Time to Face Facts

In the coming months, my lease for my studio is coming to an end and I've been left with the pressing choice of whether to renew it or not.

I hope to keep the studio running, and I know many of you, my clients, would like me to continue running the cheapest professional studio space (size wise) in Cape Town. But sadly, I've come across many a hurdle, one of them being cash flow. It's all very well for photographers to use my space and to “pay me when their clients pay them” but now after waiting each time, watching the end of the month come and go, and feeling the anguish of my landlords, I have to be realistic and draw the line.

So I have two choices:

First: I can take on a partner. Why would you want to be a partner in my studio, well, here are a couple of reasons. Its already equipped, maintained and established. And the best part of it, for the equivalent sum of renting it for two days, you'll have access to it all month. Hell, that’s like paying for two days and getting 28 days free. So basically, any professional photographer who uses a studio for month, will now roll in profit.

Second: I shut the doors, wait for those that owe me money to pay up (or give my Italian friend some extra work), and I rent studios from other business, at double the rates with no lights. But it'll be fine, since I'll have my own lights anyway. Oh, this second option, will also mean that anybody who hires from me, will automatically double their cost.

So as far as I can see, the best choice would be to take on a partner. If any of you would like to pretty much have a studio of your own at the fraction of the cost of renting, or creating your own, contact me. It'll make myself and a few others rather happy. Or, by April, Clear Vault Studio closes.

Image Quailty (Part 1)

A lot of the time photographers tell me that they do not bother shooting in RAW, because the files are too large, and when you process the image you eventually end up with hundreds of duplicates. There are also some photographers out there that delete their RAW files after processing them, just to save space.

I'm not going to go on a massive rant about the benefits of RAW over JPEG, mainly because they both have their place in this digital world of ours.

What I'll do instead, is just give you a physical demonstration about the benefits of shooting and keeping your RAW Files.

This here, is an image of an Owl. It was shot as a RAW file (.CR2) and processed straight from the camera with nothing corrected. If I had shot this image in JPEG, I would have pretty much the same image (except, a colour profile and white balance would be embedded in the image).

Now say that this was the original, the only copy I have is this JPEG. I open it in Photoshop a few times to tweak it. Adjust colour levels. Maybe change its white balance. But, every time I do a change to this image, I save it again. In the long run, my photo of the owl would look like this:

Why? Well, simply. To make the JPEG file internet friendly, when it is saved, it basically takes a pixel and says, “well this pixel is colour X... so to save space and information, lets make the adjoining pixels colour X as well.” That way, it does not have to remember as much information and therefore the image shrinks from 500Kb to 20Kb for example:

First save:

Second save:

Third save:

While only done a few times, this isn't an issue and you'll never notice. But it doesn’t take long until all the pixels become Colour X and therefore your image will end up with noticeable squares (or giant pixels).

Of course, there are ways around this. For example, save your processed image in a lossless format, say, TIFF or PSD and work on those images leaving your original JPEG safe from saving.

I have a three step image system. Shot in RAW, Processed in PSD (where I keep all the changes I make in layers, so I'll always be able to go backwards or forwards without fear of losing anything that I've done to the image) and then JPEG with ugly watermark for the internet.

If an image needs to be printed, then off it goes as a TIFF in CMYK – but I'll leave that for another day, when I'll rant about mega-pixels being bullshit.

The final reason as to why I'll never delete my RAW files, is because, they are the equivalent to my negatives, in pretty much all forms and sense. No photographer throws out their negatives.

Corporate Identity

You may have noticed a slight change to www.FrankMoody.com, as well as this blog. Slight change in colours and in some places, a skull of a bovine makes an appearance. What I'm attempting to do is create a corporate identity for myself.

This is rather hard, especially for someone as myself, whose head is always filled with ideas, often conflicting; like the skull for example - it wont be there in the near future, it's just a place holder for now.

The problems are not just in my head. There are some real world issues, such as trying to keep my name as a photographer separate from that of my studio, Clear Vault (that functions as a stand alone business). And hence, this is were I came to the decision to place the word "Services" in my world of photography. I might live to regret this... We'll find out later.

With all this going on in my head, I've decided to streamline my online presance. In the past, I tried to be on all the social networking sites. It is a real mission uploading the same photo to a number of sites, while always trying to maintain the best quaility. So from now on, I'll try only upload my photos to my Flickr account. Links to the images will go on my Facebook Page, Twitter and of course, all images from my Flickr are already automatically displayed on my website.

This blog will still be used for my rants, and sometimes news. As well as little tips that I keep learning along the way.

So, I hope this new splash of sutble grey abstracts with skulls of deceased cattle will kinda settle down my all-over-the-place aproach to work. After all, sometimes a bergie just needs to be in a Armani to walk the walk.

Guess what? Your name. IT MEANS NOTHING!

Well, okay, not true. One day, your name might mean something, but now, while you're a new fish in the sea with a DSL no better than a million others, your work is not worth your name.

“There is no pay, but I'll credit you.” Then when the credit doesn’t appear, “Oops, sorry, next time we'll make sure.” - Have any professionals experienced this before? I think a good handful might be muttering something about now.

People, when you are new, and the idea of your name appearing alongside an image that you've taken for a magazine, seems wonderful, so wonderful that you are willing to sacrifice your pay, or the livelihood of other photographers. I will not judge you because of it. We all have done it.

But to carry on doing it, I'll put you on a little list. This list shall be viewed by the Council of Dark Pissed-Off Photographers who need to earn a living- and we'll hunt you down with blunt objects.

Your name, is actually a valuable source of advertising. This is true. And there is a price to your name. There are limits though. Finding those limits is all important if you're looking to make a living out of photography.

I was offered by my landlord last year, the chance to shoot for his shop (my studio at the time sat above it). He then added, “I can't pay for the shoot, but you'll get your name printed with the images.”

First thing that popped into my mind was “So? My name will get printed with the images even if you pay me. My name will get printed with ALL my published images. Unless, you pay me not to put my name on my images.”

I turned down the shoot. It was not worth the time sacrificed to see my name. Besides, if you walked into his shop, you'd have already seen my name and studio and business cards.

Lets just say I come across a photo I like, and I take the time to look to see who shot it (I do often do this, how many others do though I wonder?). The byline says “Pete Joe”. Okay, cool. Let me Google him, let me Facebook him? Nothing comes up, or a million things come up. Dear Pete Joe, I'm sorry, your byline was worthless to everybody except your mother bragging “My Pete has his name in this magazine!”

Your name is worthless in the beginning. Get the money first, build up your name. Then one day people will be like “Pete Joe the photographer? I love your work!” And you dear Pete Joe, will be happy, because you got to buy yourself some food.

Summary:

Having your name published is not full payment.

By law, if you still own the copyrights to your image, your name HAS to be published even if you get paid.

Only if the publisher buys full copyrights, then they don't have to publish your name.

If you have an agreement to have your name published with an image, and it isn't. Then that publisher owes you the financial value of your name. INVOICE THEM!

Too Arrogant?

I don't know if this Gumtree advert of mine is a little too arrogant?

ADVERT HERE

I'm just so sick of seeing “Special, only R500 and I'll give you ALL of the photos afterwards.”

And then Wedding photographers... yes, it's a great way to make money. I'm still not going to sell my soul shooting something I do not believe in.

My friend, Anna, mentioned the other day that my competitive advantage is my studio. She is right. Hell, I studied business management and I'd forgotten something as simple as that.

Then, the image. Well, it's the latest image I processed, and I believe that you're only as good as your last XYZ (in my case, shoot). So that's why it's up there. Not to mention it's also my first collaboration with Samantha Sperring (Make-Up) & Marli Steyl (Stylist). Whose services I'll be calling upon a lot more now.

Oh. And naked people grab attention. The image is the “safe” image of Dominique Spruch.

Aerial Photography Service

I have some exciting news. Most news is exciting in my mind though, even those depressing tales of things going wrong. I mean, if it wasn't exciting then it wouldn't make TV right? Unless of course you live in New Zealand. Yet again, I'm distracted... what was I saying?

Oh, yes. My news. Some of you might have noticed that the word “pilot” is often used around my name instead of photographer, that's because my first love is indeed flight. In fact, flying is how I got into photography in the first place, as strange as that may seem. So it is with honour and privilege that I get to say this.

I'm offering an Aerial Photographic service once again. Yes, you read right. It is now within my means to offer my clients aerial photography (Thanks to the skills of Grant Duncan-Smith). This is not photographs of aeroplanes, but shooting from aircraft at altitude to get some of the most dramatic views possible of landmarks, structures and real estate.

This service is not just limited to Cape Town, but offered nationwide as well as across our boarders. And we are not offering some low form of elevated photographs, but actual high resolution photography that will make any photo-editor happy.

How does this benefit you?

Well, it will not help with your model portfolio, but with the following there can be no over exaggerating the impact and importance of aerial photography:

Upper Market Real Estate.

Construction Update Photography.

Property Development.

Marine Photography.

Etc.

Contact me for a cost estimate. If you have not yet used the power of aerial photography for your commercial enterprise, you'll be amazed at the benefits this service will offer you.

076 401 0000 .:. Photo@FrankMoody.com

No Pain, No Gain.

It's what we hear often, usually some form of sporty person will say it, with a bloody nose after colliding with something. He'll often be holding a trophy to prove his point.

What you don’t tend to see is his opponent, also bleeding, but sobbing with his head in the dirt. He felt pain, and gained nothing. But that is a different story.

So why do I mention pain when I should be talking about photography? And yes, physical pain not emotional. Photography is indeed all about emotional pain, that you can take my word for.

Let me now explain. I want to photos that are technically challenging. I'm not satisfied with my work at the moment, simply because there are others, tons of others, who can do what I can. They can often do it better than me. This is perfect motivation to push the envelope.

So I have this concept for a shoot, it involves fire. I could easily reproduce the outcome in Photoshop. But that is just cheating, besides, others can do it. To make sure this concept is sound, I needed to test it since I would really feel bad if I burnt and maimed my beautiful model.

I think I might make a good general, I wouldn’t send my troops into something I wasn’t prepared to go into myself. Random side note.

I called up my friend and fellow photographer, Cuan, and asked if he could take some images of me setting myself on fire. He was at first confused. But after my model asked the same request, he decided it would be fun, if not strange.

Now when I started this blog, my aim was to broadcast my experiences, to teach those willing to follow. This little experience taught me a lot.

First. PLAN!

Second. Do Not Play With Fire! Unless you know exactly what you are doing. I did. I've had experience with pyrotechnics and was trained. I still came off second best.

Third. Something small in your plan fails. FIX IT. Do not try to cut corners so that you don't require that part of your plan. If it was part of your original plan, then you DO NEED IT.

I'm not going to give you the technical details of how I did this, mainly because I do not want people with no experience trying to reproduce this concept and ending up in hospital or worse.

I now know a lot more planning, and fail-safes need to to be added before I do this again. And I need to come out without burns before I'd consider putting my friend and model in risk of any form.