Lessons

Lesson Info

Mike Fulton Interview

talking about lighting, how to learn toe light and what these experts in the field, their experience, their equipment in their techniques. That's been pretty fantastic. And we're going to continue that today. Our first, uh, guy that we're going to talk to his Mike Fulton. Mike got his start in high fashion glamour photography and his works been published in magazines and on calendars. And now he runs Try Coastal Portrait Studio with his wife, Suzy. Super talented guy. And he's here. I think we're ready to bring him on. How you doing, Mike? Good. Are you Drew? I'm doing real well. Thanks for joining us today. This is an interesting thing. I'm so happy back with the creativelive family. You guys are such amazing artistic influence and so many people's lives, including myself. So it's kind of an honor to be here. Well, totally. And you've You've done a bunch of classes with creative live on speed Light's speed, light basics and mastering TL flash. So So you're sort of Ah, you're a regular...

here, creativelive I am. It's been great. And again, this is right up my alley out. Since I love the light, especially the speed lights fast, Affordable. So I'm excited to be back. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being here. This is actually our first time meeting. Are you? You're in Texas, right? Is that right? I am about an hour south of Houston, right on the Gulf Coast. Okay, Fan, that sounds beautiful. Can you hear in my voice that I'm Seattle is that I think is kind of a melting pot. We're okay. I'm always curious about that. Well, so tell us how you got your start. Sort of in photography. Give us, like a 62nd like overview of Mike Fulton, how you got started and how you became a photographer. You know, it was never part of the plan to be a photographer. I actually went to college and did about 15 years as a crime scene investigator. Wow. I have a bunch of degrees in sciences and photography was a small part of my job, but a very important part. So I had to go to crime scenes most of time. There were a night or inside of a building with no lights. And I had to be very fast, efficient, portable with lighting. Of course, it wasn't created. It was very flat. It was very boring lighting, but it was still functional lighting. And a lot of this was during the film days. So I didn't have that instant feedback that we have today in a digital world. So I had to learn how to lie. Property had understand what a flash would do. Understand how to adjust the power. And that's what got me started on the T TL aspect so many years ago is I could put a light walking primacy one time put light, walk back out and be able control everything from my camera and my master flash. We'll never understand it. Never known that it would literally control the rest of my life. You have to talk world, but that's really how the whole photography ing started. And instead of doing working in the bar, some beer joints in Texas, I started photographing weddings on the weekends and realized that was probably a better way of making a living. Yeah, when it sounds like it has been for you that you have a great career, that's family. It's been good that's been left. So so going from the crime scene and having that be your background to your, like your signature look today and the look that you go for. Um What? Uh, I guess what do you use to create your signature? Look? Absolutely. Speed lights, OK, it almost everything we do. Um, and mainly T t l High speed sync with those speed lights. The beauty of that is I again an hour south of Houston. Our beaches are very ugly. We don't have a beautiful water that you guys have in Seattle. We have the run off the Mississippi River and then the Brasses River, which is in Texas. They're both very sandy, dirty rivers. And so all our beaches are brown, our water's brown. And so I needed a way to blend or blur that background out could use a reflector because it was too windy, always on our beaches. So I learned to use TT on high speed, sinking our speed lots. Fantastic. So what What's your go to lighting? Set up. What do you take when you leave your your studio to go out on a shoot when you bring with you? Well, it's actually changed recently, but for years it was It was two. Maybe three speed lunch. Really? Just to using the sun as my third. Like placing my subject wherever my life would be for the sun to hit him properly. Background foreground however powerful the sun is, and then using those to speed lights to even out the rays show that I wanted in my image Recently, I've moved over to a strobes that you could see right because it actually has t t l built into it, which is really kind of changed my world for the better. And what, what strobes to use in our studio? I used this surprises a lot of people because, you know, I'm one of the board of directors for the Professional Photogs Association of P P. A. We teach all over the world and we use alien bees we used on the policy buff product alien babies. They're inexpensive, that great customer service on. They never really hurt me. If I went out to the beach and they blew over and they broke because there I could replace them. But for outside, we really started moving all over to the new photo. Techs endure a line because on and I make no money for them. So let's let's be clear on that using cause it's great because it allows me the power of 500 Watt strove, but I get high speed sinking TT A l Everything that I got out of my speed life. So I couldn't get out of a stroke before now. I couldn't do it. Get more power. Now The big strove is mainly my main life. And then I have carried one or two speed light is my feeling my money back and that's it. That's that unit, right? That we can you? Yeah, and then they have a little vulnerable beauty dish that we use Really nice, because it doesn't catch a lot of wind and it collapses really easy again. All portable, fast and efficient. Which is these guys, actually. So whoever created it had to be a photographer because they really put it together with Fantastic. That sounds awesome. So what What are the lighting products? I guess that you can't live without it. Sounds like speed lights. Is there anything? Is there anything else to cheese or is it Do just stick Teoh to speed lights and now strokes? Yeah, it's really just the speed lights again. I use one or two of these. Okay? I don't even use it. A diffuser. If I do, it's just this little guy, But most of time it comes off. Okay, I'm bear Balkan speed lines. Which people are surprised by that. If I do use a soft boxer diffuser, it's something very small and very portable. Collapsible. There's a lot on the market and backed in our creative live class. I went over a lot of those we still use today, Um, and then and then these guys and again, lots of times, about if it's too windy. I don't even use this beauty dishes Bear bowl. And I just found out the lights. I don't aim the center light to their face. I used the edge of the light, the feather part to soften it up in between the distance. That subject in that feather, that's that's a diffusing boxing itself. Awesome. That's fantastic. So what? What What's the biggest lighting mistake that you see young photographers making today? Oh, that's a great question group. Drew, Um, I think exactly kind of what I just went over They want, and I understand because when you first start off your learning that stopping shutter speed up and you've got all those little things. Run around your head and you think you understand it and then you look at your images and you've got a tree coming out of the back of their head. Could you forgot about composition? And then finally, when composition slows down, you start getting that and it's all natural light. You get naturalized, u understand natural, and it's beautiful. And then when you go into the flash world, the artificial world beat strobe speed lights or whatever. It's all new again, because now you have to imagine where the light's gonna be. You gotta figure all that out. So all those things were running around in your head and you make a lot of mistakes. And I think the biggest one that I see is they just put it straight on and just blast the heck out of their face. They don't really learn to balance the Ambien live with the artificial. I think the experts of the more professional, the more experienced people with artificial life really bounced those two out okay, where you could make it look like a reflector or just a little bit of, like, natural light. Or you can actually do more than fashion Look and have really a drastic change in the drastic look. Yeah, so that's not intuitive. Like if you get a new light, there's a young photographer. They're probably gonna be pointing it right at the subject because they want to see that they want to see their money well spent. Lighten up that face. So tell us more about feathering like getting in your life just surely simple. If you have a big stop bucks you could actually look at the soft box. Or even if you turn on the light, the center lights going to be the hot spot, that's gonna be the brightest and the harshest part of the life. The edge is gonna be softer, of course. A bigger soft box, you're gonna have a bigger soft edge. But you want it even without a soft boxer Diffuser. You want angle that lights were on the edge of that like the beam of light that's coming out will hit your subject. Now you will lose power, but it's gonna make it more dramatic. Amore soft, more realistic. Look and I think as artists, photographers, as artists. We get usedto one thing, and that's our look. And then when we add something new, so a new and exciting to us, that's all we want to do, what we need to remember, especially if you're trying to be a professional. And you want to sell this product. We're in the business of photography. Yeah, not the photography business. So therefore we have to sell at work, and you still need to make a sellable products. Yep, no, you're You're absolutely right there. So what you're talking about learning to see the light, I guess in for beginners, that's a little bit of a challenge. It's easy. It's easy to buy gear, right, but learning how to use that here and actually doing the practice. That's that's sort of been a common theme in our conversations in this series. What, what techniques or practice things would you recommend for beginners that are just starting out to really learn to see that life, whatever equipment you have right now learn it, Okay, plain and simple. Don't and I said it before I say it again. The only thing worse than photographers of buying useless crap or golfers and fisherman because we buy everything that comes down the pike. And the problem is, you know, I got a studio 20 years with the stuff in that I hardly use half of it because we just buy get excited by and then it sits on the shelf. We never use it. Just learn to use your gear proper that you have right now. You're gonna be a better photographer. So if you have a simple flash, learn to use your flash on your camera first. Okay, then take it off the camera and learn to use it off the camera. It's gonna make you a better time and balance that out. Get your dog, get your cat, get your kid, get a mannequin head and learned the balance. Learned the functionality of that flash. And how balances with camera and the light in your backyard in your front yard, in your house, Whatever. You'll be a better photographer And I think that's the hard part. Yeah, is again, especially in today's world. Everything is about right now, and when you're using artificial life, it's not a right now technique. You have to learn, and it has to be a practice ongoing. So speaking of ongoing learning, ongoing practicing our use, did you feel like where you're at in your career? Do you feel like you're still learning? And if so, who are you looking up to clear you learning from or how are you learning? Absolutely. I never stop learning. I think that's the beauty of photography and lied himself that it's it's never ending. You always learn new techniques. Just when I thought I, you know, had an understanding of something this past March, we were out in the desert out in Nevada with a bunch of Todd occurs, and we were all shooting with these with these guys learning this product. And I was learning so many new techniques and tricks from other photographers that they've been doing for to 15 years that I had never even heard off. Yeah, and so I think that's again, not toe were on creativelive. But I think that's the beauty of Creativelive is that you're bringing in so many faces and so many people from around the world. So learn these new techniques that's benefited my business because I'm from a small town USA in Texas the reason why we're so successful is that be literally learned from so many people from around the world and brought that back to what we're doing today. Yeah. So what do you feel like? Is one technique that you brought back toe what you're doing today that you learn somewhere while you're out? A lot of the studio have been doing outdoor lighting for so many years because of crime scene and a do most crimes. Connecticut do do most crimes happen outside? Is that what it was that most of you speed lights for them? So I got it even outside. Yeah, So I'm making I'm not in the control lighting environment. We're in my studio controlled. And to be honest, I actually am a lot more uncomfortable in a controlled environment that I am in a unknown. Wow, my mind just works that way. And so when I get in a controlled environment, I kind of freak out. I'm kind of like I just don't know what to do because it's it's set, and you could just turn your lights on. So a lot of the techniques that I use in the studio with soft boxes and modifiers and all that stuff definitely was learned by all my other photography friends that that is something that I was not self taught. Where the speed lights, I kind of work. So do you have a favorite type of shoot then? Now, based on your background and shooting crime scenes, do you have a favorite type of shoot where when you get to shoot there, you just feel like this? It doesn't sound like it's in a studio, so it's probably outside. What's what's here? Tell us about that. I actually like to shoot probably a couple hours before sundown. Okay, so I get on our 30 minutes a really harsh light, and I love that challenge of curating and using that harsh like to actually benefit my images. And then as the sun goes down, you could get really creative with just about anything with that soft light engagement sessions or fun, because you get to really playoff couple a really, like playing off the male and female, or or the pros and cons of both couples because they usually are polar opposites, and I like toe. I like to have fun. I think that's the whole point of it. I really believe in just stupid fun and life in general. And I like to bring that out in our our sessions. And so are high school. Seniors in our engagements are usually our most fun session. That's super fun. I love that s so what? Ah, what's a big lesson that you've learned? Maybe tell us a story with a career that suspend as many years as years have. I'm sure you have a lot of, ah stories about where you were. Maybe you made a mistake and you learn something from it and you do something. Your techniques different today because of that happening. Can you think of a story or time like yeah, absolutely. I think when I first started learning lighting, I was really big. Like I said into the detail, the through the lens meter of the flash system and a lot of people I didn't do that. I wasn't formally trained to track this manual light meter, all that stuff, and that's wonderful too great learning technique. But it wasn't in that. And actually being in law enforcement, being a crime scene investigator believe you have a little ego. Yeah, and I I had a hard time being open to other suggestions. I was very arrogant in my young days, which I think also just come with you. Um and it wasn't really open up. And I started listening to other people that had other techniques that still got the same results but different ways of doing it that I really that's when I really started selling in my business. So my biggest mistake was myself, was me is my enemy and being being egotistical jerk, I guess. And of course, if you talk to my wife, who was seven months pregnant with identical twins, what's probably gonna say I'm still that way today. Especially today, right? What? I have mellow in my old age, and I think, you know, people like who on this class Tony Rebel instead of the other ones who are just amazing and lighting and so humble and so wanting to help other people that changed my life. Even if I don't learn from them directly, I learned from them just by being around them and watched them interact with other people and how they handle themselves as one of the greats in our industry. And so to me that that's been my greatest, because I I literally had a lot of problems with a lot of other guest people in the education system at first, and it wasn't them. It was completely myself. Interesting. Interesting. So would you recommend. So you got your start. Did you apprentice with with somebody on the crime scene stuff, or do you just learned how to do it and sort of learned on the job and I Prentice actually the crime scene aspect. But that's our thing, was just learning. Okay, back then we had Polaroids, and so we would take, you know, 56 rolls of 24. 36 exposure. And then we go back when we take 10 to 20 Polaroids, just in case we screwed up on the family, didn't it? Didn't Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So for young photographers today, do you think there's an advantage to apprenticing with someone? Absolutely OK? Absolutely. And again, it's the business that they need to learn. It's like shooting the wedding. Anyone photograph a wedding? But when you know the ends, announce double wedding dead, you know how to interact with a bridegroom. Or, more importantly, the bridegroom's parents and grandparents and their families, their friends. That's what's gonna make you popular and successful photographer in the wedding industry. They're gonna come to you and say, You are amazing. You're the best talk I've ever seen live and they have never even seen a photograph you took that not sold the experience. That's what needs to be learned. Not so much behind the camera stuff that that is a science, in a sense. And then the art aspect, which sometimes can be taught it just natural. But the business of it is the part that you you need to minto. Yeah, I think that's really great advice. That's the even. If your a great photographer, if you're not great at business and you're not great at relationships, you're not going to be successful in photography, no matter how good are the best photography portfolio of the world that they hate you. You're the biggest jerk in the world. Yeah, So what? What are some things that you dio, uh, to build relationships and to build a report with other photographers as well as clients? The key to us in the game We're in a small town. Our area It's not super tiny, but there's about 25, people, Okay, but we are the kind of mecca for iron or an hour outside of Houston. We have, You know, all the little areas around has come to our town unless you want to go to Houston. And so I found community business is the best. I We volunteer for all the galas, the sits galas and we're doing one for the a Junior Honor Society. And we do we just get a fashion show the benefit of the S P. C. A. Where we had our Tri Cho senior senior red walking with animals that were up for adoption and way Don't make money off of that. But we we help the community out, and I just started a mouth, and I think you have to give if you're in a small town, especially, you have to get back to the community. The community is going to accept you. And so for us, without question, it's getting away from the computer. It's going knocking on doors and shaking hands. It's talking to people face to face and getting them to know who you are not try coz, but Mike Fulton and Susie Fulton. And you know, Andrew are our office manager, whoever is with us getting them to know those people. So when we show up, they know that we're there to help. And we're not just tryingto have business and make money. Got you for sure. So I think it's you started out a long time ago in photography for somebody that starting today, let's let's imagine that someone today's their first day watching a lighting course they want to get into this. How do you see the industry is different now than it was when you started out? And what what's different in how can how can they make their way to success into from today forward? I guess it's a great question because I mean obviously the big differences with digital. If you have a lot more people in playing in the gang, right, and so the pieces of pie are a lot smaller. If you're gonna make money so again, it's it's really the old business who you know, not left. You know, you get really frustrated because you look at people that are successful and you're saying that you're better than this a B or C, and you probably are. But it's that D that that person is doing better than you'll you're doing that you're not doing as that makes the whole difference. And so again, it goes back to what I said it before. It's that community aspect. So many dumb photographers and young generation. And I'm 43. So I'm kind of over the hill on the business these days. But you gotta get away from the computer. You have to go meet people. Yeah, you have to go meet. If you're in a wedding, you need to go meet the movers and shakers in the wedding community. Don't think just because you're the new new kid on the block at the park in their older that they don't have a clue what they're doing. They got there because they understand the business. And so you need to learn from that. You don't need to take him as as an enemy. You need to learn and accept them as a in a helper. Because that's how I got my start. I mean, we do a lot of high involved. In fact, we did a creative live on high in volume as well. And my mentors out out of New Orleans matter area around Rome. Aguilera, who makes a ton of money and they invited me in and shared me everything with their business and people like that is what makes this industry so successful. And that's what I try to follow while I'm on creativelive and trying to share. So you need to find someone that's willing to help willing to share. And in return, you will be able to help the old dogs in the block by actually seeing some new avenues in business. Yep, but but you have to earn each other's trust before either one of those is gonna be respected. That's so true. It's mutual respect on it's just relationships ultimately. So I want you to talk a little bit, mike, about your the courses you've done here creativelive, uh, speed light's speed like basics and TL flash and working with me uttering talk a little bit about those What? What's in those? What if people have to look forward to? It's really great. If you literally listen to or watch my entire process of the three speed life horses, you're gonna learn just about anything and everything from the foundation items will go in and literally going over all the button bells and whistles of Canada Nikon system. And now I didn't use biotechs when I did those classes. I mean, it's continually changing myself, but I still use the cannon system. Still use the Nikon system in other ways. But you're gonna learn all the foundation islands, which is what I love. And then if you find that interesting, you find that you want to move forward, you're gonna be able to go right into the T TL aspects and the multiple flash systems and blended in with strobes and literally be able to curate anything and everything with off camera lying be a speed, like for being strokes just from those three classes. Um, it's very I try to put my heart and soul in those classes. Yeah, and it was It was really, really hard to put together because I wanted it to be the best I possibly could be. And I wanted to keep it simple and understanding because I understood a lot of people watching. I don't have a clue what a flash is. Never used to flash if they did they just put it on a can on anything? They pushed her shutter. And so my goal for those classes were for you the viewer to understand, flash and be able to come actually photographed with off camera lighting and either manual or teach yell mode by the time you're finished watching. Fantastic. So tell us about your studios called Tri Cho Soul Or try goes, try coz distracted. Okay, try Coast Portrait Studio. It sounds like because studio work's not your favorite work. Were you apprehensive, toe? Actually dive in and get your own studio. What was that process like? Wife. I have a wife that is just absolutely amazing. Okay. And so, you know, it's a nice balance. Yeah, I think in business you can't be it. And this is also goes back to new photographers and big mistake. They make they want to do it all. They want to be able to be the one man show with one woman show. You can't do that. You really need to analyze your business, Analyze yourself, find what you're good at and find what you're bad and higher your weaknesses. And so I was really lucky that my my wife is an amazing at posing an amazing at studio lighting. Okay, I can teach you the off camera lighting stuff. Yes. What? And so we have a great balance between the two of you doing that. Do you guys work together in the studio exclusively? Or does she shoots of stuff and you shoot some stuff just based on your schedule? Yeah. Later, we all shoot, and we even have another shooter in the business and also helps with our volume business. So she's our main shooter. In fact, the high school seniors, they don't even know if it's honor for our community. It's kind of fun to watch that too many high school seniors my wife, Susie a strike us in the industry. They have no clue. Yeah, and that's fine. Again, it goes to your strength and weaknesses. It's a lot easier for a 17 year old young lady to be photographed by a woman. Yep, many times to be comfortable. Initially, once they get to know me, it's all the same, but just that initial thing. And so Suzy, we call the spicy kimchi. She's Korean, and, uh, we loved that, and that's her attitude to spice spicy spices. So she comes in and she's just gonna have fun with the kids, and that's her strong point. My strong point is the technical aspects pull him outside and worst lighting conditions. We could get some great images. So between the two of us, we do pretty well many times, Children, the studio stuff and I'll do the outside stuff. Awesome. Very cool, Mike. Any last thoughts for people that are watching that are tuning in to this? You know, I think the whole thing is going to it with an open mind. Yeah, I think so. Many people say they don't want to do our official life because their natural photographers, because they're really scared to learn something new next. That's human nature. We just or very hesitant to learn something new and to admit that were wrong and he screw up. And I think the beauty of Creativelive is that you can watch from your house or from your studio in your own private little world and learn a lot of tips and tricks. Go out and practice it absolutely do y. It's fresh in your mind, and it's gonna be a lot better because this is a mechanical skill and you have to get your mind and your fingers working together around the new IT education you're gonna learn through creative life. Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for joining us. It's nice to meet you, Mike. I hope you get back to creative life sometimes soon. May I thank you for joining us today? I appreciate it, man. Thanks to you. Take care.