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I get a fair few e-mails from people asking about how to get into the photography business.

I got this one recently and thought that since I went to the trouble to
write a proper answer, I may as well share it with the world:

—-

I have recently become crazy about photography, I have just bought a Canon
EOS 30D, which is producing (in my opinion) awesome photos. I’m then finishing them off in Photoshop CS2 which adds to the touch as you already
know.

I’m currently working as a chef & am wanting to change to a career in photography. My interests are food photography & aviation photography, I
don’t mind a bit of nature as well.

I wonder if you can suggest any food photographers that exist in Melbourne.

Also how to get work as a photographer in this specific industry. I know I
will need to do a course on the principles, but I have found in life that you learn better & faster when you are thrown in the deep end, I guess you
either sink or swim (is it easy to get work experience in this industry, in other words work for free) I would prefer to do work experience rather that
learn out of a classroom

Any help would be great

Thankyou Kindly,

Stewart

—-

Hi Stewart,

Good choice with the 30D, I think you’ll find you’ll be very happy with
that. It’s quite capable of taking professional-quality pictures – you won’t need to upgrade for a while.

Sorry, I don’t know much about the food photography scene. Best way to find
food photographers to approach is to look through the food sections of the lifestyle mags, newspaper colour supplements, etc, and note their names from
the photo credit. Then get to work on Google! You’ll find that most of them are in Sydney but if you’re persistent you’ll find some here in Melbourne,
too.

In terms of approaching photographers you want to work with (or publications, for that matter), the key is polite persistence. I’ve got to
tell you, we get inundated with requests for work experience or assisting jobs. I reply to all of them (eventually) and my usual answer is ‘nothing at
the moment, but feel free to stay in touch’. 99% of them I never hear from again, which could mean one of two things: (1) Soon after contacting me they
landed a high-paying, full-time gig as a photographer or assistant, or (2) they were too lazy to stay in touch.

All it takes is to put the follow-up in your diary (a reasonable time might
be three months later). The 1% that did bother to do this, are the people I work with when the opportunity arises. There are a few reasons for this.
They are probably obvious, but for what it’s worth: (1) I’m busy, I’m forgetful! – People who contact me regularly are more likely to be at the
top of my mind. (2) It shows they are in the business for the long term. (3) It shows they are organised and professional enough to keep a diary and also
to keep their word.

If you follow this simple process (and are courteous and professional in your attitude), I GUARANTEE you’ll get a gig eventually.

Good luck, and of course – feel free to stay in touch and keep me posted on how it goes!

Cheers,
Steven

—-

By the way, I agree with Stewart about learning from experience. While it’s
definitely worth reading everything you can about photographic technique,
style and history, ultimately you’ve got to get out there and find out for
yourself. Of course if you want to go to uni for the social scene, that’s
fine too 🙂

Technorati Tags: photography jobs, photography business, work experience, photography training

I’m on the telly!

Well, not me, personally… but my friend and client James Tuckerman, founder and publisher of Australian Anthill magazine. So that’s almost as good.

There is a transcript on the ABC Inside Business page and the little video clip is at the bottom of the page.

Check it out!

Technorati Tags: Australian Anthill, James Tuckerman

BDO

A day in the life of a Melbourne photographer, part 2…

The Melbourne offices of ‘Big Five’ accountants/advisors BDO.

There’s only a small window of opportunity for shooting at dusk; too early, and the sky is too light, too late, and everything is too dark! So it’s important to plan your shot in advance.

Technorati Tags: photography, building photography, architectural photography, dusk photography, exterior photography, night photography, commercial photography, professional photography

Auctioneers

A day in the life of a Melbourne photographer, part 1…

Auctioneering involves a lot of showmanship – so photographing these guys was a lot of fun (even at eight o’clock in the morning)!

Technorati Tags: photography, commercial photography, professional photography, people photography, auctioneers

I know it’s not winter yet, but boy are we getting some cold nights in Melbourne!

Which got me thinking – now is a good time to start planning to any photography of building exteriors you may have been putting off.

What’s so good about photographing buildings in winter?

Here are three:

1. Foliage – there’s less of it. Of course this will depend on the individual building and surrounding trees, but if parts of the building are normally obscured by deciduous (European!) trees, winter is your chance to see more of it.
2. Light – Dawn and dusk often produce the most interesting and/or beautiful light. And of course they both arrive at more civilised times in the winter – no need to set the alarm for four in the morning or to stay out late!
3. Air – Although cloudless, dry days are a little less common than in the other seasons, the air is often clearer and less hazy during winter. This won’t affect the foreground subject that much, but if the picture is to include a city skyline or more distant landmarks, it is a great advantage.

Of course there is a downside, too – pack your gloves!

Technorati Tags: photography, exterior photography, building photography, architectural photography

My clients are often surprised at how long it takes to photograph simple environmental portraits – for example, company staff at their workplace. “All this for one shot”?, they ask.

But spare a thought for Cincinnati food photographer Teri Campbell and his clients. According to an article in the Cincinnati Business Courier, they may be up for a two-week wait while he photographs an ice cream.

My favourite quote from the article?

“…it is the space between Campbell’s ears that is most valuable to his clients.”

The moral?

Next time you’re feeling a little frustrated that it’s taking me, like, twenty minutes to set up a shot of your CEO, think of ice-cream. And remember how much you’re paying to rent the space between my ears 🙂

Technorati Tags: photography, photographer, commercial photography, commercial photographer, food photography, people photography, location photography, photo shoot

I promised somewhere (in my newsletter or here on the blog – or maybe it was just in the recesses of my twisted mind) to reveal the secret of getting your news release run in the newspaper (or a magazine).

You’re probably not surprised to hear me say that it involves photography 🙂

Now, I’m no PR expert (although I’ll direct you to one in a minute), but I do know that journalists are desperate for interesting material (interesting being a key word – don’t bother sending a sales pitch disguised as a news story, it will most likely go straight in the bin). And, like anyone, they want their job to be as easy as possible.

So, which is more interesting: A news story, or a news story with a picture? The picture wins every time, of course. Have you ever noticed that items that are virtual ‘non-stories’ run in the paper (or on TV) because they happen to have interesting pictures or footage to go with them?

Well, the (by now) obvious way of taking advantage of this is by sending an interesting, reproduction-quality photograph in with your media release. This will dramatically increase the chance of your story being run.

"But don’t newspapers and magazines have their own photographers"?, I hear you asking. Of course the do. But there are at least three good reasons to send your own quality pictures with your news release:

1. Capture the editor or journalist’s attention. When they pick up your release, it will immediately stand out from all the other boring pages of copy they receive. They will be able to see at a glance that it is something interesting that they may want to run.
2. They may run it as is, with your pictures. – Saving you the inconvenience of having their photographer come and tell you what to do – which brings us to the third, possibly most important reason:
3. You retain control of the content. Get your story portrayed the way you want. This makes your media release almost as good as good as running a free ad, probably worth thousands! Of course you can’t guarantee that the story will be run exactly the way you want – but the first thing readers see is the picture, and if that shows you in a favourable light, that’s a huge head start.

Of course there’s no guarantee that your story will get run at all. But if you consistently send news releases that follow the rules, the odds are very, very good. In fact, if you do the numbers on it, it’s a no-brainer. Think of how many news releases you could write and send for the cost of a single advertisement. Even if only one in five gets run, you’ll be ahead (and with your story having much more credibility than in an ad).

Anyway, like I said, I’m no PR expert. So don’t take my word for all of this. Listen to some experts. I have two favourite PR resources which I subscribe to:

Joan Stewart (The Publicity Hound) and Paul Hartunian.

Oh, and of course if you need help with that picture, you know who to call 🙂

Technorati Tags: media release, press release, news release, publicity, PR, public relations

This story appearing recently on news.com.au tells of how a study by financial services firm Grant Thornton found that 22 per cent of Australian businesses are in the ‘Super Growth’ category.

Wow! TWENTY-TWO per cent! That’s a lot of fast-growing businesses!

So what does this mean for you and me?

1. If you’re in a B2C/retail business:
   The people who work at these fast-growth companies (as well the new employees taking on), are confident and flush with cash. If you can find them and sell to them, that’s good for you!
2. If you’re in a B2B/wholesale business:
   Some of these fast-growth companies (and their entire supply chain, of course) need products and services like yours. That’s good for you!
3. If you’re in a non-profit organisation:
   There may be partnering opportunities with many of these fast-growth companies . That’s good for you!

What are you doing to become a ‘super growth’ organisation?Is it time to take advantage of good economic conditions and ramp up your marketing & communications programmes?

That’s going to be our strategy. And if it’s going to be yours, we’d love to help you with that if we can 🙂

Technorati Tags: economy, boom, marketing

“I don’t know anything about fashion. Only aeroplanes!”, I kept saying. But
Chitra insisted I shoot her 2006 Spring/Summer collection.

Fashion designer Chitra Mangma, actress Mikaela Martin, and I had worked
together previously on a shoot for Chitra, so I guess it was an easy choice.
While it’s fun working with new people, there is great advantage working with
people you know.

Mikaela’s look suits Chitra’s clothes so well (especially when she is in
character as the wholesome, yet slightly cheeky young lady you see here).

Speaking of character, working with an actress is a photographer’s dream.
Very little direction needed, which leaves a bigger part of your attention free
to concentrate on camera, lighting, and all of that stuff.

I had to have a laugh at one point during the shoot. We were shooting on
reasonably busy Victoria Street in Brunswick, and I was on the opposite side of
the road to Mikaela. So every now and then when a bigger burst of traffic would
pass by, I lowered my camera and did a bit of ‘chimping’ (viewing/editing the
images on the back of the camera). Invariably when I looked back up, Mikaela was
still in character, posing away!

Technorati Tags: photography, professional photography, commercial photography, fashion photography, fashion, modelling

I’ve just finished processing the shots I did last Thursday night for architect Justin Moore.

Although it’s usually preferable to get things as close as possible ‘in-camera’ to how you want them to look (because it’s invaribaly quicker and therefore also cheaper than doing it in Photoshop), sometimes there’s still a lot of work to be done after pressing the button.

And architectural photography is a perfect example of the kind of work for which I usually spend a lot longer in post-production than I do on the shoot itself.

This is because of the mixed lighting and large contrast range which are often present.

For this shot I blended different exposures (and different ‘processings’ of each exposure) for the main scene, the sky, the door in the foreground, and the lit area of the deck. This lets me adjust the colour temperature and brightness of each area so that it matches as closely as possible how the scene looks to the naked eye. It makes you realise just how much ‘processing’ your brain does when you look at a scene like this!

Technorati Tags: architectural photography, architecture, photographing buildings, professional photography