A Lesser Photographer
Page 1
A Lesser Photographer
CJ Chilvers
Second Edition
Keep up-to-date with changes and additions to this book at cjchilvers.com.
Copyright © 2018 CJ Chilvers. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction
1. How to Make Perfect Photos
2. How to Create Fine Art
3. The New Rules of Photography
4. Unlearn Photography
5. The Snapshot is King
6. Your Parents’ Photos Are Better Than Yours
7. We Need New Specs
8. Declare Independence
9. Tips
10. Photography ‘Education’
11. Pass It Along
12. Roll Your Own
13. Should You Have a Portfolio?
14. You Have a Reputation
15. Artists Thrive on Constraints
16. Should You Pay for Constraints?
17. Find Your Balance
18. Go Amateur
19. The Pros Agree
20. How to Make Money with Your Photography
21. Spend on Images, Not Gear
22. The Perfect Camera for You
23. Is Total Automation the Future of Photography?
24. Tell a Story
25. Stop Making Photos for Photographers
26. Be Honest, Not Truthful
27. Honesty Is Your Competitive Advantage
28. Honesty Is More Interesting Than Truth
29. Don’t Improve on Perfection
30. You Already Know What to Photograph
31. The Most Important Tool
32. Inspiration Is Scheduled
33. Inspiring Photographs…
34. You Are a Real Photographer
35. Longevity
36. A Gift Guide for Photographers
37. Photography as Fashion
38. The ‘Self-Taught’ Lie
39. Proper Maintenance of Your Gear
40. The Best Photos of the Year
41. There’s Nothing New Under the Strobe
42. Live First
43. What Photography Really Produces
44. Take It Slow
45. What Are You Willing to Give Up?
46. Work Alone
47. Support Your Local Photographer
48. How to be Critiqued
49. Comparisons
50. Stolen Ideas
51. All You Need Is 1
52. Reshoot Your Archives
53. The Stakes Couldn’t Be Lower
54. Every Day…
55. Be Grateful
Introduction
Since the age of twelve, I’ve been obsessed with photography. I built a little darkroom and took class after class to learn as much as I could. I studied the zone system for years until it became so ingrained that I saw the entire world in zones of light. My library of photo books and magazines could rival a university.
By any measure, this is a passion.
Much like a car mechanic would remember the years by the cars he owned, I remember 1994 as the year of my Minolta X-700 or 1996 as the year I stepped up to a Fuji GS645. With every issue of Shutterbug, I scanned the ads in the back pages, lusting after the latest gear I couldn’t afford.
The digital age only reinforced my desire to own ever more capable equipment as brands consolidated. Are you a Canon or a Nikon? If so, how high do you rank in that world?
I put that question to rest for myself when I was hiking through Starved Rock State Park in Illinois with my friend Tom Polous.
Tom and I have been best friends since we were nine years old and been enablers of each other’s photographic obsessions since the 1990s. On this hike through Starved Rock, Tom had the latest, greatest Canon DSLR around his neck, and I had a lesser model.
After a few minutes on the trail, we encountered two locals, both with Canon DSLRs. For ten minutes, we discussed our love for the lenses in our bags, and that’s when it hit me. This was ridiculous. Four photographers, in the most beautiful of settings, had chosen to discuss gear instead of taking a single photo. Our love of gear had superseded our love of the image.
I slowly backed away from the conversation and began shooting what turned out to be some of my favorite images of that decade.
The questions had been building for years. Just how much did equipment matter, and why? What if I threw it all away and restarted with the minimum amount of equipment? Would my creativity be enough to capture the images I wanted?
I sold my 4x5 view camera, my medium format cameras and my DSLR. I bought an inexpensive compact camera and became determined to put my theories to the test.
Over the next several years, I blogged about my experiences and collected the wisdom of like-minded photographers. I titled the blog A Lesser Photographer, partly to refer to the looks other photographers gave me when I showed up to a shoot with my compact camera.
This book collects my favorite essays from the blog in one place. All the essays have been re-edited, remixed, and condensed, and in some cases, new essays were written to better express an idea.
You’ll notice there are no photos inside this book, for the same reason there were very few photos on the blog. I want you to consider your photographs while reading, not mine.
Some of the chapters are about the kind of photography the public will see, and some are about the everyday photos that no one outside our friends and family will see. These two sides of amateur photography have principles that can be directly in conflict. I’ll leave it to you to consider your own goals with your photographs in these chapters.
I hope these little essays to myself help you in your path as a photographer. Feel free to drop by cjchilvers.com and let me know about your own lessons learned.
1
How to Make Perfect Photos
“It’s the one art form that everybody is capable of performing flawlessly.” — David Strettell
What’s the secret to creating great photos? The biggest secret in photography is that you’re already making perfect photos. You’ve been told that you’re not because of the second-biggest secret: the teaching of photography has always and will always make more money than the photographs themselves.
This is why professional photographers are trying to get you to buy a new camera or buy a spot in their next workshop. Believe me, they would rather be taking pictures. That’s what’s most fun about being a photographer.
But that’s not where the money is. The money is in convincing you that your composition needs a little work, or your lens has an aberration that a prime lens wouldn’t.
The professionals don’t do this maliciously. It’s how they learned, and it’s what they need to do if they want to make a decent living. For most of us, though, their advice does not apply.
What defines a perfect photo is entirely up to you. Otherwise, this wouldn’t be an art. It would be just another commodity, subject to a checklist written long ago.
There is no checklist. Be wary of anyone trying to sell you access to one.
2
How to Create Fine Art
“Art is anything we do, after the chores are done.” — Teller
There’s been a lot of handwringing among the art crowd to explain away the democratization of photography. To differentiate between what qualifies as “fine art” and what is the work of a hobbyist, the art crowd likes to make excuses about how hard it is to create a great photo.
Some variation of “snapshots are easy, great photography is near impossible” or “it takes years of hard work” are repeated endlessly to justify entire careers, or just a large purchase. One is led to believe that great photographers are scarce and fine-art photography may be dying out.
&
nbsp; We’re not watching the dying of photography as a fine art. What we’re really watching is the dying of a concept, the concept that good ideas in photography, ideas worthy of the gallery, are scarce. They’re not. They’ve never been. Connections in the fine-art market are scarce.
No one gets to tell you what qualifies as “fine” art. Nor could they.
3
The New Rules of Photography
“I am not interested in rules or conventions. Photography is not a sport.” — Bill Brandt
The “rules” of photography you’ll find in most textbooks are based on economics.
These techniques work for pros trying to sell something, but have nothing to do with the photographs we (the 99.9% of photographers who are not pros) consider important.
Technique is overrated.
It’s nice to have, but many of what we would consider humanity’s most important photos of all time aren’t even in focus. They break just about every rule you’ll find in a textbook.
Those textbook rules, by the way, almost always originate with what a client wanted at some point.
There’s only one rule that matters: tell a story with a compelling subject—for you.
Think of it as a Maslow’s Hierarchy of Photographic Needs. Every decent photo needs to tell a story. Telling a story with a compelling subject can make a photo historic. But a step above even those photos is a photo with a subject that is compelling to you, specifically.
4
Unlearn Photography
“Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.” — Peter Adams
How much about what you’ve learned as a photographer could you let go of today?
How many of the lessons have never really applied? And how many have applied, but never really mattered? The more you let go of, the more creative freedom you’ll rescue and the more time you’ll have to photograph.
Unlearning photography may be just as rewarding as learning photography.
5
The Snapshot is King
“Inherently, we all know that an image isn’t measured by its resolution, dynamic range, or anything technical. It’s measured by the simple—sometimes profound, other times absurd or humorous or whimsical—effect that it can have upon us.” — Chase Jarvis
It seems there’s no more damning critique of a photograph than, “It’s a snapshot.”
This makes no sense.
Snapshots are usually reserved for family, friends, and events, where we’d rather be enjoying ourselves than setting up a tripod. Snapshots discard the old rules of photography and aim for pure emotion. What could be more artistic?
The snapshot gives voice to three-year-olds, the poor and many other groups often considered unworthy of the “art” world.
The truth is the vast majority of photographers take snapshots. The best-selling cameras in the world are optimized for snapshots. The snapshot is the medium for some of the most important pictures in history.
It’s time for the snapshot to get some respect.
Because of the joy a snapshot usually brings to my life, I care for it far more than anything hanging in a gallery.
My inbox is filled with emails that include some variation on the phrase “I only really shoot family photos.” I can’t imagine a more important subject.
6
Your Parents’ Photos Are Better Than Yours
As a group, we photographers remain obsessed with megapixels, light sensitivity, and prime lenses.
The generations before us tended to shoot with whatever was handy. Their results were better.
Their photos of us as kids are grainy, out of focus, discolored, and lacking any logical composition.
And they’re wonderful.
They’re wonderful because the grain and fading give us the context of time.
The lack of composition revealed monstrously huge cars, long-ago shuttered businesses, and the extremely unfortunate clothing choices of anyone who happened to be passing through the frame.
The paper itself may well have outlasted the lives of the people who took the photos.
What would be lost if those same photos followed the modern rules of photography?
7
We Need New Specs
Speed shouldn’t just be measured in the hundredths of seconds it takes to expose an image, but in the time it takes to get your camera out and capture the moment.
Exposure shouldn’t just be measured in a histogram. It should be evaluated in the ease by which the image can be exposed to the right people in the right way to maximize impact.
The design of a camera shouldn’t be evaluated on day one. The mark of a great design is a camera that looks better after years of hard use because it hits a sweet spot for its user between constraint and utility.
We need new specs.
8
Declare Independence
Independent thought is the scarcest resource in photography today. Not talent. Not money. Not technical ability.
Websites, videos, books, magazines, and even workshops tend to parrot each other. Which photographers have remained interesting throughout? The ones who were doing what the others hadn’t considered.
In the 1960s, professional photographers did not usually go on tour with musicians. Those photographers who did wound up shooting unique, timeless images that have made for worthwhile careers and worthwhile lives.
Today, touring with musicians is what the professionals do. It’s not unique anymore. It’s a well-established process. And it doesn’t have the same impact.
What unique images can you bring the world today that the professionals aren’t?
The dependence we have on pros to tell us how to shoot and how to present our photography only serves to make our work just like that of the thousands of other photographers who listened to the same message.
Some of the “pros” out there who are dispensing the advice are only professionals at dispensing advice. Some are downright con artists.
How can you tell the difference? You can’t. You have to decide if the advice makes sense for your photography. You have to decide if reading this book is a good use of your time. You have to decide if the writer is credible. You have to decide how to spend your time in this hobby. Don’t let someone else decide for you.
9
Tips
Are not what you need.
Tips are the lowest level of education, appealing to the fearful lizard brain. That’s why they’re a popular feature in photo publications.
Most tips cannot withstand the simplest of questions: “Why?”
What if you started doing the opposite of these tips? It would probably create more unique photos. Is that so horrible?
Tips are just tiny pellets of stifling reassurance.
10
Photography ‘Education’
In deciding which photography publications, podcasts and videos are worth your valuable time, it helps to remember that our obsession is not cameras, it’s photography.
This eliminates roughly 99% of the filler out there.
Here are a few simple rules worth considering when learning about photography:
Most books could be a blog post or two, and most blog posts could be a sentence or two. Recognize those who don’t respect your time. There’s courage in brevity.
Know your teacher. Consider who you’re giving your time and attention to and whether you’re learning anything of value. If not, move along. If you don’t find a suitable replacement, you’ll regain precious time and maybe learn a thing or two on your own.
Always favor individuals over groups or companies. Individuals have more incentive to be honest and less reason to provide the kind of filler content that may be profitable, but provides little real knowledge. That filler comes at the expense of your time, attention, and money.
Consider the ad-to-content ratio. With more advertisers to please, the amount of honest content shrinks. If everything is great, anything can be sold.
Cameras will always improve. Will you? Accept that the advance of technology will not necessarily make you a better photographer, and most of what passes for photography education becomes irrelevant.
11
Pass It Along
The photography world is full of sketchy teachers, but that’s all the more reason to share your experiences. Sharing your experiences honestly can have a profound effect on other photographers.