Personal

Nashville Before and After COVID-19

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I did some street photography of Downtown Nashville back in August 2019 just for fun. Then in March 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic closed everything down I went back to the Lower Broadway section where I took the first photos and recreated the first ones, showing the after effects of the shutdown.

These are more of an editorial photography approach as opposed to the commercial photography that I normally shoot.

Here are just a few of the photos. As you go through them you’ll see that the 1st ones were taken in August 2019 and the 2nd ones were taken in March 2020.

Nashville Lower Broadway Photography

Nashville August 2019

Nashville March 2020

Nashville Lower Broadway Photography

Nashville August 2019

Nashville March 2020

Nashville Lower Broadway Photography

Nashville August 2019

Nashville March 2020

Nashville Lower Broadway Photography

Nashville August 2019

Nashville March 2020

Nashville Lower Broadway Photography

Nashville August 2019

Nashville March 2020

Nashville Lower Broadway Photography

Nashville August 2019

Nashville March 2020

Nashville Lower Broadway Photography

Nashville August 2019

Nashville March 2020

Nashville Lower Broadway Photography

Nashville August 2019

Nashville March 2020

Youth Lifestyle through the decades...

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Of all the things I shoot, lifestyle photography is by far my favorite. 75% of what I do is some sort of lifestyle photography for advertising purposes.

So in September of 2018 I got the idea to do a series of lifestyle images that looked as though they were shot in various decades past. I just finished the project and you can see the results HERE.

To create photos that look authentic to the individual time periods took some work, including buying and making my own props. I wanted to include a running theme of including the Coke, McDonalds and Volkswagen brands in each shoot since they are some of the most iconic brands that have spanned several generations. On the 70’s however I decided to go with a custom van rather than a VW Beetle or Thing.

For the props I started with items I could find on eBay. I bought Coke products in bottles and cans as well as things like actual vintage McDonalds styrofoam chicken nugget containers. One of the props I bought in a store in Nashville was an unopened bottle of Tab from the 70’s. What I couldn’t find I made. With the exception of the chicken nuggets, I designed and printed all of the McDonalds packaging including; bags, sandwich containers, french fry bags and cups. I also printed the coke can for the 1960’s shoot that you see in the VW van. I also employed various Photoshop and real world techniques to achieve the look of old snapshots.

Some of the props I either bought or made…

Some of the props I either bought or made…

Model selection as well as Wardrobe and Hair/Makeup were key and I’m so proud of the team I had working with me on all of this.

Here’s a behind the scenes video featuring the various photo shoots.

All photos were taken in the Nashville area with a Canon 5D Mark IV and Profoto B1 and/or A1’s. I didn’t want to “cheat” and use film for these shoots. I wanted to show that I could re-create these time periods using modern technology.

Momtographers , Newbies and the jealousy of Photographers...

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I've been meaning to write this post for awhile now. I visit a few photo forums, Facebook groups dedicated to photographers, etc. If I see one recurring theme over and over it's photographers complaining about how "everyone with a camera now thinks they're a photographer." The statement arises from (mostly wedding & portrait Photographers) losing jobs to newbie photographers who last month were a barista or working at Best Buy. I understand the frustration of an ever-growing and crowded photo market, but many of these people feel it's ok for them to go from being a cashier to a photographer, but not for anyone else to do it.

Time and time again I've defended new photographers entering the market. You can't blame someone for falling in love with photography and realizing they can actually make a living off of it. But in the midst of this conversation one term comes up a lot that really bothers me. That term is "Momtographer." A Momtographer is a word used almost always in a derogatory way to mean someone who is "just a mom" but who "fancys themselves a "real photographer."

I read things like "I lost that wedding to a momtographer who probably doesn't even know how to use her camera on anything but auto mode." Or I cant believe they went with that lady; she's just a mom with a camera." The assumption is clear; if someone is a full-time, stay at home mom then they lack the experience, skill or talent to become a real photographer and should leave it to the "pro's"

There's a couple points I'd like to make. First of all I've always said that I'd rather have the eye and instincts of a great photographer than all the technical knowledge in the world. To have both is ideal, but creativity and fearlessness trumps perfection every time. Many of these Moms have yet to perfect the technical, but can blow away some of the more seasoned people with their amazing ability to capture beautiful moments. They've been shooting photos of their kids for several years before they get the opportunity to actually make money doing it.

The second point is the obvious (or maybe not) sexism in the word momtographer. I've never ever heard a guy being called a "dadtographer. If a father suddenly decides to make a life change and become a photographer he's just a new photographer. It's always struck me as odd, the lopsided ratio of male to females in the world of commercial photography. I've seen some women with such an amazing eye and instincts that it puts a lot of guys to shame. I believe women many times see things differently than men and bring their own set of strengths to the table that a man doesn't have. I also believe men do the same in our own way.

I've heard story after story about women who walk into camera stores and get treated like second class citizens or idiots by men working There. I have a theory as to why this is. In my opinion you have guys who have spent years trying to learn everything there is about cameras and all things technical related to photography and they've yet to realize their dream of being a professional photographer. So in walks a mom with her kids in tow looking to buy the newest $5,000 camera. The guy behind the counter says to himself "I can't believe this mom thinks she's a photographer; she didn't even know the difference between a CMOS and CCD sensor. So because she's a working photographer, has a few questions that he of course knows all the answers to, but he's woking retail for $10 an hour, he instantly becomes bitter and treats her with contempt.

Thirdly; what does being a mom have to do with any of this? How is a single, childless woman who leaves a job to become a photographer different than a woman who finally after her 2 kids start school decides to become one. This woman with kids has done a very hard and demanding job ensuring the safety, feeding, discipline and nurturing of live human beings. To me that qualifies someone to run the set on a large advertising shoot from top to bottom.

So let's leave the word momtographer behind, at least in the derogatory sense and give these women the respect they deserve. I guarantee any woman with even one child works harder than you, no matter what job you have. And many of the skills she's acquired doing so make her perfect for a photographer, especially for people's life events.

 

 

Photographers, Photo Schools and What Makes a Photo

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I've been a full-time photographer for over 10 years now. Due to me basically throwing away the first 21 years of my life, I never went to college. So when I became a photographer I had to teach myself everything. Back then there's were little in the way of online tutorials or blogs that walked you through the process of becoming a photographer. Not wanting to be a hack; I would sit on the floor of book stores in Nashville and learn all I could about the art and craft of photography. Fast forward to today and as many people are fond of saying "everyone is a photographer now." The field of photo making has definitely become very crowded with people buying their first camera and then literally the next week being paid to do a shoot. Due to the sudden influx of these new photographers many older, established professionals look down on, make fun and fear these "newbies." They act like the old guy telling the young kids to get off his lawn. They bemoan about how these young people are destroying the culture and business of photography with $500 photo shoots. I personally welcome any new/young photographer into the field. We all had to start somewhere; none of us entered the scene knowing half of what we should have.

But what does make me sad is the way photography is being understood by so many new shooters. As well as talking to photographers in Nashville, I belong to several photo groups on Facebook, Google + and others. These are places where new photographers post work to be seen and critiqued by others in the community. What I've seen for the last few years is a heavy emphasis on gear and lighting. Someone will post a great photo and all anyone wants to know is "what lens did you use?" Which brand of lighting was it" What camera did you shoot it with", "What f/Stop did you use?", etc. I never see anyone ask "how did you get the person to smile like that?" "What's the story you were trying to tell?" etc.

In these groups if a photo is even the slightest bit soft, out of focus or shadowy it gets berated as a bad photo. Meanwhile any photo, no matter how boring, stale or hum-drum it is gets raves upon raves if the lighting is "technically perfect" or there's a "nice bokeh." Basically, someone will post a photo of a girl standing with a bland pose, no emotion, nothing to draw a person in, but the background has pretty, blurry bokeh and people will say it's the greatest photo they've seen all day.

They are not seeing the humanity behind the photo, only the machine. My fear is that we are raising up a generation of photographers that don't understand that what makes a photo great is not the technical as much as it is the human connection. Some of the greatest photos have been; blurry, poorly lit, grainy, etc. but the one thing they all have in common is that they have captured a moment that evokes an emotion from the viewer. This is especially important for commercial photography, as the photo needs to prompt the viewer to take an action (buy a product or service, donate money, etc.)

I've never been a big fan of photo schools because A) I never went to one B) I've heard a lot of people talk about how much they focus on fine art and not on commercial photography. But I'm recently changing my mind on the subject. I know see that without a proper education in the history and fundamentals of photography a person can easily think it's all about what brand of gear you use or how technically perfect you can light a shot.

A photo school won't teach you everything you need to know to become successful, but the foundations are essential to the story telling that is photography. For those who can't go for one reason or another; do what I did and park yourself on the floor of a book store and learn all you can.

 

My Story: How I went from Florida teen to Nashville Photographer

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I haven't always lived in Nashville and I haven't always been a photographer as a career. I have a lot of people ask me all the time how I first got into photography and how I ended up where I am now. People like to hear inspirational stories of others so they can learn from people's mistakes & successes and follow similar paths to success. Well, my story is anything but traditional and not something I would exactly encourage other people to follow step-by-step. The first 20 years of my life is a very long, crazy, insane and sorted story. In a nutshell; I went to 6 different high schools and barely graduated at all. I failed 11th grade because I lived a block away from school and I would go to first period which was guitar and then I'd walk back home and go to sleep or cruise around town. So at the age of 20, when I finally got my life together I didn't have many career choices to pick from, especially since college wasn't really an option considering the grades I had.

It was around this time that I met my girlfriend who is now my wife. I was heavily involved in the punk rock scene in South Florida and so her and I would make underground magazines (zines) using cut-and-paste methods and copy machines. As these progressed we started getting a little more technical with the advent of Macintosh computers that you could rent at Kinko's. So after a couple years of working on the Macs at Kinko's I really started getting interested in graphic design/printing and decided that's what I wanted to do for a living. So when we moved from South Florida to Atlanta I got a job at a printing company being the delivery driver and within a year I was managing the shop.

We then moved to Orange County, California where I got a job at another printing company. It was there I met a guy who gave me my first break in graphic design. He hired me to design T-shirts, flyers and magazines for all of the concerts that he put on in southern California. The work was fun and I really grew and learned a lot in graphic design. Like I said before, I had never gone to college so I had to spend hours on end on the floor of Borders and Barnes & Noble studying everything I could about graphic design. I didn't want to be a hack; I wanted to make sure I was being true to the craft and doing things with excellence.

After about two years in California we decided to move back east and chose Nashville. When we got here I found a good job at a software company doing graphic design. About a year into that job the amount of freelance design work I was doing was paying more then my job was, so I decided to quit my job and start my design company out of my house. Things went really well and about two years later I opened up an office off of the Franklin Square just outside of Nashville and hired two employees. The design firm did very well and 2003 was the best year ever had being self-employed. I was doing websites and print work for very large companies like ESPN, Fender, Purpose Driven, record labels, etc.

During that time I had been doing some photography on the side for some of my clients. I never liked using stock photos, so whenever photography was needed for one of the projects I tried to shoot it myself. This led to a few purely photography jobs. Then one day I was vacationing with my wife and kids down in Seaside, Florida and I just had an epiphany. I looked around at the sun and the fresh air and realized that I was so tired of sitting behind a desk all the time doing my design. By this time I had moved my offices back home and my employees worked remotely from their homes. I was feeling very isolated and didn't get to be around people very much. Whenever I thought about doing my photography it always made me so happy. I loved being around people, shooting different things all the time. I enjoyed the lifestyle and the craft/art more than design. To be honest I was very burnt out on graphic design. I would be driving down the road looking at billboards and re-kerning the letters in my mind. I was so ready to be done with graphic design and jump head first into photography full-time.

So at the peak of my success with the design firm I just shut it all down. I told all my clients I was getting out of design and would just be doing my photography full-time. It was a huge leap of faith and also a very stupid thing to do. I feel like sometimes being naïve is a great thing because you think you can do anything even if it makes no sense to anyone else. But with my wife's blessing behind me we did just that; we shut the design firm down and went straight into a full-time photography business. The good thing was that I had existing relationships with my design clients, so I got a lot of photo work off of them which most people starting a business wouldn't have.

There's obviously a lot that I can mention in between starting a business and ending up where I am today. I'm not going to go into every decision I made and every single step that got me to where I am now. But I will say in order to be self-employed and stay self-employed for a number of years you have to live a fearless life. I don't have a formal education behind me, but what I do have is great instincts and a great sense of design and style. I don't think you can overestimate the importance of trusting your instincts and your decision making skills. Commercial photography is an art form that requires great people skills, decision-making skills and instincts. You also need to be able to see beauty everywhere, even in the smallest detail.

I love what I do, I love Nashville and I love the people and clients I work with. I encourage everyone to follow their dreams and to not let fear get in the way of the next step. And even more importantly to not let fear get in the way of your art. Fear is the enemy of creativity.

Guest feature on Scott Kelby's Blog

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I had the honor last week of being a guest blogger on Scott Kelby's web site. If you don't know Scott; he is the The #1 Best selling computer/ technology author in the world for the past six years straight, and the #1 top-selling author of photography books for three years running. I was asked to write a guest blog, so I wrote something from the heart. When you start reading it you may not think it has much to do with photography, but it does get there. It's a fairly personal post that I felt needed to be shared. I hope you enjoy reading it and please leave a comment here or there if you have anything to say about; I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!