On closer inspection, Lam lifted his camera and caught this classic shot.

Love in The Time of Anarchy credit: Richard Lam/Getty Images

No, I’m not talking about photography, silly!  I’m talking ’bout ME!  Mike Hayward!  The so-called editor of The Photography Blog.

Yes, I’ve been a’traveling, man.  I’ve been back to the east coast to visit my Jersey shore roots, up to the Vermont woods trying to get a fix on the half-acre lot my folks left me but nobody seems to know really where it is… down to the Florida property to see how far and high the tide comes in… and (get this) no where along the way did I lift a viewfinder to my eye.  Why?  Because…

Every so often you want to step back and observe your surroundings.   Get the BIG picture, y’know?  Focus on other things.  Sharpen that darkened image in your mind.  Stop taking pictures and start making memories.

I’ve been taking some time to see what things look like without a camera in the way.   And you know what?  Strangely enough, I like my digital images better.  That may sound a bit sicko, but stepping away from the camera every now and again can renew an appreciation of not how the world is, but how you’d like it to be.

So, it was a good thing, putting the camera down and lifting my eyes up to the real world for a bit.  Re-focusing my mind on what’s out there instead of what’s in the LCD.

The next time I pick up my camera I’ll be looking at the world a little differently.  And, I pray God it’s through the lens of a Canon 60D.

(Photo cortesy: Nils Jorgensen, street photographer.  NilsPhoto.Blogspot.com)

It was one of those images you run across and, in spite of your intellectual inertia, leaves startled skid marks across your cerebrum.  “Whoa!!!” your brain says. “What the HELL was THAT?!”

(Photo courtesy: Marcin Cecko, Kidults)

“WHOA! What’s going on HERE?!   Something’s really out of whack here . . . but what?”

(Photo courtesy: Joanna Justra, Sensual)

WHOA! Did I just fall head over heels in love with a pair of eyes? Who is she? Are  her eyes really that pearlized shade of blue?!?

Okay, you get the point.  Images that are so stunning  (“stunning,” at least, to most eyes)  that your brain hits the brakes and your mind screams  “Stop!  STOP!   GO BACK!!”

And, as Rod Serling used to say on The Twilight Zone,   “Submitted for your consideration…”   Take a moment or several to consider the images offered up as “Stunning examples of photography” on a Web site called “Inspiredology” (http://inspiredology.com/stunning-examples-of-photography).   Scroll down the page.  Use your cursor to click through the images that fascinate you the most to get to the Web sites where they originated.

Put your photographic brain in gear.   But remember to keep your foot on the brake pedal!

About the Author: MIKE HAYWARD is the editor of The Whole 9 Photography Blog and the Grand Poobah of  the Whole 9 Creative Photography Circle – where he invites Whole 9 photography members to join in and communicate and share images and ideas with other photographers of all kinds.  Mike’s semi-personal, semi-professional Web site can be found at MikeHaywardPhotography.com .

1) “Keep an extra camera ready for people shots.  When walking the streets, I normally have my “big” (D3X) camera ready to go for city landscape shots. My tripod is on.  My wide-angle is on.  It’s in that “mode”.  If I am going to have to switch lenses, it will take forever, and the moment will be lost.  So, I carry a second camera (D3S) on a sling around my shoulder for people shots.  On that camera, I have a 50mm prime lens.  Now, you don’t have to have this exact setup by any means, but having ANY kind of second camera for people shots is recommended.

2) “If they are clearly not looking at you and will not notice you, just start taking photos.  You’re a photographer, dammit.  Just do it.

3) “If they ARE likely to notice you, be confident and deliberate, softly asking permission with your eyes.  This is a very subtle and hard thing to explain.  I usually raise my eyebrows while I raise my camera, clearly indicating, ‘I’m about to take a photo.  Everything is okay.’  If they don’t want you to, they will make it clear.  Usually, they say it’s just fine.  People like to be thought of as interesting.

4) “If they are very close, I ask permission out loud.  Often times, I don’t want them to pose… so I say something (smiling!) like, ‘You look very interesting — can I take a photo?’  Once they say yes (98% of the time they do), I usually ask them not to pose and carry on about their business.  Then I start taking a bunch of photos and enjoy the pressure of capturing the moment.

5) “Don’t be shy!  You’re not a 9-year-old girl.”

Photo credits: Top five images  -  c.MikeHaywardPhotography.com;  last image  (directly above)  c. Bart Everett.

It leaves me holding my breath… Two blogs in the same week.  Sometimes I don’t know what I’m thinking.

• 
  Well, yes, I do.  Reading through my weekly influx of photography newsletters (IR-Newslleter,  Strobist,  PhotoInduced,  Simon Plant’s ProPhotoInsights,  Photoshelter, Jim Caper’s Lensculture,  Darren Rowse’s Digital Photograph School’s New Photography Tips,  Photoradar) gets me to thinking – thinking about styles, techniques, and talent that I can only aspire to.

Someone will say, “Well, yeah, Mike…  But you can do more than aspire.  You can study them and then get out there and try to duplicate that world of photographic techniques, all those styles, and talent! Dammit, Mike! Get out there!”  To which I reply, “Well, yeah… I will.  Right after I finish sorting through all my photo newsletters and reading the ones that really look interesting (which is pretty much all of them).”

Just as a tease, one of my recent newsletters led to a web site that introduced me to a new world of image manipulation that (to me) is both exciting and almost beyond belief.  I’m going to give the techniques a go within the next few days and will report back here on this blog on what I discovered (show-ad-tell).  IF it’s what I think it is,  it might just blow your mind.  The working title for the Blog is “Shoot like Degas… Or  Klimt… or Picasso!”

Me…  I’m thinking I’ll be going for Klimt.

Coming soon, look for it.

But I digress.  Let’s talk about the simple things…  like the principles of capturing great images.  Being the astute and knowledgeable photographers I know we all are, I’m sure you’ve thought about this precept once or twice before.  What do you need, what do you have to do to get Great images? (There, I’ve capitalized the word with a capital ‘G‘.)

I invite you to contribute your thoughts with the following caveats:

1.  Keep it simple – try to say something fundamental and made of iron at the same time.

2. Okay, you have something to say other than offering one simple, fundamental principle you think makes an image Great.  You have something to say.  Who am I to deny you?  Go ahead, rant or ramble.

3.  Sure, you’ve got more to contribute than just one simple-but-Great suggestion to offer.  I expect this.  Please make subsequent suggestions as separate comments.

What I hope to do is put all these tips and ideas (attributed!) into one Photography Blog and post it in the days to come.

As always, I appreciate your thoughts and contributions.  Thank you.

Image credits, top to bottom:

Lunch atop a skyscraper. Charles C. Ebetts

Tiananmen Square,  Stuart Franklin/Magnum (Franklin has confessed that he was angry with this guy standing in front of the line of tanks… He said the guy totally messed up the shot he was after.)

Winston Churchill (taken immediately after the photographer had unceremoniously yanked Churchill’s cigar from his mouth), Yousuf Karsh

Albert Einstein, Arthur Sasse, c.Bettman/Corbis

Ali-Liston Fight, (“Rumble in the jungle?”), Neil Leifer

Afghan Woman,  Kevin McCurry, National Geographic

Editor, Whole 9 Photography Blog

With the Harvest Moon on the wane, we have the next full moon (the “Hunter’s Moon”) to look forward to on October 23rd.

With the following images as inspiration*, perhaps it’s time to try a little astronomical photography.  All you need is a camera, a tripod, a friend or two, and (oh, yeah . . .) a little imagination.  You still have a few weeks to dream something up and try your hand at this kind of photography.  If you come up with something you feel is interesting, please send the image(s) to us at  creativephotographycircle@yahoo.com and we’ll post them here on The Photography Blog for all to admire and comment on.

*It would be wonderful to properly credit the photographers involved, but these images came attached to one of those viral e-mails  -  in other words, without proper attribution.  I will attempt to seek out the sources/photographers involved and post the results as a comment to this blog.

Ready?  Here we go . . .

by Cameron McIntyre, member

The Whole 9 Creative Photography Circle

Oh, the joy of the perfectly exposed, beautifully lit, flawlessly composed photograph or (more accurately) digital capture or (even more accurate but less attractive) digital file.   Oh, the joy of hundreds, thousands of perfectly exposed, beautifully lit, and flawlessly composed digital files.  Where, oh, where to do they go?

The modern photographer’s only means of escaping the tedious but critical task of naming, sorting, backing up and archiving the digital files we create is to make enough money taking the pictures so that you can hire someone else to do it.

Having a well thought out, highly organized, structured system for your RAW, PSD, TIFF, and JPEG files could be the second most important process in any photographer’s life  -  immediately following getting the capture right in the first place.  And unlike getting the photo right, there is no “right way” to do accomplish this mind numbing chore.  It really boils down to how Virgo you are.

Do you organize your socks by color or does your clean laundry stay in the basket?  When returning from a trip do you immediately unpack your suitcase or would you almost consider just buying a new one rather than ever unpacking the old one?  These are attributes to consider when creating your method for saving your image files.

I have seen computer desktops so cluttered with folders and files that a second monitor is required just to see everything.  I know a photographer who has enough free time to make up clever and creative names for each and every image he saves.  Then there is the “I’ll just buy another CF card” system or the “My files are so important I went out and earned an advanced degree in cryptography and built my image filing system with a Lorenz cipher machine.”

In the end, however, it really is “to each his/her own.”

Personally, I don’t rename the RAW files  -  I just leave them as they come out of the camera.  I do create a folder titled with the date and project name (2010-8-12-Whole9_Blog).  Within this folder I have four sub folders each with the date, project name and file type (2010-8-Whole9_Blog_Masters, PSD, TIFF, and JPEG).  All the RAW files go in the Masters folder, all the PSD files go in the PSD folder, and so forth and so on.  Once the RAW files are in the “Masters” folder, this folder gets copied to a backup drive.  Each updated folder or sub-folder is also copied to the backup drive.  I do not have a Fort Knox-type backup system of umpteen external hard drives, five or six online storage sites, plus a DVD copy, flash drive copy, and a master CF card, all of which are stored in a safe deposit box somewhere in Peru.  I figure two external hard drives are suitable.  If, one day, praise God, my images are worth real money, then that’s the day I’ll pay someone to handle those backup chores.

I number the actual file names (2010-8-Whole_Blog1).  Some people criticize numbering files, but I view it as a throw back to the days when film negatives were numbered  -  and my brain is hard wired that way.

When I create a JPEG, which I often watermark, I will save the watermarked file with a “__c” after the number which is my shorthand for the © symbol.  If I have different versions of file, I use an “a” or “b”.  I draw the line at tagging each file with keywords;  yeah, yeah, I should because it’s the “right way,” but my mind is a steel trap (yeah, right).  I am not totally insane.  I do have folders titled “Random Works of Art” and “Unclassified Images,” but those folders have my standard four sub folders with their corresponding numbered files.

So that’s my system.  I like it and I’m sticking to it.  I have no idea if it is a good system or not, but it works for me.  And, in fact, my system is not at all important;  but having some kind of system is important – especially if people are paying you for your files.  Yes, it is a monotonous, unpleasant exercise filled to capacity with potential typographical errors.  But we are photographers, not computer kooks  (with apology for any offense taken), and even a simple filing method could save you from total and certifiable insanity.

If anyone is inclined to share their personal filing system, I’m sure it would be a big help for those who are without one, especially if they could be provided with more than one example from which to develop their own.  If anyone would like to copy my system, feel free!  Or if anyone would like to criticize my system, take your best shot!  However, I should warn you… it won’t change a thing.

One last thing:  Our esteemed Photography Blog editor, Mike Hayward, has threatened to include a graphic example which diagrams my personal system.

I’m holding my breath.

CAMERON McINTYRE is a Los Angeles-based photographer specializing in industrial, technology, architecture and commercial photography. When Cameron is not photographing machinery, micro chips, or a building, he can be found photographing the ocean, the mountains, the desert, and the quite empty spaces that fill the mind.

A little something from our “Start the week with a smile” file.   As photographers know, the “perfect” image is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time -  and seeing the image from the right perspective.

Here are a few that are circulating on the Internet… Enjoy!

We hope these images made your day a little brighter! – The Whole 9 Creative Photography Circle

The Whole 9  Creative Photography Circle

As I stare at my stack of 250 freshly printed promo cards, stuff each card into its thin clear plastic envelope, print up sheets of mailing labels and carefully (and skillfully, may I add) apply the labels to the thin clear plastic envelope, I wonder about the future of these little cards. They are my personal little minions of promotion, sent off into the dark void of the U.S. Postal Service with one task – to get looked at.  As they travel north, south, east and west, I know each card will try his hardest to shuffle his way to the top of the designated recipient’s “in” box or fall under the eyes of the right art buyer or photo editor.

Truthfully, my job of taking the photographs is much easier than their job. I am guided by experience and education, but my minions come fresh out of the printer’s box with no experience or training.  Previous minions have succeeded, a good number have failed, but unfortunately neither are around to provide words of wisdom to the new guys.  My newbie promo cards have a steep learning curve ahead of them and, in all honesty, a short life span. Many will fall victim to the vicious trash bin, some may have it a little better by ending up in the promo card collection box, but only a tiny few will accomplish their goal and be noticed!  Those who succeed may be turned over again and again, talked about, passed around from person to person, and maybe even find a forever home on a cubical or office wall.

Art buyers, photo editors: When a minion arrives at your desk, don’t just cast him out.  He has worked hard to get where he is.  He is not asking for much and he knows his chances are slim.  Please show him a little love and make him feel his efforts were appreciated.  And when you do find a little guy whom you really like, show your love by sticking him with a push pin and fastening him to your office wall.  Sure, it hurts at first, but for them it’s a medal of honor.

CAMERON McINTYRE is a Los Angeles-based photographer specializing in industrial, technology, architecture and commercial photography. When Cameron is not photographing machinery, micro chips, or a building, he can be found photographing the ocean, the mountains, the desert, and the quite empty spaces that fill the mind.

[Full disclosure:  I am not related to anyone at Photoshelter.com,  nor do I own stock in the company,  nor have they recompensed me in any manner for writing this nice article about them.]

Photoshelter keeps looking better and better to me as an online photo web site.  Photoshelter is (of course) a business first, offering online assistance in getting your very own photo web site up and running, either for next to nothing or lots of money – all depending on how good you want to look and how much of your stuff you think you can realistically sell.  But they’re not too shabby when they simultaneously offer up user-friendly articles, information – even web-based seminars or “webinars.”  Of course, most of that is on their Photoshelter blog side.  Regardless of where they are, the Photoshelter team has their act together.

I’ve attended two of their recent webinars and what they might lack in pizazz they certainly make up in substance.  “Attended” is a much-too-formal word.  What you do is get on their e-mail list, get notified and sign up for one of their webinars, get a confirmation e-mail and, when the date and time rolls around, you click on, kick back, and enjoy… Unless you’re like me – in which case you bar the door to a darkened room, sit at attention in a straight-back chair, and take copious notes.

The most recent Photoshelter webinar featured a visit with photographer Tim Mantoani.

“Tim Who?” someone asks.  Hey, no points off for ignorance here.  In fact – at least for me – that’s the whole point of the Photoshelter webinars:  get to know some respected photographers, hear how they shoot, what they shoot and why, look at some of their better known images, and become interested enough in these people to actually go to their web sites and kick yourself up and down the stairs for not being able to make photographs like them.

(There should be a single word for the simultaneous feelings of hate and envy, appreciation and resentment.  Not remembering what that word is, I will move on using another word.)

I am chagrined, I say, chagrined when I look upon the work of someone like Tim Mantoani.  And then I get more upset as I listen to this guy (on the webinar) and I begin to realize what a nice guy he is.  And then the epiphany comes…  I am blessed by his blessedness.  I will become a better photographer by his grace and talent.  (Go ahead – sneak over to Tim’s website and see if you don’t slowly feel the same way.  Go ahead, take in the Photoshelter webinar with Tim and hear what he has to say about his personal head-on with cancer.  See if that doesn’t choke you up and make you say “Dammit! I don’t want to be like Tim Mantoani!  I WANT TO BE TIM MANTOANI!!)

Waitaminute, waitaminute!!! – Don’t do any of that now.  Stay with me here until I finish.  Here, I’ll let you see his splash page and that’ll have to hold you for the time being:

Okay.  Moving on.

The title of the webinar was “Focus on your passion: Finding yourself in your photography.”  (You can find the replay on the Photoshelter blog site if you have 90 minutes to spare.)  The host/moderator was the ever agreeable Allen Murabayashi, the guy behind Photoshelter (I think).  If you scroll back up to the picture of the Photoshelter team, I believe Allen is the second guy from the right – the one with his hand up (probably directing the photographer).

Here we go with my notes:

“Build your book”  (I’m guessing Tim meant your portfolio.)  This will show everyone that you’re not a one-trick pony and should help lead to different kinds of shooting assignments.

Anytime you’re out on assignment, always find time to shoot for yourself.  As Tim said, “If you are selling photography, then the cheapest price will get you the job.  However, if you are selling the photographer, you have to make the client buy you.  Find time (even when you’re out on assignment) to shoot personal work – and then promote it!”  Tim went on to talk about the many times he would shoot something for fun and how these images were parlayed into money or similar shooting assignments (and more money).

Put your passion into your photography;  if it’s honest and sincere, it will resonate with other people.  One of Tim’s passions was shooting famous photographers with a 20 by 24-inch Polaroid camera (we’re talking about a BIG camera here) to build his terrific “Great Photographs” project.  Here’s what the studio set up looked like:

Quite often Tim would mention some person he would run into while on an assignment and, because Tim had a vision of that person in an image in his head, he would say “I’ll pay you fifty dollars if you…”

A large softbox is often the only lighting equipment he’ll take on a (location) shoot.

If you keep saying things like “I can’t afford to go to…” or “I can’t afford to buy a…” you are denying both your potential and your future as a photographer.

A portfolio tells potential clients that you can deliver the same good work in a certain style over and over again.  (As an example, I invite you to visit photographer Miles Aldridge’s web site and see if he doesn’t blow your mind with the same kind of images over and over again.  You might want to do this after you finish my notes, otherwise I’ll never see you again.)

Always try to get a model release.

“Rejuvenate and re-invent!”  Take something old and make it new.  Take something new and make it old.  Tim has taken classes in making wet plate tintypes and he has a working penny arcade photo booth in his studio.  He has used both techniques to make new and profitable work for himself.

If you’re shooting a group of people, try to make an unspoken connection between all of them.

“You are the author of your own life story.”  “Sometimes the simple pictures are the best” (e.g., shooting white on white.)  “Take the biggest chance when you have the biggest opportunity.”  “Build a support system to keep you on task.”  “Hold yourself accountable.”  “This is not a dress rehearsal.”  Remember:  “You won’t care about what you did in life; You’ll care about what you didn’t do.”  “The roller coaster is more fun than the merry-go-round,” and so on.

“Go talk to people,” Tim advises – and he’s talking specifically about people who are involved in the photography business.  Ask if you can buy them a drink sometime (All you want to do is talk about photography, not sell them a photograph).

The best way to get a foot into an agency, Tim confesses,  is to flatter someone.  (Know what they have done, find something they’ve done that you like, and tell them you like what they did.)

Stay in touch with the people you meet and talk to.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Well, I know you have a lot of website-jumping to do, so I’ll simply say “that’s it.”  And, hey!  Remember to stay in touch!