Everyone has it to some degree. Some people claim to never have it, while for others, it can be debilitating. But nervousness is often a very important participant in a photo shoot, for good or bad. Photo shoot subjects, unless they are professional actors or models, can come to a shoot bringing a suitcase for of nervousness; baggage in both senses of the word. People generally bring their nervousness to a shoot because they are unsure of what will happen, often feeling as though they will be responsible for knowing what to do.
As I have mentioned on a couple of occasions, I was a musician in a former life, and so thinking about nervousness has always been a part of my life. When you perform, whether it be musically, verbally, or some other way, you might have feelings of doubts or inadequacy, which manifest themselves as nervousness. I know that when I performed, especially when classical music was involved, I brought along with me the years of music teachers who had criticized my "sound" and technique. I still have the New Hampshire "All State" evaluation form from one of my auditions in high school which labeled my tone as "harsh". Yum! So in my typically defiant way, I went on to study the trumpet at Berklee, always putting myself into situations where my sound was of primary importance, eventually developing it to the point where it was the best aspect of my playing. But if you aren't aware of it, when you stand in front of an audience to perform, those old criticisms can come swirling back. Never mind that your audience has no idea that you have brought such baggage.
Getting back to the subject in a photo shoot though, it is often the case that the nervous person that arrives at your studio or location to be photographed has brought years of such baggage, but in this case, about themselves; their appearance, their behavior, etc. The absolute worst thing that a photographer can do is to have his or her own baggage on display as well. Your subject has to feel that you are in charge of the situation. You need to make the person feel that they will be told, every step of the way, what to do, where to stand or sit, how to do so, etc., and that you will be sensitive to their discomfort and will be certain to alleviate it.
That being said, there is a certain kind of nervousness that is good for the photographer to have. It's really important to leave the destructive, baggage kind of the nervousness at home. It won't help you, the photographer, or your subject to feel as though you are in control and know what you are doing. It will signal to your subject that their own feelings of nervousness are validated. When I doubt myself, I use the recommendation of the excellent photographer, Zack Arias, that you just need to show up at every shoot as though you are shooting for Rolling Stone or some similar gig. As I said, I used to get really nervous as a musician, when performing classical music because of my feelings of unworthiness, but I found it helpful to step out of myself and imagine that I was Maurice Andre. I think that experience has helped me a great deal as a photographer to do likewise. It's really important to realize that there is a positive kind of nervousness though that need not adversely affect your abilities to shoot well, nor the ability of your subject to be themselves, but will, in fact, enhance your performance. That "edge", which I always feel before a shoot, and don't suppress, helps me think in that same out-of-body way. Rather than getting bogged down in what to do and how to do it, I start to think as I imagine Arnold Newman, Richard Avedon, or even Joe McNally would be thinking in that same situation. The difference that I can see in the faces and the demeanor of clients when I calmly control the situation on a shoot is pretty amazing. If you are a photographer, use this edge! If you are looking for a photographer, I would urge you to find one who has it.
Let's Meet
When you come to my studio to have a pre-shoot conference, we can relax and have coffee, or a beverage of your choice, or maybe even lunch at the cafe at The Space. I recently finished up the shots of the interior of the rehearsal space and recording studio at the Western Avenue Studios complex, called The Space. The second part of this shoot was necessary because the recording studio had not been finished until recently. It is complete now, and is a really amazing place, right at Western Avenue Studios, in Lowell.
And last Friday evening, just after I finished shooting, The Space held one of its Open Mic nights. Here's the venue, just before people started to arrive:
But when you come to my studio for a conference or for a shoot, the cafe provides a great place to talk and relax. It's in the same complex of buildings as my studio, so access is just down the hall.
Business, Art and Dealing with Change
This morning I was reading a post on a Yahoo group that I follow, and I found it both interesting and disturbing. I don't normally contribute to these interest-group discussions because they usually bore me, to be frank. The photography groups often focus on photo gear talk (yawn), rants about how microstock is killing the stock photo business (stick a fork in it?), advice about legal issues in which you realize, in the end, if someone wants to sue you you're screwed anyway, and ones like the one that I read this morning that bemoan the state of the photo business today. Now being older than dirt, I think I have a particular perspective on some of this. When I first learned how to use Dektol, Ansel Adams was still in his 60s :-) [Use The Google Luke!].
But I had a bad reaction after reading this particular post, in which a very well-regarded photographer, whose work I like very much, announced that he was going to lecture to some high school students and inform them of the "realities" of photography as a career. The implication in his words was that he was not going to be very encouraging.
I think reality is a good thing. It's very underrated :-) My response in the forum was: please don't go overboard!
A little story... Out of high school, I was hot to become a musician. I attended a music school in Boston, one that is very well-known as a Jazz and Pop music institution. There was nothing out there waiting for me when I got out. I was a trumpet player, and the gigs consisted pretty much of playing in a road band, doing local society gigs, getting one of the much-envied NY studio gigs, or one of the 4 seats in a hand full of symphony orchestras around the world that payed. Each year, that school was graduating around 100 trumpet players. You can do the math! I never remember being bitter or feeling that what the school did was unconscionable. I ended up playing Boston society gigs for a couple of years until I realized that I needed, and at that point, really wanted a change. As it happened, a change in the music business was happening then that is very much like what is happening now to media arts. Rock was overtaking the music niche that once was occupied by that which required brass. And then, thanks to digital technology, the music business experienced a total upheaval, as we all know now, although this latter event happened well after I was out of the biz.
But today that school is larger than ever, turns out more graduates than it did in my day, and is thriving, but in a very different space than it did then. It's still a music school. It's still commercially oriented in its approach, which differs and always has from the more traditional conservatories. It has evolved.
But I never looked at it as a trade school whose purpose was to train me for a business. It is and was an art school. When did we become so focused on college being useful only if it trained one for a trade or the business world? But that's another one of my rants... What's wrong with kids studying the arts? Yes, please do tell kids of the realities, as you see them today, of the business of photography, but please do not discourage them from studying the art of photography! Please have a larger perspective on the art of photography. That photographers could build a business around this art can really be seen as a recent phenomenon; recent being the latter part of the 20th century. The early greats of photography were not making big bucks at this. It was the advent of photos in print publishing and the explosion of other visual media that led to what we have come to know as "the business". We are currently somewhere in the middle of another revolution, and hopefully, in some way, the art will survive and we along with it.
Dug North - Animated Wooden Sculpure Artist
in People
My friend Suzzanne Cromwell of the Cultural Organization of Lowell recently introduced me to Dug North, and what a find! Dug is an artisan who creates "automated wooden sculpture", or automata. This was a really fun shoot because in his home, at Lowell's Ayer Lofts, he has his very own vault! Apparently, the building was once a patent medicine company, and the vault was used to store who-knows-what...cash, drugs, poison? In those days were the latter two different? Today, Dug uses it as his workshop, allowing him to work at any hour without disturbing his neighbors. Plus it's very cool!
Obviously, I wanted to capture him in this environment, along with at least some of his work. He told me that most of his work is sold almost as soon as it is finished, which is the dream of most any artist, but also proved to be a challenge for us in setting up the shot. Fortunately, a piece that he was showing at the Ayer Art Gallery, down stairs from his condo, was freeing up.
This last shot is my favorite from the shoot though. The flourescent ambient light was very cool, and his expression is just right!
Visit his very full web site here: https://dugnorth.com
Permission
Self-assigned photo shoots are really a necessity. Shooting for yourself keeps things interesting and on your own trajectory. When the paid jobs are not where you want to be or where you want to go, it's doubly rewarding. Sometimes, for one reason or another, those shots may not be ones that you can use or ones that fit precisely into your portfolio, and your portfolio needs to represent exactly the kind of work that you want to attract. This latter point took a long time to sink in for me, but it is one of the most important things that a commercial photographer needs to learn. We all want to show work that we are proud of and that shows the world we are versatile and capable. But you need to ask yourself if any given shot in your portfolio is the kind of work that you want to continue to do, and further, if it is consistent with a focused message. Who are your ideal clients? What do they look for? Show them what they are looking for! Chances are, if they are looking for that specific thing, they probably don't want someone who does that thing along with all sorts of other, unrelated kinds of work. I'm sure this is not news.
For photographers, as well as many other disciplines, self-assigned work is really magic. It's an avenue that is freeing, useful and necessary. If you're building a new portfolio, especially one that is heading in a new direction, or if you are unhappy with the alignment of the work you are shooting for pay with your goals, self-assigned work is the answer. It's freeing because the what, when, where, who and how are all up to you. It's your chance to create a world from play-doh, to appropriate a phrase that someone used last week who I unfortunately cannot recall.
But here's where it gets tricky, for me at least; that clean slate. Which way should I go? And when I choose, who will give me permission? There's that word: permission. I used to be a professional musician, and there was always an undercurrent of guilt when I was practicing or working on something that wasn't income-generating. That's a pretty debilitating way to be if you are an artist. I'm not sure what made me like that, but as a musician I was always wary of the people who I would encounter who had “real jobs”. Well, I am older now, and my coping mechanism has grown from the unwavering support of my wife and the fact that I have seen the other side, and I know now that I have it so much better. Now I can give myself permission to work on something that has no practical value at this moment and is not generating income. I can do that because I know that what I am working on is part of what I want to do to be where I want to be, so that I can be sought out by clients, to do that thing.
The essential factor in giving yourself permission to do self-assignments is structure. Where do you want to go? My friend, photographer's consultant Selina Maitreya, talks consistently about “vision”. Without that, where are you going? I am reading David duChemin's new book and he has almost the identical message. In order to get where you want to be, you need to figure out where that is. Once you have done so, make it happen. And if you don't have enough work that leads you in that direction, create it. I find it very useful to get myself into a situation in which I must create such work. For me, it has been taking the form of art shows. I create the kind of work that I want because no one is really dictating content, and it gives structure and permission to do so. But whatever form the structure takes, make sure that it leaves you free to create the work that you want to keep creating.
The Portrait Conversation
Melissa said that she was nervous. I couldn't tell. But we talked about all kinds of things as I arranged lights and modifiers. Melissa works in health care, and her friend Matthew, who came with her to the shoot, works on a sustainable farming project, so we had lots to talk about. She even asked about me, which was really nice, so for a while we talked about music and photography. I was hoping that her nervousness had dissipated by this point, and I was happy to hear her say a little while into it that she was enjoying the shoot.
I think sometimes that a subject's nervousness is actually excitement. Excitement about the event, the process and the whole idea of being literally and figuratively, the focus of attention for that short time.
There are times when you get a chance to photograph someone who is really excited to be photographed. I think this was the case that evening because in these shots of Melissa her personality and beauty just jump out at you. When I do studio shoots like this I rarely photograph two people the same way. After we interact for a while, I start to develop a direction in my mind of the way in which I want the shoot to go and how to capture that person in images. With Melissa, I knew somehow that I just wanted a simple, almost monochrome theme, and that I was working with someone with whom I could use relatively hard light, and would absolutely glow, contrasting with the starkness of the scene in a really significant way.
Andrew - Playwright, journalist and general writer
As you might have guessed, I am working on a project to capture images of people that I meet around the Lowell and Merrimack Valley area of New England. I asked Andrew Wetmore if he would sit for me several months ago, but time has a tendency to slip away if you aren't attentive. We finally got to it during the recent holiday break at my studio. Andrew is a playwright, journalist, high-tech nerd (and I mean that in the best possible way - I was one myself ;-), and Canadian, in no particular order. As you will see, he has a very interesting and character filled face!
David - The Artist
in People
I photographed David Barton, a mixed media artist, recently. I set out to capture a side of David that is not often apparent in the photos that I had seen, or taken of him in the past. A fascinating personality, David creates sculpture that he calls 3D Paintings. I'd give you his web site, but...um...he doesn't have one yet!
Western Avenue Holiday Open Studios 2009
This year I decided to browse the studios, along with other Holiday Open Studio guests. It was fun to be able to talk with lots of the artists that I don't see that often, or that I usually only have time to say hi to in the hall. As always though, the camera was with me and I wanted to share some of the portraits and other scenes at Open Studios while it is still going on. Details of hours and how to find Western Avenue Studios are here, on the Western Avenue website.
City of Lights Parade and Holiday Art Stroll in Lowell
Last Saturday, November 28th was the Annual City of Lights Parade and Holiday Art Stroll in Lowell, Massachusetts. I had the privilege of shooting for COOL, The Cultural Organization of Lowell, which gives me access to all venues and the ability to cut in line! :-) And they encourage me to photograph anything that interests me. So here is a small part of the documentation of my adventures on Saturday.
I started by visiting local businesses who were participating in the 2nd Annual Hot Chocolate Competition. I went to too many to list here, but here are a few that were chosen ... because I got better pictures ;-) Unfortunately, the time that I had allotted to me to do this walk-around was short, and I wasn't even able to get to all of the places that I had on my list.
And here is the first place entry being created for me at the Second Wind Cafe.
Then it was off to the main event, the parade reviewing stand, where there were dancers, floats, bands...and the kids supplies all manner of cute.
And my friends from Western Avenue Studios were there!
Among the many who made this a success were the event's MC, Trica Boshco, and COOL's Director, LZ Nunn.
