Narf. Learning curve: Vertical.

I’m an old photographer. I still dig the smell of film. I like blistering my hands in fixer. I can see 10x better under safelight.

I’m an old dog trying to learn new tricks – namely, mucking about in this digital era and trying to make a living at it.

Don’t get me wrong…the basics of photography are still the same. Light, science…magic…all of that. But once the shutter flies by on it’s way to never-never land, I’m left with this file thing on a computer thing that I have to use a program thing in order to get a damn thing out of it.

So. Learning curve: Vertical.

I’ve done pretty good…I’ve had the advantage of a graphics education enough to know what things like photoshop are for. Granted, when I met Jeff, my skills were barely beyond rudimentary. I’ve had one hell of an education in the 6 months we’ve been sharing studio space and I’m damn grateful for every little thing. I’ve been absorbing stuff like a sponge, but there’s one part of my education that kind of fell short…Jeff doesn’t do a lot of printing with outside labs. See…he’s a commercial photographer…and this means that he gets to send his stuff off to clients in a file.

I am not so lucky.

So, over the last several weeks, I’ve been going through the rigamorale of trying to get files edited and ready to send off to a lab, because, you know…studios like mine make MONEY selling prints. So the prints are kind of essential.

I’ll admit. I’ve been dragging my feet somewhat because the last thing I want to do is take my humble little CD into a lab and have them look at how I’ve botched everything up and charge me extra money to fix it…or worse…be laughing their asses off. (Yes…I know. My wittle bitty ego is cruisin’ for a bruisin’.)

One big thing that’s been niggling my stomach is the fact that while my monitor is close in terms of calibration, it’s not been officially calibrated. It’s pretty important stuff. But, with the mad scramble to make my studio rent every month, the princely sum of $425 bux for a Color Munki calibrator hasn’t materialized out of thin air. So…I’ve made every adjustment that I can without one and have hoped for the best.

So…time to take stuff to a lab. I debated using White House Custom Color (which is the lab that J’s friend Wendy uses) but was dragging my feet about using a lab that’s out of town. I’m kind of looking for more personal interaction…and hopefully good feedback…as I figure this stuff out. So I decided I’d take my stuff to Denver Pro Photo.

Pro Photo has always been good folks in terms of business dealings back in the film days. I bought most of my supplies for teaching through them and they gave me GREAT deals. So despite having a list of places to try, I thought I’d start there first.

Obligingly, they ran a test print for me – it looked okay…but, off. So I took it back to the studio for another check. Yes. My monitor shows a nice, healthy skin tone and a blue shirt. The print has a gray-ish skin town and a purple shirt. This isn’t going to jive…I’m selling these prints to someone who’s VERY particular. Not to mention…my own quality standard say this is gonna drive me nuts.

So I start assuming it’s because my monitor is off. But another thing isn’t quite working…when I pull the image up in Photoshop, it looks as I edited it…nice warm tones. Jeff said to send it to him, so I drag and drop the file into my email program (Mozilla Thunderbird) and lo! and behold! Thunderbird presents the preview JUST LIKE THE PRINT.

This has me mystified. Why would my monitor be displaying two different versions of the same image? So I call Pro Photo. The guy in the lab tells me my monitor isn’t calibrated. Now, since I don’t have all the correct techno-geek language at the ready, I finally just tell him not to print my order and that I’ve got to figure this out.

…And of course, credit goes to Jeff for figuring this one out. My monitor IS pretty close. The difference shows up as part of the ICC color space.

The ICC what?!?

Okay – so I knew a little about this when I started preparing these prints…WHCC gives pretty specific instructions as to how to prepare the files for printing. I had them saved as level 10 jpegs, 300 dpi, sized correctly and with the imbedded sRGB colorspace. Or so I thought.

My work flow goes as follows:

Import RAW files into Adobe’s Lightroom. Make global adjustments to exposure, color, minor dodge/burn, saturation levels and whatnot. I make my first round picks, upload online via Lightroom’s gallery function. After the customer makes their choices, I do any last minute global editing, then I export the chosen files as TIFF’s and pull them into Photoshop one at a time. There I do adjustment layers for increased dodge/burn control, etc. Then I do local edits – wrinkles, bad teeth, background issues, blemishes and whatnot. I save the files as layered PSD files, then do my final crop and save as the final to-be-printed file.

In Photoshop, my default color space is set to sRGB in my preferences. SO, it follows that my files would be sRGB in the final output. Right? Not so. Since I exported the files out of Lightroom, it applies Lightroom’s color space…and I didn’t have any alerts set in Photoshop to tell me that it was different.

So why the difference between the two programs on my monitor? Well, Photoshop is going to read the “prophoto” color space out of Lightroom just fine…the two programs are compatible. The telling clue was when Thunderbird (my email program) couldn’t read the unusual information…so it displayed the file as best it could…utilizing a monitor color display space which is very similiar to sRGB. Hence…the vast differences in display.

Sometimes it’s information like this that is so completely mind-boggling it almost makes me feel like I’m too much of an old-timer and I should go back to school or hang it up. Thankfully, J is around to help me figure it out and I can get back on track with getting these print orders filled….to my own and to my customer’s satisfactions.

Huh? Draft horses in a photography studio?

I come up with a lot of crazy ideas.  Ideas that, to me, make perfectly good sense…but to the rest of the world, it’s as if I’ve grown a second head that’s gone completely daft.

Most of the folks out there that know me, know that I’m a rural-dwelling farm girl by my very nature.  There’s something honest about living amongst growing fields and something heartfelt having a herd of animals outside my back door.  It’s how I grew up and as much as I like the culture of Denver, it’s not something I can ever get away from.  After a week’s worth of work in the studio, I’m all too eager to head home and find peace tending to the needs of my livestock.

Of course, having a herd of animals at home is never enough.  I’m greedy when it comes to critter-love.  Sometime about a year and a half a go, I started driving carriages in downtown.  THAT has been the single funnest, and probably the most entertaining job I’ve ever held.  Yeah – I know I’m a photographer and I’m supposed to be settling down and focusing on my business, but you have to admit…the very idea of driving a 2000 pound draft horse in amongst a bunch of skyscrapers is just so full of irony that it twigs even my wee lil’ brain.

…and, of course, it’s that very same brain that is constantly trying to merge these city and country worlds of mine together.  I’m a photographer.  I like horses.  I had (at the time) a huge studio at my disposal….soooo……why not put some horses in it and take some pictures?

See.  Now you get my madness.  It’s either going to make me a famous artist or it’s going to get me committed.  Or run over.  Preferably carrying a camera so I can prove to my husband that I’m not just out screwing around with horses again.

So, there came a leeettle problem of getting horses into the studio.  I have some horses.  They might even tolerate having their picture taken, but conviently, the transmission went out on our pickup.  So there was no trucking them to Denver.  Back to square one to marinate on the idea a bit and as I was puttering around throwing a harness on Jazz (my working partner) it all of a sudden struck me that THESE horses…these BIG, BEAUTIFUL, really-really-docile-so-they-won’t-wreck-my-equipment-kind-of-horses, WOULD.  BE.  PERFECT.

Luckily, my boss is as crazy as I am.  Ever so game, she brought three of her horses down for one of the biggest production photo shoots I’ve ever had a hand in, instigated, or otherwise participated in.

Some 6 hours, 3 horses, one manure bucket, some completely wrecked seamless (which was an adventure to hang high enough…let me tell you) about 6 models, 2 wore-out photographers, one horse owner, and several stage crew we had some unforgettable shots.

Regrettably, I’m not going to be able to get horses this big into my new studio location…but…nothing has been said about invading the park next door.  Stay tuned.

It’s been a while!

It’s been a while since I’ve updated last.  I barely got this blog started and lo! and behold! we needed to move our studio.  Then there was Christmas and holidays and lots of eating and…and…

Then there was moving IN to our new digs.  You’d never guess how much one photography studio can collect in the way of stuff.

So now, I’m on week three.  In a new space, with a freshly painted wall (trust me…the old one was…*shudder*…horrid.) AND internet access (which is kind of critical.)  You wouldn’t believe the hoop jumping we’ve done to get this far.

Now it’s down to marketing, marketing and more marketing.  Shoots aren’t just lining up at the door scrambling for a chance to place themselves in front of my camera.  It’d be fun to have that kind of fame, but with the large majority of folks reeling from their holiday expenditures, family photos are about the last thing on everyone’s lists.  Part of the learning curve with marketing is…well…the learning curve.  Things like target audiences, strategies for getting information in front of those audiences and developing skill sets on keeping up with those audiences (like posting regularly in this blog…*ahem*) have all been somewhat vertical rather than curvy, it seems.

Still.  I’m here.  And I’m getting a lot done in terms of developing business identity, refining my portfolio website, redesigning my business cards and learning ever more about the process of building a studio from the ground up.  I’m also absorbing quite a few tips and tricks from my studiomate and his ever-abundant genius concerning photoshop.  I’m getting faster at the post-processing part – and this is good.  I’ve had a few spare shoots to practice on.

Another fun little item that business owners have to learn is how to collect payment.  You’d think that taking someone’s money would be easy, but trust me, a lot of thought goes into it.  How much should I charge and what is the end product that my customers get?  Are they getting good value for the money?  Am I making enough for the time I’m putting into it?  Do *I* value my work at what I charge?  If not, then some re-evaluating has to be going on.  Also, how do I collect on an outstanding account?  Yes…generally speaking, most portrait photographers request payment before prints or digital media are ever ordered.  BUT, commercially speaking, most businesses want you to invoice them.  It’s never fun to chase down a business for payment three months later.

So there’s been a lot of thinking…which is important.  There’s also been a lot of doing…behind the scenes.  Slowly, slowly I’m starting to gain some ground.  I have a couple of shoots scheduled this week and that, of course, tickles me pink…’cause that’s what it’s about, right?

Very soon, I will have a treat for you.  I’ve got my one-last-hurrah shoot at the old studio to post.  I’m aaallllmmmooostt there.  Stay tuned.

The Robertson Wedding

So the second post on my series of I’m-now-a-converted-wedding-photographer is a few sneak peeks at the Robertson wedding in Omaha, Nebraska.  I’m sensing a Nebraska theme here.  Weird.

This was another one of those gimmie kinds of deals…the scenery was perfect, it was outdoors (and the weather behaved itself this time) and there was LOTS of fall color bursting at the seams.  It took place in the Fontenelle Nature Preserve – an absolutely gorgeous place to have a wedding.  In addition to the fall foliage, there were miles of trails, beautiful decks and clearings and a few resident wild turkeys.  There were also a few bugs…ladybugs in particular.  Anyone want to know where the ladybugs go for the winter?  I have a pretty good idea.

The whole family (on both sides) was incredibly laid back.  Everyone was having a good time.  The groom (who I know could charm the pants of a rattlesnake) was at his smiling best and the lovely lady at his side was the perfect compliment.  They are simply a delightful couple…and totally, ridiculously, in love with each other.  (Come on, everyone do it with me…”awwww!”)  They were full of smiles and laughter and in turn – were perfectly willing to completely ignore everyone around them and just focus on each other.  This made wedding photography a total dream.

In addition to the gorgeous bride and groom, there was boisterous family and friends standing up for them and REALLY cute kids for flower girls and ring bearers.  I mean….REALLY cute.  So cute that I think I’m going to hire these kids to just show up at any other wedding I do so that the “cute” factor is well taken care of.

Once again, I’m reminded that this wedding stuff ain’t so bad.  Congratulations Greg and Laura!

Into every life, a little character must fall.

I swear, I’m editing photos as fast as my little fingers can go.  Posting stuff, however, seems to be at the will of the muses.  I woke up this morning thinking about all the character that is inherent in folks that have been around for a while.

I’ve always had an affinity for people I’d call the “elder” faction.  Usually, they’re the wise-cracking Statler & Waldorf esque commentary on the Muppet Show of my world.  Evidently, if you’ve been around long enough…you deserve to show the younger folks the almost comical error of their ways.

One individual, in particular, comes to mind when I think of character and age.  She made a surprising appearance at my brother’s wedding back in October and I happened to capture a few shots of her as she interacted with the couple.  I was fascinated by the lines on her face – a testament to her life in the sun as a farm wife.  Tough living hasn’t done much to this gal in the way of spirit however…she’s still the vibrant, cheerful personality I’ve always known.

One of my fondest memories of Dorthy is in the days of WAY-back-when I decided to get married.  I was the first of us kids to leave the nest, and with any wedding on a shoestring budget it was pretty important to take a look at the resources and figure out how not to spend a ridiculous amount to get hitched.  The biggest dollar amount we could save?  Make the dresses instead of buy them.

Mom was my hero in this endeavor – she gamely ante’d up to the table with the idea she’d sew my wedding dress.  Only, it seems in my star-struck, love-struck state…I picked out a pattern that didn’t have instructions in it.  Or only half the instructions.  Or the instructions were in Greek.  I’m not sure of the details…only that after several days of cursing and threatening the lives of the pattern-makers that Mom called in reinforcements….enter the lively, little personality of Dorthy.

For a couple of weeks, the two of them locked themselves in my grandparent’s basement…sewing, ripping, re-sewing and making alterations to get me into the dreamy creation that was my dress.  I think it was Dorthy’s humor that kept Mom sane.

It was fun watching Dorthy give my brother the what-for in the receiving line at his reception.  She cackled at the funny stuff, told us all about having her son chauffer her around…and cackled some more at having a chauffer.  Except for maybe a few more wrinkles (which…as a photographer, I simply adore!), and a few more stories, she really hadn’t changed a bit.

It’s folks like these that really are the root of who we are.  They’ve got the years of experience that gives them the levity to approach a life that outpaces them 10 to 1.  I don’t think the modern age has diminished Dorthy one bit.  I’d be willing to bet that she’s still making her mark on the world…and likely with that unbridled laugh and willing smile surrounding her.

Steam Punk, yo!

A couple of months ago, my partner in crime did a shoot for a friend of mine for promotional images for her music.  Turns out, they were rather Steam Punk-ish in nature.  I wasn’t really up on what was what in the steam punk world and thought that the resulting images were uber-cool.

A few weeks ago, a friend of a friend contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a steam-punk style shoot of her in her new costume.  Huh.  Moi?  Interesting.  Told her I’d LOVE to do it (gotta try the new stuff, right?) and went and researched a TON to come up with ideas for right feel I wanted to project.

Holy cats.  We had a ton of fun.  Some 4 hours later, she drug her butt out the door and I sat down and hungrily went through images.  Unable to leave anything alone (so excited was I about doing the editing) that I have the preliminary stuff done.  Technically, I should have been editing my other wedding…but MA!  I just couldn’t stand it.

hehe…  Now that I’ve got THAT out of my system, I really need to get on that wedding.  *sigh*  No rest for the wicked, eh?

Whoa. I do weddings now.

I find it kind of funny – weddings were never something I ever, EVER wanted to dabble in when it came to photography.  I’d mention my career choice to random folks in some social situation, the first reply out of nearly everyone’s mouth was – I kid you not – “So, you do weddings then, huh?”  I’d get an eyeball twitch as I’d stammer my way through my excuses for not doing them…muttering unintelligible things about being too restrictive, not having the right equipment, yadda yadda and so forth.  Really, I tended to view weddings as one big pain in the hiney.  They were a lot of work, the pay wasn’t so great for what you put into it, folks always complained about the prices and the stress.  Dear god the stress…I just flat-out wasn’t interested.  A wedding was an all-day torture affair.

I heard a quote about weddings once.  I can’t remember where I saw it – I think it was on a poster on my photography professor’s wall in college.  It said something about “When people realize that you’re committed to creating sensitive, thoughtful and meaningful images…they’ll ask you to photograph their wedding.”

Trust me.  It happens Just Like That.  Although fate conspired against me on this one – it was my little brother that asked.  Ack.  My little brother. Getting married.  He asked my husband to be one of his groomsmen and my other brother to be his best man.  I was already drawing blanks on what to give him and his new bride as a gift when he offhandedly wondered outloud if I was interested in doing the photography?

It was sly.  Let me tell you.  But, it was the perfect way that I could give the best of what I had.  AND, I was pretty sure the affair was going to be small, simple and relatively stress free.  I took the bait.

The ceremony was held in a little gazebo at the city park in Sidney, Ne.  It was quiet.  It was also kind of rainy.  The changing light conditions played hell with my exposures…but everything moved at a slow enough pace that I felt like I caught all the important stuff…and then some.  When I got the images home and had a REALLY good look at them – I was surprised.  I really liked what I saw.  I had paid such close attention to the bride and groom that I caught nuances of meaning and….aw.  They were just darned cute.

Secretly?  I had a TON of fun.  It was nice razzing all the bridesmaids and groomsmen in and out of the camera frame.  I gave everyone a hard time. (I was related to half of them, so I was entitled!)  So thanks to my little brother, I decided weddings aren’t too bad.  Which is kind of good.  My husband’s boss called up and wants me to do hers in January…and my roommate’s brother just had me do his last week.

Word spreads fast.  I’ve had fun at both of them (the other one I did will be in another post) and I’m actually admitting that I’ll do weddings now.  (Quietly, mind you!)  I’ve certainly learned quite a bit about human nature, and have really enjoyed the different relationship dynamics that have developed between different families.  I’ll say another thing for weddings – they hone your editing skills FAST.  I’ve gotten far quicker in both Photoshop and Lightroom and in the long run, that’s a blessing in disguise.  Finally, dealing with shoots this big and on location has made me really think through my process as a photographer and how I want to structure my business.

So with that, thanks bro!  Heartfelt congratulations to you and Charity!

Beginnings.

I’m not interested in sterile representations of what I feel is the most powerful essence of being human.  I am driven, singly, by that thing that gives meaning to life – the breathtaking, emotive, and boundless capacity of the human spirit.

I’m not a photographer because I’m interested in capturing a single, flawless shell of someone.  I’m a photographer because the human condition fascinates me.  I want to find every nuance, I want to study even the fleeting moments of emotion.  The mass of our experience is non-verbal and non-linear.  We are complex beings, finely tuned machines – who are capable of a vast richness of interaction and communication.

I want the subtle.  I want the quiet moments.  I want presence.  I want the unseen and the untold to come through into my camera lens…a captured, perfect moment that is as random as a droplet of rain in a pool of water where the tides of human spirit radiate outwards like ripples on smooth glass.

Imagery and meaning are deeply intertwined.  Each of us brings our own lives and experiences to the images we see.  Each of us brings our own lives and experiences to the images we create.

I’m running a studio again for the first time in almost 10 years.  A lot of things have changed.  Film has become almost obsolete.  Having a computer handy is now a must for more than just checking email.  I’ve relearned things I’ve long forgotten and I’ve learned things I wasn’t even sure I needed.  Advertising is a challenge, marketing is a challenge, technology is a challenge.  Even the camera is a challenge – even as familiar of a tool as it has been in my hands for so many years!

The light, however…has never changed.  That’s what photography is about…painting with light.  It feels good to be on familiar ground there.

I’m starting this blog as a way to not only chronicle my progress as a businesswoman, but as a way to continually display my work.  Sure…some things will make it to my portfolio, but I think it’s also important to write about the day to day adventures.  There are so many people that I meet in the course of my work that it seems a shame not to pay attention to those fine nuances that caught my eye in the first place.

This is the place I want to do that.

I look forward to your thoughts and comments on this little adventure.  Thanks for sharing my journey with me.