Ten Thousand Hours

It's said that ten thousand hours is needed to become an expert. Or to put it another way, eight hours everyday for over three years. I'm not sure many will have the time to invest after they finish school or university.

The ten thousand hours and photography practice has to be focused to be effective. If it's not you'll see improvements at first, but I think it will tail off quickly.

I'm at a point where I want to specialise, I think I have a good understanding of the technical aspect, composition, planning and execution of a photoshoot. But what genre interests me the most? Then there is the business side, this is the last part of the puzzle and it worries me the most. Training for it is hard to find. There are plenty of what I call portfolio building courses, but I see very little benefit in them. I also think they can give potential clients a false sense of security. The client sees great pictures; but how much input did the photographer have during the shoot?
Many videos of workshops I see seem to be follow the leader. A queue of photographers waiting to take the same picture as everyone else.

For me learning about the camera is as important now as it was in the beginning. I don't need a workshop for that. Hiring experienced models was the next step. I leant much more and could confidently say the pictures were the result of my experience.

When I was ready I started working with less experienced models, I needed to plan ahead and keep the shoot moving. I also shot a wedding. Recently I did a shoot for designer; there was the studio, a model and a makeup artist to organise. I knew the model so it wasn't all on me which helped immensley. It was another learning experience and one that may lead to some of my work being published.

How do you know when you're an expert?

Photography has many genres and techniques. A lot of hardware and software. Then there are customer relations and business skills.

Are you an expert when you know them all? Can you know them all?

For me, I feel that I am always learning. If I add up all of the hours I have spent using my camera, planning shoots, talking to people, processing the pictures, experimenting; how many more hours until I am an expert?

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Collaboration

At the end of last year I contacted a model I had worked with a few times. I knew she had contacts in the design and fashion world that may enable me put together a bigger collaboration. It is part of my goal this year to push my photography, and set challenges.

The project was on hold until Marilyn finished at London Fashion Week. It was a good opportunity for her to talk to people about it. When she told me there was a makeup artist also interested I was very excited, tempered with a little trepidation.

I started setting up the lights and a white backdrop, Marilyn arrived and said, "that won't work with the clothes". As we started to look at them I could see what she meant. There was gold, orange and pink; really bold and shiney. A short pause then while we evaluated all of the choices. Bright orange was tricky to light evenly but I am so glad we used it.


The initial makeup took longer than I expected to be applied, but it had to be right, and it did allow time for the studio to warm up. I rarely work in a warm studio, this one was big, with a high ceiling so not easy to heat. But much smaller ones are also generally cold. Ok for me, I can keep a jumper on, but it's not the same for the model. It was okay towards the end, I'm not sure what else they could do. Maybe a space heater like those in garages etc. But they are noisy.

Once we started it became obvious how much harder this was going to be then my previous shoots. The extra pressure of delivering on a promise to a client was at the back of my mind. I leant on Marilyn more than a photographer might normally do, or at least that's the way it felt. I have watched commercial shoots on youtube, the model doesn't seem to have much input. As I become more confident I'll need to take charge. Although I hope I can still make the process a team effort.

We had an hour at the end of the shoot to look at the pictures on the computer. But time didn't allow us to decide a final number to edit. There were too many to choose from. We'll work online to put together a complete set.

It is said you need to take lots of pictures to improve I don't think that's the best advice unless each shoot pushes you to try something new. Be that equipment, style or location. I see a lot of portfolios where all the pictures are very similar. The photographer has one idea and sticks with it. Often shooting the same model again and again. For me at least, I would soon get bored.

I have attended workshops, but they didn't deliver for me. I have improved because I have challenged myself with each shoot. Working with good models is also the part of the journey. This shoot for instance, I learnt so much. Not just about lighting, the choice of backdrop etc. The clothes designer wasn't at the shoot, but Marilyn involved her. Sending short videos and back of camera shots. I hadn't thought of doing that.  But now I realise how brilliant an idea it was.

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Workshops and building a portfolio

What do people think of photography workshops? 

A group of photographers, a model and an instructor. I must admit I have only been on one. I did come away knowing I liked and wanted to pursue the portrait genre. But there was also frustration. It must be said there are probably two types of these workshops; teaching a skill or process, and a portfolio builder. This one, I now realise was the later. That was probably the problem. 

I have watched workshops on line, and they seem to follow the same route. The photographers stand around and then take turns photographing the model. All very quick and little connection made with the model. There isn't time to explore different angles and poses. You have to have a more forceful personality them mine to almost ignore the queue and take your time. 
I came away with pictures I liked, but they were very similar to the other participants results. Maybe now I would take charge more, but I'm not sure I would do another workshop like this one aimed at building a portfolio. 

My advice if you are starting out would be a model studio day. Pick a good studio and model though. You get assistance if you need it from the studio team and the model. You are able to just experiment with no pressure from the next photographer. When you get more confident, hire a good model and studio or shoot at their home or on location if you have a smaller budget. I learnt a lot this way from trial and error and from the model.
I am now looking for the second type of workshop; teaching a skill. I want to start wedding photography. I'm looking for more than just pictures for my portfolio; I need to plan the day, optimise the workflow to produce the finished pictures, and to learn how to run a business. 

This type of workshop seems to be more difficult to find. I attended one, unfortunately it left me with more questions than answers. I tried beforehand to detail what I wanted, and the photographer had a style and business I thought I could learn from. I guess ultimately the skill of teaching is more difficult to asses.

I'm not criticising anyone who provides workshops, just noting that for me they haven't really worked. I may attend some in the future, but I need to be sure they will provide me with the experience I am looking for. I think maybe I need to define that more clearly first.

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What next?

I had steadily improved and gained more confidence; but where now?

I decided I wanted to try portrait photography. I have talked about this is a previous post. Family and friends. I wanted to push forward and gain as much experience as possible. I booked a portrait photography course. It was a good introduction to photographing people I hadn't meet before. How to quickly break the ice and have both sides of the camera relax. I'm sure Jade was way more relaxed than I was.

Here a few of my favourites from the two days.

Those two days convinced me I liked portrait photography, But I needed more experience. Different people, locations and styles, so I started to hire models. I mentioned this in my First Post.


The next few shoots were home based. This meant limited room and having to check the backgrounds for distractions. There is nothing more annoying than getting home, and realising you missed something that could easily have been cleared away at the time.

I was using speedlights, okay for smallish rooms but they take some time to recycle and if you do fire off too many shots in quick succession they overheat.

Some of my most liked pictures from the early days are:

Jessica

Jasmine

Jodie

TR

Check the blog for more updates These early shoots were in houses. I'll post my first studio shoots and my thoughts on them later.

For more of my work, go to my Facebook page.

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