Welcome to my first blog post that was going to be about how I got into photography. The truth is, no one cares about me or that! FACTS! The reason why you are here is to learn about photography and gear. Right?
Well I’m going to tell you how I got into this business that everyone believes is so easy and that all pro photographers are overpriced!
Imagine you have a family and you want to capture their innocence as young children. You have two choices, pay for a photographer or enter a competition to win a family shoot. I shout, “I’m not paying that much for a photographer to take smudges of my kids!!” So I entered the comp and won! A week later a photographer comes around to my house early one sunny Sunday morning. He’s an older guy, funny looking, balding grey hair and glasses. Not that has anything to do with his capabilities to take a good shot but it gives you a good picture of why my kids after 10 minutes of standing and posing for this chap, they got bored and started crying! Fast forward two weeks, the same funny looking photographer comes to my house to share with me the images of my most prized possessions, my daughters (at that time!). I took one look at the image and could tell straight away that he had stitched the photo together. Taken the head off one shot and placed it on another. Along with his poor editing skills he was also doing the hard sell to me and my daughters mum. He claimed that the image, ONE image, in a frame of our choice would cost £600! £600 I shouted. He said “yeah, thats the cost of my time, the edit and the frame!” I nearly swore! But before any expletives left my mouth, I was reminded that we had no decent photo’s of the girls and that this is worth it. To my shock, my card was in my hand and ready to pay the funny looking photographer £600 for one image of MY babies! He quickly got his card machine out, rang it up and ran out of the door faster then Just Eat can deliver my fried chicken wings. I was upset. I just paid £600 and had nothing right there to show for it. No Playstation, Nintendo or beat up car in my drive. Nothing! I felt I had just been done. And in the grand scheme of things, I had. So the following morning I called the photographer back and asked for my money back. Why did I do that? Because I had studied photography and believed that I could take a better photo than he could, mainly because they were my kids but also because my ego was talking to me rather loudly in my ear.
This is where my journey began. I took the shot of my kids and then went on to take shots of all of my aunts or uncles who had kids too, using my Canon 1100D and Neweer continuous lighting!
Fast forward many years, and here we are now! One thing I have learnt mostly, is that you could have all the gear in the world, that does not make you a great photographer. Truth is, some of the best photographers in the world have very little gear and very rarely change their format unless forced to. This leads to why I am doing this Cheat Sheet Tog Blog. So upcoming photographers (Togs) can learn how to capture great images with little gear or for the most part, cheaper then what we are made to believe we need in our bag.
Photography is expensive. Gear is expensive. Knowledge is expensive. None of that matters. Why? Because it’s all about having “the eye” to take a good shot! The gear is only there to enhance your idea/concept and bring it to life.
Throughout the next few weeks, I will be showing you how to capture stunning portraits using either one flash light or natural light. I will show you set ups, light placements, camera settings and of course the cheaper gear you can use! So make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.
Next week, the one light headshot. Until then, if you can’t beat it, cheat it!!
PS Grab a copy of my beginners photography PDF here so you are up to speed with settings etc.