I haven’t seen much on this topic, but a brief conversation with another photographer recently illuminated to me the fact that photographer anxiety is not at all uncommon. One of the reasons I believe it isn’t discussed a great deal is the general image of today’s top photographers.
As the curator for the Fstoppers Photo of the Day and our Instagram feed, I happen to read a lot of comments and criticisms thrown out at images by semi-anonymous people from all over the world. One thing I can be sure of is that when I post an image that is a composite or incorporates some sort of digital art, some people get offended. This is ridiculous and needs to end for photography to continue growing.
The search for a good deal in camera equipment can be both rewarding and painful. Nobody is as much of a proponent of finding good, used equipment as I am, but I've definitely been burned before. Just this past week I had a good reminder of why it pays to be cautious in picking up used, and more particularly, discontinued, gear.
Something that happened last week really hit home for me. Everyone probably already has heard, as it has been reported by almost every single news agency in the world; Australian photographer Brett Costello was robbed of $40,000 of camera gear in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last week while in town to cover the Olympics. However, this article isn't about him specifically.
To preface, most professional photographers are of course only doing their best to help others when they speak from past personal experiences and while giving advice. However, even the most well-intentioned words from somebody may create negative consequences for the listener. Sometimes it’s not even in the words, but the examples they tell through their actions. When it comes down to it though, you must always remember: Don’t let anyone — even the professionals — ever give the final say in how you do your photography or run your business.
As a photographer who shoots primarily on location, I have a lot of stuff to haul. I shoot both film and digital and frequently I'm bringing a small lighting kit as well. I also tend to go it alone, especially when I'm shooting personal work. Up until recently, I've been doing it the hard way, taking multiple trips back and forth to my car, in order to get the shot set up at my chosen spot. And of course, the best spots are nowhere near the car. My deodorant is doing overtime before I've even squeezed off the first shot. Being a sweaty mess while shooting is no fun, especially when you're shooting people. I'd rather not be known as "Hans, you know, that one photographer with the pit stains."
Being involved with online photography forums on a regular basis, I constantly see people asking that very question. I also get asked personally from time to time. It's usually something like: ''I'm taking a trip to Italy next month. What lenses do you recommend I bring?'' Or: ''I'm going to McDonalds tomorrow for brunch, should I bring my Canon 800mm or my Canon 11-24mm lens?'' So, being I was faced with this very decision myself recently, I wanted to share with you what lens I brought with me and my thoughts.
Virtual war. That's what Instagram declared yesterday when the Facebook-owned social media giant rolled out their latest update sharing an all too familiar user experience touted by rival platform, Snapchat. What are they doing? How could this happen? Why are they doing this? After turning over a few stones, we saw this coming from a mile away. Facebook and Instagram ultimately decided that if you can't buy them, become them.
As photographers we often get our visual references from film, and our ideas can originate from a single scene in a movie that blew you away. It's the combination of sounds, the anticipation and fear, and all the emotions that the director gets to capture and convey for the viewer to experience. But, it's also worth noting that most movies and series have visual cues that originate from older, classic movies too.
As I continue to dwell about upgrading my drone and having more creative freedom and quality with the Zenmuse X5 and choice of lenses, I am stuck thinking about all the content that I could be out creating with these amazing tools.
You are going to fail because you cannot fight the chaos. I don’t believe that, but this article is very sensible and the real first line of this piece wasn’t catchy enough: structure, organization, and discipline are the foundations of being successful and self-employed. If my formative years were anything to go by, I was the antithesis of all three. Thankfully, determination and maturity seeped in and I became obsessed with how I could be the most productive, organized, and disciplined without a boss or a separate office building and with the constant lure of Netflix.
What makes a photograph or movie memorable? With cinema as widespread as it is, a film needs to stand out in a big way, not only to succeed at the box office, but to be remembered in any capacity. As for photographs, it's the same challenge. We remember the Tiananmen Square protest photo because it captured the issues sweeping the globe in a single frame. Films like "The Shining" and "There Will Be Blood" are relatively simple in terms of visuals, but have stories that will forever make them classics. And that's exactly what makes a film or a photograph great: story.
What follows is one of the strangest and most remarkable coincidences I've ever come across in the world of photography. We've heard of photos that were blatantly stolen, but what happens when the concept of a major digital art project is copied? Is it even possible to copy a "copy" of an idea, or can two different artists be inspired to come up with the exact same concept completely independently? This is the tale of two composite photographs.
Have you ever been editing a photo within the Instagram app or just finished adding the perfect caption paired with the correct user tags only to get booted out and brought back to the news feed? Ugh, it's the worst! Thanks to the social media gods for building in a feature to save drafts within the app in the final stages of an upload. The feature doesn't seem to be available to everyone so take a look at how it works below!
Following suit with the likes of the Brooklyn Beckhams of the world, it should come as no surprise that one of the Kardashians (technically) is taking a stab at the other side of the lens (that isn’t a well lit, angled, and photoshopped selfie). Kendall Jenner’s work photographing Kaia Gerber, daughter of Cindy Crawford, has been featured for the UK-based Love Magazine. But the question that underlies in Jenner’s debut as a "fashion photographer" is what direction the photography industry as we know it is heading?
