What Comfort Zone?

So, I mentioned on my Twitter feed a few days ago that I had a request from a client that put me a little out of my comfort zone. Some people might think I'm a pansy for this, but basically, the client (actually, the clients PR agent) requested that I hand over a few select images the night of the job, immediately following the shoot.

Now, for me, I follow the concept of "get it right in-camera" pretty closely, but the idea of not being able to analyze and do any minor editing before the client sees the work still scares me. What if I had a bad night? What if my settings were a little off for a few of the more important shots? What if I just flat-out failed?

News photographers are probably too busy pointing at their screen and laughing at me to continue reading, but the truth is, for most of us, we're afraid to let people see our raw, unedited work. If we get home, or back to our offices, and go through our images to find out that nothing needed any tweaking at all, then we pat ourselves on the back and feel a sense of accomplishment. Should we return to our computers to find that some images need some CPR, then we make the necessary changes, say a few funny sounding words under our breath, and deliver our newly-perfect, polished images. We then pat ourselves on the back and feel a sense of accomplishment. In the end we don't release anything we aren't proud of, so the concept of not having at least the chance to give ourselves the mental "green light" is frightening! What if we look like completely inept morons and the client never calls us back again!? What if we shot the entire night with the wrong white balance and everyone looks like a martian!? There are a ton of "what if" questions, but in the end, it all comes down to this: Am I good enough?

Really though, we're artists, and we have this relationship with our work where we always want to be better, to do better, to create better things. Maybe our fear of showing unedited work comes from our desire to constantly critique and torture ourselves.

On a final note, what really is a "comfort zone?" Obviously, it has a definition, but seriously, why do we put ourselves into these little boxes of "I can do this" and "I can't do that" and how do we know when to break free? Without sounding like I'm bragging, the photos came out just fine, and client and their PR agent were very pleased and the necessary photos went out for immediate release that night. I delivered the balance of the images to the client on Monday... and the only editing I did was cropping.

Just goes to show you that you don't know what you can accomplish until you are pushed to do so. It's impossible to tell yourself to be spontaneous with this kind of stuff because planning to be spontaneous is in-and-of-itself the very opposite of the concept.

Quick Update, Photo Apps

Just a quick update, I know things have been slow here on the blog.

This was a very busy weekend for me, photographically, and now I find myself staring down a long list of projects that need editing. This weekend I completed 4 shoots, 2 of which really kicked my ass. Needless to say I'm exhausted, especially since I was running all over NJ and fighting the clock the entire time.

Gear malfunctions held me back a few times. Of course, that had to happen during the 2 bigger gigs of the weekend. Things never go wrong when you're relaxed, only when you're already rushed and stressed out. It's like there's ghosts in the equipment or something.

Tried something brand new this weekend as well. I am feeling good about the previews so far, but once I get down to actually editing the final images I'll see how it all worked out. If it works out well it may be something I consider adding to my list of services and using a little more frequently for certain jobs.

I suppose I can't tell you all about these things until they are ready to be shown online. One batch of photos was just a self assignment to shoot some photos of the Supermoon that we had going on Saturday night. I had considered renting a longer lens for that, but ended up not having the time, nor wanting to spend the money, so I used my old 75-300mm kit lens that I got back when I bought my Rebel XT. The moon was very bright, so I was able to use some really fast settings, so I actually think it'll have come out pretty good, but we'll have to wait and see when I sit down to edit. Another job was for a local news company, so I probably won't be blogging about that one, it just kind of is what it is, you know? Keep your eyes open for updates though, as I'll be starting to work on images throughout the week and posting as they are available for public viewing.

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about two really cool apps I downloaded for free. I am not an iPhone user, at least not yet, but my iPod does run a lot of the same apps. I was searching for an app to help me build lighting diagrams and came across two that are each great in their own way. I'll provide a more detailed review of each after I've used them a bit more, but for now, if you want to check them out yourself, you can click each name and go to their website, or just look up the app title on your phone/iPod

1) Strobox
2) Sylights

More soon,
-Rob

Interview with Christian of Ill Nino in New York

Some people like their schedules and their daily tasks to be well planned and calculated. They like to know exactly what they're in store for well ahead of time and need to follow their dialy outline with robot-like rigidity. I'm not one of those people.

I was at work one day, doing what I do. What I do, mostly consists of a little bit of what I'm supposed to be doing and a little bit of what I probably should just do when I get home. Regardless, I was doing... something... of some importance... not even sure of who it would be important to. All I know is I took a quick break to check my email and got a message from one of my music business contacts asking if I would be available to do a video interview with Ill Nino, a band that started off locally here in NJ, and has gone on to national and even international success. Here's the kicker, it was for the next night. Not that something like "tomorrow night" is super short notice or anything, but depending on the caliber of the job it could be a slight inconvenience. Depending on what needs to be done, you can sometimes need as much as a week, or even a month's notice for photo and video work. Not one to complain, I got all the details and agreed.

Review Recognition

Just wanted to let everyone know that David Ziser mentioned my review of Captured By The Light on his blog yesterday. I'm glad he enjoyed what I had to say about his book as much as I enjoyed reading it. It's nice to see my name and my blog mentioned outside of places that I post the links myself. Everyone go on over and check out the shout-out he gave me, and while you're there, subscribe to his blog as well. He posts great photography biz items daily.

Digital ProTalk: Quick Hit Monday: WPPI; Power Of Passion; I Have A Famous Daughter; and More!

Also, if you didn't read the review yet, you can grab it from the archive list on the right side of the page, or simply click here

More soon,
-Rob

PS - This might be the shortest blog entry I've posted yet.

Book Review: Captured By The Light

This is the first of a few new reviews of photography-related items that I plan on writing up. The first item on the list is David Ziser's Captured By The Light, which is easily one of the best, most comprehensive books on wedding photography I've ever read.

I had my very first wedding job coming up and I knew I was going to need help. The main reason should be obvious: concert photography is drastically different from wedding photography. In fact, even the portrait work that I do, despite it still being fundamentally the same, builds up and into something much different. Everything from the subject (obviously), to the location, the time allotted, and very much so the expectations of the client. You always want to do a super job, no matter what, no matter who you are working for, but there is something very intimidating about a bride on her wedding day. There are no re-shoots if you mess it up.

Double Vision

(I am completely aware that the photo I used for this has nothing to do with the actual topic of this post. But it's certainly pretty, innit?)

You've probably seen dual monitor setups in movies and TV shows and thought it would be pretty cool to use 2 monitors on one computer. Oftentimes it'll be a scene with some nerdy gamer-type locked in a basement with a bag of Funions and a case of Mt. Dew, blasting away zombies or spacecrafts as he's surrounded by 2 or more display screens. Other times you'll see it can possibly be during crime dramas or detective shows; because apparently, the police can never have too many screens to monitor people on.

Hit the jump for more:

Switching Gears: A Confession

Every artist is probably familiar with hitting a wall at times. Lots of us hit what I refer to as "Winter Funk." It's basically what happens when the conditions around you are less than ideal for going out and creating new things. For me, and for a lot of other photographers, this tends to happen in the winter. Maybe it's the lack of sunlight, or maybe it's just that we'd rather not freeze our fingers off in the cold while trying to be inspired by a bleak landscape of leafless trees and salt stained roads. Not to mention that even if we were inspired, the bitter cold takes a toll on your gear and batteries and you end up having even less time than usual to get the job or project done.

Life's been full of stress factors lately and I started to feel the pressure cracking me in half. On top of trying to keep up with my own life, I started to feel like I was standing still with my art. Sure, there have been some paying gigs to keep me busy, but my personal work had taken a huge hit since completing my 365 Project back in October.

More after the jump