Things I’ve learned while learning others.
Q: MOST TEACHERS I’VE MET CAN USUALLY RATTLE OFF SOME KEY THINGS THEY’VE LEARNED FROM THE TEACHING EXPERIENCE. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST VALUABLE THINGS YOU’VE LEARNED FROM RUNNING YOUR WORKSHOPS?
A:
1. Holy crap! Look at that! The inverse square law actually works!
2. There’s a good part of what I do that is second nature and seems “easy” to me because I’ve been doing it for so long. Then I see there is a disconnect from what I say to what students understand. I have to really think through what I do and break it down step by step. As I break it down it usually leads to a deeper understanding of what I’m doing, not only for the students but also for myself.
3. As folks put brainpower into learning a new aspect of photography, what they already knew gets thrown out the window—things like composition, subject interaction, etc. So much concentration is placed on the new information that other things are forgotten for awhile.
4. While many have a camera; while many have a web site; while many have paying gigs on the books...not everyone is a photographer just yet.
5. The best thing I get from teaching is when I open my mouth to give advice and I end up the one most in need of hearing it. #practicewhatyoupreachzack
Case in point: Been talking a lot about mailers on my blog recently, knowing damn well I’m late getting mine out the door.
I need to stop talking and start doing.
LIVING THINGS // ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOOTS
I often get asked what my best shoot has been. I can’t say with certainty that I can peg one shoot as the best I’ve ever done, but this shoot with the band Living Things is one of my favorites for a number of reasons—and it isn’t necessarily because of the end product.
I was hired by Nylon magazine to photograph the band as their tour brought them through Atlanta. The assignment was to get a solid handful of portraits and then tag along with them for their show and get a few live images. The editor said she’d love if she could get a look in studio and one on location for the portraits. Basically, I needed to do everything (studio, location, and performance) for a crap budget.
Around this time, I was very frustrated with my photography and I needed to shake things up. I felt I had hit a plateau. I couldn’t break out of my rut. I had been looking at some older work of mine, and I felt that there was something raw to my old work that my new work was missing. Back then I had one camera. One lens.
“That’s it!”
When I finished shooting the band in the studio I walked out the door with one camera, one lens (24mm 2.8), one battery, one reflector, and one 256 MB memory card. No backups. No extra batteries. No extra storage. No lights. Me not taking lights on location would be like me not drinking coffee in the morning. Doesn’t happen. I didn’t even have a camera bag with me to worry about.
I found a location on the way to the venue, shot a few portraits there, and then followed them from load in, to sound check, to show. By the time they were taking the stage I had enough room for just a handful of RAW photos on that 256 MB card. I switched to large JPG and my counter said I had 21 images. I wasn’t going to delete anything off the card to make room. I felt I had some decent shots from their sound check so I decided to go for something different during their show. I remembered that my D3 had a multiple exposure mode. I’d never used it before. I set the camera to black and white, and to shoot four frames per exposure.
The PE at Nylon loved them. “Oh my God! Something different! Awesome!”
Something in my brain was set free that day. Some barrier that wasn’t allowing me to progress was taken down. Putting some tight limits on myself made me think more. Shooting in-camera multiple exposures during a live show was frustrating and awesome all at once. I was really proud of that shoot when I was done. I shot clean. I shot dirty. I shot in studio, on location, and at a show. Tried something different. I now regularly head out on location with limited gear and it makes me happy.
Living Things on a cyc wall. :: Nikon D3 / 35mm / f9 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100 / Two Alien Bee 800s lighting the background. One Alien Bee 1600 in a 50″ Westcott Apollo softbox as the main light, flying on a boom over camera position.
Nikon D3 / 50mm / f6.3 @ 1/6th @ ISO 100 / Available light.
Nikon D3 / 24mm / f4.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 400 / Available light with a half silver/half gold reflector to camera left.
Nikon D3 / 24mm / f2.8 @ 1/50th @ ISO 6400 / Available light, in-camera multiple exposure of four frames.