Finding Unqiue Locations Reduces The Need For More Studio Space!

As our industry changes, we need to look for ways to reduce our expenses while providing our clients with the best in professional photography.  Unique Locations allow you the ability to provide client with unique portraits while not adding to your expenses.  We have a larger studio, with thousands of dollars worth of props, sets and backgrounds that have been accumulated over the years.  We even have a Dodge Viper and Harley Fatboy for our clients to be photographed with, however these props were bought in a different time, when the economy and profession supported such investments.  Today, photographers want to operate as lean as possible.  Once upon a time, it was the dream of most photographers to build their own studio building, now that dream has become a nightmare with no ability to size down or cut expenses.  Download a FREE VIDEO SAMPLE OF THE DVD

Interesting backgrounds are all over the city in which you live, you just have to find them.  Always look for locations as close to your home or office as possible to reduce the amount of travel and the amount you must charge the client for travel.  In addition to finding garden and park locations, look for urban or street scenes, upscale or historic building and shopping areas.  Buildings with interesting interiors can also provide clients with unique portraits they are willing to pay more for.  Always ask for permission before using any area that you don’t pay rent on.  There is nothing worse than security asking you to leave in the middle of a session.

Newer photographers need to not only look for interesting locations, but the quality of light at those locations.  So many young photographers select cool scenes, develop great poses, but then fail to ensure the most fundamental of all aspects of photography, the lighting.  At locations, other than gardens or park scenes, controlling depth of field is vitally important.  Typically, I use a telephoto lens (70-200mm 2.8) wide open to insure background softness or I use a wide-angle (18 to 24mm on digital camera with full frame sensor) to insure enough detail in the background, depending on the type of background the location provides me.

Educational DVD’s the Photographer’s Perfect Christmas Gift!

Do we really need another tie or pair of socks for Christmas?  What better gift to give the photographer this Christmas Season than the gift of Knowledge. Whether you buy it for a photographer, or yourself.   We have 4 DVD’s which cover studio lighting, outdoor portraiture, posing and composition/camera angles.  Improve your photography and make 2013 a much better year for your career and your life.  http://www.jeffsmithphoto.com/jeffsmithbooks  

Cute Can Be Very Sexy and Profitable!

So many times I see photos taken of women that are very striking, very glamorous and very sexy.  As a matter of fact a little too sexy to be a marketable photograph to put into a home, even a bedroom.  When I see a portrait taken a of a woman in garter belts and high heels, with their bottom or breast exposed, I see a personal portrait that most woman will show to only their closest friends and purchase a small portrait for their husband/boyfriend/partner.  Even in today open world, not to many woman want to be exposed or showing their wild side on the wall!

Back in the day when boudoir photography made it first debut, I found that many woman would want to take “sexy pictures” and then only want to purchase an 5×7 for the husband/boyfriend and a wallets.  These sales didn’t make the time invested worthwhile.  Alluring portraits don’t have to show everything, as a matter of fact there are often more sexy if you show just enough to create the feeling.  Something as simple as a husbands dress shirt, can create a stunning, yet salable portrait.  Jerseys, Harley jackets, old letter jackets can all create a personalized “sexy portrait” that is salable for the home.

Photos we taken with a Canon 5d with a 70-200mm 2.8 lens, at f/8.  Lighting was a  Halo as a main light and a 30×40 light on the floor to add a more glamorous look.  For more on lighting and posing click on any of the Video Covers for Free Sample Video.

Designing A Portrait That Visually Makes Sense

My process of portrait design is simple, I start with the elements I have the least control over and coordinate those elements to the ones I have the most control over. This means I start off with the client’s clothing and work though the process coordinating everything to the look and style of the clothing and make-up. When working with a senior in the studio, we have huge variety of sets and props, designed to coordinate with different styles of clothing. At outdoor locations we must inform the senior/teen how to dress to coordinate with the overall look of the location. If they have selected a typical park location, we have the senior wear shorts, jeans, summer dresses, letter or leather jackets or anything else that is more casual. Should the senior select to be photograph in a interior location that is more elegant (there home, a theater or museum that you might have permission to go to) the senior is told to wear more elegant clothing and make-up to coordinate with the location. Once the senior starts to put on a certain outfit, my staff starts putting together the background/set they will be using. Backgrounds and sets have a certain overall style or look. Some will look very upscale and elegant while others will appear very natural, perfect for more casual style of portraits. The best backgrounds and sets are designed to reflect the feeling of the other elements they are paired with. Many of my professionally designed sets look very elegant with a prom or evening dress, while looking casual enough for a pair of jeans with the girl going barefoot. And like the color of money, I like to think that a black Fatboy and a red Viper go with anything! After the set/background is selected, the style of lighting is chosen, again to fit the look of the clothing and set selected. Should it be a more ‘slice of life’ image the lighting will be more traditional, if the clothing and background are more glamorous I may use a ring-light, butterfly light or the diamond spot light for a more glamorous look. The last consideration is the pose. When I select the pose I am looking at two things, first is coordinating everything else I have selected so far and second (and even more important) is a pose that will make the client look her best. Although I make many decisions before I see the client in her outfit, I am always ready to make changes once the client appears. I may have everything set for a full length standing pose to show an elegant dress and the senior/teen comes out barefoot and says she forget her shoes, then we go to plan B, which would be simply take the image in a ¾ pose and don’t show the feet. Many photographers lack flexibility when working with their clients. I told a story in one of my first books about a photographer working with a client in an outdoor location many years ago. His client was a young lady a few years out of high school, she was in a dark shirt and black jeans, with black shoes. She sat on a rock by the lake and here pant leg raised showing her white socks underneath. She asked the photographer if her white socks were going to show, he responded “of course their going to show, it didn’t want to see them you shouldn’t have worn them!” He then proceeded to take the shots full length as if to teach his client a lesson. He did in fact teach his client a lesson and the lesson was he was a ‘horses-ass’ and she should have selected a more professional photographer! This guy could have asked her to take off her shoes and sock or simply changed the composition to not show the feet, but he was inflexible. Once he had decided on what he was doing, he wouldn’t change it to fit the needs of the client. He paid the price that all arrogant photographer pay, he is now fifty years old working for his father. Once I see the client in the outfit I make my final decisions about posing and then I go through the variations of poses for that idea. The client then selects the pose, I help her into it, adjust the lighting and then go to the camera. At the camera there are still more choices to make. Do I take the image at a normal height, elevated or lower height? Do have the camera straight or tilted to distort the vertical and horizontal lines?

POSING GROUPS

Whether you are working with a couple or a group of twenty people the same rules apply.  Unlike lighting where you have to adjust your strategies for the larger the group, posing use the same principles of posing each part of the body to make each person look their best, then pose each person to look good as a part of the entire group.

The biggest challenge of posing a group is the coordination between each person in posing and in clothing.  Clothing styles and colors have to coordinate to not draw attention to the clothing itself.  It looks odd to have everyone in jeans except one family member that decides to the come in a suit. If everyone is in white shirts and one person show in black, it draws the attention to the black shirt.  When clients don’t follow clothing suggestions (like the two boys in this family) you have to use the actual posing to hide or minimize the style difference.  In this pose the ladies high heels made the clothing look much more elegant than the boys jeans so the high heels didn’t show.  The young man with the nicer jeans and shoes was brought forward, with his brother is baggier jeans and boots was hide behind sister.

When posing a couple or group you want to have the same style of posing for each person.  You shouldn’t have everyone in traditional posing with one person in a more fashionable pose, unless you intend to draw attention to that person.  Spacing is another important consideration.  If any member of a group is posed farther from every other member of the group than everyone else, they look like the black-sheep.

I typically start planning a group (over two people)  with the person of most importance.  Now these are generalization and not meant to offend anyone (it is kind sad we are so sensitive in this country I always have to put that disclaimer in an educational book so someone, somewhere won’t take offense!)  I don’t care about your personal lifestyle choices or opinions; these are the opinions of the majority of paying clients and since they paying you to create what they want, you views simply don’t matter. 

Now that we have covered that, back to the person of most importance.  The person of most importance could be a new born baby, or a grandmother, a mother or father, a husband or wife.  You determine the person of most importance by the reason the client has hired you.  If they are hiring you to take a small family group because of new born baby, the baby is the most important person in the portrait.  If a grandmother is having a 90 birthday, she is the most important person in the portrait. Mothers Day, Father’s day obviously are self explanatory.

In an average American home, with mom, dad, and 2.2 children, the father is given the predominate position out of respect and tradition.  Don’t like it, don’t care, it is what an overwhelming number of you clients will want and expect.

I look at that predominate person and decide how is the best way to give them the position in the center of my frame and pose all the other people around them.  If there is no predominate person (4 sisters for example, each one be equal to the others) I chose a non-centered, more linear posing so that no one is in the center, becoming the focal point. (More about that later).

Considering the predominate person,  I look at the best way for that person to be posed.  If baby is a newborn and you have a raised, secure posing surface that would give you the most posing options around the baby.  If grandmother is 90, the ground is out of the question (people don’t look comfortable in places they can’t normally go and no one at any age feels confident being hoisted down and up from a pose.  And at that age standing for prolonged periods of time isn’t an option either, so I typically bring in a chair or stool depending on whether I want to add a another element to the scene or keep it without props or posing aids.

Once the predominate person is posed, I then start building the grouping around that person, making sure to keep everyone at a similar spacing, while keeping each person at different level or heights to create interest and direct the viewer’s eye throughout the frame.

POSING MEN

Posing men is simpler than women, only in the sheer numbers of poses that a woman can be posed in.  Men tend to be more rigid in their posing and much more intolerant of anything outside their comfort zone.  Men want to look manly and not be embarrassed.  I always say that men have no idea of how much a woman worries about in their appearance, unless they have a job like mine or are a plastic surgeon.  For you lady photographers, you will never understand how much a man doesn’t want to be publicly embarrassed and you never will be you are not a man.

Dancing is an excellent example to see the differences in women and men.  You look out on any dance floor and you will see women dancing with other women, women dancing in groups, women dancing by themselves, and of course a few dancing with men.  The skill level of these women dances ranges from excellent to woman that dance the Elaine character in Seinfeld (she appeared to be having spasms to the music, while not really keeping to the beat!)  Women have a greater fear of not fitting in then they do of doing something poorly in front of people.  Women have less inhibition about new experiences in public than men.

Now you look at the men on the dance floor.  You see the guys that are great at dancing and those men that are afraid enough of the woman they are with risk public embarrassment and do something they don’t know how to do in public.  Men are also taught that things like dancing and being photographed are for “girls” and cool guys don’t do either one.

I am not making fun of woman or men, just point out the difference in the majority of each gender so you can make everyone comfortable in front of the camera.  There is much more to posing than memorizing the poses.

Men are very uncomfortable when they have to do something new.  They are downright “freak out” when having to do something new in front of people.  So the first rule for pose men is to have them be photographed in a place that is comfortable to them.  I am not suggesting you go to their home and photographing them in their sweats, sitting on the recliner watching TV.  I am saying that you keep the tendency of a male in mind when you book a session.

In the studio, make sure that other people are not around when you photograph any man.  I work with assistants, but I only have one with me when I photograph a male and I try to make sure it is a male, as men get more self-conscious in front of women and especially younger woman like I have work for me (not sexist, or preference of age on my behalf, just makes sense working with seniors all day!)  When I am photographing anyone, I make sure that no other clients are watching or coming through the camera room, but I am especially conscious of this when photographing a man.

When I photograph a man or men as part of a group outdoors, I select a more secluded location to avoid on lookers and passersby.  In a larger family portrait session, where we will photograph smaller family groups, I ask additional family members not being photographed to relax in an area out of sight from the family I am photographing.  The other problem with multiple men in a family location is the dumb-assed need for the man not being photographed to try and embarrass the man that is being photographed into smiling.  Good smile, red face!

OUTDOOR AND LOCATION PORTRAITURE

Let me start off by saying one simple thing about working outdoors or on location, either learn to do it correctly or stay in the studio.  I am not arrogant enough to think I am the final authority on portraits taken on location (but after writing 3 books on the subject does put me in the top Fifty!) but I see so many photographers wandering around parks without a clue of want they are doing.  Rule 1, never, ever, use an ‘on camera’ flash for outdoor portraiture.  I have said it years, if you wouldn’t use a light source in the studio, why would you use it outdoors?  I see local photographers that are quite proficient in the studio completely clueless going from spot to spot paying no attention to the natural light and thinking that their little TTL on camera flash will make everything OK!  Don’t be an idiot!

 A professional flash and modifier doesn’t change when going from the studio to location.  If you use flash, which I don’t suggest, but on occasion use, you should use the same flash you use in the studio.  To use an ‘on-camera’ flash outdoors would be the same as a professional photographer leaving his Professional Camera in the studio and taking a point and shoot consumer camera outdoors, with his only defense being, “it’s easier!”  “Talk about convenience the flash is built-in and it meters for you!”

 Rule 2, you either work with natural light, being able to see it’s quality and direction or you use a light source to overpower the natural light, becoming the main light source, using the natural light as fill.  The idea of ‘fill flash’ is a bone-head concept from wedding photographers that think they can use their ‘on camera’ flash to fill the shadows of the natural light.  No one and I repeat no one is good enough at metering (no camera metering system is either) to fill in the delicate light that exists outdoors.  Professional flash is a tool to be used to overpower the existing light to have a better control over the light on your background.  I use flash often for photographing families during the middle of the day, which brings up rule number 3.

 Rule 3, 99% of paying clients won’t want to be photographed when the ideal outdoor light exists, right after sunrise and just before sunset.  This is another bone-head teaching of most photographers about working outdoors.  The thought of clients in our stressed out, over-worked, used to receiving excellent costumer service at the point of being pampered clients are going to get up before the sun rises or stay out after dark because you say the light is perfect at these times is unreasonable.  This is the reason that so many studios don’t photograph many clients outdoors,  the photographer only knows how to photograph at the times of ideal lighting, which in today’s world don’t work for the client.

 The second reason outdoor doesn’t work for most studios is they take a senior at dawn to a distant location and either they charge a small fortune for travel or they expect the order size will make up for the time in travel.  Neither idea works, if you charge a high sitting fee to cover travel, no one goes outdoor and realistically orders that include outdoor are higher, but not high enough to cover an hour of travel, which is most cases would be a minimum to and from the studio to a place worth using for photographs.

 We have always set up entire days at selected outdoor locations, which means I have had to learn to photograph at all times of day and just not the ideal times.  Seniors get the great outdoors for the same cost as a session inside the studio which means you have clients willing to go outside of the studio and you actually get to keep the additional profit from the higher sales of the outdoor session because there is no cost of travel.

 Rule number 4 you don’t need nor is it better to have an outdoor garden area.  So many photographers dream of the day when they are in a position to have an outdoor garden at their studio.  First of all, it is expensive to put in an outdoor garden of any size, a price that you will probably never recouped in your use of the outdoor area.  Second, unless you have a few acres in your background garden studio, it is hard to get the feeling of depth that is possible in a larger public park or natural outdoor area.  Most back yard gardens have limited depth and typically are only usable a certain time of day because they lack the size of trees necessary to provide shade at all time of day.  Some the crappiest outdoor portraits I have ever seen have come from good photographers that have tried to make their outdoor garden work for their sessions throughout the day.  It cost me $24 for a year pass to our local park which is 5 minutes from the studio, covers 160 acres of land with lakes, creeks and wooded areas that you can’t find in anyone’s backyard.

 I could easily fill many books on the subject of outdoor photography and the coordination of all the elements in the average scene to creating a certain look or style of portrait.  I feel the most important single factor in outdoor photography is learning how to photograph “Properly” at any time of day.  The two most important factors of dealing with outdoor photography during the mid-day hours that we all must work in is to learn how to modify the existing natural light to either be a main light source or a fill for the main light source.  The second element is finding usable backgrounds and learning to modify the mid-day backgrounds to make them usable for portrait sessions throughout the day.

 The concepts of lighting and background selection are going to be condensed for to fit into this chapter, for more information working outdoor look for my books Outdoor and Location Portrait Photography,  Jeff Smith’s Guide to Outdoor Lighting and Jeff Smith’s Guide to Outdoor Posing available from Amherst Media.  Working outdoors in the middle of the day, I look first look for pockets of shade to place the subject within.  Large tree and patio type structures being the most common.  Once I find the shaded area, my first concern is the light direction, which I have to be honest most of the time is completely wrong.  Working in the middle of the day, I always have the sun behind the subject, this illuminates the leaves of the trees and if the light does filter down to the subject it creates a hair/separation lighting on the subject.

 With light coming in from behind the client, I don’t need a natural main light source, I can create it, which is good because very seldom do you have the perfect lighting conditions where you must photograph during the middle of the day.   I use white/silver reflectors to create a main light source.  If you don’t use reflectors, you don’t know what you are missing.  Using flash outdoors is like shooting a gun blind-folded.  You can’t see the effects of the light from the flash unit on the subject and if you think the little preview on the back on the camera will help, forget it! 

 With a reflector, what you see is what you get.  Typically, I have my assistant stand in the same place I would position my main-light source in the studio.  Since the sun is at the subject’s back, he will simply find a sunny spot filtering through the trees.  We use the reflector at the same height as the main light would be placed, however outdoors the overviews can look deceiving.  You will often see the reflector resting on the ground, looking to reflect light upward, creating some kind of freakish, horror lighting.  The light is placed in relationship to the elevation of the client and the angle of the subject’s face.  When you see the reflector resting on the ground, the subject is either standing on higher ground than I am with the camera or she is lowering her face at a downward angle, so respectively the catch-lights will end up in the proper position in the eye.

 Working with reflectors requires some getting used to.  After a few days of working on the reflectors, most of my assistants get the hang of it and can easy control the light, while easily increasing or decreasing the amount of light on the subject.  You accomplish this control by learning to ‘feather’ the light.  Feathering is on of the “photographer words” that students have no idea what they are talking about.  Feathering is simply taking the main beam of light and directing it slight away from the subject and just using the softer light that is on the edge of the main beam. 

 To effectively use a reflector you simply find the main beam of light and aim it directly over the head or to the side of the subject.  The beam should start several feet away from the subject.   Then start bringing the beam of light closer to the subject until you have the quality and quantity of light you are looking for.  To know when the lighting is right, I use a simple technique, I have the beam of light move closer to the subject until I can first see bright catch-lights in the eyes of the subject from the camera position. At this point I have a usable main light source.

 Most of the images created in my books have used only one reflector and natural light to create the lighting.  Using reflectors is really isn’t that difficult.  Now being photographers, we like to complicate and “crap-up” most simple processes to make ourselves feel worthy, but really there is no need.  I and many other photographer have found it necessary to add additional reflectors to accent the hair or add to a highlight to the shadow side of darker skin and that is always an option, but in most cases if you can see the direction of light and the effects of the natural light on the subject it isn’t necessary.

POSING FOR INTEREST AND IMPACT

Posing for interest and impact is the next step in the evolution of posing.  The first step is to learn poses that make your client look their best.  The second step is to learn how to modify the poses for your individual client’s body type and comfort.  The third step is to learn how to correct the flaws that all paying clients have.  The fourth step is how to pose a person to work within the cropping and composition.  Now you will learn how to pose for impact and interest. 

Posing for impact and interest is really the opposite of traditional posing.  In traditional posing you are making the client look their best while having them in a natural looking pose.  This creates a traditional portrait that you really don’t notice the posing of, because it appears natural as though the client were just sitting there when you pulled out your camera.  Posing for impact and interest is posing that actually draws attention to the posing style.

Posing for interest and impact uses same principles as lighting.  In the majority of portraits, you light the portrait naturally for a traditional portrait look.  The viewer really doesn’t notice the light because it looks natural.  However when you change the classic, more natural lighting to a spot light for a more theatrical look, you now focus more attention on the lighting style itself.

 The same true as you look at posing.  There is posing that is natural and that doesn’t draw attention to itself and posing that enhances the overall appeal of the portrait by drawing attention to itself.  When posing the human body there are shapes, lines and forms that create feelings in the viewer. We have all heard the classic “s” curve when posing/photographing a woman.  The curves, which offend form “s” shapes, of the body naturally, captivate a viewer’s attention.  By accentuating these curves the attention of the viewer is enhanced, the pose has created more interest and added more impact to the portrait.

Simply put curved lines or forms are seen as feminine, sensual and soft, alluring for men and captivating to all that view it.  The same rules of lines and forms apply to posing as in composition.  You see a winding path in the composition of an outdoor portrait and you immediately visualize a beautiful woman walking down it (ok, maybe that is just me, but it is definitely feminine!)  She see soft rolling hills, you envision a beautiful bride a sunset.  Curves, soft flowing lines visually represent femininity.  

Straight lines represent strength, power and are seen as masculine.  You see large squared off columns in a background; they look masculine, where rounded columns look more feminine.  Poses that are structured with straighter lines are seen to have strength and covey power.  This doesn’t mean you can only use these principles on woman and men respectively.  A structured pose of a woman can convey a strength, which in today’s world is sexy in it own way.  A curved pose can soften the look of a larger, tougher looking dad when being posed with his daughter or new born child.

These rules are to be learned and practiced, but ultimately how they are used will depend on the creative decisions you and your client make.  As we start looking at adding impact and interest to a portrait through posing, we take these basic rules and use them to bring more interest and impact to the portrait.

Selecting the Right Size of Main Light Source

All too often speakers, educators and lighting companies talk about the size of main light modifiers as though one size (which is typically the largest and most expensive they offer) will work for every application/style of portrait.  Each light modifier produces light with a certain characteristic.  While each light modifier has a slightly different characteristic, it really is only slight and not always worth investing in for the small differences you will see in the final portrait (when comparing one brand or shape of light box to another).

What does affect lighting the most is the size of the light box you are using in relationship to the distance from the subject you are photographing.  While everyone talks about using a six-foot light box (I use one on occasion myself) a six-foot light box is often too large for most portraiture that is taken from the waist up.  A six-foot light box is great for shooting full lengths or groups of people in the studio, because the relative size is smaller since the main light has to be positioned farther from the subject.

The problem with a larger light source for a single subject is it gives you little control over where the light is striking the subject and in today’s over-weight world, you find that shadow helps sell more portraits than light, because people have fewer areas of their body that are comfortable showing in the final portrait.  For younger photographers, it is important to understand the relationship between the size of the light box and the distance the light box will be placed from the subject/subjects.  While a six-foot light box is ideal for full length portraits or groups a much small light box should be used to achieve a consistent light characteristic.  That sounds complex, but really it is simple, for the same look in all of our portraits (from head shots to full length) I use different sizes of modifiers based on how far from the subject they will be placed.  I will use a small box for tight head shots (or corrective lighting) a medium box for waist up to 3/4ers and a very large box for lighting full lengths using a set or larger scene.  This way our lighting has a very consistent look as they view similar styles of portraits that very in composition from head shots to full lengths.

As always, I will explain further for the few photographers that like to argue and point out the obvious.  Here we go for Captain Obvious, yes there are times that you select the same modifier for different looks to your lighting.  In any given session, I will use everything from a soft box, to a spot light, a parabolic with barns doors to Butterfly lighting and even a fashion ring light, but the first step is to be able to understand the basic portrait lighting and master it, before working with other styles of lighting.  To master portrait lighting, you should be able to produce the same “light quality/characteristics” on every portrait from a head shot to full length.  This is accomplished by selecting the correct size of light box for the job at hand.

Planning and Control in an Impulsive World!

The Key to Success in the photography business doesn’t lie in taking more photographs to show a client, but taking the correct amount of photographs to fill your products and packages and know what you’re taking will sell.  Taking more photographs of each poses and more poses of each background idea is counter productive to your photography business.  Each time you push the shutter button, it costs you money.  Someone, most of the time the photographer themselves has to edit through all the crap they take to get the number of images down to a viewable level.  You take more time shooting all this crap, just to take more time editing it down.  This makes your business less profitable.  Even if you have very few clients and do your own editing, it consumes your time which you could be spending getting more clients.

The reason I am here today is that I got my impulse control, under control.  We planned our sessions to fill our products.  Since we photograph seniors, each session offered has 8 different background/posing options (4 backgrounds taken full length and close up for a total of 8)  This is because the most images any product has is 8, a classic folio.  More isn’t better.  The second most important thing is to control the “machine-gun” tendency that all photographers have.  Taking 35 shots of the same pose and background, with only the expression changing doesn’t make the photo better, nor does it give the client more to choose from.  It just gives you more work and makes your time less valuable.  The clients isn’t going to see 28 to 30 of those shots because they all look the same and will only serve to confuse the client when they view.

My God….this sounds like a business person has a plan, rather than an impulsive child with dream of artistic grandeur is let loose with his or her fathers camera!  This planning and impulse control also forces you to be as good as you think you are.  If you can’t take 8 poses of a client and have 8 beautiful, salable posing/background ideas to sell, you shouldn’t be working with clients, you should be studying, going to school and or learning in some way, shape or form learning your craft.  The “throw a big pile on the wall and see what sticks” theory of photography has to so many create people, that would have made excellent professional photographers,  chose another profession, because it simply isn’t sustainable for a business.  It trains photographer to be lazy and not learn their craft.  It teaches you bad business habits that your photography business simply can not afford in these economic times and in this professional climate.

Simple, plan your sessions, control over shooting and learn photography (lighting, posing, composition and camera angles) well enough to know that each idea you take your client will want to have.  I don’t think we are lacking creativity and talent in this profession, I think we have way too many people who expect way too little of themselves in their role as a professional photographer.  On a position note, the past is the only thing in life you can not change.  If you have to use the “big pile on the wall to see what sticks) to have anything good to show a client, CHANGE IT!  Learn your craft….books and videos are cheap, hell my books are available at any public library, you don’t get much cheaper than FREE!