Advice to photography students

Downtown Lisbon, Portugal [Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 25600, ƒ/2.8, 1/160]

To get work you need a portfolio not a degree. Yes you could have saved yourself a lot of money and not gotten a degree from a great school. Based on some of the work I continue to see by students graduating from photo schools all over the world many have just wasted a lot of money.

How do you start if you are not in a photo school? Well that is the catch. You see you need someone to help introduce you to the tools you need to master and to teach you some of the standards. Most every school does teach you how to operate your camera to get good exposures and they teach you how to use the latest software as well. Most schools do a great job of exposing you to the work of the masters in the profession.

'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'

I think this is what a good education will do for those who want to learn how to be a photographer. They show you what you need to do. They give you assignments that teach you how to create those elements that will help you make a portfolio.

Passion not Assignments

Your portfolio needs to communicate to those that you wish will hire you that your work will grab their attention. No matter the subject you really need to SURPRISE them with your photos.

First 100 attendees at the Chicago Chick-fil-A grand opening playing Face the Cookie where they use the muscles in their faces to move the cookie to their mouth. [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 9000, ƒ/10, 1/100]

Too many students are just shooting the assignments that they are given and then pull the best from their assignments and put them into their portfolio. Why is this such a big mistake?

First of all the assignment work given to you is seldom something that speaks to your passions. You then work hard at finding out the standards for the grading and then shoot to get a good grade. For a very few people this is enough to create a great portfolio image. However for the vast majority of the students they are just going through the motions to complete the assignment. Often which they waited till the last moment to shoot.

If you were not doing photography what would be the one thing you would be wanting to do? Maybe you would like to be going to soccer games and watching them. Maybe you are a foodie. You like going to farmers markets and finding the local food and going to restaurants that buy local as well. Maybe you would be spending your time working with a nonprofit and building wells around the world.

Follow your passion and build your portfolio around it.

[Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/8, 1/160

If your passion is music then do more than just go to concerts. Pick up an instrument and master it. Learn music theory so you understand music at a much deeper level.

[Nikon D2X, Sigma 120-300mm with 1.4 converter, ƒ/6.3, 1/2500]

If you like sports then play in a league. I used to play basketball three times a week in pickup games for more than 20 years.

Those that will hire you are experts already on their subjects. They will not respect you unless you show a similar passion for the subject as they do.

They are most likely aware of most of the best photography in their industry. To SURPRISE them will be hard to do. You have to or they will continue to use who they have shooting for them now.

Show Me!

"Show me the money," Tom Cruise, playing Jerry Maguire said in the movie in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire. The point was talk is cheap to football player who hired Jerry Maguire to be his agent. He needed a good contract.

Show me your portfolio is the same request that your potential clients are asking you to deliver to them. Your work better SURPRISE them, because they already have photographers shooting for them. You have to impress them to want to use you.

Passion NOT Assignments

The easiest thing to do is to give me your best effort for all your assignments. That kind of work seldom competes against a photographer who is passionate about their subjects.

School vs Real Word

If your photo school ran all their classes like the real world then every class would be pass/fail. Everyone would hand in their assignments and then only one person in the class passes. The best photos for that assignment as perceived by the teacher would get the passing grade. Everyone else would fail.

My friend Dr. Bob Carey, department chair for the Department of Communications at Gardner-Webb University, said he toyed with the idea of doing just that for an assignment on creating an estimate. He said he did tell the students about his idea, but wanted them to understand that is the way it will be once they graduate.

Mark Johnson, Senior Lecturer of Photojournalism at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has created identical camera kits for each of his students. This way when they are given an assignment everyone in the class is on equal footing.

Pat Davison, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill creates workshops overseas to give real world experiences for his students.

Dennis Fahringer, who runs the photo schools for the University of Nations, brings in working professionals to teach segments and also takes his advanced photo school overseas for a month on assignments.

All of my friends who are teaching at taking those horses to the water to drink. The assignments they give are typical assignments. The problem for the student is seldom will they be as passionate about those assignments. They need to give a self assignment on something they really care about.

Take what you learned in photo school and now go and apply it to your passions. Then you will have an outstanding portfolio.

Lisbon, Portugal Scene Setters

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 800, ƒ/9, 1.3 sec

Who, What, WHERE, Why, When & How

In Journalism 101 the five Ws and H are taught as the questions whose answers are considered basic in information-gathering. Importantly, none of these questions can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no".

Last week while teaching Multi-Media Storytelling Workshop in Lisbon, Portugal we covered getting images that help give context for their stories.

Below here are some possible scene setters that help address the WHERE for the storyline.



When you examine the Five Ws and H most of those questions can be captured visually. The adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. It also aptly characterizes one of the main goals of visualization, namely making it possible to absorb large amounts of data quickly.

This is why visual storytelling can be extremely powerful. You can get across a lot of information to the audience in a very short period of time.

While one image can capture "WHERE" a series of photos in a multimedia can do even more. Depending on the sequence, some music and the human voice can pull you even deeper into the context of the story.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/13, 1/180

Here is a photo of Nazaré, Portugal where I am at Sítio (an old village, on top of a cliff) overlooking Praia (along the beach). This is how you as a tourist give context.  Shoot too tight and you could be anywhere in the world. Don't make that mistake or you could have just stayed home and taken photos in your backyard.

Depth-of-Field

Context photos are difficult when you use a shallow depth-of-field. Compare these two photos with where changing the aperture to gave a greater depth-of-field.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/3.7, 1/1000

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 640, ƒ/10, 1/500

Wide Angle Lens

Personally I prefer to get close with a wide angle verses using a longer telephoto lens, but here in these photos it does work.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/500

Remember when you travel and you want to take establishing shots that capture where you were and not just photos of you that could have been taken anywhere.

Best moments of 2013 for me

Tourists enjoying Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 160, ƒ/5.6, 1/1000]

What a year it has been. I have really had a great year of moments and feel extremely blessed.

Lili'uokalani Park, Hilo, Hawaii. [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 250, ƒ/7.1, 1/60]

Each year starts with me in the Georgia Dome covering the Chick-fil-A Bowl. This year will be no different. Dorie, my wife, will be celebrating her 20th year working the press box.

Tom Butler, Kona Coffee Grower [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 2000, ƒ/10, 1/200]

I am returning to Kona, Hawaii to teach lighting and business practices to Youth With A Mission Photography School 1.  I love meeting these students every year that are from all over the world. I learn from them if not more than I probably teach to them.

Anacleto Rapping on the far left and Joanna Pinneo on the far right review a student's portfolio at the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference. [Nikon Coolpix P7000, ISO 1600, ƒ2.8, 1/30]

This year I am also working with the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in Fort Worth, TX. This takes place the first weekend in March.  

Bill Bangham, Eugene Richards and Stanley Leary at the SWPJC. [Nikon Coolpix P7000, ISO 1600, ƒ2.8, 1/60]

Dave Black looks at a person's portfolio at the SWPJC.  [Nikon Coolpix P7000, ISO 1600, ƒ2.8, 1/50]

During Spring break we took our daughter Chelle to Los Angeles for her first visit. We visited all of her uncle's friends.

Pam Goldsmith is a world renowned violist who was Richard Zvonar's partner for more than 20 years. This is our daughter's uncle. Pam took some time out to help Chelle who has also taken up the viola. [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 1600, ƒ/9, 1/60]

Chelle visits with Richard Bugg who works with Meyer Sound. Their sound system is what was used in the Beijing Olympics and other major productions throughout the world. Richard Bug is another one of Richard Zvonar business associates. Together they built this sound design system.  [Nikon Coolpix P7000, ISO 400, ƒ2.8, 1/6]

Dorie and Chelle in front of the Chick-fil-A in Hollywood, CA. We stopped here for lunch while seeing the sights of Hollywood one day. [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 100, ƒ/3.5, 1/800]

Dorie, Stanley and Chelle Paradise Cove in Malibu, California. [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/200]

Another friend of Richard Zvonar is Ronan Chris Murphy who has a recording studio in Santa Monica where we visited him. [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/6.3, 1/25]

Chelle and Dorie in front of the Hollywood sign. [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 280, ƒ/29, 1/60]

Now you really don't have to go to Hollywood to meet the stars. Many live near us in Roswell, GA. 

Chelle met Pip, is an American singer who participated in season 2 of The Voice as part of Team Adam Levine while she was a model in show with Pure Fashion.  [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 1600, ƒ/5.6, 1/125]

I get to live out much of my life through my kids. Her school had Mark Wood come and do a workshop with the orchestra. Wood was one of the violinists and an original member of the symphonic rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which he left in 2009. He has also played with Celine Dion, Billy Joel, Steve Vai, Westworld, and Lenny Kravitz. As a solo performer he has released seven CDs featuring his own versions of popular rock songs. On these CDs he is accompanied by "The Mark Wood Band" consisting of one member of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, several other musicians, as well as his wife Laura Kaye.  

Chelle got to even sing with him on stage.

Mark Wood leading the workshop. [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 10000, ƒ/5.6, 1/100]

Chelle is performing on her Viola with Mark Wood. [Nikon D4, 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 Sigma, ISO 12800, ƒ/4, 1/320]

Chelle is singing with Mark Wood. [Nikon D4, 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 Sigma, ISO 12800, ƒ/4, 1/320]

As you can see photography is helping me remember and share my moments with you and the world. 

1st Lt. Nelson Lalli came home this past summer after serving our country in Afghanistan for 9 months. We were so thankful he returned home. [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 10000, ƒ/8, 1/60]

While there are many other moments that were special I will close out this past year with my coverage in Mexico. I was so thrilled to cover a coffee cooperative that is turning not just the farmer's lives around, but their communities as well.

David Cifuentes Velazquez, coffee grower and member of the Just Coffee Cooperative, enjoys sharing with a visiting group how coffee is grown. The joy on his face and family captured how their family has been restored to the community because of the coffee cooperative. [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5, 1/80]

Remember everyone has a story and I would love to help tell your story as well. Give me a call if you need any help.

Be sure and check out my latest package I had translated into English from my coverage of coffee cooperative in Mexico below.