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| Grandfather Mountain Camera Clinic 2013 faculty from left to right Stanley Leary, Chuck Burton, Lauren Carroll, and Roger May. |
The camera clinic, originally organized in 1952 by Hugh Morton, invites photojournalists to Grandfather Mountain each August to discuss the nuts and bolts of good photography and relevant topics and trends in the field of photojournalism.
This year there were four presenters, Chuck Burton, Lauren Carroll, Roger May and myself, on a variety of topics.
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| Chuck Burton talks to the group about "Seeking The Different." |
Chuck Burton started his talk with a couple of photos showing how difficult it is to find something unique. His first photo was a photo in Washington DC a few hours before Hillary Clinton was to address a congressional panel on the Benghazi Attack. In the middle of the photo was the large desk with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton name. In front of the desk were about 20 cameras on the floor, each one holding the place for a photographer.
Chuck then said in this situation you are asked to come up with something unique.
Then he followed it up showing a photo of all the remote cameras on the basketball game and he didn't have a place to put his. Chuck then taped two AA batteries together and on the bottom of his camera to get a photo from the floor. Next photo is the cool shot he got. Then he showed us the next game how there were now 5 camera on the floor doing the same thing.
The point is that shooting every day as an Associated Press photographer he is always "Seeking the Different" in order to keep the readers engaged. Photography isn't about THE mountain top experience, rather it is about a lot more than that. You do shoot a great photo and then just kick back and collect the lottery winnings.
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| Roger May gives his presentation “The Importance of the Personal Project and Managing a Kickstarter Campaign” |
Roger May's North Carolina license plate is "DOCUMENT." How appropriate for Roger. His kickstarter project "Testify: A Visual Love Letter to Appalachia" is his journey to document his heritage in the mountains of West Virginia.
Roger helped all of us realize that the personal project is quite therapeutic and after pouring your heart and soul into such a project you would like to share it with the world. Many of these personal projects don't really have an appeal of companies to publish because they don't help promote their company directly. So, one of the best ways today to publish a book on your work is through crowdsourcing.
Crowdsourcing is, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.
Kickstarter is the website that helps artists with crowd sourcing.
Community Newspapers
Lauren Carroll presented on “Shine a Light Where There is None: The Importance of Community Newspapers.”
Lauren talked about how much she just enjoyed meeting people from the community and this allowed her to shoot sports, features, and even news. While she doesn't like putting a camera in people's faces during tragedy Lauren explains to her subjects how she wants to tell their story to the community.
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| On top of Grandfather Mountain looking towards Charlotte, NC from the mountain. |
I spoke on “Making Money as an Independent Photographer.” The reason I called it "Independent" and not "Freelance" is due to my friend Kenny Irby pointing out how maybe the word FREElancer communicates the wrong thing.
After the presentation many folks came up and said you know your talk would apply to every business. Since many in the audience were not full-time photographers and had other careers they even commented how some of my points were helping them with some business decisions they needed to make.
The reality is that reading business books on starting a small business would apply to photography.
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| Coin operated binoculars at Grandfather Mountain with the "Swinging Bridge" in the background. |
Everyone invested to go to the top of Grandfather Mountain and hoping this will help their vision for the future. It helped to see the bigger picture and from a different perspective.
Now that we have all been too the top of the mountain we now need to move forward and take what we learned and let it help shape our direction.
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| Mile high above sea level on top of Grandfather Mountain and on the Swinging Bridge. |
Maybe you need to put some quarters in a workshop for you to help see your future more clearly. Go and find a workshop on something you would like to learn more about.
Couple of ways to create your own workshop. If you like someone's work and they don't offer workshops, approach them and ask if you could pay them for a day of their time to teach you something that they do. You never know they just may take you up on it.
I teach on a variety of topics around photography. If you are interested in a personal workshop or getting a few friends together to split the costs then give me a call. Here are some of the topics I teach on and if you think of something not listed here, give me a call.
- Business practices for the photographer
- Hot shoe flash lighting
- Studio lighting
- Location Lighting
- Portraits
- Poising
- Product Lighting
- Missions Photography
- Humanitarian Photography
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| I loved playing King of the Mountain as a kid, so this is just me being a kid again on top of Grandfather Mountain. |
The More
Famous National Geographic Photographer William Allard gave a presentation at a conference I was attending. Afterwards a young kid came up to Allard and said he needed this for inspiration.
Famous National Geographic Photographer William Allard gave a presentation at a conference I was attending. Afterwards a young kid came up to Allard and said he needed this for inspiration.
William Allard turned to some friends and said you know we need one of these about every three months to keep all of us inspired. Remember the workshops and seminars are there to inspire, but we must take this inspiration and do something with it.
When you come away from a workshop you need to have an action plan of what you are going to do differently than before the workshop.
Maybe after hearing Chuck Burton speak you decide to try one new angle on a sporting event each time you shoot that you haven't done before. You might take a few minutes and go into the stands to shoot or maybe spend more time shooting the bench rather than the action on the field.
After hearing Roger May you decide to take on a personal project. You might even want to photograph your heritage like Roger.
Some people may have listened to Lauren Carroll and decided to look for stories in their community rather than trying to plan a trip around the world.
Did the Mountain Top Experience do more than just bring a tear and touch your heart? If so, then we will see some activity in your life that shows the changes.
When you come away from a workshop you need to have an action plan of what you are going to do differently than before the workshop.
Maybe after hearing Chuck Burton speak you decide to try one new angle on a sporting event each time you shoot that you haven't done before. You might take a few minutes and go into the stands to shoot or maybe spend more time shooting the bench rather than the action on the field.
After hearing Roger May you decide to take on a personal project. You might even want to photograph your heritage like Roger.
Some people may have listened to Lauren Carroll and decided to look for stories in their community rather than trying to plan a trip around the world.
Did the Mountain Top Experience do more than just bring a tear and touch your heart? If so, then we will see some activity in your life that shows the changes.
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