3 Reasons why your Photography images have value.

Using the term “Value” can mean one of two things.

It can have a monetary value which we know all about. Take a photo, print it – someone buys it as a magazine, wall art – whatever it is.

The second value is the emotional value.

Here are the 3 types of reasons I think that people will like your image.

1.       It is beautiful.

It is a nice image. A landscape. Macro shot of a seashell. City scape. Whatever it is. The light is right, the colours just work, the composition is spot on. These images are inspiring and many of us want to get to be like those that produce these kinds of images. Look at Thomas Heaton, Nigel Danson as an example of really nice images that become calendars and photobooks that people buy. They are just – well – beautiful.

2.       It is interesting.

It has something about the image that makes you look for more than several seconds because of the way it has been taken. Different lens aspect, different way of composition, the strange lighting – something about it captures your attention. Some images in the past that I have taken when making documentary photo magazines on a subject are usually including these kinds of images. They hold the readers attention, make them think “what is all this about then?” and read further. Many images fall into this category.

3.       It is Meaningful.

It has an emotional meaning to the person who took the image or for who the image was intended for. It may not be perfectly exposed, slightly out of focus or some other technical aspect will be off – but the situation, time and subject has meaning. In Australia when we hear about a bushfire destroying a family home, too often you’ll hear on the news clip interview something like “We had enough time to get the family, our pets and the photo albums..nothing else.”

Everything else is gone. Photos have meaning and an emotional connection to individuals and will have little value to anyone else. 

If you happen to combine two (or if you are really lucky – all three) of three elements, you are onto something special.

People will value your images more than others if you happen to find exactly what is needed to be the photographer who knows the audience that they are aiming towards.

Too often in the past I created images that were meaningful to myself, yet somehow, I was expecting others to like them as well. I was trying to get affirmation from people who didn’t have the same emotional investment. A little like having a Vegemite sandwich in Australia and expecting others in the World to enjoy the salty yeast extract spread. Wrong audience.

Where do you think your main focus is right now?

Do you take images “for yourself” because your trying to make something beautiful?

Is the end result having those images for sale?

Know what your end goal is and focus on that.

The influence others have on YOU and YOUR photography. My hatred for Digital Judgement

Listening to a thoroughly engaging podcast recently had me thinking of the past decade of photography related purchases. There have been many. What comes to me only now when reflecting back on all of these camera/lens/accessory purchases is the self justification in buying them in the first instance and how I created a perfect logical narrative on why I needed the said new shiny electronic item.

Doing a wedding shoot - need a camera with 2 card slots (Remember when wedding photographers got by fine with just one?)

Landscape photography passion - need a high megapixel count camera for large prints (posts on Facebook and Instagram - makes five A3 prints in a year)

Purchases $2000+ 135mm F2 Zeiss Milvus lens for portrait use (135mm lens usage ends up being less than 0.2% of entire Lightroom catalogue)

I think you get the general idea. The thought I get is that by purchasing these objects of desire is somehow a substitute for the actual taking of photographic images - a kind of “action faking” if you will (another level up from procrastination - even whilst typing this I found myself wandering off to a YouTube rabbit hole researching Nikon F6 film cameras). At some stage I wanted to explore the possibility of maybe earning a decent income from photography, but the only income generated in my case was that going to the camera companies. As the saying goes “If you don’t know who the sucker is at the poker table - it’s you..” (Take the beautifully created Fujifilm productions/advertisements - some even feature movie length like this one here are entertaining, but commercials for the companies products nonetheless - Photography is a business, and I dare say that Fujifilm made this not for the “likes” but to increase sales and brand awareness by a means of a emotive story of the design team striving to make the product…) which takes me to the title of this little piece “The influence others have on you and your photography” - but how and why does it matter?

Many choose photography for a multitude of reasons, some to showcase to the world their creative side, some to make a dollar or thousand.( Not that their is anything remotely bad at all in making money from photography if that is your purpose! - absolutely go for it if it works!) What I’m looking at is for all of the people who take an image, be it on the phone they have, right upto to 100 Megapixel pseudo medium format $10,000 behemoth - who, or better yet, what is the end point of the image? Is it for yourself having an image to be printed and placed within your own house? Is it to document an event in time to show the world? Or is it to gain attention, likes, thumbs up - the modern day currency of an ego-coin which to some is more valuable than actual cash to buy food, clothing and accommodation with.

I have been down all of the paths, and I hope you might gain some insight (or even simply relate) I’ve taken and reflect on the aimlessness in some of my endevours to come to the realisation, too late maybe, that doing anything that has the outcome determined by another takes the power, ownership and enjoyment away from you. Case in point - you take what you feel is a beautiful and meaningful image only to then upload it to some social media platform for the digital world to judge, and it is judged as an “average” image when compared to your internal LikeMeter - then, in moments, your judgement and opinion on your own creation has now decreased in perceived value. In the words to Greta Thunberg “How Dare You !” Stop. Just stop being a slave to the opinions of others when it comes to your own work, so many seek approval in so many aspects within their lives - do not let your passion and love of photography, your art, your creation be destroyed by the anonymous, judgemental, malevolent world. Only when you pass this point, when you go back to what photography was once - an image in time, that was then printed and prized as a precious possession by few, then you have known. Known that it is better to create an image loved by one for a lifetime, than it is to have an image liked by thousands for a second.

Here is to all those photographers who are known and unknown who have made the choice to delete, or at least no longer upload images to the social media giants who deem your loved creation simply as “Content” - same can be applied to the large companies and corporations who have a department called “Human Resources” - think about that for one moment HUMAN - RESOURCE. Going online to the Oxford dictionary, you’ll find that the definition for “Resource” as “A supply of something (In this case…Humans) that…an organisation or a person has and can use, especially to increase their wealth”. You are more than simply a content provider to a company than profits from your attention and others.

Go it alone for a while. See what matters to you.

I've got so much gear, and I still want more. Why?

It’s been a never ending story. Buy gear - Sell gear. Buy more gear.

I think I’m writing this for some self reflection or insight, also in the hope that if I can help one person out there who may be under the same cycle of buying and selling camera gear - to pause for a moment and consider

"What is the end point?”

Am I chasing image quality? Well yes, obviously, but to be truthful the lighting and moment played more of a part in the overall image than the equipment ever did. Am I after the “look” of other photographers that I have admired in the past? - hence looking now at Leica camera bodies and lenses. Stop it - really - $6000 for a 35mm lens. Just STOP right now.

The Megapixel count being so high, only to be viewed on a 6 inch screen in square format - the new fantastic technical marvel of a full frame 50mm F1.2 lens that weighs 2 pounds and has a depth of field so shallow that the eyelash is in focus, but the pupil isn’t.

It dawned on me when I came to accept a position some distance from home for a period of time and started to load up my car and saw that when fully packed, I had 3 large Airport type camera bags fully loaded which comprised of 3 different camera brands, in three different camera sensor sizes. Ridiculous.

I pulled out all of my camera gear out and laid it bare on the floor, very much like opening up to the confessional and unleashing all of your sins out to be seen by all. I was sitting down and looking at this collection of technology and glass that there were a few points that came to me.

I had a lot of Nikon Glass, which I liked a lot.

The 105mm F2.8 Macro given to me by my Dad is a lovely, if seldom used, lens which I won’t sell because it was a gift from my Father (Along with the film FM3a). The Ais Lenses such as the 28mm F2.8 and 200mm F4 had a special way of rendering, the Tamron 35mm F1.4 VC which has been THE best 35mm lens I had ever used in terms of contrast, bokeh, colour, close focusing, usability and weather sealing and of course my lovely Voigtlander 58mm F1.4 Nokton which, even being manual focus, is one of the nicest lenses to use, brilliant build quality and stellar image performance. The Nikon cameras that I have had bought and sold were - D80,D90,D300,D500,D700 (Still have),D800,D850,D7000,D7100 and FM3a (Still have - will never sell)

I had a great deal of Fuji gear and had used Fuji Mirrorless for some time

I first purchased the Fuji XE-2 kit, then it was a continuation from there. X-T1, X-T2, X-T3, X-Pro1 and 2, X-H1 with the 16mm F1.4, 23mm F1.4 and F2, #5mm F1.4 and F2, 56mm F1.2, 90mm F2 (Stunning lens hardly used - the focal length was difficult to use frequently) 18-55F2.8-4 and 55-200 zoom. As you can tell - well invested and tried many. I think I funded many Fuji Functions in Japan from my purchased alone.

I liked how the exposure compensation showed in the viewfinder with mirrorless, I liked the handling, the dials, the usability of the Fuji cameras - but I couldn’t use the Nikon glass the same (Yes - I bought some adaptors, but it changes the focal effective focal length) Basically I liked mirrorless - Next transition -Sony.

Sony Full frame loveliness

Sony was about the same size (Roughly) as my Fuji X-T series I had used and full frame. I could use my adapted Nikon lenses the same. I could adapt ANY lens the same from Leica, Pentax and whatever else was out there to try. However there was something about the ergonomics that drove me a bit bonkers - Dare I say it, it felt maybe a bit to small and fiddly to use? And as for the menu system -well, people say you will get used to it. Yeah, right; just like I’d get used to sleeping on the concrete floor with a wet woollen itchy blanket - I’d eventually get to sleep, but it won’t be enjoyable.

Micro 4/3 anyone? - Yes please! Over here!

My father is into bird photography and went around Australia with his 600mm F4VR lens, his 70-200 F2.8 and two Nikon bodies - The D700 and D800. He is now over 70 years of age and in all honesty carrying that around would most probably cause a spinal compression fracture if he were to try and carry all that more than 2Km (Just over a mile) - Enter to Panasonic G9 and 100-400mm Leica lens.

There is nothing really like it on the market - a 200 to 800mm equivalent focal range on a camera body that weighs 23oz (650g). Perfect for my Father and his passion. The thing was though, in his later years, he did less and less - then gave me the camera. Once again - a camera I will not sell as it was a gift. The reason I mention this though, is firstly it IS STILL in my current collection of camera gear, and secondly being made aware that there really is a small segment that the M43 does very well. I would have never considered it before - but there you have it.

In the past I did try the Panasonic G85 with it’s great 12-60 lens kit - it is a great camera to use, I also purchased the Olympus 12-40 F2.8 zoom lens which is just lovely to hold and use, plus the 40-150mm F2.8, both lovely in build, image quality - but I quickly bought and sold them through my addiction of Cameras and lens - it was a good high at the time - just not fulfilling enough to continue - there were more things to try. I did find the menu system pleasant tho use and the ergonomics were fine as well.

I Purchased the Panasonic S1

To enjoy using a camera that felt good in the hand was something I had forgotten since the days gone by. of solid, functional SLR cameras. Just very much like using an X-Pro1 or 2, it is just simply a nice camera to use. The Viewfinder on the S1 is THE BIGGEST AND BRIGHTEST of any camera I’ve used. The high ISO performance is stellar (Used it in conjunction with a Voigtlander 50mm F1.2 with vacuums light from near darkness) - but dare I say it - it was TOO BIG and heavy. It weighs nearly 1kg (2lbs) because it is built like an armoured car and could be used as a weapon if a photographer was ever attacked. I sold it in 6 months as it was just TOO big when I wanted full frame, but not FULL WEIGHT.

Where am I going with all of this - what’s the point?

The point is there were certain elements from all of my purchases that clarified only when I placed everything on the ground in from of me. I wanted full frame mirrorless because I would be adapting my Nikon and Voigtlander lenses I liked so much - and I didn’t want my 50mm F1.2 Nokton to become a 75mm. Sony can go get stuffed because photographers have long complained about the menu system for years and well Sony have done - Nothing.

Then it came from somewhere unexpected - watching a photographer explain why he switched to the Nikon Z6. Why had I never considered this before? Because people told me (Which People? - the YouTube creators, Marketers and full time Pros - all which I am not) I needed 2 card slots, perfect (Sony A73) Autofocus all of the time and this, then that and the battery life and the usability - Oh, it’s so tiring. But this photographer wsn’’t yelling about the lack of this or that, comparing specs against other brands, he sat ther in front of his camera drinking coffee from his Nordic mug and just told his audience what he thought - he compared it against his D850 and D5 - but said the Z6 was now his main camera.

So I’ll be seeing how this next long post and justified purchase will work out and you can read my blog with interest to see what fault I can find with my new “Must Have” camera

If I were starting out again if everything was blown up and I had a shopping list to start over - well that is another story…

The Never Ending Story

Even though this post has nothing to do with the 1984 Movie involving a Luck Dragon, the title is very apt in what goes on in my mind about the "Best" camera to have. I started off with a Minolta rangefinder with a 40mm f2.8 Rokkor lens when I was 16 and loved it. I read on the side of the film packet that I purchased at the time to figure out what aperture was required if I wanted a certain shutter speed - and from this I learnt the absolute basics. Then I went and got al fancy and purchased my first "Real" camera - a Nikon FE with a 50mm f2 Nikkor lens. Wow - did I feel special..the same BRAND of camera that all the real photographers used. Did my images get noticeably better? Not Really.  

It wasn't until I purchased my first digital camera that things got really bad. I expected too much from them in all honesty to what I had been used to. Technology and price were the limiting factors in image performance - but today in 2017, as I write this, things have changed drastically, and for the better I believe. A low cost crop factor Nikon or Canon DSLR is truly a blessing in those starting out - Even the smaller compact camera sensors (Like the Sony RX100 series) are absolutely fantastic for what they are. But still many of us are still not satisfied with what we have. Get the new camera body, the new lens, the faster SD cards, the gimbal for video, the right lighting setup - it never ends.

There has to come a point when we lay all of our camera gear on the floor and see what we have. At this point you have to be honest with yourself and firstly ask WHAT do you use the camera for, and HOW are you going to be displaying them. Because if you are anything like myself, I have taken 1000's of images, but have only 20 or so printed any size greater than 11x14. Think about that for a moment - how many images do you print, and at what size are they? Or are most of your images displayed on your Instagram account, Flickr or Facebook? Unless there is a specific need for a certain look (Such as a shallow depth of field that is hard to replicate with smaller sensor cameras) or you need surgical precision sharpness - you can very quickly see where I am heading with this. I enjoy my Nikons for what they can do in my wildlife photography, I adore the light compact M43 Panasonic G85 for everyday family shots that anyone can use if I gave it to them, and I really like my Fuji Cameras for the way they feel in my hand (Xpro1) and the film simulations they provide in the JPEGS. 

So how many lenses and cameras do we really need? As many as makes you happy. If there are certain things in life that just provide you with the extra bit of happiness (Like a new camera lens) throughout the avalanche of bad news we are constantly being fed - I say don't feel guilty. If you can afford it - do so.

Boxing Photography - The right way to go about it.

I saw the flyer on the fridge at work - Boxing Championships. “That would be interesting to take a few images of..” I pondered. That thought would prove to be the biggest understatement of the year thus far.

I contacted the event organiser via FaceBook messenger expressing my interest in taking some images of the event with no obligation to the organisers and offered them free use of the photos to promote their club and their event for the future. There is your first tip right there - if you want to try something new, and you don’t know how it’s going to work out - firstly, don’t even consider charging for it, and the important part here was that it gave both parties (The event organiser and myself) a possible win-win scenario. I would get to take images and gain access, and the club would get to use the images for free. If the images turned out rubbish - nothing lost apart from some of your time !

Heading down to the local gym and making yourself know beforehand will be a huge benefit to your relationship with the boxers and getting your camera settings right before a fight.

I’d highly recommend going down to the local boxing club and introducing yourself before. Not only will you have the chance to give confidence within yourself with camera settings, but meeting the people you will see during the boxing events will reduce the anxiety of being in unfamiliar surrounds.

Once you arrive at the event, take a moment to observe what is going on in and around the boxing ring and within any other areas that you may be taking the images. What I did for my first event was to set out the ISO requirements initially, as most of the images will be taken at a fast shutter speed (1/400 second at an absolute minimum I found to “Freeze” the action) and this will depend on the type of camera and lens you will be using. In my case - I was using a Sony A7iii with the Sony 35mm F2.8, as this lens focuses extremely fast, and having it set at F2.8 would have the image mostly in focus with an adequate depth of field. For most part - the ISO ranged from 3200 to 4000. For the Autofocus (Which is brilliant by the way on the Sony A7iii for these kind of events) I used Constant AF with eye detect ON. Things move so fast in this sport, and having an autofocus system that is reliable just increases the chances of the perfectly focused shot by at least 50% (Compared to Nikon D850 and Fuji X-T3 which I have used in the past). This isn’t a plug for Sony as such - it is just what I found. Another thing to consider is to use High Speed shutter and take a series of shots, as it will be milliseconds between “That” shot.

Finding out the lighting conditions before the event starts is one less factor to worry about before the main event starts.

Look around and observe whats going on, meet the boxers and trainers - introduce yourself

When the fights begin - things move fast. If you haven’t already been told - remember ABSOLUTELY NO FLASH. I cannot stress this enough. If you ignore this golden rule in fight photography, you will be out of there faster than you know what happened. It is extremely distracting - it can mean one split second which can advantage one boxer making the other boxer loose the fight. You don’t want to be that person.

I tried using both the viewfinder AND the live-view to frame the subjects depending on the action taking place - Try and get different angles, as taking the images all at the same perspective will effectively give a very boring batch of images to work with and edit. Try thinking of each fight as a story within its own right. Take images of the fight, the coaches, the boxers in the corner between the bouts. Remember that even though the boxing IS about the boxers - it is also about those that support, encourage, coach and help the fighters. This will be greatly appreciated by many.

I highly recommend taking images in RAW as you will have more latitude in editing the highlights and shadows. Using Lightrooms editing tools will help remove much of the noise and grain associated with the images. This is another article in itself which can go on for some time, but if you are interested - I have considered creating a quick YouTube tutorial on how to do this as I find watching a video is far more easily understood than following written instructions.

Overall, enjoy your time, be prepared for many images that will need editing (I had approximately a 5% keeper rate) and don’t get disheartened. As with everything, you need to experiment and find out what does and doesn’t work. I hope this brief outline will give some a starting point in taking images that will lead to some great shots to be proud of.

Most action shots will be found during the editing process as you’ll take so many images on the night - another reason to use the high speed shutter and take a series of shots to get “That” image of impact