PixelatedImage Blog

When I was 16 I wanted to be a professional photographer, shoot for the yellow rectangle, all that. I think in part because I felt like I wouldn’t be a real photographer unless I was making a living from it. Then something clicked and I think one of the reasons I dodged doing this professionally for many years was because I didn’t want the demands of vocation to steal the joy from something I loved so much. But I was still dogged by words like “amateur” and “hobbyist,” if only because it felt like I was being defined by what I wasn’t - a “professional.”

Pursuing your vision and loving your craft has precisely nothing to do with how you make your living. The real photographer is the one who shoots what she loves and is committed to learning her craft well. Money often just makes it unnecessarily complicated.

In fact, abstaining from career photography can have advantages, and as a follow-up to yesterday’s post about “going pro,” I wanted to add a little perspective to the would-be converts. Abstaining from career photography:

Can mean having a day job to fund the gear you want. Pros are often forced to spend their money on necessities: marketing materials instead of the 14/2.8L lens they want. The hobbyist gets the cool lens, the pro gets postcards.

Can mean the flexibility to shoot what you want to shoot without the demands of clients hemming in your artistic impulses.

Can mean being free of the pressure to create on demand.

Can mean the freedom to pursue the art of your vision without commercial concerns or distractions. Ideally a working photographer finds/makes the time for personal projects she is passionate about; it just doesn’t always work out that way.

Can mean the freedom to love your images without feeling like they’re only truly good photographs if someone buys them. Allowing your vision to be validated only by dollars is a terrible trap.

In the best-case scenario, doing this for a living is as good as doing it as a hobby. Sometimes more so. Doing this for a living can mean doing it more, pressing deeper into the art simply from necessity, and being able to write off some cool gear. I love doing this and making a living at it, right now I wouldn’t change that for anything. But the notion that you aren’t a real photographer until people are paying you is rubbish. Vincent Van Gogh didn’t sell any of his work during his lifetime. Sure, he went crazy and lopped an ear off, but he was incontrovertibly an artist.

So if “going pro” allows you to both make a living and pursue your vision - go for it. If remaining a hobbyist allows you to pursue your vision without the pitfalls of making it your trade, go for it. Either way, serve your vision with passion. Shoot what you love, even if it costs you (and it will!), that’s when you’re a real photographer.

TripAdvisor.com has published their 2008 Traveler’s Choice Destination awards and the pdf is available for download HERE - if you’re passionate about traveling the globe this list of top destinations is a wonderful distraction.

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While we’re talking travel and top picks for destinations, here’s a link to the Canon/Microsoft Top 100 Iconic Locations Contest. I don’t have much interest in the contest, but the top 100 locations are interesting. Always as interesting to see what got excluded as it is to see what got listed. Link HERE

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Earlier this month I held an ill-fated design contest - up for grabs was a 4GB 300x Lexar CF card but the stipulation was that there had to be a minimum of 10 entries. I thought I might even bend for 9, but the total submissions tallied at 7, so I get to keep the card. Thanks to those who entered. Next time I’ll plan a contest that doesn’t fall directly into the middle of a planned blog-migration - that was poor planning on my part.

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If my monthly desktop wallpaper didn’t do it for you this month, check out the offerings from colleagues Matt Brandon (link here) and Gavin Gough (link here). Just don’t tell me, I don’t handle rejection well.

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In July I’ll be teaching for a week at the YWAM School of Photography in Kona, Hawaii. I’m very excited about spending a week in a small class unloading some of the grey matter I’ve been accumulating. I’ve been alot of places, but Hawaii isn’t one of them. Hoping by then to have a housing for my 5D or perhaps just one for a G9, but I’d love to spend some time snorkelling and shooting in the water. I live 30 seconds from the beach here in Vancouver but most of the year even the seals look like they’d rather be on land with a hot cup of coffee. Anyone with a passion for teaching knows how exciting this kind of thing can be. I’m counting the days…

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Lastly, in the category of “I’ll never buy one but man is this thing cool” - the Rolleiflex MiniDigi AF 5.0 - I defy you to look at one of these and not imagine yourself feeling really artsy using one. It’s a tiny, 5 megapixel TLR replica and I want one. If money were no option I’d immediately order one of these, a black turtleneck, and a beret from Amazon.com - More info HERE.

Sure, it’s a toy, but it’s a really SEXY toy. I don’t mean to feed the gear-lust, but sometimes you just can’t help but drool.

Lessons Learned on Assignment: Shooting in Extreme Cold
By David Duchemin

By far, the vast majority of my assignment work takes place closer to
the equator than to the Arctic Circle. I am more comfortable battling
the heat and the challenges associated with shooting in high
temperatures and humidity than I am in the cold. In fact, it’s been
years since I shot in the cold and the snow. All that changed when my
favorite client asked me to shoot in Mongolia this February, rather
than Thailand as planned.

The challenges associated with shooting in the cold are
unique and demand the same attention as shooting in the heat. There are
three main concerns: making sure you keep working, making sure your
cameras keep working, and making sure the images look great.

YOU
At what point you seize up
in the cold and stop functioning altogether is a personal thing. If you
grew up in Southern California, you’re likely to have a much lower
tolerance for the cold than someone who grew up in Churchill, Manitoba.
But at a certain point, cold is just cold and you must dress for it.
You can’t work or think if you’re not warm, but you if you’re so
bundled up that you lose your mobility, it becomes equally impossible.

The secret is dressing in layers. Start with good
polypro or expedition–weight underwear, both tops and bottoms. Then,
good layers of fleece and possibly a down parka or Gore-tex shell to
cap it off. Think in layers, and buy quality. Make sure your feet are
in liners, heavy wool or fleece socks, and good, insulated, waterproof
boots. Be sure you’ve got gloves that allow you to work without
removing them. On the warmer days of this assignment, I wore LowePro’s
shooting gloves and swear by them. When the temperatures dropped in
early morning and late afternoon, I wore a pair of ice-climbing gloves;
they are very warm but also very agile. Lastly, wear a hat, sunglasses
and a good sunscreen if you’re in the snow and sun. Just because it is
cold doesn’t mean you won’t burn.

YOUR CAMERA
Your digital camera
is vulnerable in a couple places, creating three possible unique
challenges: drained batteries, frozen lubricants, and condensation.

Battery life can be extended by keeping the camera warm
and inside your jacket, but if you’re shooting a lot you can only do
this for so long. Eventually, you’ll need some spare batteries. I carry
my spares in an inside pocket when possible or in a small LowePro pouch
with an activated Hot Pocket inside to keep them warm. Heat Factories
(or similar brand) hand warmers are excellent for tossing into a bag to
keep things warm; a couple extras don’t hurt to keep the fingers warm
either.

As for the coldest extremes and the possibility of
lubricants freezing, the best thing you can do is check your camera’s
manual for the operating parameters and stay within them. If you’re
really hard-core and think you can shoot in temps colder than -40°C
(which is the lowest temp at which my 5D bodies are documented to
operate), then you can get the body polar-oiled at an authorized
service centre.

The other inconvenience and danger is the movement from
cold environments into hot ones, which causes condensation—at best this
just means you need to wait until the camera warms up and you can see
through the lens again; at worst the moisture causes mold in your
lenses or shorts out the electronics. Condensation is avoidable if you
give it some forethought. The best action is simply leaving the camera
in the cold. If you can safely leave it in a camera bag or StormCase
out in the cold, you’ll avoid having the cold body and lens meeting the
hot air and condensing. If you must go inside, put the camera in a
kitchen garbage bag and seal it after pushing all the air out. Now tuck
it into your camera bag and let it warm up before you remove it. The
bag will also prevent any condensation you’d otherwise face from
freezing once you head back out into the cold. Adding a small silica
dessicant packet to the bag doesn’t hurt either.

YOUR IMAGES
The last concern is
making your images look great. The cold doesn’t affect this, but the
snow will. Your camera meter is a pretty sophisticated little thing,
but it can still be fooled by bright snow. Your camera wants to render
what it sees as medium grey, so will want to underexpose snow scenes by
at least one f-stop. Using your exposure compensation and setting it
somewhere from +1 to +2 will force the meter to render whites white and
prevent your shadows from plugging up too much.

Cold weather and snow can create some great conditions
for spectacular image-making, and with a little preparation, there’s no
reason you shouldn’t be out there creating some unforgettable
photographs.

I’ve just received news from Matt Brandon that the first Lumen Dei One
Day Workshop has sold out in Temple, Texas. If you’d like to be on a
waiting list, please let me know, otherwise keep your eyes open for
another one coming to a city, state, or province near you. It’s very
exciting to do this and have such a solid response.

If you are interested in hosting this workshop in your own town, we’d love to talk to you. We’re grassroots kind of guys. Meaning we’d way rather reward you for exploiting your friends and family than do it ourselves. Just kidding, our friends and family were the first targets, I promise.

A couple brief things.

1. I just received my RedOxx Skytrain Bag, the one discussed HERE. First impressions are excellent. It’s the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. This is a solid bag, built like a tank. The shoulder straps are excellent. I wouldn’t want to do a three day trek with it, but for my purposes I am just amazed by the quality. I’ll do a more complete review in the future once I’ve had a chance to test it.

2. Looking for a great way to present your images online? I know I consistently flog Evrium.com’s Fluid Galleries, but if you’re looking for something else, or something with some different price ranges - check out BluDomain. Link HERE. Some very nice flash templates here)

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Once in a while Scott Kelby reminds his readers to go calibrate their monitors. Consider this your "go calibrate your marketing" reminder.

A few weeks ago I ran a series on self-promotion for the photographer. One of the fundamentals is that you remain consistent and committed to your marketing. It’s not magic and it’s not a one-time deal. What have you done today to polish your brand, or connect with a new client? Have you sent a thank you card to the clients you shot this weekend? Have you send a reminder email to the clients you’re shooting tomorrow? Have you printed Christmas cards for this year’s clients? Have you got a marketing plan and calendar laid out for the coming year? Have you submitted your stuff to a magazine or competition this month?

Now would be a good time to do that. Do one solid thing daily and the daunting task of consistently marketing yourself becomes manageable.

Rob Galbraith’s site today reported that Nikon has just announced two new cameras. One, the new D3 is a 12 megapixel powerhouse (above) and it finally brings Nikon users in to the full-frame game. Welcome Nikonians, to the full-frame goodness we Canon users know and love and have been desperate to share with you. (See more details HERE.) Nikon also announced the D300, full details HERE.

Rather than repeat it all here, I’ll let you follow the links above to Galbraith’s site for the news. I’m not much of a techy-geek and don’t know Nikon’s line well enough to make meaningful comments. But for the Nikon shooters I know this is going to be a big deal.

Canon has recently release the 40D, and the specs are really solid, but I don’t think it’s the same leap forward that Nikon is making here. Now, to be fair, they’re a little late to the full-frame game and to the low-noise-at-high-ISO game too, but this isn’t a competition. Well it is but we consumers aren’t the players, we just reap the happy benefits of this competitive industry. So we all win.

War photographer James Nachtwey is one of my heroes behind the lens. He is thoughtful and articulate, and his images betray that fact - they are not only beautiful (in as much as they are also often stark and ugly) but they capture the resiliance of man in the midst of the horrors of war. James Nachtwey won the TED prize this year (www.TED.com) and his acceptance speech is extremely good; it bears hearing by anyone who wants to make a difference with their camera.

You can view/listen to it here as a streaming QT file: HIGH RES QT Video

News this morning of a new magazine from the fine folks at NAPP - a new magazine dedicated to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - and it’s included in your membership with NAPP, just like Photoshop User magazine is now. Yet another good reason to join NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals)

Check out the official Darkroom site here.

If you’re a Photoshop fan, then today’s news of the beta release of CS3 will have you salivating. If you are not a photoshop fan then you may take a moment and go away. now. we’ll wait.

Ok, a couple things for those of you living under a rock or for whom your only source of news is this blog (we pity you, but thank you all the same) - Adobe today announced PS CS3 in beta. You can get it here. You can play with it for 2 days then it expires. Unless you have a paid version of PS CS2 or any of the CS suite combinations (I beleive) - in which case you need your Serial number, the site will generate a new number for your trial/beta version and you’ll be up and running.

There are always a few people who like to question the Adobe Oracle with faithless questions such as: Why should I upgrade to the new version? To silence the heretics among us in a more gentle way than the traditional stonings and burning at the stake, I offer this link to a QT video by Terry White on  some of the cool new features in PS CS3, and the new Bridge. Enjoy the wonders that is Photoshop, and the new features upon which we will come to depend.

Terry White’s PS CS3 Preview

OPEN YOUR EYES TO THE WORLD THROUGH THE LENS OF YOUR CAMERA

This summer, Matt Brandon and I are leading the first Lumen Dei Photography Tour in India. Lumen Dei (pronounced loo’men day) means light of God; this first tour is designed for people of Christian faith who are intermediate photographers, to see the world and its people with new eyes and to learn to share that new perspective with your camera. The tour will take us from Delhi to Agra to shoot the Taj Mahal, then to Srinagar in Kashmir, India to trek in the Himalaya and introduce participants to Gujjar shepherds (transhumant, not nomadic). There is more information here on the Lumen Dei website. The price is incredible for a two week guided trip - partly because the leaders, Matt and I, are not drawing a fee from it. Space is limited to 7 so get in on it quicklyish.