Talk to strangers, kids!

Q: I WATCHED THE DIGITALREV EPISODE OF THE PRO PHOTOGRAPHER/CHEAP CAMERA CHALLENGE THAT YOU WERE FEATURED IN. MY QUESTION IS, HOW DID YOU GET SO GOOD AT TALKING TO STRANGERS EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE? IS IT A PERSONALITY TRAIT OR DID YOU DEVELOP IT FROM SHOOTING A LOT?

A: I used to be really shy. I’d open up only when I really got to know someone. When I first got into photography, the camera became this magic box that I could hide behind, but I was still shy and had a hard time talking to strangers. If I was taking photos then it was the camera that brought me to that place. Not me. Myself—Zack—I was too insecure to open doors to places.

Then it came time to market myself as a photographer and I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know how to talk to strangers. I sure as hell didn’t know how to “sell” myself. It was a mess.

My life fell apart. I left photography. I got a day job. Life went on. Then I had a chance to be a photographer again. I quit the day job, and it was then up to me and my camera.

Well, I learned that my camera didn’t sell me. I put my identity—who I was as a person—in that camera. I learned the camera had no personality. It was just bits of plastic and metal. I also learned that promotional material and web sites didn’t do a lot for my business on their own. I had to sell myself; I had to get out there; I had to talk to people.

My ability to pay my rent is directly tied to my ability to talk to people.

My ability to direct posing and get the best out of my subjects is directly tied to my ability to talk to them.

I realized one day that if I was going to make it as a photographer then I was going to have to get over my insecurities and my shyness, and get out there and talk to strangers.

It’s like standing on the high dive. You know you aren’t going to die. It isn’t going to kill you. But you are still intimidated by jumping off that thing. It still scares you. You can climb down the ladder and not make the jump and live another day, or you can get over your fear and...live another day.

DigitalRev is the number one photography-related channel on YouTube. There is a regular running feature where a pro photographer has to shoot images with a cheap camera. It was a bucket list item for me to get to be on the show. Kai, the main presenter, handed me a piece of shit Kodak Easyshare C142 point-and-miss camera and an old Nikon flash. I had to get the two to work together, hit the streets of Hong Kong, and shoot with this rig. I had zero control of the exposure on the camera. Luckily the old Nikon flash had a built-in optical slave and manual control of flash power. I couldn’t force the Kodak to use its on-camera flash so I had to find environments where its flash would fire and thus trigger the handheld Nikon flash. It was a crazy day and one of the most enjoyable photographic things I’ve ever done.

I started putting myself in social and networking situations that forced me to talk to people. I was broke and hungry and needed work, so I had to go out and find it. If jumping off that high dive meant I was going to pay my rent that month, then I needed to find the courage to jump.

I learned how to jump. I learned how to talk to strangers. I learned who I was as a person—who I was without a camera. I don’t hide behind it anymore. I can talk to anyone now. I don’t even care if we don’t speak the same language—I can talk. And as Joe McNally recently said of me, now I don’t know how to shut the f*ck up.

A selection of additional images from the DigitalRev shoot.