In the latest episode of The Grid, freelance sports photographer Dave Black and freelance lifestyle and environmental portraiture photographer Erik Valind (who will be an instructor at the upcoming Fstoppers Workshops in the Bahamas) share their views on 10 of the big, often intimidating questions facing rising photographers in the industry. Throughout the episode, Black and Valind share valuable advice for any photographer hoping to enter the fields. While the two photographers come from vastly different backgrounds and work in different areas in the photography industry, their discussion reveals both similarities between varying fields within the overarching photography industry, as well as the differences in approaches that can equally lead to success.
Watching a complete episode of The Grid can be quite time-consuming. If you have a full hour and 23 minutes to devote to the episode you will almost certainly pick up some useful information from the show. If you would rather skip to the parts that you think would be the most useful to you, below we've listed the times that mark the start of each conversation topic. Black, Valind, and RC cover the 10 topics below, as well as discuss related side topics and anecdotes that contribute useful information to the conversation.
Pricing (5:12) - How do you feel about pricing? What are the challenges with it, and why do you feel like it’s so challenging?
Social media (12:40) - How much does it help? How much does it hurt? Do you tend to use it or not?
Advertising (17:00) - Do you do it? Is it paid advertisement? Where does it sit in your workflow?
Publishing (28:00) - How does publishing work? Do you feel like it impacts your work? Does it help your work? Why aren't you out there teaching as you are doing this kind of photography?
Gear (36:00) - What goes into the decision making process of investing in gear? Do you purchase or rent gear for jobs?
Vital features of the camera (45:00) - Are there features of the camera that are absolutely vital to your shooting process? What is the most important piece of technology in the camera?
Sharing (54:40) - What volume of work do you share publicly? Do you share a lot of information? Do you share behind-the-scenes information?
Client base (10:35) - How do you keep your clients? How do you expand to new clients? How do you maintain relationships with clients?
Learning experiences (1:08:10) - Can you tell us about a project that you learned a lot from? Is there anything that you’ve decided to change after having an experience on a job?
Dream project (1:12:59) - If you had a dream project, what would it be? If there was one thing that you could shoot, what would that be?
Erik Valind is teaching two classes at the upcoming 2015 Fstoppers Workshops at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas on Wednesday, May 13 – Sunday, May 17, 2015. If you are interested in taking one of his classes you can learn more here, as well as register for the event.
[via KelbyTV]
I thought I don't have spare 1h23min. After I pressed play I had found time... Very informative and interesting episode.