Rushing to every latest thing.

As the title suggests,this is an effort to probe why,as photographers, we seem to always be rushing after every new thing that comes along,rather than concentrating on what we know is successful. Not, that I am against having an open mind and trying new things, far from it, but lately it seems that a large number of us appear to have lost our focus and are drifting,so to speak, on an ocean of unproven and often unlikely ideas and business approaches. Take for example, the posting of images on such sites as Flicker, or Facebook. These sites are totally unsecure and they are notorious for image theft and other forms of plagiarism and abuse. Most recently, a family in the United States found that their family Christmas photo was being used in Europe as an in-store advertisement! When contacted about it, the shop owner did agree to remove it and apologized,but claimed that as it was on the internet,it was free to use. It is hard enough to protect one's images, on a secure web site,let alone on a public one. How any sane photographer could consider placing valuable images in the public domain, simply baffles me. In their defence, of doing so, most of them claim that it drives business to their own sites and so is worth the risk and even the loss of some images,which to me is bizarre. These same photographers will rant on about copyright infringement and yet will turn a blind eye to leaving the door wide open to just that, why? Even watermarking or applying copyright notices to your photos is of no avail really, as these things mean little to the thieves and even less to most people who,quite often, have seldom if ever, heard of either one. In fact, most people look at them as seriously annoying obstructions to their viewing of the photos. Even worse, some believe that they have a right to use anything they like,however they like, as shown by a recent article I read about someone who stole several images from a photographer's site and was using them to advertise their business,on the web. When the photographer discovered this and blocked the use of the images,prior, I hope, to suing the idiot, the business owner threatened to sue the photographer if they did not immediately return access to the images! Clearly, the entire internet thing is getting out of hand.

But apart from things of this sort, there are now, amongst us, those who are jumping on another new trend, video imaging. Now as the printed newspaper fades into the internet version, more and more photojournalists are being asked to shoot digital video instead of stills,so that the web version of the paper can be animated while the print version will use a frame grab instead of a still image. This may make some sense for this application,although the result will not have the same quality,it will be good enough for a newspaper. A term, by the way,that drives me crazy. Nothing should ever be just,"good enough"! But getting back to my point,professional video is a field unto itself and justifiable so. It takes years to become an accomplished videographer and it is a field that has little in common with stills. Several camera manufacturers, have started to bring out models that have a video capability. A video capability is not a video camera. Professional video equipment is far more sophisticated than still cameras and hugely expensive,just ask any true videographer. The editing equipment and all the subsequent support equipment is also pricey and the learning curve is steep.

So,why, would a still photographer ever need to venture into another professionals realm? Well, if you are a wedding photographer, video is very important these days. However, in most cases, it is not the video quality of television and Hollywood we are seeing here,but rather something between that and uncle Joe's home video camera. But more importantly, the still images sold to the happy couple are not frame grabs as far as I understand, but regular DSLR or even FSLR prints. As mentioned, if you are a newspaper shooter, they want video images, but otherwise, I see no reason to deal in video.

I still believe that there is a very strong market for and a very prominent role, for the still photograph in todays world. I even believe that there is a strong role still to be played by film today. There is an old adage, "Jack of all trades master of none", it is as true today as when it was first coined. Do what you do, to the very best of your ability and remain focused. By all means stay abreast of your changing world,but you can only wear one hat at a time and still be taken seriously. There is a place for innovation and diversification and there is a place for solid expertise and acknowledged excellence. Don't confuse the two.

What about the Photography?

There is a new movement within the photography world that I believe has absolutely nothing to do with being a photographer. It is called "Social Media" and it's advocates would have you believe that you can not be a success without it. In fact, they go so far as to say that your photography should occupy only 10 or 20% of your time and SM and other forms of marketing should take the other 80 to 90%. Social media, is things like Twitter and Facebook and Linkedin and Myspace. It is your web site and your blog and anything else you care to do, in the public domain, on the internet. The new buzz word is Web 2.0 and if you aren't part of it you are bound to fail. It is all about "branding yourself and your business and not so much about your ability to create outstanding photography. It most certainly is not why I became a photographer!

As you can read, I have a Blog and I even have a Twitter profile, but that is about as far as I go. I do not have a web site and I have no intention of learning how to create one either. I will eventually get one, but someone else,someone whose job it is to weave such things, will be creating it for me. If that makes me a dinosaur and destined for the oblivion of the tar pits, I guess I am as good as gone. Frankly, I find Twitter to be a huge waste of time, except for it's ability to bring me numerous news sites from which to glean knowledge of my changing world, as well as story ideas. The site is cluttered with ready made and self proclaimed SM Gurus,who promise to bring you thousands of followers and tons of cash and an equal number of assorted snake oil sales people. Most of the day and night, the site is interminably slow and customer service is pathetic at best. On top of everything else, otherwise intelligent people,when not on Twitter,totally forget how to compose and express a thought.They write the most horrific abuses of the English language imaginable,simply because they can not think in 140 character segments. You see, the limit of your correspondence is a mere 140 characters,including punctuation.If you can not write a sentence with 140 characters,you should go back to grade school! Using accepted abbreviations is one thing,abusing the English language is something altogether different. There is no such word as "u" in the dictionary, nor will you find "ur" or "ppl"or for that matter,"pls". I do not object to a bit of poor grammar in the name of required brevity,but inventing words is childish drivel and perpetuating it, one of the many problems with education today.

Now I understand the need to be a business person if one is self employed, or, at least, the need to hire one to help run your affairs. I also believe in advertising and marketing,however,so did General Motors and Chrysler. What they most certainly forgot, was how to build automobiles that people wanted to own, at a price they could afford. I believe, that, that, was supposedly,their primary business.Mine, as a photojournalist or photographer,is to produce photographs that people want to publish,or to own and if I do not, I will end up exactly where GM is today,minus the government assistance. I can not do that by spending several hours a day reading inane Twitter posts and playing on the internet. In case no one has noticed, I tend to update this Blog rather infrequently. there is a reason for that and it has nothing to do with my internet marketing initiatives.

Unlike many of my peers,it seems, I have never been motivated by money. As long as I had enough to get by,I was content. I did not want to be the world's foremost advertising shooter or fashion photography wizard,making $10,000 a day and all the accolades I could amass. If I was driven by anything, it was the deep seated need to be creating images. I became a photographer to shoot,not to be a financial wunderkind. I still prefer to shoot over eating. At times,I shoot images that will never be published,or sold, in any way, whatsoever.Which I suppose, is a failing of sorts,but I shoot. It is all I have ever really wanted to do and the only thing that I am really good at. I have referenced the fact that photography is not what I do,but is who I am,before, but it is very true. To me, the sole purpose of being a photographer,is to create images,everything else is secondary,not the other way around.One of my most favourite photographers is Brit,Don McCullin. To me, he is the epitome of what a photojournalist should be. To this day, Don works in film and prints all his own stuff in his own darkroom. Admittedly, he rarely works as a photojournalist anymore, but he is still a working photographer,who steadfastly refuses to succumb to the world of the computer. Don and I will probably meet at the bottom of the same tar pit. At least we will be in good company.

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

The title is an old European witticism, a Dutch one I believe, but no matter it is true, true enough at least, as it relates to my career as a photojournalist.From the beginning, I was captured by the lives of those often referred to, as the concerned photographers and by many of their early contemporaries. I had visions of becoming a social documentarian and scouring the world in search of meaningful images,that would speak to the masses and the leaders of that world.I did not see wealth and fame,at least not while I was alive,at any rate, but I did see purpose and dedication and a degree of self satisfaction. Alas,reality intervened, in the form of a wife and later a son,both now long gone and somehow I took a less fulfilling, but more profitable, road. I still worked as a photojournalist, but never a renowned chronicler of my times. Not even as an unknown one for that matter. I covered elections and sports and the occasional riot, or visiting Royalty. But I never did get around to social change. Not, mind you, that I regret my choices or my career path,both were rewarding,if not quite what I had envisioned. Nevertheless,as I am now,once again,faced with the task of rebuilding my career, something I have encountered before,courtesy of adversity,divorces and catastrophic economic town turns,I am drawn back to my beginnings.

I am older now,much older and I am seeing with the eyes of one I would never have recognized all those years ago. A man who has witnessed his chosen field morph into something akin to a fantasy world,where photography has become so dependent upon computer sciences that it bares little resemblance to what I embraced so passionately, so many decades ago. Personally,I think it tragic and wasteful,but it is what it is and I must find a way to come to grips with this new beast. And so it is, that I am once again drawn to social documentation. This time, however, I am not dreaming of changing the world,only my little corner of it. This time around,I can see clearly,what I could not see at all before, that change happens in tiny increments, that together form a greater good So, I will look no further than around the corner for my inspiration and my subjects. Oh they could, eventually, take me the world over, but they may also just take me next door and that is alright. There are so many things to see and expose in this world,that do not command the world stage,but that matter to that world and more importantly to the people involved. Will this new vision make me riches,no, but it will make me an instrument of change and change is good.

Driven to Shoot

Looking back over the 40 odd years of my career,I have come to the realization that I have always been driven to photograph. A friend once commented that photography was not what I did,but rather it was who I was. In a multitude of ways they were correct in that analysis. My grandfather was a photographer and from an early stage in our relationship,I can remember being fascinated by his darkroom. Later,as I accompanied him on various assignments and outings,I became fascinated with the whole idea of photography. Later still,I worked with him and began what would become my life's obsession.He trained me on the view camera and for many years he held a disdain for anything smaller than a 5x4 camera. These lesser contraptions were for the amateur,the hobbyist whose use for a camera was to record family events and vacations. Although his attitudes would eventually evolve to acceptance of the 21/4 X 21/4 format,Pop was never comfortable with the 35mm for professional work. His attitudes and meticulous attention to craftsmanship and quality stayed with me as I ventured out on my own and stood me in good stead, even when I embraced the 35mm format. I brought the same attention to detail and composition to that small format,that I had with the larger view cameras and it has always rewarded me.Pop always insisted that you had to use the film to capture exactly what you wanted and not just have it in there somewhere and get it out in the darkroom. He also made me very aware of the concept of capturing the image with a single shot,or two, at the most,the second for backup,because that was all you had time for with film holders. That discipline,that mantra of not wasting time or film came with me to the 35mm and has never left.I have never been an advocate of the shotgun school of photography,"shoot enough film and you are bound to get what you need",RUBBISH!!! That mentality is for amateurs and fools. Photography is a craft and it's true practitioners are craftsmen,not tradesmen. As such,the craftsman must know and understand not only his craft,but also how his craft is to be used by others. If it is to be reproduced,how will that be accomplished and what must he do to best facilitate the optimum results. One does not simply capture an image and move on.

One of the many things that disturb me when I hear people touting the benefits of digital capture is this concept of shotgun shooting approaches. Statements such as,I can shoot so much more now and sort it all out later,or I can get sooooo many more images on a flash card and if I don't like them I just delete them and shoot again,do not bring me any feelings of improvement over film,but rather ones of dismay at the implied lack of professionalism and craftsmanship.Likewise the idea that you can fix it in the computer later if it isn't quite right,reeks of amateurish disregard for quality,composition,exposure and craft. The idea behind being a "professional photographer" for me, has always been my ability to produce what the client requires,when they require it and with as little out of the camera work as possible. Yes, we always had to have film processed and such,but the point behind it all was that we saw, in the viewfinder and captured on the film,in as few frames or sheets as was prudent,what our client wanted to see. If all a professional did that an amateur did not,was to shoot a horrific amount of film in hopes of achieving a winning image,then why hire one in the first place? For God's sake even a blind squirrel will eventually find a nut! Surely as professionals we must expect more of ourselves than that.

Life Beyond the Camera :Part Two

My horses have become a large part of my life now. Although I have been around horses most of my life, I have not, until recently, been able to own and breed them as a part of my everyday life. Since leaving the city for life beyond the "big smoke" I can now do that. For the moment,my herd consists of a Belgian mare,two geldings,one a Canadian,the other a Clydesdale and Mats,a registered Quarter Horse stallion. It is with Mats that I am finding my greatest pleasures,as he is a true cow pony and a willing accomplice in my rodeo ambitions. Not that we are likely to win any overall championships or gold buckles,but we are competing in team penning with an eye on doing some hazing or perhaps even roping.I grew up emulating cowboys of the old west and now I guess I have my chance to live a tiny piece of that heritage. Mats on the other hand,just loves pushing cows.

The cowboy and his history and the live style holds a lot of value for anyone willing to step back from todays over paced and frenetic world and settle on a more pragmatic way of seeing things. Theirs was and to some extent is a simpler world based on simple truths and hard work. It is a simpler set of values and they are based more on what a man does,than on who he is or was,his skin colour or his native tongue. Not that cowboys were saints,they were not,there were good and bad,bigots,racists and villans,but in general they were accepting of anyone who pulled their weight and did their appointed tasks with skill and diligence. Over all, that isn't a bad way to look at or live your life. I guess I've spent more than my fair share of time,in "cowboy country". Taos NM is like a second home to me and I have traveled the highways,byways and back roads of New Mexico,Arizona,Texas,Montana,Wyoming,Alberta and BC,in search of parts unknown and western adventures. Tales of the wild west and the frontier have fascinated my imagination, from the fur traders and the mountain men to the cattle barons and the gunfighters. Whether it was Clay Allison,William Bonney or Wyatt Earp,I knew their stories and followed their steps through history as best one can in today's hustling world. Much of what they saw and lived is gone now,the buffalo herds,the beaver,the tribes of free roaming Indians and the vast herds of cattle headed for the railheads and the eastern cities. The frontiers are settled and the wild rivers tamed,but the cowboy is still here,still pushing cattle across not so open ranges and still living by many of the same codes and rules as they did in their heyday.Todays working cowboy is likely to be university educated and gets to work in a pick up truck,but he still works cattle from the back of a horse and he still takes better care of his gear than he does of himself. Cowboys heal up,broken gear stays broke!There are more than a few today who could do worse than work harder than they play,speak only when they have something to say and expect to be treated as they treat others.

Life Beyond the Camera

So,after almost two years of forgetting about my Blog,I return to it. A lot has happened in those two years and still much has remained the same. Anna is still a huge part of my life and the most inspiring reason to carry on. I have become more involved with my horses and somewhat less with my photography and yet the driving force in my life is still the creation of imagery. Now however,I find it is imagery that is relevant to me,rather than clients, that motivates me. In the two years since I started this blog,I have undergone eye surgeries to both save and enhance my vision,while finding myself falling further and further away from my old client base and the photography that drove me for so many years. Today,as I look at the world of image creation,I see,not the traditional life of a photojournalist before me,but perhaps more that of a social documentarian. With the onslaught of digital capture and the need to be more of a computer tech than a craftsman,the markets for old style photography and photojournalism are rapidly changing and diminishing. Most clients no longer want to deal with film and want everything yesterday,despite the reality that most of them do not need it anywhere near that quickly. A magazine,with a six month lead time,has no need of images yesterday. Nevertheless,they want them,because they can have them and that is the reality of the world today.Unfortunately,they do not wish to pay either as quickly,or as well as such speed of delivery deserves. Still, we as photographers have only ourselves to blame for that situation and we may as well rail at the wind as hope to change it now. All of which,has lead me to search for other outlets for my work.

To document the human condition has been a calling for photography since it's earliest days,however,that calling has,in the past,relied on the photo essay and the pages of books for it's expression but, both those mediums may soon be gone replaced perhaps by the web,or some new communicator. Noble as it may be, recording the human condition has never attracted large sums of money for it's recorders and today is no exception. Still, it resonates within a few in society, who still see the relevance and feel the hope,or the hope for change that it can bring. Perhaps,I am just old enough to remember the great documentaries of the 30's and the intervening years and still young enough to feel the inspiration they could invoke. Regardless, I still believe there is a place for such work and not only in the dark places of this world but in the bright ones as well. The human condition is not merely turmoil and strife,agony and angst. There are a host of bright moments in every life and they are equally as inspiring and revealing.

There are other avenues,from stock imagery to prepackaged essays,ready to deliver at a moments notice,but exempt from the dark shadow of WFH and copyright demands and there is,that bastion of the left,Fine Art. The latter comprising large amounts of the nude and the avant garde amidst the landscapes and the nature and the work of many of the Old Masters of photography. All have a single common denominator,they do not demand digital capture. Digital printing or delivery,perhaps but film is still more than accepted as the medium of choice. I have no idea where my search will lead me,but I do know that I can no more forsake my photography than I can forgo breathing. Photography is not what I do,it is who I am and where it will take me is who I will become.