Cattlehearding in Photography....

If you have grown up around the agriculture industry like myself you will fully understand my analogy between the "portrait studio in a box" and herding cattle.  Let me explain what I mean to the rest of ya'll!  Last night I allowed my children and my nieces and nephews to go and get their pictures taken together at a little place called Portrait Innovations, you have probably heard of it since it is the nation's largest portrait chain.  Gasp, you say if you are a photographer or if you are a lover of fine photography which of course I am, but I must say photographing your own family is right up there with the most "gag me with a spoon" thing a photographer can do, not all the time,  but when there are kids of certain ages in the family.  My oldest nephew is at the age where he is too cool for school and Aunt Landi knows nothing, and my older daughter along with her cousin of a same age smile like dorks, or not at all for their mother, so I gave in and said let's just let them have their picture at the photo in a box for my sanity and their's.

I haven't been in to one of those places lately and I have wondered why they have been taking so much business from us perfectionist photographers this year, so what better way than to go find out.  I must point out though that I did work at Family Photo in Amarillo while I was studying photography at Amarillo College a couple of years ago.  I will say that I know for a fact that if you want to be a photographer you can "get your chops" at a photo in a box.  I was one of the oldest photographers at Family Photo when I was there, with the lovely 18 year old's that really enjoyed putting me in my place...God Bless them.....but never the less I stuck it out and by golly I learned something.....how to pose large families quickly, how to pose really well if I have to, and customer service.  I don't regret for a minute my time there, I worked my butt off, and so do the little fly by night photographers there, especially during the holiday season.  When I was there they were scrambling to try to compete with Portrait Innovations, the national chain, and of course they took a hit, but they are all still in business, and this year probably doing really well, for one reason...everyone is broke. 

Unfortunately, I think people are forgoing professional photography and opting for the cheap quick version because this year everyone is feeling the pain of money spent in the past, and the first thing to go is luxury items such as photography.  Which in turn makes us professionals broke because we aren't working as much.  Many professional photographers are trying to figure out how to compete, and really I must say we can't.  We just paid $100.00 for a million pounds of photos and the disk for them, I can't compete with that.  For their $9.99 special I can't even pay my shipping and handling fees and then get all the prints they include, no way.  But one thing that you forgo when you choose a place such as that....quality.  They do not edit photos, so if you don't get what you want you can try again with another photographer, but there will be no art about it.  The cheese factor, you will get all of that and then some.  Quantity, you will get that, but who in the heck needs a million photos of the same image, some of you, but if you are my clients, I know it isn't you.  I will honestly say that my clients do not ever go for packages, they always want the control to choose what they want, and professionals give you that option.  Also, passion, I will say that when you work in a "photo in a box" that you are tired by the end of the night and you are shooting someone new every 15 minutes or so, so you are not really caring about making it look like art at the end of the day.  Sorry that is the hard truth, and some of the photographers are just there because it is a job, not their passion, so if you must, ask for a senior photographer specifically...oh great how I am giving you insight into the inner workings of the cheap photo place....stupid me, but if you are gonna go there you will, I can't stop you, I didn't even stop myself.  Here are some more hints....don't go when your baby needs a nap and expect the poor photographer to make the kid smile.  Don't threaten to spank or beat your children before they are photographed, don't even glare at them, leave the room if you are a control freak parent.  Oh did I say that, yes I did and most of that applies to professional photography as well.  If you want the great smiles just leave the room when your toddler is playing control freak with you, they will smile perfectly for us strangers most all the time.  Okay no more tips on that, but I must say one thing that never changes about the cheap photo places....feeling like you are being ran through a shoot like a bunch of cattle.  There is nothing personal about it.  Please remember that professional photographers strive to keep you as clients forever, and we not only want to give you art, we want you to feel like you are important to us, and you are, we do this for a living.  I wish I could just give it away to everyone, but I am guessing you wouldn't go to work everyday for free either.  Yes it is a job for us, but it is also our passion, and you won't find that in a cattle shoot!  Long live the professional photographer!!!!

Finding mentors next to you....

I have several aspiring photographers who call me up a lot to find out how to do things, well I must say photography is learned on a curve.  For some reason older more established photographers don't want to mentor younger ones for fear that they will loose their clients, which I must say has happened to me, with the exceptions of a couple of folks.  I think that just shows insecurity on their part.  Really I have found that younger photographers are more computer, i.e. Photoshop savvy and that scars the heck out of older photographers.  Generally speaking the younger kiddos learn Photoshop in high school, and older photographers pay big bucks to learn it.  But, I must say if you want to learn the business, the old guys know a lot.  When I was Amarillo College http://sites.actx.edu/~photography/ working as the lab assistant in the photography dept. there, it was always amusing when the film was pulled out and the younger kids would say "What do we do with this stuff?"  That should tell most of you that I am 29 and holding!  I digress, I am one of those people who love higher education, so I went back to school to learn digital photography.  I started out in the film days and learned on a manual Pentax, I have one on the shelf that a friend stole from WTAMU (however, he probably paid for it in tuition and it was broken so don't have a cow man).  I remember my critique days in film, it was mean, which I think a lot of new photographers are scared to endure for that very reason.  I just have told several younger students, listen and learn, there are people who know how to use constructive criticism and they will help you improve if you let them, and then there are the jerks.  This is what I will say about the jerks, close your ears and continue to do what you love and find other people to listen to.  In art there are always jerks, but don't let that keep you from living out your dream.  I am pro-go to school to learn photography, I am anti buy a camera and set up shop!  I have to say that I learned a lot of Photoshop not only from the professors, but from the 18 year old students whose brains haven't closed up yet.  So, if you are looking for a mentor and you can't find a "professional" who cares, look to younger artists, you can learn the cool stuff from them.  If you don't have the money for college or a photo-school yet I recommend joining your local guild; although I must add the older folks will be your toughest critiques, because most of them don't know half of how you managed to pull that off in Photoshop.  Also, use Youtube to your advantage, someone put a tutorial on there about every detail in photography.  I will add that I have a group of older photographers that I run stuff by and younger ones that I text too, they all play a vital role in learning not only the art of photography but the business side as well.  Here are some of my friends that have helped me along the way:  http://photo101.org/gallery/  Brent Cavanaugh (My professor at Amarillo College), Tracy Barnett http://www.portraits-by-tracy.com/,Vondel Stevens http://www.photographybyvondel.theultimateportrait.com/.  There are others, but that could take days of cutting and pasting.  I have learned something from everyone I pass by in photography and want to tell you this keep an open mind and never think you are better than someone else, because there is always someone better than you. 

Blogs I Love

I haven't had much time to blog, I have been getting ready for my fall photo sessions, but I was procrastinating and I found some photo blogs that I must tell you I love, love, love.  If you are a photo lover, photo student, or photographer, take a look at these puppies!  http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/  They always post great fonts, scrapbooking ones, but they are great for photographers who love cookie cutter stuff. I also love http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/ this chick is great!  She gives stuff away for free, although she does ask for donations.  She has everything from tutorials to storyboards, to actions which are so popular right now. 

Fall Foto Fun!

I am now booking for my Fall Mini Sessions.  The sessions will be 15 minutes and there is only a limited number of openings.  This session is for children only, but I will allow friendly dogs and cats as well.  The sessions will be held on October 9th, 10th, and 17th from 3-6:30pm.  Payment is due upon booking and at that time I will disclose the location to you.  Bring your little monsters in their costumes, or just doll them up for fall.  The photos from the session will be posted on my website www.landiwhitefieldphotography.com and you will be allowed to choose one photo from your session and it will be emailed to you with a photo release for you to do with as you please.  Of course if you choose I can print them for you at an additional fee.  I know that some of you may want your children individually and together, so if you would like additional digital images you can purchase them for $15.00 each.  As an added bonus you will receive a screen resolution digital image of the same image that is included in the shoot for your Facebook pages.  Please note that it will contain my logo.  Sessions are booked on a first come basis, and they are limited!  Call me at 682.936.2063 or 806.367.0145 for your appointment.  Credit/debit is welcome!

Found a Long Lost Friend

This last week I was searching for old friends from Denmark, yes as in the country. I was a Rotary exchange student there for my junior year of high school. Another fellow exchangee was Matt Hill, who was from NJ. I remembered that he loved photography so I looked him up. I wasn't sure if I found him or not, but I watched a youtube video of a guy doing time lapse of an art project that was way cool paper art, which he had to have been inspired by the Danes to do, anywho, I could only see the back of his head, so I shot him an email and asked if it was truly him. It was. I just have to post what I saw now, cause it was way cool. http://photo.matthillart.com/stop-motion/timelapse-video-for-art-music-creativity/ Come to find out Matt is into everything photography related. He also has another website called http://www.togs4togs.com/ that is a helpful site for other photographers. He works for the MAC group, if your a photographer you know what they do. I must say I was impressed with my friend. I was so happy that I found my long lost friend. It is so hard to have stuff happen that just makes you happy on a plain day, but I was so happy that I found what Matt was up to.

Decisions...

Today I decided I better get with the program and get my blogging together with my website. I guess I was advertising another website, how nice of me. I am on a mission to brand myself in my new town. I love Granbury, but photo peeps you better watch out, cause here I come....and by the way I am not one of those "just bought a camera and now I am a photographer gals", no I am an educated camera geek, so be very afraid....lol! I want everyone to know that my website is fabulous and ready for DFW to discover it! Visit me at www.landiwhitefieldphotography.com
I am trying to teach myself all of the cute blogging stuff, and like myspace you have to learn a bunch of junk, that is why Facebook took over. You can follow me on Facebook, and I do have a twitter account, but I am a twit so I don't tweet enough!