Having a Crisis! Should I be sticking to a little Micky Mouse camera from ToysRUs?

[littlenomad]

I've been taking photos for a couple of years, mainly for one small local clothing label and of my own kids etc. and not on a regular basis. I own a 7D, plus a couple of lenses (50mm 1.8 & 17-55mm 2.8)

However, I've been wanting to take a few more photos to expand my portfolio, but there is just NO interest. I've offered to shoot friends (free, but I just get a smile and nod and move on), even posted on FB to see if anyone wanted some photos taken (maternity, kids, family..again for free so I can get more experience) and linked to my portfolio (see link below). But nothing. No one wants their photos taken, or at least not by me. Admittedly I don't post photos of my kids online, so the only photos most friends have seen are my fashion ones.

It's completely thrown my confidence. I want to crawl into some corner and hide. I like my portfolio (plenty of things I would like to get better at), but maybe I'm seeing it differently from other people. Sure, I'm not a high-flying professional but I thought I wasn't complete crap? I'm too scared to ask friends/family, it feels like whining: "Why don't you want me to take your photos?? Am I crap?" because there is no easy way for a friend to answer that if indeed I am.

So I am hoping that maybe some of you out there would mind popping over to my fashion portfolio and just having a quick flick through the images? I'm not asking for a critique of each photo, but just give me your overall impression. Is it just people? Or am I an embarrassment to my camera and should stick to shooting holiday snaps of my kids for the family album? I've seen plenty of people's work over the years where they thought they were crash-hot and sadly they couldn't see the stark reality. Now I am asking myself if I'm one of those and should be getting a little toy camera instead.

Really appreciate your thoughts.

Here's the link to some of my fashion images (I always need to make sure the garment is seen well, so not super creative).
Where Professional Models Meet Model Photographers - ModelMayhem

 

[e.rose]

You have some things you could improve on (we all do), but your work by no means gives me the impression that you need to give up and stick to Toys R Us cameras, and you're certainly not an embarrassment to your camera.

Who knows what their deal is, if you're offering to do sessions for free.

Maybe people are just genuinely busy at the time you're asking them. Maybe they're camera shy. Who knows.

You're on Model Mayhem... have you not put casting calls out on there for TF shoots?

When I was first starting out, that's where I got my models from.

No, they weren't always the type of girl you get when you're paying for an experienced model, but they're the types of girls that want photos for their portfolios... which means you get photos for yours.

Just be forewarned that Model Mayhem models (especially when dealing with TF shoots) can be extremely flakey. So don't get discouraged if that happens more than a few times (it happened to me several times too). It's not just you. It happens to everyone on MM at least once, haha.

Definitely keep shooting. Keep your chin up. :sillysmi:

 

[bribrius]

put photos on your face book so everyone sees them.
act like you aren't interested in taking their photos, then they will prolly want you too.
charge them something, it will make them want you to more.

beggin people to take their photos doesn't really come off well. Also why lower yourself? Why?


there is a certain element to it, that photos are everywhere and everyone takes photos, which could be part of it. But I think if you change your mentality a little, people will probably want you to take their photos more often. And ask for some money, even a little. your time is valuable and it will be clear to them they are paying for something special they don't get shooting their own photos.

if for some reason, people just really don't want photos. Don't take them. Does it really matter?

 

[trojancast]

What's wrong with Toys r us cameras?

 

[robbins.photo]

You have some things you could improve on (we all do), but your work by no means gives me the impression that you need to give up and stick to Toys R Us cameras, and you're certainly not an embarrassment to your camera.

Who knows what their deal is, if you're offering to do sessions for free.

Maybe people are just genuinely busy at the time you're asking them. Maybe they're camera shy. Who knows.

You're on Model Mayhem... have you not put casting calls out on there for TF shoots?

When I was first starting out, that's where I got my models from.

No, they weren't always the type of girl you get when you're paying for an experienced model, but they're the types of girls that want photos for their portfolios... which means you get photos for yours.

Just be forewarned that Model Mayhem models (especially when dealing with TF shoots) can be extremely flakey. So don't get discouraged if that happens more than a few times (it happened to me several times too). It's not just you. It happens to everyone on MM at least once, haha.

Definitely keep shooting. Keep your chin up. :sillysmi:

Well this is just a rough guess here but I'm thinking the conversation at the other household probably goes something like this:

"Hey honey lets get some good pictures of the kids to send to mom and dad"

"Hey hon that's a great idea, let me see if I can find someone on craigslist."

"That's wonderful dear. We don't have a lot of money to spend on this right now."

"Hey, I found a guy here who will do it for free. I'm going to send him an email"

"Wait, free? Oh no. Absolutely not."

"What's wrong hon?"

"Think about it, this guy on craigslist wants to take pictures of our kids, for free. What is wrong with this picture?"

"Ugh. Ya, right. Creeper alert. Good call hon."

So ya, most likely thats at least part of the problem right there. My advice? Try contacting some local non-profits and charitable organizations and see if you can volunteer to do some free publicity or event photos for them.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

 

[e.rose]

You have some things you could improve on (we all do), but your work by no means gives me the impression that you need to give up and stick to Toys R Us cameras, and you're certainly not an embarrassment to your camera.

Who knows what their deal is, if you're offering to do sessions for free.

Maybe people are just genuinely busy at the time you're asking them. Maybe they're camera shy. Who knows.

You're on Model Mayhem... have you not put casting calls out on there for TF shoots?

When I was first starting out, that's where I got my models from.

No, they weren't always the type of girl you get when you're paying for an experienced model, but they're the types of girls that want photos for their portfolios... which means you get photos for yours.

Just be forewarned that Model Mayhem models (especially when dealing with TF shoots) can be extremely flakey. So don't get discouraged if that happens more than a few times (it happened to me several times too). It's not just you. It happens to everyone on MM at least once, haha.

Definitely keep shooting. Keep your chin up. :sillysmi:

Well this is just a rough guess here but I'm thinking the conversation at the other household probably goes something like this:

"Hey honey lets get some good pictures of the kids to send to mom and dad"

"Hey hon that's a great idea, let me see if I can find someone on craigslist."

"That's wonderful dear. We don't have a lot of money to spend on this right now."

"Hey, I found a guy here who will do it for free. I'm going to send him an email"

"Wait, free? Oh no. Absolutely not."

"What's wrong hon?"

"Think about it, this guy on craigslist wants to take pictures of our kids, for free. What is wrong with this picture?"

"Ugh. Ya, right. Creeper alert. Good call hon."

So ya, most likely thats at least part of the problem right there. My advice? Try contacting some local non-profits and charitable organizations and see if you can volunteer to do some free publicity or event photos for them.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

It doesn't seem like she's asking strangers. She has been asking friends:

"I've offered to shoot friends (free, but I just get a smile and nod and move on), even posted on FB to see if anyone wanted some photos taken (maternity, kids, family..again for free so I can get more experience) and linked to my portfolio (see link below)"

I don't think craigslist hesitation is what she's dealing with here.

 

[robbins.photo]

You have some things you could improve on (we all do), but your work by no means gives me the impression that you need to give up and stick to Toys R Us cameras, and you're certainly not an embarrassment to your camera.

Who knows what their deal is, if you're offering to do sessions for free.

Maybe people are just genuinely busy at the time you're asking them. Maybe they're camera shy. Who knows.

You're on Model Mayhem... have you not put casting calls out on there for TF shoots?

When I was first starting out, that's where I got my models from.

No, they weren't always the type of girl you get when you're paying for an experienced model, but they're the types of girls that want photos for their portfolios... which means you get photos for yours.

Just be forewarned that Model Mayhem models (especially when dealing with TF shoots) can be extremely flakey. So don't get discouraged if that happens more than a few times (it happened to me several times too). It's not just you. It happens to everyone on MM at least once, haha.

Definitely keep shooting. Keep your chin up. :sillysmi:

Well this is just a rough guess here but I'm thinking the conversation at the other household probably goes something like this:

"Hey honey lets get some good pictures of the kids to send to mom and dad"

"Hey hon that's a great idea, let me see if I can find someone on craigslist."

"That's wonderful dear. We don't have a lot of money to spend on this right now."

"Hey, I found a guy here who will do it for free. I'm going to send him an email"

"Wait, free? Oh no. Absolutely not."

"What's wrong hon?"

"Think about it, this guy on craigslist wants to take pictures of our kids, for free. What is wrong with this picture?"

"Ugh. Ya, right. Creeper alert. Good call hon."

So ya, most likely thats at least part of the problem right there. My advice? Try contacting some local non-profits and charitable organizations and see if you can volunteer to do some free publicity or event photos for them.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

It doesn't seem like she's asking strangers. She has been asking friends:

"I've offered to shoot friends (free, but I just get a smile and nod and move on), even posted on FB to see if anyone wanted some photos taken (maternity, kids, family..again for free so I can get more experience) and linked to my portfolio (see link below)"

I don't think craigslist hesitation is what she's dealing with here.

Lol. Well that is a little weird I guess, most of the people I run into keep pestering me to take pictures for them or of them or of their heathens.

I'm actually starting to wonder if their actually any professional photographers around these parts at all.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

 

[littlenomad]

Thanks for the replies! Yeah, they're friends. And so being friends we might be hanging out or chatting and they have their kid there (same age as our kids) and I might say something like "She's just so cute" and we'll chat on about our kids and then I might say "Hey, I'd love to take some photos of her/you if you feel like it sometime." And then there's a smile and the conversation continues...before I got into photography I would have jumped at something like that: "Sure, that sounds great. When do you have time" kind of thing. I'd be very surprised if they thought I was going to do dodgy things with their photos. I look after their kids in creche, their kids play with our kids etc. I mean we're friends.

This is what I posted on FB: "I started off the year by telling myself I would expand my portfolio...and here we are in April and I haven't done much photowise...
Especially looking for some pregnant ladies but kids/teenagers/families would be great. Time for print, that means you turn up, let me snap away and in exchange I send you some pretty photos. PM me if you're keen.
Click on the link below to see some of my fashion work...."

Now...maybe that sounded desperate, I don't know? I received 1 like, no comments whatsoever. Ok, I have culled my FB list of friends to 100 close friends, but still! They're close friends, not random people I see on the street every 2 years!

So the only conclusion I could draw is that I sounded too desperate or my work simply sucks.

 

[robbins.photo]

Well there is something a little off putting for a lot of folks when they sense your trying to hard, that may be part of it. Your friends might also think your only offering to take pictures as a way of being nice but that it's not something that you actually want them to take you up on.

Who knows, people can be pretty difficult to figure out sometimes.

Best advice I could probably give would be to forget about the portfolio for a while. Grab the camera and go out and shoot something you love. Not for the portfolio or for anybody else, just for yourself.



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[Designer]

The overall impression that I get is that you should develop skill with flash. Almost all could use more light. Also, you seem to frame high, meaning you're leaving plenty of space at the top, and cutting off the model's legs at the bottom. No logical reason for this.

Also, your portfolio is a mix of fashion and portraiture. Maybe a separate page for each type.

Get a flash, learn how to use it, and your pictures will improve.

 

[Overread]

People say a lot of things in casual conversation that they don't actually mean or which people don't pick up on as meaning anything. It's just "chatter" and is forgotten moments later. It's likely your friends are being like this, they are simply assuming you "don't really mean it" or that they are not fully picking up on it (assuming your comment is a compliment and nothing more).

There's also an element of finances - they might well think that you'll try charging them for something at some point; or that they'll owe you a favour that you'll collect on (some people also loath any form of debt to another person and as such even if you offered it for free they'd still feel indebted to you).


Maybe just carry your camera with you more; when you comment on the aspect try taking a few shots to show that you're serious (and yes you will forever then be identified as that crazy person with a camera that's far too big ). Sure they might not be fantastic, but it opens the door more so and sets teh ground work for maybe doing a full proper shoot later.

 

[Derrel]

The overall impression that I get is that you should develop skill with flash. Almost all could use more light. Also, you seem to frame high, meaning you're leaving plenty of space at the top, and cutting off the model's legs at the bottom. No logical reason for this.

Also, your portfolio is a mix of fashion and portraiture. Maybe a separate page for each type.

Get a flash, learn how to use it, and your pictures will improve.

VERY good points, both. Excessive top space is something many people struggle with, and it really does hurt images where there's a lot of space above the head, but some part or portion on the figure below is truncated as a direct result. Excessive top space is doubly bad on horizontal images, since the 3:2 aspect ratio cameras have precious little "extra room" when the camera is held horizontally. But, as far as people not wishing to take you up on photo session offers: I think the reason underlying this is a PROFOUNDLY important SHIFT in the way people view family photography.

Photos have become tremendously devalued over the course of the digital age. It's now possible for people to make their own photos using a P&S digital, a smart phone, or a d-slr or mirrorless camera--ANY of which is capable of taking good photos if used with a bit of skill. Used without skill, a person can still manage to get a decent shot by repeatedly shooting over and over, until a lucky shot comes together. But also, and this is a big part of this issue, is that photos now have a half-life of like, a day, maybe two days, and then they "disappear" down the ole' Facebook timeline or whatever...photos used to stick around and BE DISPLAYED, physically, for a long,long time. ANd the very FEW images that people have printed today still DO...but photographs have become much less that way over the short time I've been alive.

Photos are ubiquitous these days; they used to be somewhat scarce, and valuable, and sought-after. Nowadays? People can shoot 300 pics on their phone in a weekend...and some of them are going to be pretty damned good pictures. If you really want to get gigs, you need to have some PRINTED and FRAMED, actual photo-graphs made up as samples, to show what you are offering. You need "product". Not words. You need to offer a physical, tangible, wall-hangable, desk-placeable, touchable, glass-over-the-top, or printed-on-canvas-like-a-painting "product".

You are offering sessions to make digital images. People have enough digital images. They might however like to own some real photo-graphs.

 

[e.rose]

Lol. Well that is a little weird I guess, most of the people I run into keep pestering me to take pictures for them or of them or of their heathens.

I'm actually starting to wonder if their actually any professional photographers around these parts at all.

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Yeah, I can't count the times I have been propositioned with an "opportunity" to take someone's photos for free. :lmao:

That being said, as weird as it is, some people are LEGIT camera shy. Who knows, haha.

Thanks for the replies! Yeah, they're friends. And so being friends we might be hanging out or chatting and they have their kid there (same age as our kids) and I might say something like "She's just so cute" and we'll chat on about our kids and then I might say "Hey, I'd love to take some photos of her/you if you feel like it sometime." And then there's a smile and the conversation continues...before I got into photography I would have jumped at something like that: "Sure, that sounds great. When do you have time" kind of thing. I'd be very surprised if they thought I was going to do dodgy things with their photos. I look after their kids in creche, their kids play with our kids etc. I mean we're friends.

This is what I posted on FB: "I started off the year by telling myself I would expand my portfolio...and here we are in April and I haven't done much photowise...
Especially looking for some pregnant ladies but kids/teenagers/families would be great. Time for print, that means you turn up, let me snap away and in exchange I send you some pretty photos. PM me if you're keen.
Click on the link below to see some of my fashion work...."

Now...maybe that sounded desperate, I don't know? I received 1 like, no comments whatsoever. Ok, I have culled my FB list of friends to 100 close friends, but still! They're close friends, not random people I see on the street every 2 years!

So the only conclusion I could draw is that I sounded too desperate or my work simply sucks.

You work doesn't "simply suck". I could use improvement, but you're doing better than half the shoot 'n burners I see out there starting up a business after 6 months of shooting on Auto -- and then get paid for it. ($50... but that's still getting paid).

Don't let it discourage you.

There could be a couple things going on 1. It's like Over said: They acknowledge that you said it during the conversation but either don't realize you're being serious or they just forgot.

Are you following up with people? Rather than saying, "I should take photos of them sometime!" be more direct: "Will you allow me to take photos of your child for my portfolio? I will of course give you finished images." If they say yes, then start talking about WHEN you're going to be doing that. Follow up... Follow through.

2. Maybe the parents are more protective and simply just don't WANT their child's photos online in a place other than where THEY can control them. That happens. Some people don't like having their kid plastered on the interwebz. If that's the reason, you respect that and move on.

3. Some people are camera shy and LEGIT just don't want their photos taken. It's like torture to them. You don't want them to model for you anyway, because your photos will be awkward.

I've never had anyone say no to me, if I asked them directly about taking photos for practice... and my work was a lot worse than yours at one point, haha. You just have to be forward about it, rather than going, "Hey sometime, at someplace, we should do this thing maybe."

 

[JerryVenz]

Being a PPA member (Professional Photographers of America) I'm asked to critique newly hatched professional photographers every day...and
your work is better than at least 50% of what I'm seeing these days!

One of the reasons it's better is because you're NOT using flash outside. Too many newbies just plop a flash on the hot shoe and blast away!
That's not what a professional does. When there is good natural light we use it--when there isn't we supplement it or make it.

After you've learned to master natural light in the many, many, locations it can be found--flat open ground, open shade, sunset beach, downtown alleys, window light, doorway, porch, barn light, etc.--then move on to off-camera flash for the times you don't have good light.

This is not something you can learn quickly--this will take YEARS.

As far as getting models, you may be chasing regular people away because you're showing them images of MODELS and these regular people feel they don't measure up--people are so insecure about their looks! (especially women)

So, tell your friends and their friends that you are launching a PERSONAL PROJECT to photograph ordinary people doing what they love!
Document their hobbies--what they're passionate about--like horse owners, mountain bikers, motorcyclists, rock climbers, skiers (snow or water), shooters or hunters, tennis or basketball players, players of musical instruments, etc.

What's great about this kind of photography is that it is STORYTELLING and does not require your subjects to pose and look at the camera thus they are more at ease and natural because they are doing something.

Photographing these activites will be challenging but you'll come out of it a much better photographer and really diversify your portfolio.

This approach has always worked for me--try it! JerryV.