Vegas, Baby – WPPI
Don’t wait up. I’m headed to Vegas. Every year, there is a trade show and convention for wedding and portrait photographers. It’s called WPPI. I love being there and meeting other photographers doing great work and meeting with vendors that can help us make our business better and increase our service to our clients. This year, the keynote speaker is Gregory Heisler. This year, WPPI is legit.
Suitcases are packed. I just need to put them in the car, right after I make this post. Then, I’m hitting the road.
Update on the 30 Strangers. If you haven’t already put your name on the list, you have until midnight tonight. Tomorrow morning we’ll randomly select the participants and send an email to confirm the date we’d like to photograph you. Thanks to everyone that expressed an interest.
And now, Vegas, baby.
Utah photography group: Salt Lake Seven
The Salt Lake Seven is a group of photographers that meet each month to show and talk about their work. It started in 1996 when I asked Kent Miles to be a private instructor for me. He suggested that instead, I find some other like-minded photographers, who also wanted to improve their craft, and that we meet all together, rather than one-on-one. Fourteen years later, I’m still going and I’m still learning and I’m still inspired by Kent and the rest of the group every time I attend.
No matter what level you are, if you care about getting better at photography, I’d suggest that being a part of an artists’ group will play a big part in your learning process. And it also helps when you have Utah’s finest documentary and portrait photographer, Kent Miles leading the group.
Kent Miles
Take a camera with you
It’s always good to carry your camera with you. That way, when you show up and your friends haven’t arrived yet, you can spend your time making pictures. And that’s just what happened here. This photograph was made a few days ago while I was waiting for my friends. Pretty good way to pass the time, if you ask me.
What to photograph
Giving specific advice on what to photograph would not be appreciated even if it was possible. The answer is provided by a question: What are you really interested in? In other words: What is it that can sustain your enthusiasm for a long time?
Bill Jay, Occam’s Razor
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Rexburg, Idaho on New Years Day - 2010
Photography Books
Here are the photography books I got for my birthday. I’m so excited!
How to be a photographer
You cannot be a photographer by aspiring to be one, or by learning everything there is to be known about photography. Photographers produce photographs. And many of them. Like every other skill, photography is learned by continuous and dedicated practice.
Bill Jay, Occam’s Razor
A Photographer’s Style
Young photographers are often pressured into an emphasis on individual style, a search for distinction, a quest for newness and differentness. Yet the truth of the matter is that a unique style is a by-product of visual exploration, not its goal. Personal vision only comes from not aiming for it. In dim light, objects emerge from the gloom when not looking at them. It is the same with style; paradoxically, it is a natural, inevitable result of emphasizing subject, not self.
Bill Jay, Occam’s Razor
BYU Idaho – Art Seminar
Thanks to everyone that came to the Art Seminar lecture at BYU Idaho last Thursday. I really did have the time of my life. It was great to meet everyone that came up after and I really appreciate what Kelly Burgener, dean of the art school said. “That was as good as any Art Seminar we’ve ever had”. A sincere thanks to you for having me.
Utah photographer in Idaho – BYU-Idaho Art Seminar
Thursday, October 22 at 6pm I’m giving a lecture at BYU-Idaho for their Art Seminar series. I’m going to be telling the story about the first time I kissed a girl (it was during the TV show Family Feud) and about the time a guy was walking around Rexburg without a coat when it was twenty below zero. (I’m going to leave the swear words out of that story. It still works without the swears. I mean, it’s not like I’m giving a lecture to pirates). I’ll also show some of my work and talk about how I got started in photography, why I do it, where it’s taken me, and the photographers that have made an impact on my craft. My goal is that listeners will be both entertained and inspired.
I may even work in the following quote from the book No More Secondhand Art:
The greatness of a poem or a painting is not that it portrays the thing observed or experienced, but that it portrays the artist’s or the poet’s vision cued off by his encounter with reality. Hence the poem or the painting is unique, original, never to be duplicated.
Maybe I’ll see you there.
Smith Building – Room 240 – 6pm
BYU Idaho – Art Seminar
In about three weeks I’m going to drive up to Rexburg Idaho and speak at BYU-Idaho. It’s for their Art Seminar series. Each semester, BYU Idaho invites artists from a variety of disciplines to speak about their work. From their site: “The course is designed to expose Art majors to a variety of contemporary artists, designers, and photographers.” The part about photographers–that’s where I come in. I’m really looking forward to it.
If you find yourself in Rexburg, Idaho on October 22nd, I hope to see you there.
What is Talent?
Rodney Smith is one of my favorite photographers. Here’s a recent quote from his blog:
To say a photographer has a vision is to say the photographer has something unique to say to about the world. Why do some photographers have something unique to say, when so many others just shoot pictures that are general and lacking vision? Most people would say it has to do with talent. Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe it has nothing to do with talent. Maybe it has to do with the ability to express one’s feelings. The person who presents a strong vision has figured out a way to express his or her feelings, while others are struggling to do that. Talent, then, becomes not so much artistic talent, though that may be a good part of it, but rather emotional talent.
Vegas, baby!
Amy and I are leaving for Vegas today. We’re going to be attending WPPI. It’s a big convention for wedding and portrait photographers.
See you in a while. Don’t wait up.
WPPI – Who’s going?
Who’s going? If we’ve never met before–now’s our chance.
Six ways to be a better photographer
I wrote a short article called “Six Ways To Be A Better Photographer – Right Now” and it’s now posted on one of my favorite blogs: Stephmodo.com. Here’s the link:
http://www.stephmodo.com/2009/01/six-ways-to-be-better-photographer.html
Beyond Shutter Speed
I remember trying to photograph my friend Christian about one year after I got my first camera. I moved slow, making sure that little needle inside (light meter) was lined up just right. Check the shutter speed. Ok. Got it. Check the aperture. Ok. It’s where it needs to be. Then focus. By that time, Christian had got up and walked away. Christian’s cousin, Trent Nelson, is photojournalist and so Chris was used to that kind of photographer. Moving quickly, making a record of things as they unfold.
Sometimes making a picture is like hitting a fast ball. The first time you play baseball, you don’t have to try and hit a pitch that’s coming at you at 100 mph. Instead, you first hit off a T. Then you try hitting and underhand pitch. And with enough practice and some time later, you’re knocking it out of the park at any speed.
So now I’m a wedding photographer and things move pretty quickly. It helps to get to the point in making pictures where the camera is just an extension of your brain. That what you see, can, in an instant, be recorded for the history books (aka – the wedding album). At that point, fiddling with shutter speed and camera dials means the bride is already down the isle and you missed the kiss.
But anyone can master that part of photography in a relatively short amount of time and then the question is why some pictures are more successful than others. Making pictures that truly sing, pictures that move people to tears, pictures with soul, require more that just a properly exposed image. Yesterday, on his blog, David Alan Harvey, one of the world’s great photographers wrote about the importance of connection to the subject here. You’ll draw your own conclusions, but for me, I read that blog post and think that it’s hard to make a good photograph of another person if you don’t or can’t make a connection with that person in some way. That’s a skill seperate from making pictures, but a skill the good pictures can’t do without.
Advice for photographers
Advice for photographers:
Never think photography is easy. It’s like poetry in that it’s easy enough to make a few rhymes, but that’s not a good poem. –Chris Steele-Perkins
There’s so much more where that came from on Magnum’s blog.
Photo Expo 2008
To any photographers that may read my blog, I’m wondering if you are going to Photo Expo this year. If so, let me know and let’s meet up.
What is Photo Expo? Here it is from their website:
PDN PhotoPlus continues to be on the cutting edge of what’s happening in photography and imaging. Since 1983 we’ve put on the leading show in the industry – attracting all the exhibitors you want to see, and the industry names you want to network with!