I'll admit to feeling a bit lost this year. I've always used a framework of commercial engagements as the glue that strings together the fun stuff and the gear lust. Having descended from the puritans I have an aversion to spending money I can neither deduct or depreciate and l've also lost my rationalization that the paid work will pay for the leisure time photo dalliances. So I'm trying to mentally re-group and re-imagine doing stuff just because it's fun and just because I can.
I have in mind to make a series of small, black and white movies with my current gear. When I say movies I mean little, five minute to ten minute long pieces that are narrative in nature; not interviews or travel showcases. The problem, of course, is not really being able to use actors as I'd like and also not having access to locations that I used to take for granted.
Fortunately or unfortunately I've come to realize that unlike walking around with a nice camera and taking photographs of stuff that looks interesting or pretty does not work when it comes to making really interesting projects that need to hold an audience's attention for more than 30 seconds.
I say, "unfortunately" because this requires me to actually do work in advance of shooting. I guess it falls under pre-pre-production. The hard part being the need to think up the story, then write the script, and then do the storyboards. Everything else flows from those steps. But this means hunkering down and doing work for weeks instead of getting the immediate gratification of snap-shooting.
It's fortunate in that I have the time, and the country has the time, for more considered thought projects. There's not any pressure to construct and fulfill tight deadlines. There's no one looking over my shoulder trying to hurry me along or pick away at my budgets.
Having written a number of books I know the only way to make a good project, as opposed to a good shot, is to plan, write stuff out, walk through ideas and blocking, and to make well thought through shot lists. It's so different from my usual work which has always been loosely planned and subject to changes on the fly.
Anyway, short films. Fun to watch. That's my current hobby project.
But I am curious what are you doing to stay active as a photographer? Have you found projects that are engaging even if they are different from your usual beat? I'm assuming that many portrait and people photographers are quickly discovering landscapes. I've tried it but my heart just isn't in it...
Would love to hear how you've changed your focus (ha. ha.) to adapt to whatever restrictions you are under in your area!
And a quick note to all of you being inundated by snow and wild weather: Stay safe and stay warm.
Kirk,
ReplyDeleteReading this story over on TOP:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-edition-october-21-2018-1.4866236/how-98-year-old-photographer-thelma-pepper-captured-the-extraordinary-in-the-ordinary-women-of-saskatchewan-1.4866237?x-eu-country=false
Made me think that you are only about 5 years into your serious photography career. Time to drive across Texas and take shots, socially distant, of all the ranchers, farmers and businesses.
Could be fun portrait work that you have just stopped practicing for.
I mostly take photos of strangers, have only tried once during lockdown and it was so stressful having to dodge people that I gave up after 5-10 minutes, mostly I've been consoling myself with pics of sunsets, bus shelters etc, I have one large 4 year project that I'm compiling a book from https://www.assortedstrangers.com/fair/ which seems to be easier than ever, print on demand seems to have really come on in the last few years and you can get even small runs of a few copies done at a reasonable price, so that's pretty exciting, very accessible now and the quality of printing seems really high
ReplyDeleteLong time reader, first time commenter. Thanks for continuing to write, I'm grateful for the daily insights.
ReplyDeleteNot quite a project, though I have a few of those, but an exercise I've found fun and interesting:
1. Set yourself up to start a walk - either drive to a location or head out from home.
2. Start an interval timer to chime at a given interval, say 2 minutes and 30 secconds.
3. When the timer sounds, stop and take one picture, keep walking.
4. Repeat for as much time as you have.
It would be better with some kind of randomized timer, but I haven't the energy to find one on iOS.
This is not entirely my own idea, but a riff on some others, like John Divola's "As Far As I Could Get."
I was sent, not altogether unwillingly, into retirement mid-March. My wife and I had secured a plot in a neighborhood community garden this year. Not a gardener myself, my role was to go over and water our patch when necessary. But in mid-September, I noticed that the garden, some 40 or so plots, was looking really interesting as death and decay started to play a role. I began to walk over with a camera and coffee. Now I've come out at the other end with a first edit of over 60 images to pare down for a gallery exhibition in the spring. So that was one project. Additionally, I've begun working with a non-profit with a proposal to do environmental portraits of their staff. By the time funding and all for this is secured, we'll be past the vaccine stage and additionally, because of the nature of the program, the portraits will be outdoors. The central point of this project is to photograph the many people who normally would never be photographed, and in a manner as serious as one would use for the CEO. I'm looking at retirement as being awarded a grant to work as an artist. Finally.
ReplyDeleteHi Kirk
ReplyDeleteI'm currently documenting the construction of a new facility for our local search and rescue folks. It's pro bono, they are a volunteer organization that save lives. I hope that they can use the photos for fund raising purposes. I did similar for the local Kiwanis affordable housing project a few years back. I enjoy it. portfolio at www.woodsgift.ca
The ASAR group was involved in a very dramatic rescue last Saturday. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/little-qualicum-falls-rescue-video-bc-1.5840907
Heroes all
I feel blessed that the pandemic really hasn't affected my photography as I shoot primarily street and architectural abstracts. Like adam above, I've started on a book project but instead of one large book, I'm going to make a series of small books (12-20 images). Each book would be very focused and mimic a gallery show.
ReplyDeleteBravo Gentlemen, this is fun to read. I'm enjoying the different perspectives. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the lockdown, I set up my Nikon D700 (since sold to buy a Fuji XT1)with a nice B&W I found on the Picture Control site. I took at least a couple pics a day, often of my coffee cup (demitasse cup, home-brew espresso) with each day having its own unique drip pattern. When a local art league announced a virtual art show, I made a print, contact print style, of about 35-40 images in sequence, and titled it "A COVID-19 Journal."
ReplyDeleteApart from that, I keep a couple cameras around. Typically, I'll go out on the front porch, and shoot whatever light is on the woods that morning. Bright sun. Hazy Sun. Fog. Rain. Fortunately, about 2/3rds of our little 2+ acres is woodland, so in a way the scene is never the same. I think this is similar to your practice of walking around Austin, and capturing whatever interests you.
As we get into the new year, I need/want to dive back into my currently moribund Photoshelter-hosted website, and start feeding it new stuff. Last time was probably 6 or 7 years ago,
Just contracted to do a second edition of “Backroads and Byways of Georgia.”
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Dave, That's wonderful!!! Happy Holidays. KT
ReplyDeleteFor years I have been promising myself that I will curate my photo collection (more than 500K images) and (shudder) add metadata such as keywords. I never got around to it since there always seemed to be more urgent and important business things to do. Now that my retirement, Covid isolation and Canadian winter have coincided, I have no further excuses with plenty of time on my hands.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that it is a slog, though...
Oh my gosh, I sure hear that. Endless unfiltered archives....
ReplyDeleteWhile continuing to work from home (non-photography job), and unable to do much outside the home (except walking the dog and getting groceries), I set up a bird feeder in the backyard in early March. It has been wonderful learning so much more about birds than I realized and seeing birds in our yard that I (in my ignorance) didn't even know existed. Photographing them for fun (and to help identify some of the rarer visitors) has been a nice bonus, but birdwatching became a new hobby for me and my wife. We set up a camera on a tripod, clamping two curtains together using clamps that used to secure photographic backdrops in their previous life, with the lens poking through between the curtains. We could also watch the birds through other openings or by sitting quietly outside (in nice weather). But we recently moved a short distance away, so the goal and the challenge now is to create a new set-up in a new location once we're settled in. We have more trees behind our new digs, so the experience should be interesting. Not only has bird watching and feeding been great fun, it has also been a way to pass the time during months of no travel and no family visits.
ReplyDeleteKen
We never had any kind of "lock down" here in NC, although most of the events I would normally photograph throughout the year have been canceled or changed to some kind of virtual "event." My normal work, photographing for a municipal government, never slowed down. If anything, this year has been more heavily reliant on visuals to keep our citizens informed as we have encouraged people to stay home (that did not work, however; other than people wearing masks, you would not think there was an ongoing pandemic here). It has been enjoyable, dare I say even fun, photographing things I would not normally get to, such as protests, COVID testing sites, sanitizing of public spaces, unusually modified events that did take place, and ongoing/endless infrastructure/construction projects.
ReplyDeleteI started a personal documentary project in February photographing one of the few remaining tobacco farms in the area. Agriculture did not stop due to the pandemic, and it was easy to document with COVID safeguards in place. I am just about done with the resulting book; the entire project has been incredibly rewarding.
Then there is the family photography, which has boomed with us being home so much more than usual. I have not taken so many photographs of my kids since they were very young!
My passion is candid portraits. Shots of interesting people with normal, unposed expressions. Not much opportunity these days since most events are either cancelled or require masks to participate.
ReplyDeleteBut, as they say, it is an ill wind that blows no good. I am doing a lot of video. Each week I produce a one hour plus video of the service at my church. Due to restrictions on in-person worship the the pastor and I meet at the church each Thursday morning and he conducts a full service that I capture on my laptop. I have titles, lyrics, and pre-recorded music queued up and activate them at the appropriate moment. A Blackmagic ATEM allows to to switch among video cameras. Audio is from a Sennheiser AVX lavalier mic. So capture and production occur simultaneously just like a livestream, except, since it is Thursday, the file goes to Vimeo and, ultimately, to Facebook and YouTube for viewing Sunday morning.
I am living proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
kirk-
ReplyDeleteglad you and your's and their's remain well.
so i have really spent SO MUCH MORE TIME creating stills than my usual video projects.
video/motion here in nyc has all but dried up.
(at least for me)
so i needed to pivot and try to offer event/portrait/head shot/doc work for the clients that often used my video work for their websites.
(yes, two non-profits closed and with it the three invoices i was owed. jeez louise.)
my question is:
what are most folks using to catalog their still libraries?
i'm still using apple's photo application as my library front end and edit with luminar/capture one/nik.
so, what do you (others) use?
be well.
rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
To my surprise, I've been doing more portrait sittings than ever -- all outdoors with what I consider reasonable precautions.
ReplyDeleteWhile in some ways it is limiting compared to studio work, for the most part I enjoy the challenge of finding backgrounds and light to suit my subjects' look and mood. When I feel a bit more ambitious I have an open-air pop-up setup for studio looks, inspired in part by Irving Penn's setup from his world travels and Richard Avedon's setup for his American West project. Not as controllable as an indoor studio, but it has it's own kinds of challenges and rewards.
On the whole I figure an outdoor portrait session in the Texas breeze is less risky than a trip to the grocery store. So I'm keeping busy.
I have failed miserably on any worthwhile photo projects during lockdown. Like everyone else, I have taken a few shots of what a big city looks like when it's effectively closed.
ReplyDeleteWhere I have managed a modicum of success (I hope) is in writing. I've co-written a film script with a friend. We finished it this week. It has some promise. I have also completed another draft of a script, which I first started when Rosebud was still a tree.
I found on these projects liberating. With photography, I am reliant upon interesting subjects, which isn't easy when everyone wants to keep their distance.
Sorry I couldn't give you a more positive answer about photo projects. I'm scanning the responses to see if I can pick up some clues.
Been taking a camera on country walks - getting photos of the local bird life.
ReplyDeleteHave also bought a couple of magnum prints and gone to a few virtual exhibitions.
Treading water (to go back to the swimming stuff...)
Mark
Greetings!! and Happy Holidays
ReplyDeleteJust another day in the life of a retired (69 year old) Photojournalist/Medical Professional. Was doing a job for a Gallery, the project was called "People in Mask" and a project for Sigma Sein when both projects were put on hold till 2021 or ???? Do not know. Next project, my 16 year old son is doing a independent studies class in your field, Video Photography/Video Animation. So it looks like we'll be going on a road trip for 3-4 days at a time making a YouTube video of me using Sigma cameras from the SD9(when I signed on with Dick Merrill/Foveon in 2000) to the SDQ-H. What they can and cannot do. We'll see how things go, but should be fun.
Very good Netflix's movie "Holiday in the Wild" next trip Africa, taking the Sigma's on vacation.
Stay Safe it's almost over.
Roger
I'm doing what you're doing, only my projects are in color and executed entirely on iPhone with iMovie. This will be how I take pictures from now on, with digital presentation in mind, and incorporating more video clips. Final product will be short movies.
ReplyDeleteI came to this new workflow by the process of moving to a different state, divesting of most of my possessions, and painstakingly getting rid of the tens of thousands of pictures I accumulated over the years, and all of the equipment that went along with them. Printers, ink, albums, mat/frame supplies, etc., etc. Thousands of dollars in equipment never used or under-utilized. I could hardly even give it all away.
Times have changed.
Very interesting reading about what everyone is doing or not doing in photo projects.
ReplyDeleteI'm a retired photojournalist and I'm trying to figure out what's next for myself in photo projects.
I get an idea and then I find out I'm really not into doing it but I keep trying.
The other project is cleaning out, sorting out and taking stock of all my photo equipment I've collected over the years. Getting rid of some that I finally realized I'll never use again so there's no need to keep it. I'm sure you know that problem of too much gear.
But I have several ideas and I'm working toward those ideas. Photographing family more and landscape photography with a 4x5. I tried 8x10 but getting it processed is a real pain plus it's like moving your house when you use it.
Anyway stay safe and be careful out there!
Hi Kirk,
ReplyDeleteLockdowns and Covid restrictions meant work more or less stopped to start with (I'm not a photographer by profession).
I didn't take any photos for a couple of months to start with and this became incredibly frustrating so I resorted to taking photos of flowers in morning light in the garden. More recently I have started to (re)explore the local canals (West Midlands, UK) and that's helped satisfy my photographic mojo: lots of fascinating industrial remains to explore.
To put a positive slant on this awful time, I've started editing my digital photographs and it's been an interesting experience to reflect on the output of the cameras I've owned, as opposed to the experience of using them. Positive and negative experiences of each of these aspects haven't always matched up!
Finally, two future longer term projects as I inch towards full retirement: firstly, to use my newly purchased film and slide scanner and go through my photos since I was a teenager and secondly to make some books of my photos. I don't plan on being bored!
Nigel
Since about the end of April, I have been working on my Distance Project. The idea is to photograph what people are doing differently under lockdown. At first, all I could take were posed photos of people out on their officially permitted exercise, and only in my local parks, too. Most of those early shots were framed so that there's two metres (the minimum distance in the UK) between the subject and the edge of the frame.
ReplyDeleteAs the rules changed over time I have been able to cover a wider variety of subjects, and so far I've published over 190 photos on my blog, the North Bucks Wanderer. Some photos cover parts of my own life that are affected by the lockdown. I don't know how many photos I have taken for this project so far, but I've edited them down to something over 400 shots.
All the shots are cropped to the 16:9 format as it suited the first subjects, so I decided to do the whole project in that format. This decision hasn't always made my life easy, but hey ho…