To the "Commercial" / Studio Photographers

[danalec99]

1. Do you enjoy your work(s)?

2. Do you get to be YOU when you work for others?

3. Do you feel that its just "work"?

4. What ticks you - money, client satisfaction, your satisfaction?

5. What would you want to be 10 years down the lane?
a) another "Joe's Studio"
b) Make a mark in the photography world

6. Where do you get your inspiration from? Do you do researches on how to develop your skills?

 

[Alison]

1. Do you enjoy your work(s)?

2. Do you get to be YOU when you work for others?

3. Do you feel that its just "work"?

4. What ticks you - money, client satisfaction, your satisfaction?

5. What would you want to be 10 years down the lane?
a) another "Joe's Studio"
b) Make a mark in the photography world

6. Where do you get your inspiration from? Do you do researches on how to develop your skills?

#1 It's what makes me happiest in life

#2 Absolutely, clients hire us for who we are and our portfolio. I love to get to know people and create something that they will love

#3 No, it's fun! Since I also have a full time job that pays the bills pretty well we do this because we love it.

#4 Money, partially. I think we are underpriced, but to build a client base you have to start that way. Customer satisfaction as well. There are times when we've got fabulous images but the client just doesn't like them. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it hurts becuase it's our own art, you know?

#5 10 years...hmmm...Sure, I would love to make an impression in the art world, but I doubt it will happen. In 10 years I would to be improved technically from where I am now and still making people happy.

#6 Research all the way. I read books, scour over every photography website that I can find and just try new things. I'm rarely without my camera so I try to take a lot of variety of photos.

 

[Shutterbug]

1. Do you enjoy your work(s)?

2. Do you get to be YOU when you work for others?

3. Do you feel that its just "work"?

4. What ticks you - money, client satisfaction, your satisfaction?

5. What would you want to be 10 years down the lane?
a) another "Joe's Studio"
b) Make a mark in the photography world

6. Where do you get your inspiration from? Do you do researches on how to develop your skills?

#1: Matters, I do enjoy my work if I get some creative leway, but if I'm told "Shoot this in this way" I usually don't.

#2: Yes and No. I find that the smaller and less powerful the person you work for equals the more creative freedom and such. The one time I worked with a kinda large vineyard around where I lived, I had to do exactly what they wanted and hated it.

#3: Yes, it is work. No, it's way better than sitting in a cubical for 9 hours a day.

#4: Ticks? Like, makes me mad? Umm, Money. Sometimes I will work VERY hard and get underpaid. It's a curse.

#5: I want to be anything related to photography that DOESN'T involve me living in a refridgerator box on a riverbed somewhere.

#6: Everytime I pass a magazine, I scan every ad for new techniques, to see what I'm up against. I frequently browse the black book, and I look at many of the works of the big name photographers that my dad used to work with when he was in the business (Like Hashi, for one)

 

[Sash[DSL]]

#7 What kind of education do you have
#8 Have you done/considered doing any additional courses/seminars to enhance your skills?
#9 How did you start off? What was it like to begin something like this?

 

[danalec99]

]#7 What kind of education do you have
#8 Have you done/considered doing any additional courses/seminars to enhance your skills?
#9 How did you start off? What was it like to begin something like this?

Cool :thumbsup:

 

[danalec99]

]#7 What kind of education do you have
#8 Have you done/considered doing any additional courses/seminars to enhance your skills?
#9 How did you start off? What was it like to begin something like this?

Cool :thumbsup:

 

[Willc73]

um,
All of the above in different orders.

 

[danalec99]

its funny to see my post(s) from last year!

 

[jstuedle]

#7 What kind of education do you have
#8 Have you done/considered doing any additional courses/seminars to enhance your skills?
#9 How did you start off? What was it like to begin something like this?

7) HS and some college. Went a little over halfway to a BS in PJ. Still love photography, just never a real photojournalist.
8) Always. I last attended a weekend Photoshop seminar in September. In early spring we attended a Ed Pierce seminar on portrait/wedding digital workflow. Never stop doing these.
9) The hard way. After I quit school (30+ years ago) I with my supporting wife started doing weddings and child portraits. It was tough, but we did OK.

its funny to see my post(s) from last year!

What have you learned/done in the past year?

 

[danalec99]

What have you learned/done in the past year?

Good question! We should do this every year.

I'll summarize it. finer details will be missing, but you will get a rough picture:
-found this forum while I was fiddling with a digital point and shoot (Canon )
-Works of Mark Carpenter (markc) and Matt Needham (ksmattfish) caught my attention. To be specific, I was moved by Mark's this one particular image. I wanted to control the depth of field (did not not know what dof was then) like in that image
-started a thread on 300D vs 10D; coupled with a lot of questions which reeked of my ignorance in basics (not that I've evolved in to a guru now )
-settled on the 10D with a 50mm f1.4 (thank you Mark!) and the Tamron 28-300 which I now hardly touch
-following Mark's advise, I got Bryan Peterson's [ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0817463003/qid=1132063414/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-5188551-2652936?v=glance&s=books"]Understanding Exposure[/ame] and [ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0817441816/qid=1132063451/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-5188551-2652936?v=glance&s=books"]Learning to see creatively[/ame]
-enrolled at nyip
-Countless hours observing and drawing inspiration from magnum (still does that)
-shot a lot. started with Auto. graduated to aperture priority mode and soon, the m
-While browsing through pnet I accidentally tripped on Jeff Ascough's work. It was a total shocker!
-met other similar styles online
-started to capture moments from the weddings I was invited. NOT as the annoying 'uncle bob'
-one thing led to another. handful of free gigs, and now by God's grace, I'm covering paid weddings, the way I want. I enjoy doing them. money is just the bonus
-will be registering framesmedia one of these days/weeks
-I can totally relate to when Joe Buissink says he shoots from the heart

I do realize that I have miles to go, but I love the ride!

 

[AprilRamone]

1st of all, great thread. I'd love to hear even more since I am just getting started and it's a little scary how slowly it goes!

2ndly, Alison, what did you do in that situation? Where you produced work that the client was unhappy with but you thought looked great? Were they eventually satisfied? I'm just looking for any advice at all on that sort of situation because I am terrified that it will happen to me!

 

[Willc73]

As far as business goes. If you don't have the client at the shoot that can cause a lot of problems. Only with projects that are super straight forward do the clients not come. No matter how much you talk about a project, you're vision can differ from the clients. With the client at the shoot, you are on the same page.
As far as ego goes, you get over people critisizing you're work. I shoot a lot for my portfolio when I am not shooting jobs and talking about your work and hearing opinions is important. My rep and my designer constantly tell me my new work is junk.

As far as enjoying work, how can you not. Finding jobs is difficult but that is life.