Old vs new photographer...

Ok, here I go again. Not the film/digital thing but more towards the old/new photographer. I was out taking an order the other day from a wedding client at her work. As I was waiting for her, another lady started to ask me questions. Her daughter was married last year in Napa and she wanted my thoughts on some things. She informed me that she was not happy with the photographer her daughter hired. Reason was that the photographer did not take may family groupings. They were more of the quick moment type of photos. I explained that was the "trend" now. Not so many of the family groupings that we all are used to seeing, but the "get what you can" type of photos.

The lady understood what I was saying but told me she wished she had talked with her daughter more. We then came to the same thought that when you are looking for a photographer, look at how long he/she has been taking photos. If you want the classic type of photos, go with someone who has been doing photos for 10-15 years. If you like the "get what you can" type of photos, get someone who has been doing photos for less that 10 years.

As I fall into the over 10 year, I learned you must shoot for everyone, Mom and Dad, bride and groom. Shoot a bit of both. But I know both. I sometimes think the less than 10 year never learned that.

I think the best thing she told me was that after seeing the photos I did for the lady I was taking the order from, she would have paid for me to fly to Napa and do her daughters wedding.... So close, but so far away....

What has happened?

This thought is long time in coming. For a few years now I have lost a few clients and then ran into them on the street. The normal exchange of "how you doing" and such but then it turns to "how's the photo work" and the conversation heats up. They tell me how they had a friend who just bought a new digital camera and wanted to do there family or wedding photos. Well, lets just say they were not happy. These clients, after using a photographer who has spent most of there adult life thinking and breathing photo's, now has hired someone who just wants to try being a photographer. Here to day, gone tomorrow.

As I get older and think about this, I am glad I learned during the film days. Digital is the easy persons way out of a bad day shooting. Film, manual settings and focus gave us the insight to look at things and know what is right and wrong. I hear more digital shooters say, " I can fix that in photoshop" I can see that on some photographers headstone in years to come.....

The one I like the best was my wife came home and told me about a person she used to work with. They hired a photographer who has been around for about 2 years. They did his daughters wedding and he was a friend of the grooms. Once the wedding was over, it took 3 months to get the previews back and there were only 60 photos on the CD and he said most were out of focus or something else was wrong. The "contract" said they would recieve 150-200 previews. Small claims court is in there future. And it cost them $600..... My wife asked why he did not ask me to do the wedding..... friend of the groom....

This is what makes me so proud of my wife, she told him "Randy has been doing weddings for 30 years, he learned on film and knows what to take at weddings and what will look the best, he does not do this as a sideline, this is his job."

It may have taken me 48 years to find Lee, but I am sure glad I waited.

Been some time...

It has been awhile since my last post so here goes. Summer is almost over and fall/winter is just around the bend. Lee is just needing to get back into the mountains so we went to Chain Lakes for what we thought was 3 days. Well the weather had different ideas. We hiked out after 2 days when rain/snow started. It was still a great time and we enjoyed it. We hope to get out a few more times maybe just a bit lower so snow may not be such a threat.

I did some photo judging at the local fairs and what a great time. I have done it before, maybe 6 or 7 times and enjoyed it. The comments that I get from people who have entered photos goes from the "wow, I got a red ribbon" to "why did I get a red ribbon?". Great conversation begins after that. It is also interesting to hear the comments from my fellow judges. Why they like a photo or not. Then the banter that we get into. What fun.

Still working on my need to get back to film. I find it hard sometimes to pickup the old Nikon when I remember that it will cost me $10 to get the film processed and scanned when I can just use the digital and have no cost..... what to do.... go with my heart or go with my wallet.....

Well, here is a photo that I took with my little Nikon coolpix S2 digital. It is up near the headwaters of the Icicle River. Enjoy!!!

As I look at other photographers work these days it looks like everyone is trying to make there own style, set them apart from the others. I see different photos that range from a bride, in her wedding dress climbing a brick wall to very static bride and groom standing, like they are getting a mug shot for jail or have just joined the army. What I find that I do not like about all this "finding your style" is are we doing a dis-service to the wedding couple? Are we giving the couple a "style" that in a few years (or months) will be out of style and will they look at them and go "what was I thinking or what was the photographer thinking?" Remember your senior photos from the 70s or 80s??? We all look back at our parents wedding photos, the great black and white classic photos that even today are what we all think are so great. So why is it that we must try this way of making us stand out? What is wrong with the classic style of photography? I must not be "hip".

I am a classic photographer, and will always be one. It is good today and will be great in years to come. Think about that the next time you do photos of your family, wedding. Do you want it to last, or just be the "style" for today.

Photography and the movies....

I was talking with a friend today and he was asking me about movies I had watched lateley. He talked about a movie called "300" and Avatar, both I have not seen. As I thought about it, I told him I have not seen them and he asked why, they are great movies. I think it goes back to my film/digital debate and explained to him that I am not real big into movies that go past "real". That goes along with why I shoot film, scan them so I can see what they look like, but I send the film in for prints. I do not use the scans. I want my work to have that look of real, not fake that digital sometimes gives off.

So here is another thought that runs in my mind, that does not make sense, but to me it makes me go Mmmmmmmm.....

My retouch with film....

My last post I told you about taking my Nikon Action Touch point and shoot camera, loading it with Kodak Tri-X film and getting back to what I know, film. Well, here are the results. I am pleased. Tri-x is a 400 ASA film and shows grain. But I like it. Somewhat better than the sharp, clean digital photos everyone has come to like.

My next try will be with my trusty Nikon FM2 and Nikkor 28mm f2.8. I hope these will be the cameras I will use for all my backpacking trips this year.

We hope to get in a weekend trip somewhere soon so that will be my test for the FM2. I cannot wait.

Did something different today.

I made a decision today NOT to do the same old thing. Lee and I were heading to Lake Chelan to do some shopping and I had my hands all set to grab the digital. But wait! I pulled out a camera that I have not use for some time. A Nikon action touch. A point and shoot. A FILM camera. What you say, have I gone nuts??? No I am just trying to get back to what I know best. Film. I miss it. I sit here typing this out with great anticipation to put the film out to my lab and wait for it to arrive back to me. I even loaded it with Kodak Tri-X black and white film. The thought came to me, if I am going to do something different, go all the way. No color, black and white. Now I just hope the camera still works. Remember, I have not use it for...... 5 years or so.... O'man, what have I done..... O'well.

Once photos come back, and all is well, I will post some.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Randy

Monday the 1st of March...

March....spring is on its way. I can feel it in the air. Hiking season is so close I can smell it. I guess I should say it is here. Couple of weekends ago, my wife and I along with my brother and sister in law and a couple of the wife's friends hiked up Swakane Canyon for just the day. Sunny and very nice. Took our time and had great views. We hope this weekend to make a trip into Douglas Creek from Waterville. Another day trip.

I had my bubble burst over the weekend. I work part-time for the local events center doing various things. They put on concerts and such. The Harlem Globetrotters were just in town and I worked it doing photos for the center. I also run one of the 4 video cameras that the junior hockey team, the Wenatchee Wild use to show the games on the "big screen" that the center has. Last week I was talking with the operations manager and he told me they needed another Zamboni driver, so I jumped in head first. I started to learn the ropes and did a few days of practice and was starting to get the hang of it. I was going to work from 4pm to 10pm on Wednesday and Thursday nights, just perfect. Well, on Saturday night during the hockey game I mentioned to him that I would come in on Monday morning and do some more driving and he told me things had changed and he would only need me on Friday nights. Fridays are my days to gear up for the weekend's work with photography and there are times when my wife and I get out of town to make a 3 day hiking trip. So, looks like I will not be the Zamboni driver. We shall see, as of today I have not talked with them. There still may be hope.

I am working on something I will post soon about a photo problem. It has been on my mind and I think I have it all worked out. So be on the lookout.

Randy

Now I am more on the web...

This morning I took the bait and put a link from my website to my blog. I am going to be interested to see if anyone will read this stuff. Here we go.....

www.dawsonphoto.com

Randy

Sunday was a good day....

Being Valentines day and both my wife and I not really into it, we headed off for one of the places we enjoy. Beckler River Road. It is about an hour and a half from where we live. Our first trip there was a few years ago and being "into" rocks, we began the search for large, flat rocks for our garden. Finding many we scrambled all over the hill sides and found just the one's Lee needed. She will have fun this spring setting them all into place for her rock wall that will line our garden. We took along lunch and hot chocolate and sat on the back of our truck looking over the valley. What fun for us.

As Lee looked over her finds, I was taking the time to work on my photo's. Finding that using my digital more and more in manual mode, I am getting back that feeling of how I want my photos to look. There is still much time spent sitting in front of the Mac working on getting things right, but it feels like it is getting better and I am getting faster at it.

We hope to be hiking up Swakane Canyon next weekend, so the photo work is on again.

Randy

My first REAL thought...

I want to be a pro photographer.......again.......

I have been thinking about this for some time now and finally decided to put it down on paper (sorry, computer). I will give some background first, so you get the feel from where I come.

I started photography in high school, around 1974. After school, I kept most of my 35mm gear, Nikon FM and a few lenses but did not do that much, just things for my personal use. In 1981, having worked many jobs that just did not feel “right”, I put all my effort into a photo business. I started with myself and my girlfriend, she worked with a local photographer. She quit him and decided to go along for the ride and see where it would take us. We both worked very hard and after a couple of hard years, we were doing 75-100 weddings a year and 300-400 seniors, 7 days a week, 5am till, somedays, midnight. It was great!!! NOT!!! After 4 years I felt burnt out and wanted to slow down. She did not. We split everything, she when her way and me mine.

Well, here it is, 2009 and I am still doing photography. Not as much, but enough to keep me happy. I made the switch to digital about 4 years ago after shooting Hasselblad for about 16 years.

Here is where I want to talk about my heading, “I want to be a pro photographer....again.....” I find that when I was shooting film, I knew that everytime I hit the shutter, a little voice would go off in my head saying “ that is costing you $1.50”. I found myself making sure every shot was right, lighting, eyes open, everyone looking at me. Everything was just as it should be. Back in the 90’s, I would shoot about 200 proofs at a wedding and give the couple 180-200 proofs. There was a very small amount of “throw outs”.

I find now, with digital, I will take 300-500 shots and give 250-350 shots. Loads of “throw outs”. I believe this comes from the thinking that anything can be fixed in PS so why worry about problems. I am not printing everything as I can edit them out. Other than knowing about lighting, Composition and knowing how to time photos, are we becoming just a little bit better than “uncle harry”? Firing off 5-6 shots of the same thing, knowing that one of them has to be good, but when shooting film with the $1.50 a shot running through my head, I would take more time, think more and get that great shot in 1 or 2, and both were great!

I am not condemning digital, just trying to understand it. Is it making us better photographers, or less thinking photographers. There is more to think about setting wise with digital, but less in the taking of photographs. I remember days when shooting landscapes that I would wait hours for the lighting to be right, the clouds to look right, and everything would come together in a photo that took no burning or dodging, just a great photo, right out of the camera. It was like the best sex of my life.

So what I am saying, with regards to my heading is, was I a better, more thinking photographer when I shot film, taking time to understand all the elements of taking the photo over just taking a series of photos with the hopes of getting the one I want?

That is it, just had to get that off my mind. I still have my Hassey gear and use it when I can. It feels so right in my hands. My Nikon D300 is great for work and those quick times when I need it now, but the Hassey is my love and will be forever. I would never sell it. It takes great photos today, just as it did new over 16 years ago.

This I am adding after reading this over and over. I just finished a 5 day hike into the Cascade Mountains and decided to carry my old Nikon FM2 loaded with the new Kodak Ektar 100 film. It was such a great time, thinking about every shot I took, manual focusing each shot, thinking about the light. It made me think so much that when I came back I went out and took my D300 set in manual mode, set my SB 600 to manual and started re-thinking everything. WOW, what a difference. It has given my digital photos that feel I was wanting. The feel I had when shooting film.

So, maybe I am a “pro photographer....again”, I just had to pick up the film camera and re-live the past to bring me into the future......

Randy

Just getting started....

I have been thinking of a blog for sometime now. There are so many things about my life in photography that I have wanted to put down and never did. I have posted to a few photo websites and never received any real good results. I hope as time goes along, this will give me the passion back that after 30 years in the photo business, I have lost. I will post more as time goes and hope to get good conversation going.