Have questions you want to ask a creative industry professional, but wasn't sure who to turn to? I've been writing for Fstoppers for over a year now. I've been able to share my own BTS shoots, those of friends, reviews, tutorials, and more. I've had the chance to interact and meet some great people through here, and I really want to do something more for you folks. Rather than do a fresh article this week on something I find interesting, I am leaving the content completely up to you. Want advice or curious about something photo/video-related? Ask below!
For those that are not familiar with my work as a photographer and filmmaker: I went to RIT for my advertising photography degree, graduating in 2004 to pursue a full-time photo career. In the early days of my career, I did photojournalism work in places ranging from The White House to living life as a rock and roll tour photographer for the top 40 bands. As time progressed, I found that I loved working with on-location lighting and environments and began to shoot more magazine editorial work, ad campaigns, album covers, celebrity portraits, etc (photos with more pre/post production and controlled lighting). I've shot campaigns for clients like Apple, Ford, Jeep, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, Time Magazine, and Universal Republic Records.
About 5 years ago, I co-founded a video production company called 8112 Studios. We produce, direct, and edit music videos and ad campaigns for TV and web. We started with one camera and a lumber cart and have progressed to some pretty large productions with multiple grip trucks, large crews, etc. I also started a charity site called www.NotaBully.org with some great support from National Geographic with hopes to change some of the negative stigmas towards bully breed dogs that need rescuing. I've also been a Photoshop World / Kelby Training instructor and have given speeches all over the world about photography. The above is not meant as a boast, it is intended to give you a framework of understanding of my experience in the industry so that I may better assist you when you ask your questions.
From photography to video, it has been a wild and educational ride with lots of adventure. I am very thankful to do this for a living all over the world over 100k miles a year. If it at all interests you, here is a short video about the kind of things I do on set.
I know it can be a challenge in this very competitive marketplace to survive as a creative. Feel free to ask me any reasonable question in the comment section below about the creative industry, opinions on technology, and even questions on things like business and marketing. I'll do my best to answer every question posted before midnight (East Coast/New York City time) of March 24, 2104.
I won't be able to do portfolio reviews because that takes a lot of time to do properly, but maybe sometime in a future post! Please keep it clean. I know I open myself up to possible monkey business in the comments section, but my full intention is to spread the love and help my fellow photographers and filmmakers where I can. If this goes well, we will get some of our talented friends in the creative industry to do more of these "ask anything" guest posts!
Thanks for a great 1+ year with Fstoppers and I look forward to answering your questions!
Keep Connected With Me:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sondersphoto
Twitter - https://twitter.com/douglassonders/
Instagram - http://instagram.com/douglassonders
Hey Doug! The info I'm reading here is an unbelievable help. I'm a photographer in the UK, and I'm currently working for an online fashion company, landed my dream job! I walked into it straight out of college and things have never gone so well for me, everything so far has worked out great for me (touch wood!) but I want to develop my personal work and one-off type production prices, editorials etc. Basically I want more freelance work along the fashion, portrait, beauty route, which I know is one of the hardest routes to take with an unbelievable amount of competition. I have a good portfolio and good client history, but I feel I don't have any personal style, sure I shoot a hell of a lot of personal work, in fact shooting every solitary day, but I want to homey skills with portraiture etc. Almost every photographer you see has their own style and they're own look, which from what I imagine is one thing clients go back to you for, and one thing that new clients reach out to you for. Basically I don't think I have my own style, I havnt honed the advanced skills in post production to even occupy the thought of being up there with the big boys, but especially down to subject matter and similarities in my work, I can't seem to grasp them. Do you have any tips on finding a style you love, that clients love, something which you can play on repeatedly and constantly improving to really get noticed? What can I do to find my style and find that thing I do that sets me apart from the rest of the guys out there? What can I do to look at my work and see if I already have that style hidden away somewhere? How can I get myself out there and get noticed and get the clients approaching me (as well as me approaching them!) like I said I'm only 21 and only 2 years out of college with good but not loads of experience, could it be a time thing? For my photography and my eye to develop over time?
your head is in the right place and so is your enthusiasm. no surprise you landed a great job to get your career started.
dont worry you dont have a style yet, it takes time. What are your personal interests? I like cars, 1980's movies, and action and it reflects in my work. What about you?
Wow thanks doug! Big confidence booster, my biggest influence is definitely other photographers work, I could spend all day listing names and reasons, there's to many! The other big ones are cars, music, fashion and getting outdoors, I look for lines in objects that I want to replicate, and obviously scenes is love to shoot, but also the relationships I have with people whether I just met them or I've know them all my life, the one thing I want to do is express that person and the relationship I have with that person in an image. To be honest I get inspiration everywhere I look, I have too many ideas that I want to do but struggle to get that into the lens, I feel that I have so much inspiration in my head I can't focus that down to something I want to produce, I think that is certainly one way of fine tuning you style is learning how to take your inspiration and adapt it into your work, would you say that's a start in finding a personal style or look? Thanks Doug, really appreciate it!
thats ok. sounds a lot like how I was when I was a young photographer. Everything was so exciting and new. The best thing I can suggest is to focus on a personal project or two. Something that can be part of an overall photo series. Something you can do over time. I find when you focus on content or a story you want to tell, you can best focus on a style youd like to use to best convey that. My movie tv car series (http://www.sondersphotography.com/Personal-Work/Movie-&-TV-Car-Serie...) has been a big help for me in that regard. I flush out a lot of my experimental lighting and framing in my personal work. In time, certain things will speak more to you stylistically and thematically. i hope that helps a bit!
Thats a massive help and inspiration, thanks very much Doug!!
wonderful!
Hi Doug,
Which software packages do you use for studio management/work management, customer relationship management etc
I've been researching studio management packages, but would like to know what you use, if anything.
Thanks for this.
im unaware of studio management packages personally. I use Blinkbid for usage tracking and billing. That's about as far as I go
Thank you very much!
I'm plateau assistant in Paris, and I would like to start to assist photographers!
So, what would make you give a chance to somebody you don't know?
What you would like to see, or know before hire that person?
Thanks.
Im very lucky that I've been getting a lot of applications for new assistants. So what would make someone stand out in my eyes? Experience. Knowledge of how shoots work and my equipment. Enthusiasm. I one time hired an assistant after he messaged me 10 times, each time explaining how he would love to learn on my sets and how he would benefit me. He became one of my favorite video DP's and using him in some big video jobs. He is now successful on his own, hopefully in part to the work he did with me! I also get emails from assistants that look like generic letters to any photographer that will listen. That won't fly with me considering the amount of options I have for new assistants. I also appreciate those that are respectful on set and hard working. People that are thoughtful and friendly but not overly intrusive while I am trying to work. I am loyal to my regular assistants and often throw them photo and video jobs I am too busy to do. I hope that helps Bruno! Find photographers you REALLY want to work with and message them personal notes
:D
Thank you!
Here there's also a lot of work to do with the photographers agents, and not with the photographers! (Fashion industry sometimes doesn't let the photographer's deal with everything and there's also a lot of foreign photographer's that come to do 2/3 works, and then come back to NY, LA or somewhere else).
Do you have some experience with that? (travel to somewhere and don't be able to pick your assistants with you...)
Thank you very much.
Hi Douglas,
Thanks for taking the time to do a Q&A like this, it is sure to big a huge boost to those of us struggling to make a name...
I live in a non-fashion market city in Canada, and this poses several problems in wanting to forge a fashion photography career. I have been shooting for a number of years now and am pretty confident in my craft, however, the attention that my work is generating is less than sufficient for the amount of work that I am putting in. I've grown weary of trying to push my work on social media, but there are few other outlets in my region. I do not have the ability to re-locate for another couple of years to a bigger market like Toronto or NYC, but I am inclined to make trips to bigger cities to show my book around. Do you have any pointers on trying to show my book? Getting appointments with agents//editors? Do's and dont's for cold calling? Other things to be wary of?
Thank you for your time! :)
Tim Nguyen, citrusphotography.ca
Tim, took a look at your site. Very nice stuff, but in my honest opinion your book likes like youre taking the shotgun approach where I think you'd benefit from a focused marketing approach and also less content on your website and more of just your best work. "less is more" as they say. A consultant could really help you with that. Suzanne Sease is awesome for that. She's an old friend and she helped me a lot when I was starting out: http://suzannesease.com/
Hey Douglas,
Thats really generous of you, I appreciate you taking the time to look my site over. I saw that you weren't doing portfolio reviews (for obvious reasons), so by no means did I expect that, so again, thank you.
I agree that its largely unfocussed, which I attribute to a jack-of-all-shooting approach ove the last couple of years, taking in whatever clients I could scrounge up.
Thank you again for your insight. Anything you might have to touch on for approaching reps/agents/editors would be immensely appreciated as well. :)
Cheers.
sure thing. you have a good eye, just need to refine that portfolio is all! we could all benefit from such things, even me
Thanks for doing this! Do you follow any specific rhyme or reason when establishing licensing rates? Any resources you can recommend?
I am sure there are source books out there but with fluctuating rate changes, its hard to have a set rate. I thankfully usually use consultants to price usage in a lot of cases. Remember you charge more based on the visibility of the image(s). If you want advice or talk to consultants about pricing / advice, here is a list: http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2008/02/04/list-of-photography-consultants/
Suzanne Sease and Amanda Sosa Stone are the bomb
Unfortunately Amanda is no longer doing consulting, as she just took a full-time position with Agency Access as their Chief Product Officer. I have already sent her strongly-worded emails both congratulating her and expressing my sadness :)
awwwwww :(
Hey Doug!
I've been following your work a lot on here. Out of all the writers here, your posts are the ones I definitely get the most out of. I have a few questions for you:
- What do you do when you're in a creative slump?
- As a college student, I find it hard to find people for help with shoots. I ask friends but get no's 99% of the time, sometimes I'm lucky but usually I'm not. Do you have any advice for finding the right people?
- How much of your time is spent doing personal work compared to commercial/paid work. I know personal work is a huge thing for you and you do a lot with it, but how much personal work is there in your year?
- Your "Not a Bully" campaign/charity is amazing. I love studio portraits with animals, they never get old. How did that start beyond photographing your own "bully breed"? Did you go to a shelter and offer to volunteer? What process went into that?
Thank you
ill answer your questions in order you asked them:
- here is 3 helpful articles to help with creative slumps: http://fstoppers.com/breaking-out-of-a-creative-slump http://fstoppers.com/34-ways-to-stay-creative http://www.sondersphotography.com/blog/2012/03/21/key-to-a-successful-fr...
- hmm. i remember those days in college. Offer incentives. Let them shoot with you? Offer food and other bribes? its easy to find helpers now that folks find they want to learn something from me, but I had trouble too back in the day. I started to do regular photographer hangouts in my old town of DC. we would gather for beers or coffee to talk about whatever, but it also allowed everyone to meet their peers. It was great because soon after that, i saw on facebook how the photographers that came to my meetups started to help each other on set to learn from each other. Maybe its time to create a loyal group that help each other when they need it! hope that makes sense
- hard to put a percentage on work vs personal. Im so busy with work i find it hard to create time for personal work, but I always have one personal series lingering in the background for me to do when I have free time and a nice day out and maybe helpers to get involved
- youd be amazed how responsive folks are when it comes to charity, especially when it comes to kids and dogs. When folks find out you are looking for help for a charitable purposes, word spreads very quickly on social media. I was lucky because I told one of my magazine editors in DC my intentions as I was starting not a bully and they happily offered me to write an article about it (for free) and show examples of emma's portrait and telling my story behind what I was trying to do. I ended up receiving hundreds of emails. Social media loves a good cause that you believe in!
not sure if you are still on here doug.. but I read some photographers who talk abou ttheir experience photographing celebreties being so difficult has that been your experience.. also if I am an aspiring actor how do I find out about auditions for major movie productions? *as an extra*
I wrote an article about photographing celebrities here that you may enjoy: http://fstoppers.com/3-minutes-of-setup-and-2-shutter-clicks-the-reality...
I cannot give good advice on where to find out about castings for major movie productions.
I think I remember seeing this may have been part of what sparked my question thanks!
Hi Douglas, What is inside your camera bag, and what camerabag do you use? :-D
Not 100% up to date, but here it is for the most part: http://www.sondersphotography.com/blog/2012/10/31/whats-in-my-travel-com...
Also, my lighting case: http://www.sondersphotography.com/blog/2013/12/09/need-an-indestructible...
I have read your blog about your cameragear, you sure rock your gear like a boss!
;-)
I Have a some questions tought:
The first concidering about your Canon 100mm L f2.8 lens. Why choose for this lens? And not for let's say the canon 135mm f2.0? Quite interested to hear your toughts about this, couse i am considering a telelens prime. I know the 100mm is quite sharp and has the image stablisation build in, 135mm has no stabilisation is but is the sharpest of the l lens (so they say) and has a better light sensitivy.
My second question is considering the flash, do you always use flash when shooting portraits or do you also use natural lightnings?
My last question is about the pictures on your website. How do you use to show the portfolio, i know the webserver/host compresses the image files, so what steps do you take to upload them in such a sharp/detailed quality?
Thanks for the feedback.
- 100 vs 135mm. I shoot most with my phase one, but when I do use the canon, I loved the 100 2.8 L for portaits. So sharp. I have no experience with the 135. Im sure its nice.
- Yes, some are flash, some are natural light, but most have some sort of flash involved
- I export the images to look best for my site. Aphotofolio,com makes it easy and its sites are encoded very nicely. I export to the format they suggest and I sharpen my images based on that size and it looks nice.
Hi Doug! For quite awhile I've been wondering how did you light up the car in your composite photograph and why you used that light/modifer X?http://www.sondersphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Sonders_Mach_W... Also how many shots did you have to take of the car to get that result? Great that you give this opportunity to ask about your work!
-Joel
2 shots Joel. 1 for the car/background and 1 for the arm. you may enjoy this BTS video on the shoot and the BTS photo as well: https://vimeo.com/54923066
Looks like "keep it simple" is the way to go :) thanks for the behind the scenes!
sure thing. i have lots of BTS videos like this on my site. hope they help
bts pic
Hi Doug,
Whats the best way to find clients when you are first breaking out into the industry. How do you separate from the pack?
Thanks
read the questions and comments below! may be a big help! we've covered a lot of that. thanks for the question
Thanks man! I appreciate it. One question that may not have been covered, do you rent lease or own your equipment? How do you feel about loans on getting the equipment that you truly want versus saving up for it and then eventually getting it?
I own everything I have except I financed half of my Phase One back. Its tax deductible to do so and i preferred to be more liquid financially than write one big check at once. Plus I build digital fees that pay for my camera into every big shoot so it all works out. That being said, I sold my 1966 mustang to pay for my first set of camera gear years ago. Everything I bought since then I only purchased if I had the cash to do so or an upcoming paid job REQUIRED that I have some sort of piece of equipment. Otherwise I would rent the gear I needed for bigger shoots until I needed or was able to buy what i wanted/needed. Not a big fan of telling someone to get a bunch of loans to buy the biggest baddest gear up front. I did a lot early on in my career with a Canon and 2 used White Lighting flashes I bought on ebay. LEarned to appreciate what I had and built my kit from there as I saw needs
Awesome thanks man that really helps!
Hey Doug,
Thanks for taking the time to do this!
A few technical ones for you:
1) Does final output (print/screen/web) affect how you retouch at all? or do you just work your files up and then let the agency/client/printer take care of the rest?
2) What do you supply your clients with and how? i.e. RGB TIFF's via FTP
3) What are you currently using in terms of hardware for display and display calibration
Thanks again, much appreciated!
1) yes of course. i try and color correct my own files before they arrive to the client
2) depends on their needs. all of the above
3) I use the Spyder 4 elite. Calibrate my monitors every month
Thanks Doug, does your approach to the retouch/colour correction change at all if you know the final output/usage?
Hello Douge,
I hear a lot of people focusing on either photography or film but you do both. I started out doing filmmaking through high school and have been working on my photography but was wondering how did you manage to market yourself as a photographer and filmmaker successfully without confusing people on the services you provided.
Douge. Never been called that before! To answer your question, I've been a photographer the longest. My production company is only 5 years old and was started because pre-existing clients that trust me started to express a need for video. My video company is completely separate literally and legally and I market my photo and video work completely separately, but offer video as a side speciality to my photo clients, but my video company's clients are 75% different than my photo clients. hope that helps
Hey Doug,
Do you do the dew?
i dont drink soda
Hey Douglas,
I just completed my U.G. and I am trying to get into the photography/videography business.
I was wondering how important is a formal education in this field is and does it help?
Also since I am starting, should I go full time or do it part time and build my portfolio?
Thank you so much.
formal education helps, but I Know photographers that never got an education and are doing great. I also know people that have degrees but never did anything with their careers. Its all about what you do in your free time to keep your skills developing. You can learn a lot with online courses and studying the styles of people that inspire you.
Sure, i typically suggest easing into a career rather than quitting your job and going all out, unless you have a pre-existing amount of photo work. Take it one step at a time.
How important is it, in your opinion, to use your own name as your photography brand?
Unless you own a studio that has several shooters or offer multiple services and want to make yourself seem like a bigger company, I believe that every photographer should brand themselves, not a made up company name. For example, my production company is 8112 Studios, but thats because its not : Douglas Sonders makes videos. Its a company with multiple crew members, where my photo company is me. Douglas Sonders Photography. People hire me for me and my style. That make sense?