Time….when we are pressured..there is never enough of it.

When we think we have plenty of time, we always find “just enough”.

It is a major point to consider, since this era we live in demands that all our time be diverted amongst many things.

Today, as photographers, we are to be all things to everyone.

What does all that mean?

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Clients expect more from photographers now than ever.

In past entries, I have mentioned this situation where the photographer for hire now is expected to be director, shooter, editor and retoucher. We always are expected to provide graphic design support, set design and scouting, all the while concerning ourselves with how to be creative…how to shoot well, how to shoot smart….doesn’t leave much room for fun, now does it?

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Mistakes, we all make them. And hopefully we can all learn from them.

When we take on many roles for a shoot, efficiency somewhere falls short.

Logistically, we cannot be ALL things to ALL people.

So, let us look at what we CAN do…what CAN we offer the client during high pressure situations.

We can always offer better communication, even when we feel we’re being spot on.

For one….we can extend our compassion to those around us when they feel we haven’t explained our many roles clearly enough.

Remember, we must work off the basis that photographers today are in demand and must act/react quickly to the rigors of the job.

Clients often will not realize that the numerous tasks involved in maintaining the business side to photography are complex.

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This entry is more about ethics than phototechnics.

I feel that the better we can communicate our ideas, the better we are when behind the camera. Of course, there will be tough situations to encounter.

That’s the nature of business…..but we must learn how to handle the current situation and handle the next one even better. A true challenge!

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Through the toughest times, i always want to leave the impression with people that they are important. Without clients, there is no market for me to excel in.

I issue apologies when needed.

I ask questions where I can.

I always say thank you.

Those three principles can help alleviate stress..nothing more than just taking the time to center yourself and show the people around you that their time matters to you.

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Its OK to make a mistake, that’s not what people will remember.

What they remember is the solution to said mistake.

Thank you one and all….for reading and supporting this blog and the images that I create.

This is Mr Phil signing off,

I am a photographer.

I am creative.

I am driven and happy to be doing what it is  that I do.

I shoot all kinds of things.

My photos are road maps.

The cameras and lenses I use help shape lasting impressions of frozen moments.

The rest of it is you….the world I interact with, the people I’m privileged to photograph, the scenes that play out in front of me.

My eyes see the world and then my reflexes make shutters “click”

In my classes, I teach people how to further enjoy the process of photo capturing.

My students teach me many things.

To my friends, I inspire them to freeze time with the emotions and memories that come as moments go passing by.

The world of images has given me my profession.

The process of creation gives me my joy.

I am thankful for the opportunities that come to me and grateful for the people the imaging world has given me.

Be the influence on your photos, inspire everyone around you…cherish the photos taken and await with anticipation the photos not yet taken…because it will be those photos in which your future awaits.

I now will share some of my favorite captures that I made recently. I shot all of the following images in the past month. Thank you to everyone who has been part of this fun and exciting ride! let’s march onto greatness !!!!!

Enjoy

This is Mr Phil signing off.

Well folks, it has been another highly eventful and busy month here with me.

For any of you who want to read up on what I’ve been up to, please follow along on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ph80photo

Be sure to “like” the page!

OK, onto the real content here tonight.

Photography is all about vision…in both the figurative and literal senses.

We must first find and see our light, see what our subject is up to…then begin shooting.

We must see within our mind’s eye what it is we want our final images to look like and how we want our to light to fall.

But, vision is also about smart planning.

I’ll take you through the basic process of how I set up to shoot.

Following a conversation with the client or subject or model…where I know what their goals are, I begin designing a shoot.

I want to visualize what the final set of images will look like, whether or not my theme matches the client’s…or if the client’s idea matches my concept.

Once I establish the less tangible parameters, I begin the shoot mapping.

1. What lights am I shooting with?

2. What background will be appropriate?

3. What focal length/lens should be used?

4. How much time do I have to light, shoot, edit?

I look for the very solid details because those are the clues that I need to stay on task and provide a speedy yet efficient return time for images.

In the case of this image…….

I had only mere days between booking and promised delivery date. So, I had to work quickly and be certain that no detail was overlooked.

In the short time that I had for pre-production stuffs, I designed the whole shoot in my head before I even went to bolt lens to camera.

A well planned shoot allows us to spend little time adjusting lights or lenses…we can forget the technical and focus on the art…the movement…the subject’s connection to us.

We can coach from a purely artistic framework and allow the camera to document the beauty of motion and shadows.

Plan well so you can shoot well,

This is Mr Phil signing off,

John S Lens, Ina’s 1969 Film, Dreampop Flash, Taken with Hipstamatic

I completely forgot to post this Thursday!

In the closing moments of this night….prior to my sleep…I wanted to write and share some thoughts.

First, I want to go on the record and offer my sentiment regarding the notion that we all strive to form our own styles through the testing and trying of concepts/ideas that we may believe meaningful. It is not “wrong” or incorrect to shoot/edit a photo in a way we so see fit.

Many will edit in Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture or other post processing applications. They will edit until the piece of art is ready in the creator’s eye. And that’s ok!

People…… let photographers have fun. Edits are part of the digital world we live in.

HDR, color shifting, sharpening, selective background removal, sepia conversion, creative cropping, spot healing/cloning……all these are terms and concepts we must be familiar with and appreciative of!

I hear and read many comments that photographers edit too much, or that photos are no longer true to form b/c of the post processing involved in the creative process.

We must allow personal expression in our own work and when looking at the work of other photographers or editors.

Now…we move on.

In my last photo review, I spoke about the magic of saving your test shots. Those improvised and impromptu moments may lead to a gem.

But….tonight, I want to share a few images from the same shoot….the images here were not improvised but results of proper planning and discussion with our model, Anna.

They show progress and development of the shoot’s concept. Direction from behind the

behind the camera is direct and specific but not overly complex.

The pose was selected via working with my subject….talking about what angle best accentuates Anna’s features. I study and reposition until my desired composition is reached. 

It matters to take time and look for your angle, find your light and shoot.

A good portrait has to have emotion behind it. So, allow your model to tell the story in her eyes….look for the emotion.

In a shoot where there is time to re-meter and re-light, find the best way to capture your subject’s beauty. In this case, we changed the look of Anna’s makeup thus, I chose a favored lighting setup to enhance the makeup and create the prized “glow” that I love when shooting makeup/beauty work.

The richness of the colors in Anna’s outfit are really drawn out by this light. I love the vibrancy in this image.But the most crucial part to me, is the emotion and sense of pride in her eyes.

Last shot below….

For the last set of the shoot, I wanted to create a subtle pull back look..where we focused the images down to a more relaxed angle.

I like shooting wider angles during these types of shoots b/c it allows the model some flexibility to move, to wind down in a more casual and relaxed manner.Where posing becomes less detailed and direction becomes more subtle.

Often, these types of shots are candid…shots where I am looking to capture something more spur of the moment yet balanced with the compositional fluidity that I make use of in the head shot portion of the photo shoot.

So, there we have 3 images…3 lighting setups and 3 moods.

A typical model portfolio shoot often yields many images. Its our job to decipher what lighting rig will match the particular mood we and our model may be aiming for.

When shooting in this style, plan well but also plan to improvise to get the best looks.

This is Mr Phil signing off.

As I sit in waiting to begin shooting tonight’s event, I ask you this.

What is it that drives your passion for photography?

Is it a joy of creating? Or do you enjoy the stories from your subjects?
I’ll leave this blog open for you guys to write in and answer.
Lastly…. What do you all want to see me write about in posts to come?

This is Mr phil signing off

Let’s talk about the unpredictable nature of photography.

A lot goes into planning and creating a portrait shoot.

One of the components of a good shoot is finding your light and sticking with what works.

Of course in between looks, we can change our setup..I typically like to switch lighting setups when the client changes outfits…preventing each outfit from looking too similar.

So, with any outfit/lighting change comes a series of test shots….set up, meter, test shot..re-meter etc until the session is ready to continue.

The famed test shot….we all have them where we catch people off guard and those shots we end up throwing away.

Rarely tho do I get one that I really like. The photo here tonight is one of the rare cases in which the test shot yielded a very emotional look and made for a striking portrait.

I love this photo b/c it stepped away from the beauty session we were capturing.

This test shot tells a different story than the shots which came after it under the same lighting setup.

Both myself and Anna (my model) cannot figure out why this image resonates with us…yet, it does.

So critters, never throw away a shot merely b/c it was  ‘test’.

When we step away from our grand plans, we can often find a winning image.

This is Mr Phil signing off,

I reflect..a lot…on a lot of things.

What lens to capture a scene

What the proper aperture I’d need to create a desired look

Which ISO would allow me to shoot cleanly without noise

And…..what story I want to tell.

As I re-read the entries here on the blog, I see themes within my writings. I tend to write from more of a motivational or experiential place than I do a hard and fast technical point of view.

The reason is that to me…any photo holds technical information in how it was formed. But only some photos can tell a story to the point where the viewer FEELS connected to the image’s character, setting or content.

We all strive to take better pictures, but knowing the proper F-stop and ISO pairings can only get so far before the photographer must look past the numbers and look for the emotion in a photo.

I don’t want to discredit the core learnings that we all must take from studying photography’s science. But, I am always so much more interested in the art that comes from the science.

My students know me to be ultra technical in my photographic approach. They ask and I tell….but, here, I get the chance to explore the emotional and inspirational aspects that picture-taking yields.

Perhaps my point of writing tonight is to share with you the notion that learning and observing are intrinsically tied to one another. We learn “how” to take a good picture, but can only succeed when we observe “what” value lies within a picture.

Case in point……the following image was shot today as a simple test shot for one of my editing classes. I wanted to give a simple photo to the class to view. They’d see a rather mundane item and watch as I edited the file.

What ended up happening was I chose to edit the photo from a more emotional connection than I anticipated b/c during my edits, I saw something within the photo that captivated my eye.

Maybe it was the swaying symmetry of the flags in the breeze…or the level of interest in the eyes of the students watching the image take shape in real time. Either way, the story behind the two dancing American flags told me something about my walk through town that I did not bargain on.

Having the photo on the screen, I spent some decent time giving the image a look of its own.

So…next time you’re out shooting…try to keep your settings accurate, but keep your mind’s eye open for what ever you may encounter. Worry less about the “how” a picture is taken and go for “why”……ask yourself the questions of

“what is this scene telling me?”

“What place does the point of interest hold in my life?”

Don’t be afraid to place yourself into a scene and then work the science from there.

Inspire yourself to Be The Story

This is Mr Phil signing off,

March has been a month of progress and positive growth here in the Phil Hovey Photo camp. As you can see, we have a new contact card! With new info, new looks mixed in with the old. Check it out! Following this post will be a mini “Best OF” gallery featuring recent shots from the recent big sessions!

Many shoots later, I’ve built a tremendous collection of unique images from portraits to events to products to jewelry.

The month has been full of style changes, adaptations and deadlines.

But, through it all…I have lots to report!

So let’s begin.

Tonight, I want to emphasize the importance of learning your core photographic methods.

We can shoot all sorts of unique styles if we know how to manipulate all the numbers…shutter speed, aperture and ISO fit together in exact ways. If you can shoot in a semi-manual setting to start branching out, your creativity can grow.

Some great things can happen in simple modes like aperture priority…AV on your dials. Learn to change ISO and AV, and suddenly pictures take on a whole new look!

As good as the modern batch of cameras is, the camera still requires input from the user in order to shape images.The better we know what settings to use and when…the easier it is to get the “it shot”..or the shot that really stands out from the rest.

Setting up a good photo can be by chance…but wouldn’t you want to lessen the odds of “getting a lucky shot?” and begin shooting with more precision?

The creation of a photographer from a snapshooter is a dedicated process.

My next point is less scientific. It refers to the notion that all good pictures tell a story. We can shoot a scene that is technically perfect, abiding by the rules I just touched upon above….yet, the images is still flawed. It lacks emotion, it lacks depth…it lacks any true narrative on time/place or mood.

Set your photos up so that your viewers feel the experience that you’re capturing.

I recently saw a series of shots taken by the same photographer where each frame was identical to the previous…despite change of location, change of subject matter, and change of timing. The capturing perspective was identical..the point of interest was tightly cropped in a center weighted orientation….whether building, person or landmark…the point of interest was smack dab in the middle of the frame with all outside details cropped out heavily. He did not show any variation in a group of 30 images.

Why do I call this style of edit into the arena?

For one, the heavy cropping removes the sense of setting..time and place

Secondly, center weighted images leave little to the imagine to fill in. The very center heavy style leads us to conclude that “what you see is what you get..so move on”.

Last…identical frames result in a loss of detail. It is the extras within a photo that often flesh out details about the point of interest. Think of the extras as your supporting cast in a film. Without them, the main actor may seem rather stagnant.

I always teach my students a mix of composition backed with the technical know-how of building a photo from concept to visualization to final image capture.

It is a tough process to command!

There are so many technicalities to the creative artistry.

But learn as much as you can about your camera and you will learn much about building a style that fits you.

Find the right light and you find yourself…to be very metaphorical about the process.

This is Mr Phil signing off,