Lessons
Day 1
1Introduction
03:58 2Theme: Dogs
20:39 3Theme: Hair
18:22 4Theme: Vanishing Act
12:46 5Audience Q&A
46:34 6Extra: Art of Composition, Spring Tour 2010
02:11Day 2
Lesson Info
Introduction
I have taught a lot of classes over the years have mentored a lot of photographers. In over the last 30 years, I've worked on nothing less than 60 books, and often when I'm working on a book, I'm working on three or four and as many as six at the same time, just to advertise the cost of actually going out around the world and taking photos. Uh, early in my career, I was largely known for wildlife and, ah, as I progressed, it went toe landscapes and cultural experiences. And now more and more abstract. It is interesting to note that, uh, economically, if you're trying to sell your work, and I'm sure many of the people listening to this are entertaining thoughts or actually are professional, you would think that the Chris Matic megafauna like tigers and lions and bears, would be the most successful images to sell. And in fact, cats and dogs are much more. Ah ah sold through stock agencies and are much more identifiable, and I think it speaks volumes for the fact that everybody has a cat ...
or a dog, and so the association is very strong. Nobody would associate me with docks you don't. I had dogs. We always grew up in the outskirts of Seattle. Post war family. Not a lot of money, but we had a lot of stray dogs. Last stray cats. I we never didn't have at least three or four dogs or cats around the house. And so over the years I started photographing dogs as I was traveling to photograph Bengal tigers or eagles here or, you know, prismatic animals, whales. If there was a dog, I would just grab a shot of the dock. And this is what I'm going to speak today is I think you could have the fastest cameras of the world. You have a lot of knowledge about taking pictures, but ultimately it comes down with ideas and, ah, a reason for getting out of the house every day and taking pictures. And I think a lot of people struggle with ideas. You know, you could have all the enthusiasm in the world, all the drive in the world. But if you don't have an idea, you're out of luck. And so for me, I am always going out the door with a list of three or four subjects that I could find and photograph. If I have an idea what I'm going to look for, I'm more likely to find that if conversely, I go out with no idea whatsoever. I'm unlikely to find it. I am hoping you're following what I'm suggesting. So as I start to collect, I think humans are collectors, and I start to collect ideas and subjects, and the more I collect them more I photograph, um they become a bigger and bigger body of work, and it gives me a target. And ultimately they could wind up being a magazine article that could be a calendar that could, if I'm successful, a book. And so I have literally 20 or 30 ideas floating in the back of my mind. And regardless of whether I'm going to Iceland or India or in a wooded ravine below my house, I've got several ideas that I could add to, and it just makes sense from that perspective. So I'm gonna show you Ah Siri's three bodies of work, one of which became a book, the last but two that are ongoing. And the idea is the more I shoot, the stronger the body of work becomes and eventually I could take this body of work to a publisher and probably sell the idea. So I work from concepts, ideas and collections of photos, and I think it makes sense for everybody. Whether you live in the Middle East or Europe or South America or Australia, you could easily come up with concepts that you could add to. It helps you go out the door every day and add to that, I just think it makes perfect sense.