- This topic is empty.
Different Mentalities
-
joe_elway wrote:
Even if I spend 3 hours sitting in a bog and see nothing, let alone get a shot
That’s nothing. I once spent a whole day photographing a small bathroom.
Spent a fortune on Polaroids.Learned a lot, though…
Thorsten wrote:
I think if as a professional, you shoot for yourself, you develop and become known for a style. When people look at your images they identify them as being yours. If they don’t like those images, they more than likely will not hire you. If they do hire you, then of course you’ve got to take the safe shots as well as the creative images – that’s just sound business sense. Quite a few wedding photographers that I’ve spoken to tell me that when they shoot a wedding they do all the safe shots for the album and they do the creative shots for their own marketing because that’s what they get hired on! Bizarre really.
One thing to ask yourself – did any famous professional photographers become famous by simply shooting what the client wanted? I don’t think so. They became famous, and were hired, on the basis of their own signature style and what they could bring to the shoot that was different from the next photographer.
I would love to be able to do this but certainly for me its not practical. I live and work in an area where people would not know the difference between a photograph by Ansel Adams using 10×8 sheet film or by Tom Tit using an instamatic ?1.99 110 film camera. I find that 90% of the creative images are never selected and I also find the balloon being burst by little coments as Simon mentioned and described above.
When Gerry Costello does a wedding for example he does all the safe shots and the expected “standard” shots. He will then do as much of the nice creative shots as possible……… depending on time available, location available, weather and, most of all, the people involved. A typical wedding starts the church at a certain time of day. The sitting down time at the reception is 4 hours later. If that is 4.5 or 5 hours lated then you have a big bonus. In that 4 hour time frame you have to fit in such things as Mass and ceremony at 1.25 hours, Greeting line at door of church at 20 mins per 100 guests on avaerage ….(figures taken from Video operators), Travel to reception venue probably half to one hour. After that you have to work around such hurdles as; how late is the Bride going to be? …. will the church singers/musicians give a concert performance and decide to stick a hymnn of 6 verses into every pause that occurs and also strut their stuff with 3 or 4 pieces after communion as the priests sit for the 30 second silent moment of reflection that should occur at this time? …. how many of the people required for family shots will have to be “arrested” in the pub across the road and dragged kicking and screaming into the photographs while the bride and groom give them a dressing down for being a plonker? …. what little bit of “family history” has simmered to the surface and will explode at any moment given the right spark.
After all this then Gerry Costello can have any left available time to do the photographs. One most important thing to bear in mind is that you are only one of a team of suppliers on that day who are hired to provide a service or performance and that team will never sit down to discuss how that day will run !
After that is over the couple will select their choice of photographs and, yes, it is strange that they will generally pick the standard shots over the creative ones ……… but Gerry Costello must accept and respect their wishes. Bizzare it certainly is … but thats life in downtown Ireland ! We must deal with it !Did any famous professional photographers become famous by simply shooting what the client wanted? Probably not.
But the working ones are the ones who give clients what they want. Speaking for Galway …….. we have a small bunch of photographers who have developed a style and a very high profile reputation and produce excellent work but have forgotten that customers and customers wishes should be considered and respected ………. and as a result, photographers like Gerry Costello are a lot busier than they probably should be.Gerry, I’m not suggesting that professional photographers simply do their own thing. Professional photography is first and foremost a business, just like any other business. Photography simply happens to be the means by which the business makes money. Neither was I suggesting that “the client is always wrong”. I agree entirely that you have to get the safe shots. And of course, it’s the safe shots that end up in the wedding album, which is why we see so many boring wedding albums. Accepting that all this is fact, why is it then that pretty much any professional photographer that I know only use their best and most creative shots when it comes to putting together their sample albums (the ones they show prospective clients) and use only their creative work when showing at wedding fairs. Is it because this is really the work that sells them; it’s what makes them different to the next photographer. Granted, they may end up shooting exactly the same tripe that the next photographer shoots, simply because what the client wants is tripe.
Weddings are probably the worst example to illustrate my point. I have no doubt that when it comes to portrait, commercial, industrial and photography, in all cases the client is looking for something that is that little bit different. Perhaps they want a family portrait that is different to the usual “white background shot in a studio” that they can get from any photographer these days. Or maybe they have a product that they want to illustrate in a unique and innovative way and having seen your work, like what you do and feel that you more than others can best deliver what they want, because your lighting style is just that bit different from everyone else they’ve seen. Or maybe they’re bringing out a new fashion line and need something new and edgy to illustrate it.
What I’m basically trying to say is that I think it is possible to both shoot for yourself and shoot for others while continuing to enjoy what you do and also make money at it if that’s what you do. There really are no hard and fast answers or rules. Each situation will have to be judged on it’s own merits. But just because someone is paying you to do a job doesn’t mean you have to produce “safe” work in order to satisfy the clients. I know of quite a few photographers that shot what they want and they still make a good living at it, because the people buying their photography are doing so because they like it. I think as the general public become more visually aware, we as photographers need to step up to the mark and provide them with images that are innovative and creative and that they will pay top dollar for. Certainly this will happen in urban areas before it happens in rural areas and that’s just a commercial reality we will have to live with.
Thorston……sorry if it seemed I was getting at you there….nothing further from my mind. I totally agree with what you say above. I often think they see the “great” shots and think “he’s damn good ……..now if he can produce these, he’ll be good at the ordinary shots”. God….theres no answer and no accounting for tastes…..but you are right – the creative shots sell the weddings but rarely appear in the albums. I usually make up sample display albums of a full wedding (same couple throughout) and it will never look like the album the couple actually got.
I agree that there are better.Certainly in this neck of the woods Portraits are sold on what “was seen on the neighbours wall” and the creative aspect is a bit more acceptable but again I fully agree that its an education process. One of the things that will sell portraits and creativity is the furnishings supplied – such as modern framing and mounting methods. Some of the new concepts at Focus were really great and would really enhance moderm portraiture. the new Fotoblok certainly caught my eye and the Acrylic Mounting is also very mod.
Anyway, sorry Thorston if it feel like I was having a go….not at all…..but certainly wedding photography is hard work with the time constraints imposed and the fact that you must accomodate other suppliers on the day – which is only right too !
So creative shooting can be very difficult in these situations.GCP wrote:
Some of the new concepts at Focus were really great and would really enhance moderm portraiture. the new Fotoblok certainly caught my eye and the Acrylic Mounting is also very mod.
Off topic, but here goes…
Forget Acrylic Mounting, did you see the Acrylic Pictures that Rascal Pictures produce? I’ve never seen anything like it – it was far and away the best method of image presentation that I’ve seen in a long time. I think Acrylic Mounting looks great. But there are a lot of people doing it. But Acrylic Pictures are images that are printed in reverse onto Acrylic using inkjet technology. Anything whites are rendered transparent. The picture is then mounted onto a wall using satin chrome mounting posts. They look really great. Quite expensive though.
LOL….Thorston…..my big mouth again…LOL.
Thats exactly the one I was meaning but calling it Acrylic Mounting. I was impressed by it also. As you say a bit on the expensive side but very modern and stylish. But I feel this is the kind of product that best displays the more “adventurous” creative photography as it is will be seen as not just being portraiture but more of a statement.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
