Other days, it is the last thing I feel like doing (always a good time to do my accounts!).

I’ve learnt with time, that there are a number of ways I can recharge my creativity. Those ways include:

1. Changing my visual surroundings is a great way of getting me visually excited again. It can be as simple as walking / riding down a road I have never been down before, or taking a trip to some place new.

2. Getting out of my comfort zone and shooting a subject which is totally new to me, definitely gets my photo mojo going.

3. Reading and looking at great photography, both past and present.

It is this last point, which brings me to the book, Face to Face: Ocean Portraits.

A book such as this, really gets me inspired. This book combines two things I really love in life – photography and the ocean.

For me, this type of book is like falling down the proverbial rabbit hole. Turning the pages and being presented with stunning photography, both old and new, complete with the back story about the subject, is a real reminder of my love for photography.

Examining the photos; reverse engineering how they were shot; studying the nuance’s of the subjects…it all helps in sparking my own photographic ideas. In short – a book like this makes me want to grab my camera, walk out the door and go shoot something.

As for this book, it is produced by Polarworld Publishing. They are a boutique publishing house with an amazing catalogue of books. The first book I purchased from them, was Face to Face: Polar Portraits. Like Ocean Portraits, it is a stunning book mixing beautiful portraiture from the Arctic and Antarctica with informative text and a look at past and present day photographic techniques.

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Comment on Facebook

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“The decision making muscle is the muscle that is exercised every time you push that button. This is the element of photography that assisting will never ever teach you because until you’re looking through that camera deciding wether the light is right, the composition is right, the model is in the right position, the wardrobe is spot on, the hair and make up are perfect, everything is lined up right, and everything else that you have to think about in creating a picture is to your liking, etc. You’ll never be actually logging those learned pieces of information into your brain. Making decisions of every element in your photograph is like exercising a muscle, and you learn more with every shot you take. That’s why it needs to be exercised, so that each time you shoot you are making better and better images.”

Photographer Nick Onken in his blog post titled: Exercising the Decision Making Muscle.

What I love most about this post by Nick is this: it applies to anyone with a camera.

And it is true – if you want to take better photos of [insert your favourite subject here], start by actively taking more photographs.

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Facebook me up.

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While I received a number of responses, this one response reproduced below, really stood out:

“Thomas, I want your life.”

This will sound trite, I know, but when you do what you do, day in and day out, you can easily get swept up in just getting on with life and sort of forgetting how amazing your life can be (touch wood).

While it has been tough carving out my space in the ultra-competitive world of photography, I feel incredibly privileged to have the life I have. I could say a lot more, but it would just sound so self serving.

The funny thing, is how relative it all is. Only this morning I was looking at Dave Collyer’s photos from a recent Mentawai Surf Charter trip, thinking ‘man, I want to shoot what you shoot’.

Thanks to the person who sent me that email – it made my week. And thanks to Dave for continued surfing inspiration through his stunning surfing / travel photography from Indonesia.

Links:

Dave Collyer Commercial Photographer

Related Posts

On Honing a Vision

A Five Point Photography Road Map

Photography and Failure

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Having ideas and pitching these ideas to Photo Editors’ has really helped me in adding value to what I can offer to the magazine in question.

The person that really taught me this lesson, was the first editor I worked with over a 4-year period as a regular contributor to Sri Lankan Airlines Magazine, Serendib. My editor Steve was a master at taking a bigger subject and narrowing it down to a specific idea or concept. While I often pitched my own ideas and I was given the go ahead to shoot them, there were times when I had an idea but it needed some input to make it better. Steve excelled at being able to do that.

Steve’s innate ability to do this led to one of the most collaborative relationships I’ve had working with another creative in the photography space.

This video by Steven Johnson explains some of the ways in which ideas happen and if you are in the creative space, is pretty fascinating to watch.

Thanks to A Photo Editor for the link.

Related Posts:

Creative Secrets

Loosen Up

If You Are Not Bringing Ideas to the Table

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1. Go, make something happen.

2. Do work you’re proud of.

3. Treat people with respect.

4. Make big promises and keep them.

5. Ship it out the door.

When in doubt, see #1.

Seth Godin’s Simple five step plan for just about everyone and everything.

Translation for photographers’:

1. Decide on what you want to photograph and why.

2. Go and photograph it and do it really well.

3. Don’t be one of those photographers who is hard to deal with. Keep it light and real.

4. A big promise can be to yourself or to a client.

5. Shipping it out the door is imperative. Connect with the right people and get your work in front of them.

When finished, repeat.

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“It’s a matter of self-respect and I think that there’s a distinct risk to allowing something so integral to your own financial solvency to be cast aside because a photographer is afraid of offending the client.”

Matt Slaby / Luceo Images in Legal Left, Meet Creative Right – A Case For Net 30

To people that email me from time-to-time about advice on getting into photography and the like, please take the time to read this excellent post by Matt Slaby at Luceo Images.

If the importance of collecting payment from your clients’ in a timely manner hasn’t sunken in after reading that post, then think of it this way. When a business doesn’t pay you on time, they are effectively using money owed to you (yes, you), to run their business.

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If you shoot and license stock imagery like I do, then one of the things you always seem to be doing is editing, captioning and submitting imagery to distribution partners. I used to think there was a way around this, but reality has set in, along with regular stints in front of my iMac prepping imagery.

Working with a good stock library such as Aurora Photos is a great way to get my imagery out into the world and in front of potential buyers. The speed to market with Aurora is incredible.

I regularly have my submissions reviewed within a day or two and once I have provided the high-resolution files, they are made live on the Aurora site within days. Pushing the photos out to distribution partners such as Masterfile and Corbis, takes a little longer, but not that much longer. Some recent portrait work accepted by Aurora is already available for licensing at Corbis. That all happened within about 8-weeks, which is fast!

Working with larger, well established stock libraries works for me as I photograph quite a bit of what I consider general travel photography. If you don’t have a large, niche collection such as Art Wolfe, then leveraging off a distribution relationship with a stock library can make a lot of sense, especially if you are starting out in stock photography.

As I have been developing myself a niche and a client base for unique Maldives photography, I have been busy this year populating my own stock library – Thomas Pickard Stock Archive – with my Maldives photography. Leveraging off technology providers such as Photoshelter, I can now license and deliver hi-resolution photos direct to my existing client base, through my own stock site. This works well, in part because I am developing a niche in Maldives photography and also because I have an ever expanding client base seeking Maldives photography.

Below are just a few examples of licensing sales in the last few months. It never ceases to amaze me which images are licensed.

Licensed via Corbis. Image #: 42-22229345

Licensed via Corbis. Image #: 42-22229424

Licensed via Thomas Pickard Stock Archive. Image #: 08710.

Licensed via Getty Images. Image #: 94979111

Licensed via Getty Images. Image #: 90880255

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“However, under the circumstances of freelancing, Work for Hire becomes less of a reasonable deal and more of a cynical way for companies to manage overhead at the expense of the people who provide the component pieces for the product that they sell.  Unlike employees, freelancers must provide their own equipment, insurance, and retirement.  Sick days and vacations become an expense along with things that are easy to take for granted like office space, transportation, utilities, etc.  In short, Work for Hire wants to treat you like an employee without incurring the hidden costs of having you as one.”

Matt Slaby via Luceo Images.

I have just started reading Luceo Images Blog posts. This extract comes from a section called Legal Left, Meet Creative Right, written by Matt Slaby. I have never read such a good account of Work-for-Hire and what it really means to the freelancing photographer.

If you are a freelancer and you have encountered WFH agreements (who hasn’t?), then I encourage you to read this thought provoking post.

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“Photography, the act of making art while taking pictures, is riddled with failure. As a photographer you will fail. You will disappoint your editors, clients, readers, and even your parents. But that’s how you learn technique and develop style. So when it happens embrace it.”

Trent Nelson via Sports Shooter

To celebrate the end of the decade, Sports Shooter has a number of articles from photographers’ looking back at key moments in their careers; what they have learnt etc.. It makes for a great read and I encourage the up-and-coming photographers that read this blog to head over and have a read.

The reason I have included this quote here, is because once I accepted failure as part of my photography, my photography really began to improve (like in leaps and bounds).

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