CreativeLIVE: Lighten Up and Shoot

I’ve spent the better part of the weekend watching a CreativeLIVE workshop streamed live on the internet. This workshop was done by Mikey and Andy from Lighten Up and Shoot. I’ve watched several of these workshops, and even bought a few after, but I think this is my favorite one so far.

Lighten Up might be a play on photographic lighting but it also describes Mikey and Andy’s philosophical approach. Throughout the workshop they encouraged everyone to just get out there, shoot and have fun with it.

The workshop focused on street photography, which is their specialty. I had done my fair share of street photography for my Project: 90 Days in NYC and had also connected with Eric Kim online through his street photography blog. I had always thought of street photography as “drive-by-shooting”.  You walk around and shoot things that interest you. Eric Kim uses this method and is part of the school of thought that you must shoot the subject anonymously to get an authentic photo.

In moving towards portraiture, this style of shooting does not appeal to me as much. I would like to interact with the subject and catch more of them in the photo than an unguarded moment. Apparently, Mikey and Andy feel the same way. They are street photographers of a different kind.

Rather than making themselves as inconspicuous as possible, they carry around a ‘backpack studio’ with speedlites, stands , softboxes and all sorts of other portable light modifiers. I would consider them street portrait photographers as they seek out people they find interesting and shoot portraits right on location.

It was inspiring, not only for the knowledge and experience they shared about street portrait techniques and location lighting, but the new perspective for me on the possibilities of shooting on the street. I picked up a few lighting techniques I didn’t know and saw how they approached people on the street to take their portraits.

This is something that I need to do to hone my photography skills and also get used to approaching and interacting with strangers. It will help with future humanitarian photography endeavors, my NYC Buskers project and even some areas not related to photography at all.

CreativeLIVE is an awesome photographer’s resource. Where else can you get free workshops with some of the biggest names in modern photography? You can even buy the workshops you find valuable or the ones you missed and download the videos. And the cost is much less than attending workshops of this caliber. CreativeLIVE is worth watching and definitely worth supporting.

Workshops: The Next Revenue Stream

As a modern photographer it is more important than ever to cultivate multiple revenue streams. Factors for this include a massive influx of new talent due to the lower barriers for entry, the changing face of stock photography and the current evolutionary fits of the publishing industry, to name a few. Many of these factors lead to a commoditization of photography, which makes work harder to come by and can lessen the earning potential of the individual photographer.

Where stock photography and selling prints used to be the mainstay for photographers, the modern photographer has had to get a little more creative in creating additional revenue streams. I’ve seen photographers who have bundled their photography with design services and others who are selling products featuring their images.

Then there are those who teach. In photography, like any craft, the master takes on apprentices so teaching is not a stretch. Given the rate of new photographers, the demand for teachers has never been higher and has yet to reach “critical mass”. I don’t know the statistics but I often wonder when, or if, the demand for teachers will overtake the demand for photography itself. There may well be a photography teaching “bubble” in effect which could eventually collapse when a large portion of new photographers realize how difficult it is to make a decent living in this field. But that is another post altogether.

Almost as long as there has been photography, there have been photography books. A vast majority of these have been how-to manuals. The digital age has given an opportunity for a new wave of how-to books. But, beyond that, there is a growing realization that the digital age has leveled the playing field in a technical sense. It is not that difficult to take a photo that is properly exposed, in focus and color balanced with the modern digital camera. So now many writers are focusing on cultivating that which makes each photographer unique. David duChemen calls it “vision and voice” and has written several books on it. He is on track to be better known for his books than his photography.

Veteran photographer Scott Bourne has had a long career and now focuses most of his time on teaching. His main venue for this is the Photofocus and Going Pro podcasts and respective blogs. He does occasional workshops and speaking engagements but posts every day on the blogs and releases a new podcast every ten days.

In my mind, the photography workshop has the most notable growth in popularity. It stands to reason, all the new photographers are hungry to get some hands on experience with photographer they view as having “made it”. All kinds of people attend them from the career-minded to the hobbiest. I’ve even seen photographers tweet about their latest workshop they are teaching and then tweet about a workshop they are attending the next week. Maybe workshops are addictive.

David duChemen and Jeffery Chapman have teamed up to bring their combined experience as travel and humanitarian photographers in a series of workshops titled “Within the Frame”, named after duChemen’s first book. The have led workshops to Loas, India and Tibet to name a few with ones scheduled for Mexico and Ethiopia next on the list.

David “the Strobist” Hobby and Joe “Numnuts” McNally also teamed up and took it to the road. They visited 26 cities in 6 weeks on the Flash Bus Tour 2011 that just ended last week. Both are considered the authorities on small flash lighting. Each one has a different philosophy and style which was what made the traveling workshop so intriguing. I was actually in Phoenix the week they were there but didn’t realize it until after. I would have liked to attend.

Chase Jarvis has built his career on transparency. He has been sharing his process since before it was cool to share. As he built his photography business, he has also built his teaching business. CreativeLIVE is his teaching empire. Chase is on the cutting edge and has managed to bring small, intimate workshops to hundreds of online viewers. Always the facilitator, Chase not only shares his knowledge but also brings the best in the business to his studio for live-streamed workshops. He brings in such notable photographers as Jasmine Star, Vincent LaForet, Zack Arias and Jeremy Cowart for informative workshops that can be watched live for free. Yup, you read correctly, free. Fortunately, if you miss the live-stream, each workshop is available for download at a ridiculously low price, usually $99 for a 2-day and $149 for a 3-day workshop. So worth it.

This weekend Zack Arias returns for another workshop titled "Foundations of a Working Photographer" which sounds like a soup-to-nuts workshop. If you do nothing else, watch the video promo. It's hilarious. I'll be watching this workshop and probably buying it since I have to go into LA to look at apartments on Saturday.

I could list a hundred more but I think you get the point. So many have said it before: it is an exciting and very scary time to be a photographer. The technology, business and craft of photography are changing so fast it’s virtually impossible to keep up with, let alone predict where it’s going. Whatever it shapes up to be, you can rest assured that there will be someone there to teach. In this age, their business might depend on it.

My Favorite Photography Podcasts

Podcasts have been around for quite a while, but even though I’ve done a few myself and been a guest on others, I’ve never really had much use for them. The only one I subscribed to was TEDTalks, which I would watch on my iPhone while waiting for the subway (I took the R which stands for ‘rarely’ so I had some time to kill).

Once I started getting back into the swing of things with photography I decided to check out what podcasts had to offer in the way of photography. I was mainly looking for audio podcasts so I could listen while walking Shea and doing other activities. There are quite a few, ranging from how-to’s, software tips and interviews with established photographers. I gravitated towards the latter. I find it much more interesting to listen to pro photographers talk about the craft and how they got to where they are.

I have not sampled most of what is out there so this list just reflects the low hanging fruit that I gravitated towards (in no particular order).

Depth of Field with Matt Brandon

This one is my current favorite. Matt Brandon is a humanitarian photographer currently living in Malaysia. That doesn’t stop him from getting some great guests from all over the globe. He has an easy conversation style and the podcast feels more like you’re listening in as colleagues talk about their lives and careers at a coffee shop. It’s not instructional but you can catch a lot of insight from these experienced photographers.

Photofocus

Scott Bourne has been in the business for a long time and often dates himself with some of his references. But he has taken to the changes and adapted to the digital age better that most of his compatriots. He also has a voice for radio. Photofocus is a combination of instruction and interview. When he has a guest, they chat for a few minutes and then answer listener’s questions about anything relating to photography. When he doesn’t have a guest, he goes right into answering questions.

Lensflare35

This one is very similar to Depth of Field. Adirondack-based photographer Dave Warner has in-depth conversations a multitude of established photographers from all categories and fields of photography. It is interesting to see how the different hosts get into completely different conversations with the same photographers. Dave definitely brings his own perspective and seems to know a lot of people in the business. In addition to the well-known names he also gets some lesser know (yet successful) photographers.

New Media Photographer

Podcast host and co-author of The Linked Photographer, Rosh Sillars talks about everything web 2.0 as it relates to the business of photography (and business in general). He’s a little geeky, but then again, he kind of has to be as he talks a lot about Facebook, Twitter and anything else relating to social media. Let’s face it, new media is changing daily and Rosh stays on top of it all and feeds us the Cliff’s Notes. He also has guests from time-to-time and gets some insights on how photographers are successfully using social media.

Within the Frame

This one is a video podcast by David duChemin derived from his book of the same name. David is a humanitarian and travel photographer based out of Vancouver and an author of three very successful books with a forth one on the way. He is the champion of photographers finding their vision. His matra is ‘gear is good, vision is better’. In this 20-part podcast done in 2009, David goes through submitted images and critiques them. For those photographers who have yet to get a portfolio review, watching this series is an excellent primer.

Also noteable: Chase Jarvis Photography

Chase Jarvis has a video and an audio podcast. The video one has outtakes and short videos from shots and projects he’s done. I don’t think podcasting is any kind of focus for Chase. The real magic is creativeLIVE, which is Chase’s teaching forum. Everything trickles down from creativeLIVE including his YouTube channel which has a ton of videos his podcasts don’t.

Bottom line is: there a over a hundred podcasts about photography, from software to hardware, how-to techniques and interviews and even a “master” photographer giving out his “master” techniques (I’d stay away from that one, if you have to call yourself a master, you probably aren’t one). You have to find the ones that fit you and what you’re looking to get out of them.

Searching tip: Most of them are in the visual arts section but many are not. iTunes is constantly adding new categories and any podcast that started before a new category stays in the old one so search all the podcasts.

My 5 Must Have iPhone Photo Apps

I finally went and picked up my iPhone 4 last weekend. I've been wanting the better camera and when my headphones went out, I thought that was a good opportunity. Now I can't believe I waited so long. I am loving this new phone. They say the best camera is the one you have on you. Right now, aside from my DSLR, my iPhone camera is my go-to.

Since my main objective was the camera, I went looking for some cool new apps for the camera. I already had TiltShiftGen and CameraBag and had just recently gotten Hipstamatic. Hipstamatic is fun but, aside from switching lenses (many sold separately) you don't have much control. Plus, the images are still pretty low-res even with the iPhone 4.

This is my screen. I'll go through the apps I use and what I like about them.

Best Camera
This app was done by photographer Chase Jarvis and based on the aforementioned saying that the best camera is the one on you. The app allows you to take a picture or use one in your photos. There are several filters which you can stack to make a multitude of different looks. You can then share the result on the Best Camera website or via email as well as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

La Amada Marina sign done with Pro HDR and Best Camera apps.

Pro HDR
Apple came out with a built in HDR function but Pro HDR does a much better job. It also gives you more control. Auto mode takes an over-exposed and under-exposed image, aligns and processes them and then lets you adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, tone and warmth. I am amazed at the pictures that have been taken with this app.

TiltShiftGen
I love this app. It’s very simple: take a new image or import one from the library and apply a tilt-shift lens effect. I love how it takes scenes and gives the illusion they are miniatures. You can control the amount of blur and the shape (horizontal or circular) and even apply a lens vignette.

Empire State building done with Pro HDR, TIltShiftGen and PS Express.

PS Express
This free Photoshop app has some very basic, yet useful tools. There is a crop tool for cropping, rotating and straightening, a color adjustment tool, sharpening and softening and even color effects and borders. You can save the edited images to your photo library or share them via Facebook and TwitPic directly from the app.

Camera Bag
Camera Bag turns your iPhone into several different camera simulations and effects. Take a picture from the app or select one from your library and chose from different cameras like a Holga or Lomo. You can also apply effects like cross-processing, 60s film, 70s film, fisheye and even infrared to name a few.

So there you have it. I'm always looking for more apps to help me make killer pictures on my iPhone.