Photography School

Photography school - photography tips they don't teach in photography school (1-3)

1. You don’t yet know that you don’t know…

Have you ever wondered why some photographers are betters than others?  Is it because they don’t know things that the other photographer knows?  Yes.  But why is it that the weaker photographer just can’t go out and learn what they need to know?  It’s because they don’t know, what they don’t know…  What I mean by this is that there are things about different forms of art that can’t really be articulated and no photography school is going to take anyone to the next step.  (Unless maybe they’re on the bottom rung of the ladder)

I know that I’m better than quite a few of the photographers out there.  I can plainly see what makes me better than they are, but they just don’t have a clue.  I know things that they do not, but they don’t know what it is that makes me better.

On the other hand, there are many photographers that are better than I am.  If I could figure out what makes them better, then I would do everything in my power to learn the things they know, that I don’t.  But I wouldn’t really know where to begin, or what questions to ask.  It’s sort of an intangible kind of thing. 

I call this, the ladder of understanding.  I’ve climbed a few of the steps of this ladder since I’ve become a professional, but there are some steps that I’ll never get to because of my intellect and my artistic ability.  There are also photographers on the step below me that will never know why I’m on the higher step. And the same will be true for you too.

2. Very few companies employ photographers

I don’t have any statistics to share with you, but I can tell you from experience, that there just are not all that many photography jobs out there.  There are a bunch of self-employed photographers, but not many photography jobs.  Most photographers I know are self-employed.  I know one photographer that works for a equipment manufacturer, and a few medical photographers and a couple of photographers that work for a large local college.  Besides that, I don’t know of any that actually work for other companies.

If you track the advancement of photographic technology, you can see why less and less professional photographers are required. 

Years ago, there was no such thing as auto-exposure and auto-focus, let alone technology of digital photography.  What’s happened is that now it is so easy to get a decent image, that many of the once “bread and butter” jobs that in-house corporate photographers used to do, are now being done by the company secretary.  That means that there are fewer photography jobs out there, but the jobs that are there are much more fun then they use to be.

I may be a little bias here, but to be honest with you, in-house photographers are usually to be honest with you, I would MUCH rather be self employed than work for some corporation.  First off, the corporate photographers get very little respect from inside the company. 

The reason for this is that they are required to do so much “crap work”.  To make themselves valuable enough to keep on staff, they get stuck doing menial projects like passport type photos, and insurance snap shots.  And then, when the really nice projects come along, they’re usually sent out to a “quality” photographer.  The managers in the corporation see all the mediocre work coming from the in-house photographer and conclude that that’s all they’re capable of.  It may not be fair and the in-house shooter may be just as good as the outside guy, but that outside guy only showed his very best work to the potential client, while the in-house guy has been showing his passport photos for years and years…  Who do you think will get the juicy / important jobs?

I might make it sound like the in-house shooters ARE as good as the outside shooters, but usually they’re not. 

If you spend years making crap work, it’s hard to shift gears and do really good work.  And think about it…  Most (ALL) corporations can’t afford to pay a quality photographer what they’re worth.  A quality photographer can make a lot of money, maybe as much money as one of their upper managers.  And they’re not going to pay a photographer that much money to take name badge photos.

Most photographers work for themselves.  They either work as wedding / portrait photographers or they are commercial photographers.  Some try to do both, but most photographers I know do one type of photography or the other.  Actually, the trend is for the commercial shooters to shoot a few weddings each year to bring in a little extra cash, but most try to keep this info from their commercial clients because of the stigma attached to weddings.  Some people think that “anyone” can shoot a wedding. And that’s true some extent, but to be a great wedding photographer is quite another story...

3. Be aware of “happy accidents”

I’ve been out of photography school and doing this professional photography thing for quite a while now and I’ve just recently been concentrating on looking for happy accidents.  Happy accidents are those unique things you find that simply “make” the photo special.  Usually they’re things totally unplanned and just happen.  They can be strange lighting effects, patterns that emerge in the composition, a weird angle that looks really cool, or background elements that have some type of unexpected symbolism.  You just never know what it’s going to be, but if you look hard enough, you’ll find these things that will “make” the photo. Without the happy accident, the photo is unremarkable, but with it, it’s magical.  Keep a look out for those happy accidents!  There’s one in every photo, if you look hard enough.  Okay, that’s a lie, but if you go into every photo thinking that there is one just sitting there waiting to be discovered, you’ll end up finding more and more of them.  Keep looking!