Careers in Photography
This is the 5th week in class. We have had two speakers and next week we have a field trip to Marina del Rey to meet and interview a food photographer. Today the instructor arranged the tables in a square so all the students could see each other as we talked. The objective was for each student to tell the class their photography interest and a little bit about how that interest was sparked. A diverse group of students. Huge range of interests from Music to sports and from Weddings to Fine Art. Most of them talked about why they wanted to work in a specific field. I just read yesterday's post on Going Pro and it made me wonder if we would have gained greater insights if each of us had been asked to articulate WHY we wanted to create photographs?
http://goingpro2010.com/2011/02/14/why-do-you-make-photographs/
Showing posts with label Cypress College. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cypress College. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, September 13, 2010
School is In
Well, here it is almost Autumn and school has started in earnest. I'm restricting myself to two courses this semester a Portrait Photography class and a Web Design class (yes you read the words correctly - a web design class - what the heck was I thinking? :(
So here we are, four weeks into the semester and this is my first post. Max Gerber is the instructor for the portrait class. He is a self taught photographer (he admits to taking one photography course) who is able to create dramatic and intriguing images. You can find examples of his work at Max S Gerber.
Our first assignment was Friends and Strangers: The objective was to photograph three people you know and three stranger, with their explicit consent - none of that - sneaking a photo with a long lens while someone waits in the bank line or is playing with their kid at the park. It's not that tough to get people who will help you create a photograph - but pulling out that Model Release - and asking people to sign on the dotted line is a horse of another color. Some people are really worried about giving a photographer permission to take their photograph. Not sure what they think will happen - but they are not about to sign a piece of paper giving you ownership of their image.
Here are the strangers that agreed to help me.
It is interesting to note that the photographs where people are looking into the camera and smiling are not nearly as engaging as those images where people seem to show a bit of their personality. The dichotomy is that people often want those very generic, vanilla ice cream photos. Max - our instructor, says his clients are never the people he photographs - he works for people who commission the photographs, that way he is not required to create something the subject "loves." I'm not too sure that works for the rest of us - who would hire us if all we captured were images that people hid behind the couch?
So here we are, four weeks into the semester and this is my first post. Max Gerber is the instructor for the portrait class. He is a self taught photographer (he admits to taking one photography course) who is able to create dramatic and intriguing images. You can find examples of his work at Max S Gerber.
Our first assignment was Friends and Strangers: The objective was to photograph three people you know and three stranger, with their explicit consent - none of that - sneaking a photo with a long lens while someone waits in the bank line or is playing with their kid at the park. It's not that tough to get people who will help you create a photograph - but pulling out that Model Release - and asking people to sign on the dotted line is a horse of another color. Some people are really worried about giving a photographer permission to take their photograph. Not sure what they think will happen - but they are not about to sign a piece of paper giving you ownership of their image.
Here are the strangers that agreed to help me.
It is interesting to note that the photographs where people are looking into the camera and smiling are not nearly as engaging as those images where people seem to show a bit of their personality. The dichotomy is that people often want those very generic, vanilla ice cream photos. Max - our instructor, says his clients are never the people he photographs - he works for people who commission the photographs, that way he is not required to create something the subject "loves." I'm not too sure that works for the rest of us - who would hire us if all we captured were images that people hid behind the couch?
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