For the Gram

i have a confession to make. i get caught up in the whole instagram thing. i see other people with these massive accounts and i don’t really get how they grow. so i watched a bunch of youtube videos yesterday and no matter how many items were on the lists of dos and don’ts, they all boiled down to these points:

1. don't cheat - buying followers or playing the follow unfollow game is not worth it. fake engagement isn’t what i’m after anyway, so no cheat codes.

2. use hashtags - little did i know there are actually apps that generate hashtags for photos by type, location and other parameters. wild! so i tried one of these out today and it definitely worked. i followed the advice of one youtuber who suggested using the iphone’s create keyboard shortcut function to plug in 30 hashtags so all i have to do is type the word “portrait” and 30 hashtags magically appear.

3. use instagram stories - stories, especially stories that are hash tagged, generate a lot of traffic, and that brings people to your page. i’m not seeing a massive influx of visitors to my page as a result of this, but there is certainly a steady trickle.

4. engage with other people on the platform. - leave real comments that mean something and give people a reason to engage with you, too.

5. maintain a unified look and feel for your page - while i don’t really want to agree with this, i’m sure there is logic to it. personally, i don’t like the idea that i should have to create one account for trace photography, another for macro and miscellaneous photography, and another for portraits. i think if the sole focus is on being huge on instagram, then this probably works wonders. but i also think that pigeonholing ourselves and creating too many channels has more drawbacks than it does benefits. i support the omnichannel approach, but being a huge instagrammer isn’t my focus. instsgram is my daily photo blog, a place to show my photos and be engaged with others who are doing the same.

so those are my five takeaways from hours of youtube content. and the lesson i learned along the way was twofold: listen to those who have been successful, but don’t take what they say without scrutinizing it and putting it through your own filter of desire and intent. take the rules, mold them to your purpose, and make them work specifically for you. that is going to be my approach. i will chase realness and see where it leads.

Macro Monday

a couple of months ago, i picked up some kenko macro extension tubes and i have been really wanting to use them for some close-up small work for a while. i love all kinds of photography, and each specific type of photography has its own draw. and while a lot of people gravitate toward macro to shoot pictures of eyes, bugs and flowers, i think i am more interested in shooting miniatures, like toys. i am attracted to the idea of building small scenes and bringing them to life.

over the weekend, i was doing some cleanup and found some souvenirs we picked up from puerto rico last spring that we never gave to anyone, including some miniature fishing boats that were just so fucking cute.

so this morning, i took some inspiration from a youtuber who suggested using bokeh backgrounds for macro shots. i found a nice sunset image online, wadded up a blue hoody, and made myself an ocean scene. then i dropped the little boat in there and slapped the 30mm extension tube on along with my tamron 70-210mm lens and went to work.

i came away with two images i really liked. the first, because the folds of the shirt were catching some nice ambient light and the boat was at a nice dramatic angle, and the second because the setting sun is in just the right spot and the netting is very clear due to the angle i shot the photo.

the one issue i have with these photos is that the front of the boat is catching some ambient light from the room and reflecting that a bit, which makes no sense because the sun is behind the boat and the color of the light is off. i’m being super critical to find that problem, but i feel like those details matter, so next time i engage in macro work, i’m going to try to correct for that issue. live and learn, act and review.

anyway, since i’ve already broken the photo seal, here are the two images i shot this morning. don’t get too spoiled, though. i don’t necessarily plan on posting photos every day.

Friday Night Lights

up to this point, i’ve consciously avoided including photos on this blog. and there’s been good reason for that up until now. but today i am breaking from that tradition. i have decided that it makes sense for me to include key shots from the events and portrait sessions i am working here because a lot of them will never make my portfolio but i still think they’re worth sharing for worth giving more than an instagram post to.

so here are 14 shots from the portrait session that i’ve talked about in the last three blog posts. i took a lot more - around 350 clicks from start to finish - and i delivered about 50. several of the photos were different versions of these shots. i like to provide my clients with many options for each situation to give them a chance to sift through several pleasing options and pick favorites. knowing that they’re likely to only share a fraction of the images, i love being able give someone as many examples of their individual aesthetic beauty as i am able. i guess that is part of my aim to be something of an unlicensed photo therapist. maybe that is a topic for another post, but for now, i think the point is made.

About Last Night…

the photo shoot last night was an epiphany come to life. it was one of those nights where everything came together perfectly and i couldn’t have asked for better results. i tried out a lot of different ideas i have had building up for a while and they all worked how i hoped they would.

it’s late, and i have an early morning tomorrow so i will talk about this more in the after action review tomorrow or monday (depending on whether or not i am inspired to write something different tomorrow!). but for now i just want to say that the last few months of research and immersion into the world of photography have really started to pay off.

Let Your Control Freak Flag Fly

i saw a picture yesterday that made me question everything. it was such a simple thing. a photo of a girl sitting in central park taken on an iphone xs. the lighting was beautiful, and the portrait mode background blur was, well, it was actually really good. in fact, i’m pretty sure it looks better than the bokeh my canon 50mm f/1.8 stm lens would’ve produced in the same scenario. smoother, less messy, and just generally more pleasing on first glance, which if we’re being honest is all that matters. the photo could be printed at decent size and look fantastic.

it got me to thinking. what am i doing trying to get back into photography nowadays? people don’t need photographers anymore, because they’ve got smartphones with algorithms that are smarter than i’ll ever be. the camera in their pocket is nearly as capable as my first dslr, and it’s only a matter of time before large format cameras are completely obsolete.

it got me thinking about what truly sets a photographer apart. we spend so much time thinking about gear and spec sheets these days, and that’s just the opiate that assuages us. we revel in our f stops and our megapixels, but without the right application, none of that means anything.

after seeing that photo yesterday, i found myself lusting after another lens yesterday - the sigma 135mm f/1.8 art lens. i started going down the path of “my current portrait lens isn’t even as good as a smartphone in portrait mode, so i should get a lens that will produce an effect that a smartphone can’t.” but after stepping back, taking a deep breath, and meditating on it for a few hours i realized that i was looking at the problem all wrong. just because a smartphone can’t produce a result equal to that of a 135mm f/1.8 lens today doesn’t mean it can’t be trained to do it tomorrow. getting a new lens won’t solve anything.

getting my mind back onto the track it was riding while i wrote up yesterday’s post, i am remembering that the camera and the lens are only a part of the equation, and as much as it hurts me to say it, they’re probably not even the most important part. instead of ramping myself up to justifying a $1,000 new lens, i need to be thinking about the creative ways that i can take photos that can’t be taken with a smartphone, or at least not casually.

it’s time for me to branch out and work around the camera. controlling my setting, placement, lighting, atmosphere. all of these things are what will make my photography interesting and relevant. tonight i’m going to push my own boundaries. rather than documenting what i see as an observer, i’m asserting myself and taking control. i will encourage my model tonight to do the same. this is about more than simple photographs—it’s about empowering myself and my subject to be more present, more individual and less basic.

i’m not going to be doing anything that hasn’t been done before, at least i am not planning to. but i am going to be doing things i’ve never done before. who knows that that will lead to.

I See the Light

for some types of photography, having a specific camera and lens combo is actually important. if you’re shooting fast-moving subjects in a low-light scenario, then not just any kit will do. your best bet will be a full-frame camera, at least a sony a7 ii (probably the cheapest new camera you can buy in this category at the moment) or a canon 6d mark ii. and you’ll need a wide aperture lens. best to make sure you’ve got a nifty fifty handy, and if you have any 2.8 glass around, that will help.

on the other end of the spectrum, if you’re shooting landscapes and hope to print in large format, chances are you’re going to want to get your hands on a megapixel monster like the nikon d850, the canon 5ds, or the sony a7r ii or iii. and you’ll need impeccable glass to match or those megapixels will be wasted.

being that i have a penchant for landscape photography and do happen to shoot a lot of events, i operate with a hybrid system, with gear that works decently well for either of those scenarios.

but something i’m realizing lately is that having a good camera and lens - and knowing how to use it - is less than half the battle. especially as i dive into portraiture, i am finding out how much forethought and ingenuity is required to take a photo shoot to the next level. photos that i would be so stoked about a couple of years ago now seem basic to me. just having a model in a good pose, in a decent setting, and with great natural light isn’t enough to satiate me. i want more.

so tomorrow night, i’m heading out on a photo adventure that is going to push the envelope a bit. i’m bringing a speedlight with colored gels, an led light with a blue color diffuser gel, a can of smoke, a tripod, glow sticks, sparklers, and some other odds and ends, like a collinder and a shelf liner. those last two probably seem out of place on this list, but photography is all about light. whether the artistic choice involves accepting light and manipulating how a subject interacts with it, or controlling and shaping it to fit the theme and intent of the session, without the appropriate light there can be no photo.

the importance of lighting applies to all of the above scenarios. while it is crucial to have a certain tier of equipment if you want acceptable event or landscape photos, without the right lighting, you will probably just end up with high resolution garbage.

Omnichannel

a buzzword in the business world these days is “omnichannel.” stripping away all the corporate bullshit, omnichannel essentially refers to expansion beyond brick and mortar into the digital realm.

but for me, this word has a different meaning. a long time ago i wanted to be a singer in a band, and nothing but a singer in a band. it was a limited vision that probably caused me to miss a lot of opportunities that were right in front of me. when, after years of throwing myself against that wall, it didn’t go as i had hoped it would, i sort of abandoned that dream. i took some of the reasons behind why i wanted it so bad in the first place and applied them to my next quest: becoming a journalist. and then of course, through journalism, i discovered photography.

after years of non-fiction writing, i started to get an itch to dive into the fiction world. i have always had a knack for creative writing, and when i’m in my element, the written word is my most powerful weapon.

today, i’m realizing that while all of these things - music, photography, fiction and non-fiction - seem on the surface to be disparate, they are all connected by unifying themes. the lyricism of music and the prosaity of long-form fiction and non-fiction are just different ways of telling a story—lyrics are essentially a well-written outline. photography and video are alternative storytelling devices that can replace or reinforce the written word.

so rather than choosing between photography, fiction, music or any other form of expression that opens itself up to me, i am making a conscious choice to become omnichannel. today i have capacity to write, so today i write. if tomorrow i feel the urge to produce a song, then that is what i’ll do. no limits. no holds barred.

Day One

i don’t feel that manic drive that sometimes comes with a new year. not this time around. i suppose it’s because i started the process of renewal and goal setting a bit before the ball dropped this time around.

i will say this, i walk into this year determined to grow in all areas. i am dead set on completing a novel—maybe even two, if i get on a roll and can complete the first installment before the end of june. i will absolutely set myself on a path toward defining my own style in photography. i will complete my first travel video, and use that as a template for future work. and i will do all of this while achieving all of my fitness goals.

as i enter this year, i have some pretty ambitious goals. but i don’t have any doubt about my ability to meet them all. i am confident that this is a year that will mark a turning point in my life.

enough postulating, i’ve got work to do.

Resolute

i’m not one to scoff at new year’s resolutions. i embrace them. it’s always good to check in on where we are and where we want to be, and i’ve got a lot of goals to track in life. here they are:

1) complete my iceland video and establish a framework for future travel videos.

2) complete and ship the first installment of my fiction series.

3) take and edit 12 photos that exemplify my personal photographic style.

4) bring my weight below 180 pounds.

5) travel the world.

6) increase my savings in preparation for a real estate purchase in 2020.

Backsliding

today was my second anniversary, so i’ll be brief. still checking in, so that is a win. and i do have some positive progress to report, but the most significant thing i have to share here is that i’ve regained a decent amount of the weight i lost earlier this year over the past three weeks of over-eating. it sucks.

even before i weighed in, i could feel it. so we calibrated a plan tonight to get back on track and push through nearer the true goals. set up six-month and full-year goals for 2019, and they’re totally achievable.

2019 will be the year i say goodbye to belly fat and hello to a body fat percentage in the low teens. it’s not just about the improved physique that i’m after. it’s also about the improved overall health—the longevity and resiliency.

i know that i can meet my targets if i remain disciplined. i will achieve. because i will it.

good night.

Order of Operations

i had a major breakthrough yesterday after i wrote the post for the day. i finished the first chapter in the first fiction novel i’ve ever written.

i realized something crucial as a result of walking through my mental position as related to this project—that i was caught up on the character sketch phase of the project because my characters need to experience certain scenarios for me to know who they really are.

so the thing is, i threw away the character sketch for my main character and just started writing. as the words rolled out in front of me, i made several choices about how my character would react to the scenarios i’ve decided have to happen to move the story forward.

as the story develops, i’ll have to maintain a log of decisions and motivations that my characters make and exhibit so they conflicts don’t develop, but i will not let the lack of a fully developed character set hold me back from meeting my goal.

lesson learned and applied: when one aspect of a project is causing the rest to stall, it is time to turn focus to some other part of the process and do they instead. can’t afford to lose momentum because life is to short to spend any of it stagnant.

the story continues.

Failings

there are two major projects that i have utterly failed to move forward on this year. the first is my iceland video, the pilot for a series of videos i would like to create that walk through the logistics of travel in an infotainment format. i’ve done nothing to move the ball on that since i set some achievable, bite-sized goals out for myself earlier this month. i feel the pull of the project but it falls to the wayside under all of the other projects i’ve been working on this month. i definitely think that i did the right thing by focusing on what i did this month, but i didn’t set aside this long-term project in a healthy, conscious way, so even though the result is the same, the lack of intent is a fail.

i’ve also completely left my fiction series to gather dust since the spring, and i’m feeling the weight of that very heavily this week. i suppose part of the issue is that i’ve been lulled into inaction as i’ve read so many great series this year. but currently i’m between series or waiting for new sequels to be published so it’s as good a time as any to abandon my reading habit and dive into writing headfirst.

so what can i do to correct these infractions of inaction? number one, i need to slow down on seeking new photography work so that i can take the time to work on this larger project. i need to finish this travel video because i spent so much time planning for it that i need to see what the result of that planning will be. i need to know if this is something i could be good at. if it’s an idea that i could sell.

on the writing front, i am going to download a novel-writing app that will help me organize all the work i’ve done so far and to make sure i’m coloring inside the lines as i get to the actual writing portion of the project. i wanted to be well into the writing phase by now, with hopes of having a decent manuscript by the middle of 2019, and despite being behind schedule, i could still meet my deadline if i push hard on this.

i am going to check in at the end of january on these items, and hopefully at that time it will be with a link to the iceland video, and with all of the scaffolding for the fiction project completed.

i can do this.

Lemmings

i don’t know how to address what’s on my mind without sounding like a bit of an ass, and maybe that’s because it comes from the part of me that is a bit of an ass. but here it is. just because you’ve seen a lot of people doing something a certain way, and just because those people might be professionals and experts, it doesn’t mean that their method is the best one available—it doesn’t mean they know why they’re doing what they’re doing. here is an example.

on sunday night i was at a fashion show and rock concert and i brought my camera because my wife was walking in the runway portion and we both thought it would be great to get some snaps of the concert since the band playing is pretty famous in bangladesh so it would be a good show to add to my portfolio. not only that it was a good reason to flex my low-light photography skills.

while i was there, i saw two other photographers who out on the floor taking pictures and both were using the same method, snapping pictures of anyone and everyone in the crowd with their flash modules turned up toward the ceiling. i’m sure they were getting a little bit of extra light using this method, but the thing is, it was probably crappy light quality and their photos most definitely suffered. the reason is that generally the only reason to turn a flash upward is for bounce flash—the light from the flash unit spreads out and hits the ceiling before bouncing back down at the subject even more diffused and generating a decently soft light pattern. it in that room, on that night, the ceilings were 30 feet above us, so the bounce flash technique was definitely not the right answer.

to be honest, this isn’t the first time i’ve seen a photographer doing something like this. it’s actually pretty common to see people who get too rutted in to their usual techniques and not thinking twice about the theory that is driving their actions. or that there might be a better way to get even more solid results. because the truth is, while the photos they were taking that night were high resolution than anything that anyone would’ve been able to take on their phone, considering that most people would be uploading them and sharing them via social media, that advantage would be lost to compression. and given that speedlight flash units provide about the same light quality as a phone flash, these guys were running around with thousands of dollars of camera gear doing what could essentially be accomplished with a smartphone and a good $50 l.e.d. light.

i talked to one of the photographers that night and he seemed really surprised that i wasn’t using flash at all. i asked him why i should be, since the stage lights provided a much more pleasing light quality. he seemed to think about what i said for a moment before going right back to doing what he’d been doing.

meanwhile, i got some really unique crowd shots including a few silhouettes and some solid photos of the band.

i’m not trying to talk shit, or put other professionals down to make myself feel better. but i am trying to say that if we want to survive as creative professionals, we need to be creative. to not fall into the trap of doing what’s been done because we crave legitimacy and will take it however we can get it. we’ve got to think about why we’re doing what we’re doing and not just follow the norms blindly like lemmings.

Atrophy

two days. that’s all it took for me to get totally out of the habit of this daily writing routine. and today i feel the lack of inertia, the atrophy of an unused creative muscle slowing me down like sludge in the system.

this is why it has to be every day. because i’m not yet at that point - maybe i never will be - where the daily blog flows without at least a piece of resistance.

christmas eve was so hectic. started work at 6 a.m. and then helped with cooking and cleaning all day and then hosting friends until pass-out time. there was no time to blog and i made a conscious choice not to. and yesterday was christmas. truth be told, i had time, and i had capacity to write. but i wanted a day off. all the way off. i don’t fully regret it, but i definitely feel the two-day gap in date stamps a lot more than i anticipated.

the challenge ahead is not letting the fact that i have missed two steps contribute to any sense of comfort around missing more in the future. i don’t want to be desensitized by this, to become ok with missed days.

because the benefits from one week of action can be completely negated by just one or two days of inaction. cost > benefit.

Overshooting

when i am brought on for a photo shoot or an event, i tend to shoot way more images than i hand over to the client with the final edits. on friday i photographed a law school grad party, and shot 990 photos over the course of four hours. that’s more than four photos per minute for 240 minutes.

one of the reasons for the massive quantity of photos is that i shoot almost every frame at least twice to make sure i don’t have camera shake or motion blur, to make sure everyone’s eyes were open, and to make sure the lighting and exposure were just right, that the shadows are pleasing or at least able to be edited into submission.

i don’t know how many times i’ve been sure i got a good photo only to realize later that someone moved just as the shutter was actuating, or that someone was too far in front of or behind the focal point and were turned into a puddle of mud because my aperture was too far open.

i still have an actual after-action review to complete for friday’s shoot, and another for an infant baptism i shot yesterday, but those will have to wait to tomorrow. for now, wifey and i are headed to a fashion show wherw she’s going to be strutting her stuff on the runway and i’ll be doing even more photography.

before i go, though, i should probably finish this post by telling disclosing that out of the 990 images i loaded on to my memory cards that night, i shipped 243 to the client. just over one photo per minute. that’s still a shit ton of photos. and i’m glad to say the client was very happy with what they saw.

Be a Person

the best advice i can give to anyone who wants to be a working photographer is to be a person. what i mean is, be human. kindness, a malice-free sense of humor, and an understanding that you’re being paid a significant hourly wage to do provide images that are leaps and bounds above what they can produce with the camera in their pocket.

from a technical perspective, this can be accomplished through a variation of focal lengths and apertures, and a mixture of ambient and artificial light.

the technical aspects of photography are crucial to producing quality photos by intent rather than accident. but more important is the human element. anyone can learn to operate a camera and produce technically excellent photos. but only a certain mindset will take the photos to that next tier, the level that clients are really hoping for when they hire you.

my approach is to be observant; to learn quickly from what i see so i can adapt to the actual situation in front of me rather than simply forcing the situation into the templates i’ve decided upon in advance (that doesn’t mean i don’t go in with templates in mind, just that i build them from malleable clay). i strive to delve empathetically into the personality of my clients so that i can draw out images they will look at and say, “that is so me!”

what im getting at is, if you want to capture a person, you need to think and feel like a person. it seems ridiculous to have to say that, but i’m often surprised by how easily people forget that.

Words

it probably seems strange. to have a blog that is, at least so far, almost entirely focused on photography that has no photos. but it’s a conscious choice.

as i discovered early on in my journalism career, photos have a way of telling the story for you. the right photo can do more to convey the message you’re sending than anything less than a mountain of words could accomplish alone. that is what drew me in to photography in the first place.

what’s so bad about that? nothing really, except that the point of this blog is to force me to very consciously walk through ideas in a way that creates a catalogue of the thought process, of the becoming. i could easily just slip a couple of photos in here and force future me to come to my own conclusions about where i was at mentally when such and such happened. but what good is that?

i chose not to include any images in my photo-focused blog because i don’t want to allow myself any crutches. i need to feel the full weight of the learning process and to spell it out line by line without visual aids, such that my ramblings about the learning process become a part of the learning process.

stock henry and i have been talking back and forth a lot about commitments, about what is essential and what is a distraction. i told him that if the blog is becoming a distraction that he should let it go and focus on those things that are more presently useful for him. but the truth is, without a script there is no movie. without notes, there can be no study.

after about a month of daily blogging, i think i am finally realizing how useful it is. how important words are, even for a visual artist. if i can’t tell a story with my words, then how could i possibly hope to succeed in telling a story through any other medium?

Blank

today i am blank. i have thoughts but none of them worth jotting. writing this by rote. dazed and out of phase. tossing words against the wall like a rubber ball and hope they come back to me with some of the wall rubbed off on them, and that the writing on the wall has something to tell me. waiting for inspiration, but i won’t hold my breath.

Margins

i called it quits yesterday. on the yelp advertising plan. yeah i know, i wove tales of longevity and opportunities to set up a steady stream of new clientele. i talked about how booking clients through this platform would bring in more than just new revenues, but also reviews on a platform that is heavily trafficked with people seeking photographers.

but here’s the thing. most of the people that contacted me never ended up booking. i offered them competitive rates and packages, and yet most of the time i could tell that they had just copied and pasted their message to me and several other photographers. there is no telling how serious any of them were. i even had one potential customer send me the same message three times without realizing it. and he never ended up booking.

to be honest it wasn’t the result i was looking for. one particular issue i ran in to more than once was that people didn’t read my posting and see that i am unavailable on weekdays. given that i have a full-time job and a marriage to maintain, i wasn’t able to help them. yelp doesn’t have a filtration system that forces people to input the time they’re trying to schedule, so there was no control for this. in that aspect, i learned that yelp is not the ideal platform for me, and likely won’t be for a significant amount of time. in the interim, i can build my presence on that site by requesting that my customers publish their reviews there instead of on the other platforms i frequent. i know yelp says you’re not supposed to ask for reviews but that is stupid. we should always ask for reviews, and every business does it. yelp even asked me for a review about how i felt about the sales call for yelp ads. so i think i am within my rights to ignore that ridiculous ask.

now lets talk money. this is probably the number one reason i decided to cancel early and not just ride out the month. between november 28 and yesterday, december 18, yelp ads cost me $268. in that time, i booked and completed one last-minute job and was paid $160, and secured another booking for april with a ticket price of $225 and a potential opportunity to sell prints. additionally i have another potential client who may book something at the end of the month that will earn me $175, along with another $175 for my dude stock henry who would be rolling video for that session. another potential booking that has yet to confirm is in mid-february with a $225 ticket price.

if these clients book, and i am at this point assuming that they will not because that is generally the safer assumption, then my total revenues for the month from yelp bookings will be $785, and after factoring in the cost of the ads to date, i will have netted $517.

honestly, that is not that bad. and if i could guarantee that every month would be that good, i would consider continuing with the ads. but because i already have bookings in february and april, i now have conflicts in those months that will stand in the way of potential bookings that could come my way as a result of my ads, so the effectiveness of those future ad dollars is reduced. additionally, given that i will be gone for 10 days in april and up to six weeks in june, july and august, exposing myself to customers over the coming months who will have a decent chance of requesting bookings during those time periods is not worthwhile.

so that’s that. experiment over. it was a good run, and i’m glad i did it, but it’s definitely not designed for a part-time photographer with a full plate.

Three-job Day AAR

three jobs, three after-action reviews. 

job one: central park

what was supposed to happen?  

i was hired to photograph a running group for a coaching team at the central park running track around the reservoir. the meetup was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. the photos were for a campaign the coaches are running to help marathoners achieve a sub three-hour marathon time. i had worked with the coaches for their campaign launch event, and they liked my work so they brought me on for this as well. 

what did happen?  

i left home at 6:50 a.m. and stopped through dunkin’ donuts for coffee and a quick bite. then i hopped on the train and to my dismay it was running local. to make matters worse, the uptown a and c trains, which usually stop about a block away from the meetup location, were running express over the weekend. so basically i got to midtown at 8:20 and had to uber the rest of the way and i showed up about five minutes late. the clients were totally cool with it, but i wasn’t. 

i actually went to the wrong location, but that worked out because i found a nice perch on a bridge above the running track and caught a great profile photo of the group passing me by. 

when i met up with one of the coaches a few minutes later, we shot a couple of images for another campaign that they launched this week for runners who want to bring their time under four hours. 

i was able to deliver the photos just over 24 hours later and they were really pleased with the images. i was told that the runners really love the photos, too, and they’re sharing them prolifically. it sounds like another date and possibly more will be joining my calendar in short order. 

what went right?  

the photos came out perfect. i was able to get some compelling compositions using out-of-focus foreground elements, and since it was cloudy there was nice evenly diffused light to work with. the group had a lot of fun and they hammed it up for the camera so i got some photos showing that they were having a good time—the type of stuff you really want if you’re trying to help a client convince people that this is something they should be aspiring to. 

what went wrong?  

first, the mta. i should have double-checked the subway schedule for the weekend in advance to make sure my route was clear. 

next, i thought i know where we were meeting, and i was wrong. since i was late, i didn’t have time to wander around beforehand and pinpoint the location. 

so really, logistics went wrong this time around.  

what can i add to the plan to do improve next time?  

day-ahead logistics checks, mapping out my desired route and double checking for any impediments to the route. always assume that there will be service changes with the mta if that is my route, and be aware of road work if i’m taking a car. 

job two: midtown

what was supposed to happen?  

i was to meet a mother and son in town from florida courtesy of the wish of a lifetime charity. i would take some photos of them in some iconic new york locations, in time’s square, outside of radio city, and at st. patrick’s cathedral, where the mother in the group wanted to distribute a small portion of her husbands ashes because one of their wishes before he passed away last year was to visit the cathedral together one last time. 

what did happen?  

to be honest, everything on this job went according to plan. 

what went right?  

other than being logistically smooth as silk, this job allowed me to make a human connection with two people who were essentially on a modern day pilgrimage. i was able to document them having fun and enjoying the city, and then i was privy to a somber and intimate moment in their lives. above all else, what went right here was that i was able to be a guide to people who were in need. 

what went wrong?  

as my good friend stock henry would say, no edits.  

what can i add to the plan to improve next time? 

use this job as a template for any other tourists who want photos on their trip to the city.  

job three: the holiday party  

what was supposed to happen?  

i got a text from a friend of mine who is a booking manager for a photo and video studio in bushwick at almost 6 p.m. asking if i was free to take photos of the studio holiday party. i had just arrived in flushing to meet my wife and some friends of ours for dinner and a game night. basically the job was 7 p.m. to midnight, and there was no direction given beyond that. my wife was not pleased that i was even asking her if i should do the job since we had plans, but we worked it out. 

what did happen?  

the company sent me a  lyft to take me from flushing to bushwick, and i arrived just after 7 p.m. i met one of the owners and he helped me stash my gear. after that, i was pretty much left to my own devices. i took a mix of candids, posed “party portraits,” aka people with their arms around each other, holding up their drinks and smiling, etc., using my remote flash/gary fong setup. there was a raffle and i took photos of all the winners receiving their prizes. 

what went right?  

mall of my gear functioned perfectly. even in the low light i was able to nail the focus and had a surprisingly low number of images lost to camera shake (my wide lens has no image stabilization). i got a solid mix of most the typical party shots. and probably most of all, between taking photos i had several great conversations with other camera nerds and people who could potentially become clients. 

what went wrong?  

the one thing i didn’t do at the event was get the typical ambient food table shot and some other similar ambiance photos. i’m not sure if this counts as something that went wrong, since the studio gave me literally no direction, but i guess we will see when they send through their feedback.  

what can i add to the plan to improve for next time?  

make sure to talk to the person who is paying me for the job - even if it’s last minute - to go over any specific requests they have for photos. especially considering that the person i was working for was a highly-experienced photojournalist whose body of work puts my own to shame, any nuance he might have to offer is information for my toolbox that could help elevate my own work. 

summary   

i think overall i’m happy with how short the improvements list is, since it indicates that i was in good form. i think the two big takeaways from this day are 1) i’m versatile and flexible enough to take three vastly different jobs in stride and to work from wake up to bed down without batting an eye—i have yet to find the outer limits of my capabilities; and probably most importantly, 2) i need to make sure i am not letting photography consume my entire life; my wife and our relationship is my first priority. as much as i want to push this photo journey as far as i can, there is one outer limit that i can not push against without having consequences i’m not interested in dealing with.