tweeting them, blogging them. But that’s not why I’m doing it. In the past I’ve made resolutions and then not followed through, because there didn’t seem to be accountability. They didn’t seem concrete. They were just words in the January air, they left my mouth and then kept going and going, until they were out of sight and out of mind.
Blogging, just adds a permanence to my thoughts, so that I or anyone can go back to that post and say “See, you said that you were going to do this and you didn’t” You broke your resolutions. I think that because in the past, I just like everyone else, seemed to make resolutions that we all knew in our heart of hearts that we weren’t going to follow through with, we were stretching too far. You know the “I’m going to stop smoking” resolutions – when you’ve been a 3 pack a day smoker for the last 10 years. Or I’m going to run 5 miles everyday, but you really haven’t been exercising on a regular basis. The goal is too big – therefore too easy for you to give up on. I’m going to make some smaller goals that I actually will follow through with, and there by giving me momentum to accomplish something bigger!
Now I know the rule with photographer’s blogs is that we can be serious with our words, but there usually has to be a photo accompanying the words, so here’s a self portrait of me looking serious…or looking toward the near future:
While at work today, I got a text message from my friend Josh saying that he had left a present for me on my porch. It. Was. Awesome:
I always love Josh’s birds and other assorted animals that he draws, and I’ve been waiting for this limited edition framed print of Bela!
Thanks!
**I do love Field Notes’ motto: “I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now” – something that I’m making a resolution to do next year, with a lot of other things (in an upcoming post)**
