Where has the service station attendants gone? part 3

Hello everybody. Are you ready to put lipstick on this pig? Have you had enough time to figure out what your thoughts are on all of this that we've covered in the last two blogs. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then STOP! Go back and read the past two blogs cause I'm going to skip the summary and go right into it. If you need some more time well this is your chance to back out of the blog and put off reading it until later when you think you're ready. Go ahead, I'll wait...........(I'm whistling a tune while I'm waiting for you to return.........).

Great! You're back. I'm glad cause that tune I was whistling was getting pretty old. Let's get to it. Here piggy piggy.

A long time ago some friends of my were telling me a story of how their daughter was telling them that when she grew up she wanted to be a checkout clerk at Walmarts. As you can imagine there was a few chuckles even though at the time that really wasn't a bad thing (Sam was still around). I think the big thing was a lack of ambition that the idea conveyed. Over the past few days or so this story has popped up again and again as I thought how a parent of the little 10 or 12 year old child today would respond if that child were to announce that their dream was to grow up to be a service station attendant? If you got a kid (not the goat kind but a real two legged yard ape), what would your reaction to them be? I doubt very seriously it would be "Well you can be anything you want to be as long as you put your mind to it and study real hard". Why? Because I wouldn't be surprised that there is more call for Blacksmiths in todays world than service station attendants. The irony is that the need for pumping gas and doing what those attendants use to do is greater today then all those years ago while the need of the Blacksmiths have declined. Every one is a SSA (getting tired of typing it all out), and as a result the demand for paid SSAs is near zero. And again irony raises its' head with the idea that we would all be better off if the SSAs would return because they did a far better job than we do for the most part. We are only an adequate replacement of the SSAs of yesterday because the standards by which the SSAs of today (you and me) are much much lower. Wow! I just heard some brain gears kick in and start running.

Just as the position of SSA hasn't gone away, just saturated by all of us who's ideas of what one is has really fallen short, so has the position of photographer. Everyone is a photographer and as such we have changed the meaning of what a pro photographer is and by what standards we use to qualify ourselves as one. It's the old supply and demand thing accompanied by the old good enough "it looks good from my house" thing. As a consumer our expectations our lower and the folks with a "good camera" who are looking to make a fast dollar with very little hassle are more than happy to meet those lowered expectations. Yes I know that there are still many "pro photographers" out there taking a lot of commercial photos. You see them on advertisements and product packaging but I would submit that because of the shear numbers of photo want-to-bees, the demands are getting higher while the pay is getting lower. Everyone wants a deal and there always someone waiting to give them one. Even on many of the "stock shot" sites the standards that they require have sure sky rocked in the past year or so. But even with that I would submit to you that those high end photographers are having to make changes in there businesses and even been practicing things that I am discovering now to be my answer to what the real pro photographers need to do now.

Sure we could adjust and jump into the huge pool of photographers and cut our prices and quality of service. In many cases, I'm not sure one of our (pro photogs) bad day of picture taking wouldn't beat these weekend worriers best days work. There would sure be a notice if the weekend worrier would have a camera failure in the middle of a wedding or once in a life time event. Odd lighting situations might make for a bad day at blackrock for the worrier while a pro could fix it with a touch of a button or customized sitting. When those photos mysteriously vanish from the DVD disk after a few years with no archive to fall back on there might be a bit of an "a hah" moment. That's the problem with the "good enough" theory. You don't realize that it really wasn't good enough until you have a catastrophic failure that proves that it really wasn't good enough. By then, it's usually a little late to do anything about it. And like in the case of the SSA, a lot of the folks won't even think that the problem has its' roots back at the weekend worrier. How do you know you missed something you don't understand you missed? But what's worse is that I don't see any of this changing anytime soon if ever. It's all about the convenience of the moment. Well, enough of this. Let's get out the lipsick.

Remember when the microwave and the home computers came out. For a while it seemed that you couldn't buy a brand new one before it was out dated by the time you got it home from the store. When I was a MGR at well know electronic store we were having brand new computers put on the discontinued list before they could be delivered to my store. I remember buying a computer after being told that I would never use all the memory in the computer only to find that in less than a year or so it didn't have enough memory available to install the software I needed let alone run it. But lately that has change. It seems that the only major changes in the computer and microwave world is the upgraded software or the new microwavable bowls. But the hardware has for the most part stayed the same. And here's another thing to think about along those lines, do you use all of the setting and programs that are standard on the microwaves or computers. Not in my world and I'll bet not in the world of the majority of the public. Why? Not only the good enough thing but also because that people will almost always stop at doing things for themselves when it isn't overly simplistic to do. In short, if it ain't easy I don't need to do it or if I do I'll have someone else do it for me. I use to change the oil in my car all the time but now that there's a oil changing business on almost every corner and they can do it in only a few minutes, well it's more convenient for them to do it. Why? It's not as easy to change the oil in the newer cars. Some of those oil filters take a 50 page manual to change anymore.

Cameras haven't had that many changes over the last few years or so that is making the camera any easier to use. Better ISOs and improved noise limiters and higher mega pixels but I don't see a camera that is coming that will one day take a great well lit and composed photo despite how poorly the "photographer" took it. We can make cars that can park and stop themselves but so far you still have to have a human steer the thing down the road and fill the gas tank. You did hear about the guy who was driving an RV down the road and decided to go to the refrigerator for a can a pop figuring it was ok because the curse control was on? Yes it did happen but it wasn't me. My point is that I think that easy has gone about as far as technology can take it for now allowing the "good enough" thing to reign in many of the things were the pros dominated for years.

As I said in one of the earlier blog, I have listen to a lot of classes lately, and one of the instructors made a statement that should have been a "duh" moment but I guess just caught me at the right point in time. He said something along the lines of not looking though the view finder to take a picture. Instead use the view finder to capture the picture. In other words, the view finder is your canvas, use it to paint your photograph with all the brushes that the camera has available for you to use. Use and adjust all the light sources to make the picture be what you want it to be. Do whatever it take to capture your subject in ways that others overlook. When I heard this I thought that's what a photographer did years ago, the very definition of what I thought a photographer was suppose to be. But the standards and in turn the very definition of a photographer have been radically changed. If we as "photographers" live by this higher standard, than we by default have to have transformed into something different. But what? As I thought about this a few things came to mind, digital artist, digital painter, or maybe photogologist. The point is that we can continue to try to ran with the ever increasing number of dogs that make up the photographer pack, or we can recognize that some areas of the photography world as we once knew it has for the most part gone. Yes there is still a need for the higher end photographers that will most likely not completely disappear but the competition will continue to increase making it harder and harder to make money in those areas as demands increase while pay decreases. We the photogologist will need to leave the easy, quick money (at least as it has come to be) stuff to the new type of photographers while we take advantage of the opportunity to use the new tools that technology has given us and be willing to do the not so easy things. Those things that will take our skills that we have been using, but apply them to the new view finder canvases. Those things were only the brave and skilled photogologist are willing to go, you know, where there is no appearance of being easy to do. I called it using new eyes a few blogs ago. It's really easy for us to get sucked into group hysteria and run down the same road just as hard, fast, and full of intent when we see everyone else doing it. I'm sure to the rats, following the pied piper seemed like the thing to do at the moment but ultimately found that they were all wet in the end. And while we're on the subject look at what happens when you try to get something without paying the price (read the story of the pied piper if you don't get this).

As photogologist we need to create more than capture. It's an extension of the WWATT (what would a tourist take) thing. If they can take the shot why would they buy yours? We need to search for and create those images that are easily overlooked or to inconvenient to take. Paint the images with the view finder that others can't or won't see. A few days ago at one of the restaurants we shoot souvenir photos, I saw group of ladies refuse one of our photographs in a glass frame only to have one of the restaurant servers take the same picture of them with their own camera. If the general public can reproduce it they wouldn't buy it. They will buy those things that are placed in front of them that catches their eye and appears to difficult for them to do themselves. Does this mean we as photogologist need to walk away from the more traditional photography events that have been such a money maker for all these years? No, it's just we don't need to think of those as our sacred cows or sources of salvation as much as we once have. And maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe we who will make up the new world of the photogologist, after removing ourselves from the mass hysteria of the photographer dog pack feeding frenzy, will be able to revisit our industries core roots and reinvent our profession. To create with our new eyes with the use of our new canvases photographs that touch the viewer with emotion and depth of feeling both physically and spiritually.

Whether we lost the very soul of photography or just had it's life blood diluted to the point of being unrecognizable the past years, I can't say for sure. But I am sure that it can be and has been in the process of being rediscovered by some of the new pioneering photogologist who are showing us the way back to the promise land flowing with milk and honey. They, thank God, didn't loss their way, weren't caught up in the frenzy and stayed true to the profession. It's easy not to as many have already turned to the dark side using their point and shoots and leaving the creativity and artistic skills behind in search of a quick buck. Photography has become a puppy mill or an assembly line lacking feeling and passion. For the true pro, the photogologist, this should be unbearable.

There are still gas attendants out there. You just have to know were to look. Have you visited an airport lately? You don't see pilots pulling up to the self serve pumps. Now, I know that's not comparing apples to apples but it does give a clue to were we as photogologist might want to look at. There are numerous areas in our lives that we as the public depended on specialist to serve a need that we no longer have today and those specialist have adjusted and refocused on similar but different areas of their profession. The suppliers of ice for one, use to supply everyone with blocks of ice for their ice box almost everyday before the the new modern refrigerators that we have today, but did the go out of business? Nope, they broke those blocks up into small chips, put them in a plastic bag, and sell them at convenience store that use to be service station so that all the folks who buy beer and pop to take with them fishing or to parties can keep them cold. Photogologist need to adjust what we take photos of and how, where, and to whom we sell to. There may come a time when some of the more traditional events may be what oil changing has been for me. If and when the economy and the monsters in in the woods start raising their ugly heads (those land minds connected to the new breed of photographers that will ultimately be stepped on more frequently), a returned to the professional photographer or the new photogolgist may come but I wonder to what levels.

I for one will continue to be available for and pursue after the more traditional photography jobs but I believe that when I do it will have to be with the understanding that the competition is high in those areas and the costumers priorities have changed. Until that changes we can do our best to inform the consumer but I'm afraid unless the "car" starts having major difficulties with greater frequency than is occurring now the market will remain or even get worst than it is now. It doesn't help when marriages are failing almost as fast as we can get wedding albums done. Why pay a lot of money or care about the quality and longevity of the photographs when this is only your first marriage? Equally, if not more so, I will and already have started pursuing after other avenues of the profession. Areas where patients and persistence are the big demands. Operating with new eye with a new canvas digitally painting what the minds eye sees. In doing so, marrying the past techniques with todays technology. Expanding my definition of "WWATT" to include that what a tourist would take of picture of is nothing I probably need to. Some things will continue with some change while others will and must progress forward. That sound like a job for a "Photogologist"! It sounds like an adventure!

Well, I understand that the Genius Book of Records people are getting interested in the length of this post so I guess I better stop before someone turns it into a movie. See you next time. I promise it will be about something else more photography practical. Have a great day everyone.

Richard

Where has the service station attendants gone? part 2

Hi, everyone. Hope you have had a great day or two since we last met here on the blog. Has your head quit hurting yet? Have you had time to consider the question I posed in the last blog? Have you even been able to make any sense of what I was babbling about? Well, let me see if I can put a fla..ah..light on it.

First let’s kind of bring the last blog into a summary. In short, many things in life (in my opinion) including photography have gone by the way of the old service station attendants. They along with the old style service stations are all but gone in America. The value of having a person giving basic maintenance on your car while pumping gas into your tank has changed over the years starting with the saving of a few pennies per gallon. In the last blog I discussed that while we may have saved a few pennies it ultimately cost us in higher repair and replacement costs. This I said was due to the fact that the service station attendants haven’t gone away. All of us have become service station attendants whether we care to admit it or not and we do a really bad job of it because we only worry about the need of the moment and not any future consequences that might come as a result. It all comes down to the fact that our ideas of convenience and how our ideas of what is true and important change with the wind direction. And after 1471 word in the last blog the whole thing boiled down to this question. What is your definition of a professional photographer? The point being that as time and technology has changed so has our perception of what a photographer is and what value the pros really are. And let’s not stop at the customer. What is the perception of the new would be photogs that are entering into the arena? If you’re brave enough, go back and read the previous post and then come back and see if I can really tie this whole thing together.

I will try to explain by paralleling the service station attendant with the pro photographer in an attempt to prove that I’m not really off my rocker. As with service station attendants, the pro photographer in the film days had a great deal of value and convenience because for those important events it was the pros who had the knowledge and equipment (and for the time that equipment was not cheap!) to get good photos because unlike digital photography of the day you didn’t know if you got the shot until in came back from development weeks later. There was no way for the average citizen to edit the photos themselves very easily and it was very costly, too costly for the average Joe citizen. But it could be done. I spent hundreds of hours I’d bet in the basement of the church where my father was the pastor in the kitchen developing black and white prints and developing my own film. Boy what a time, I really do miss that stuff and wouldn’t pass up the chance to do it again if the opportunity came up. We were experts at “pushing asa” which meant that we would take some 400 asa (asa is the film sensitivity version of the digital ISO nowadays) and shot the film at a much higher setting (usually 1000 asa) so we could take photos in low light situations such as football and basketball events were higher shutter speeds were needed. It was fun but boy was it time consuming and expensive to do. For the vast majority it was just more convenient to go to the pros. The pros charged some pretty high prices but they had to as the time and cost of equipment and processing was so high. The pros had to get all aspects of the picture right in the camera without being able to view the photo to make adjustments on the spot as we now can with digital. That took skill and the more experience the pro had and the better the composition of the photo the more they were in demand and the more money they could ask for. But with the advent of the home computer age and the development of the digital camera technology, people were able to get their hands on a digital camera and edit them on their computers and set on the old automatic setting found that they could get some mighty fine looking pictures themselves as compared to what they use to get with the old Kodak 104 and 110s. The pictures were “good enough” that a lot of people started changing their definition of what a professional photographer was. Not just the consumer but the photogs themselves. Much like as prices went up on fuel we thought we could become a service station attendant ourselves and do just as good a job for less money, besides, just how hard could that all be. As with the evolving of the service station and their attendant, so did the world of photography began to mutate and I chose to use that word for a reason. As the station attendant became convenience store clerks with most of them not know what a dip stick is let along where to find it or how to check it, many of the “pro photographers” are emerging into the field not even knowing what and F stop is or how to adjust the shutter speed because all they do is put the camera in automatic mode and shazam their a pro photographer. How do they get away with that? Because the pictures they take are “good enough” when you compare the price with that of a person who really does know what an F stop is. For the customer, they think that if the picture is clear and in focus, then it’s a good pro type photo not realizing that while the technology has improved for the everyday consumer, it has also improved for the pros as well and that means the consumer is unknowingly settling for “good enough” not realizing that there are consequences looming on the horizon. And as technology puts a camera in almost every cell phone and the compact cameras get cheaper, well everyone has now become the photography version of the service station attendant. While getting a picture is much the same as getting gas in the tank, it’s the stuff that’s being missed or choosing to ignore that is really the story here. The consumer don’t know what their missing and the new want-to-be pros don’t what to trouble themselves because why should they? It’s the convenience and the perception of saving money, time, and effort that matters and up till now there hasn’t been a mass amount consequence. In short, it seems that the definition for a pro photographer has mutated. In my humble opinion the standards for what makes up a pro has really been lowered because of the distortion of the truth or the failure to see the truth because it’s not convenient to do so at that moment. I’m afraid that the definition of pro photographer has been permanently changed. Not because of the truth but because of convenience.

So, because of the advance in technology, everyone is a great photographer. Don’t believe me? Just ask them, they’ll tell you and then show you on their phone. So where does that leave the “real pros”. Like the service station attendants, do we learn how to cook chicken and stock shelves? My idea might surprise you, but you’ll have some time to think about it yourself before I share my thoughts with you. You see, I have become mindful of my graphic arts guy who worries about how long it takes me to write these things. Personally, I think he doesn’t like to read that much or at least for long periods of time. But I guess I should be great full that someone cares! Thanks Chris!

Well until next time (and I sure you’re on pins and needles waiting to hear my thoughts on the rest of this venture) have a great day everyone!

Richard

Where has the service station attendants gone?

Hi, everybody. Glad you’ve stopped by to check out the blog. Today I thought we would talk about photography in a general sense. Where has it come from, to where is it at and where is it going. Now, this is all in my opinion and therefore not to be taken for gospel but it is at least taken from observations which includes listening to some heavy hitters in the photo biz. In doing so I will try to make it as close to a Pro Pix Tips as I can but you may have to give me a hand with it, so let’s get started.

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend some time out on the road transporting our soon to be mobile photo production vehicle back from near the west coast. It was a lot longer trip than I expected or wanted. I encountered some problems on the way which set me back a few days but glory to God, I finally got back. During that time I had the opportunity to view some online training , read several photographic articles, and had the opportunity to ponder (now that’s a word I don’t use much). Believe it or not, and for those who know me this is very believable, I started comparing the things of photography to general everyday life. With me having to stop for fuel numerous times I started thinking of how the fueling experience has changed over my life time and noted the similarities with photography. Way ahead of me I’ll bet, right? No? Well let me see if I can put a flash on it, (get it? Flash instead of a light…… oh forget it.)

When I was a kid back in the 1800’s a gas station was just that, a gas station. There were pumps, repair bays, and restrooms and that was about all. There were these hoses that you would run over that would ring a bell and a service station attendant would run out and pump your gas, check the tires, oil, radiator and brake fluids, and wash all the windows and all for about 25 cents a gallon. If you wanted anything else you were most times out of luck unless you wanted something from a vending machine. Then came the gas price wars and after that the gas shortages. I remember during the gas wars some service stations had female attendants in bathing suits in an attempt to draw in the customers (men did do a lot of the driving then). They were giving out trading stamps and toys and mugs, and just about everything they could think of to draw in business. They even started the self service islands where if you wanted to pump gas yourself and save a few cents a gallon you could. So where have all the service station attendants gone? Well, if you drive a car, you’re living with one. Everyone who drives has taken on a new profession over the years. Everyone has become a service station attendant and in most cases a rather poor one at that, me included. Do you check the tires, oil, radiator fluid, wind shield fluid, brake fluid, or even clean the wind shield let along the rest of the glass. Why? I think because all we really care about is getting the gas we need to push us on down the road and that’s good enough for the moment. We only care about things for the moment. The service station attendant probably saved us a lot of money in repairs and accidents we didn’t have by just by doing those few things but the appreciation of that was lost in the idea of saving a few pennies at the moment. Our tires wore down slower because of having the right pressure, our engines ran better with the right amount of fluids in them. It seems the things we could lose or cost us the most over time is out weighted by the small things we gain now. And many times those things we think we are gaining now really aren’t what they’re cracked up to be later. It’s hard to value something that isn’t present yet. The old saying, “You don’t miss something until it’s gone”, applies. But the real problem with this is how do you miss something you don’t know you’ve missed or going to miss. I know that I don’t stop and think about the absence of a service station attendant having any direct or indirect cause of any car problems I may experience. With photography the same applies, how do you know you’ve missed a precious picture that you never got? How do you know you missed getting the high quality photograph with all those little extra’s that give the photo all it’s moving qualities when you get the old “automatic setting” photo taken by the friends and families members with a “good camera”? Educate the public you say? Are you not aware of the facts that doing the things the service station attendants use to do are things that promote good maintenance? Do you do them or do you do what I do most of the time and say “That’s good enough for the moment. I’m in a hurry and will catch those things next time.”

So what do we have now? Well, instead of paying 25 cents a gallon and getting our gas pumped and car checked over all while we just set in the car, we have $2.70 a gallon all self served and a convenience store that for the most part sells everything from toilet paper to full chicken dinners, from laundry soap to cameras. And all at what appears to be much higher prices than almost anywhere else because of the “convenience” of having it there and we think that’s great! So to review we have gone to saving a few cents for the moment to paying more on car repairs, gas and just about everything else and that is good?. I guess that when you think about the inconvenience of opening the hood of the car and tying up a gas pump for a few extra minutes while other people are gazing at you thinking you are an idiot for wasting their time while you play a one person NASCAR pit crew, it just might cause you to rethink checking out the car. Or, when you think about having to go another store, walk all the way back to where the item is that you want and then stand in line for a while longer just to save a dollar or so just doesn’t seem good for the moment. We just don’t want the hassle but over time the lack of the hassle seems to have lost its’ value when we wonder where all our money went. And when you stop to think about it, that was why we had service station attendants in the first place because we didn’t want the hassle of pumping our own gas and checking all those things necessary to insure our vehicles ran right. Now there’s some irony for you. Therein lays the problem. The definition of convenience has changed in the minds of we the people to reflect what we have chosen to think it is for the moment. What was that famous quote from the famous person who said something to the effect that “it all depends what your definition of “is” is.” Well, I think a lot of things have gone in that direction including photography.

So, there is a question to think about. What is your definition of a professional photographer? And don’t stop with just from your stand point. Think about it from both sides, the customer and the person with the camera. It’s just not a one way issue. Is our definition more of a true definition of the subject or is it tainted by outside factors to include convenience, economy, effort, lack of comparison, lack of understanding, or a host of other stuff. Yes I do know that our understanding of a subject has a lot to do with opinions and that, like a certain part of the human anatomy, everyone has one. Opinions have a tendency to put us at odds with the truth and therefore causes us all a great deal of pain and heart ache when we get it wrong. Just look at where our country is at now, lots of opinions and lots of problems all because we have to many ideas of what the definitions of things are to us as in comparison with the truth. Not getting political here at all. It all does tie into photography and with the next blog I’ll explain how it does……..in my opinion, of course.

Have a great day everyone.

Richard

TOP SECRET: Bracketing

Hi everyone! I have been taking some pictures over the past few days and some of the views that I have gotten the chance to see have been beautiful. The weather has been pleasant and mostly sunny. I have been out shooting with very limited equipment, for the most part just a camera and one lens. While the photos have turned out good I have had to pretend that I'm shooting a film camera because I also do not have my loop which is a fancy name for a eye piece that blocks out the sun so you can get a very good look at the camera's LCD. Without it getting a reliable idea of how the picture looks is difficult if not impossible. So I thought we could do a Pro Pix Tips covering this very issue.

Pro Pix Tips: One of the many great benefits of the digital cameras vs. the film cameras is the opportunity to view the picture instantly instead of sending the film off for development with the hope you got the shot. The pros had to have the shot every time, that's why they got the big bucks. In order to accomplish this the pros developed a technique called "bracketing". They would take a picture at the setting indicated by the light meter. Then they would take several additional pictures above and below the indicated exposure readings. The number of pictures above and below that the photographer would take was a personal preference. In doing this the photographer would be able to get some measure of insurance of make sure they had the shot. The exposures that were taken added to the cost due to the film used and the development cost.

Today, pros still use this technique even though they can view the picture instantly. Why? Well that is a very good question. Sometimes it's because the photographer doesn't have a view screen loop in order to see the screen in the sun light. Now let me quickly throw in this at no extra charge. Be careful to have your meter setting, spot, center weighted, or matrix/dynamic, cause that can effect the exposure of the subject of the photo (go ahead and ask how I know). Other reasons include that sometimes photos look better a little under or over exposed and you won't get that picture if you hadn't taken it. Sometimes the effects that are caused by the change in settings are quite interesting and give a special contrast to the photo. And one additional issue is that the photo doesn't always give an exact look due to the settings of the LCD.

So what do you do to use this bracketing technique? In the film days it was the shutter speed that was generally used by increasing or decreasing shutter setting. With the digital cameras there are several ways to do this and I would suggest in refer to your manual but in many cameras there is a exposure compensation setting that can be used to increase/decrease the aperture in small increments. There is even in many camera a bracketing setting were you can set the camera to automatically change the settings in a systematic way so you don't have to manually change the setting taking up time.

But bracketing doesn't end there. Many of todays digital cameras will also bracket the white balance settings and flash units. With the white balance settings (we will have to have a PPTs on this subject at a later time) the warmth and coolness of the picture can change the whole feeling of the photo adding to it's softness or dramatics. For flash units the power setting is changed to control the brightness of the flash with similar effects produced by changing the aperture settings.

Bracketing is an old technique that hasn't been out dated due to the digital revolution. With the technological advancements bracketing has been improved and become an even more important secret weapon for the pro photographer. Without the bracketing technique you are losing a lot of great photos. Try this out for yourself. Go take a photo of something and then try changing the shutter speed, aperture, and yes even the ISO setting and check out the result. Take bracketing and put it into your photographers tool box and use it to help improve the quality of your pictures. I've said before that taking lots of picture is one of the chief pro top secrets and now you'll need to take even more due to bracketing.

Well that's it today but before I close I would like to do something that I've done before but is worthy of repeating. No one is an island. Behind every good company is several crazy but great employees and I have a few of those. I would like to give a big thank you to two of them for handling a situation they are not hired to do. Jackie and Chris are both outstanding workers (even though I could shut them from time to time) and have stepped up to the plate in order to handle some unexpected problems and handled them like champs. Thanks Guys!

Have a great day everyone!

Richard

I GET to Ride Shoot Gun

Hello, everybody!

One of the many projects that I have been working for over the past year is just a few weeks away, but I can tell you that it can't get here quick enough. This project seams to have taken an audience with the Pope (my name is not Bob of the old Bob joke days) and a bribe slipped to Abe Lincoln (honest Abe, the 16th President, get it?) to get this project on the road quite literally. We are getting ready to go after a gadget that we will turn into a mobile photo production vehicle. We are going to use it for senior photos, weddings, and other "on location" projects, right down to our souvenir part of our business. I have my two trusted managers that will keep the bis up and running as I will be gone for several days fetching it. I'm having to fly to where it is (I'm not really fond of flying but haven't figured out the two vehicle thing without turning the whole mess into a train) and then spend about a month getting back. Not really but a few days.

Now I wasn't going to blow the whistle on this until we get it back and ready to roll (no pun intended.......oh yes it was) but I had a couple of things that reached my attention and I guess I just had to blog about it. Now, this will probably worry my graphics guy cause he did ask me just today how long it to for me to write these because they are so long. I told him it depended if I was on a soap box or not, not long if I was and longer if I wasn't. I'm not on a soap box so I guess I might as well start breakfast now.

Twice in one day I heard some things that just causes me to check for loose rocks in my head. I heard the word integrity thrown out while in the process of doing something that I personally would not consider very integrable. Kind of like being hit over the head with a ball bat while being told I ought to be more peaceful and understanding and that it was that lack of peacefulness and understanding that was forcing the bat to hit me. The other was similar by it's basic nature, claiming an inability to do or not do things. They lacked the substance to drive themselves to go after things they want. They would rather loose forever something that they, I believe, would really want and desire in their life but just couldn't muster the strength. Both situations are quite similar by nature because in both it would appear that something else was in control of their lives. Oh if you where to ask them they would say the old Dirty Harry line that they just know their limitations. But do we really? In many cases they would tell you they are sacrificing their own desires and happiness so that others wont be dragged down with them. What an honorable thing to do, kind of like throwing yourself on a hand grande. The object of throwing yourself on one of those is to SAVE the lives of those around you which at first glance would seem to support this sacrificing thing but let me offer another thought. I think that all to often we jump on the grande to give us a good excuse for not living for the things we truly want cause the pain inside is to great, the pain of failure, losing situations, or just the fear to have to do for others and they don't know how and it's just to hard to do anyway, or would be worth the effort because they will always feel they let others down. Instead of getting up, dusting themselves off and get right back at it over and over again, they would rather hold the pain and unhappiness inside and not let others know the truth about them. You know, they're a failure or an idiot, going with the Lincoln philosophy that it is better to keep your mouth shut and let everyone think your a fool as opposed to opening up your mouth and removing all doubt. Yea, I've been there. In fact that hotel keeps my room ready all the time. But that doesn't get you anywhere. If you keep taking photographs of one specific category and get to be perfect at it but never change and try new things perfection goes away and you just keep going down.

Another word that got dragged out was the word responsibility. This came the closest to traveling down the path of truth but just didn't quite make the full turn. They told the person they were talking to who they weren't responsible for but never said who they were responsible for. Both situations included the blame game on things that just weren't in their control. For one it was their "integrity" while the other blamed their lack of strength. Both may try to say that they where taking responsibility but where they really? How can you be responsible for something you have no control over. And that's where the rub comes into play. I don't like going to the doctor, dentist, or flying on a plane. I just don't do any of those and claim that I can't help it but eventually I do because the pain of not doing so is to great. Then somehow that thing that keeps me from doing gets replaced by me taking control and doing. How does that happen if I can't help it or I'm not in control. That's the rub, I am in control. I've just choose to allow things seemingly out of my control to take over so I am not responsible for the "big failure" if and when it comes.

As kids whenever we went someplace in a car someone would almost always yell "I call the shot gun seat". Why? Cause we thought that was the best seat (other then the drivers seat) since we weren't old enough to drive. We would talk big about how it would be as soon as we got our drivers licenses but we were to young to take that responsibility so we could talk big. When we got old enough to drive the first time most of us did it scared the hell of us cause we were afraid of the responsibility of were that 2 ton piece of steel was going. We had to work our way up to be able to get comfortable to handing the decisions of driving. But for some, they get so scared to try to drive that they choose to call the shot gun seat cause that's the next best seat they think. They're afraid of the responsibility and the possible crash they may have. So they turn their lives over to someone else so if they screw up, they may get hurt, but it wasn't their fault.

Folks, I may have talked a bit about my past life in law enforcement. I have spent a many hours in the real "shot gun seat" and I can tell you there is a lot of draw backs that you might not think of. Just take my word for it that letting others make the decisions about where and how you get somewhere and where they put you when you arrive is not a good thing! But even then, I had the control of my live by choosing to give that control to someone else who just might not handle things with my interest considered. Whether either one of these individuals know it or not, despite their protest both are in complete control of there lives and therefore responsible for where it goes or doesn't go and any disasters that come along. For one of them, I am afraid that they are allowing themselves to turn into a pinball bouncing from bumper to bumper and thereby missing out on what their Creator would like them to have. But because of their "I have no control over this", they are choosing to relinquishing the life they could have by calling the shot gun seat. The view from the shot gun seat is great until a call comes in. Then it gets really dicey. The driver can take you away from the very thing you need to survive the call. I wonder which choice is the right choice.

I won't have the luxury of having anyone riding with me, and that comes with some mixed emotions. On the one hand I will have to drive every mile myself. On the other hand I get to drive every mile myself and make the decisions where and how I go. I got to tell you that I feel better when I have control. I don't always like the responsibility but the consequences are more than not to great to not be in control or at least the best control you can have. If you don't control yourself then you are doomed to always going into the unknown without any say or control and that is what a lot of people fear most. It's the fear that makes you call the shot gun seat but it's you that have to live with the thought of "what if" for the rest of your life. You may still fail but at least you gave it your all. What's that saying, "don't die with your music in you". I would think that the cost of getting old only to find that you allowed something or someone to steel your life from you would be a near intolerable pain. Think about it! Knowing you have missed the very purpose for your life all because you choose to give away the control of your life, wow!

Folks, I'm not the poster boy for being in control all the time or making all the right moves and decisions, just ask my staff. We all make mistakes but giving away your life ain't one I want to do. I do fail at that from time to time but I, like all of us on God's earth, need to strive for what God has for us and it surely isn't riding the shoot gun seat of your life. He gave you a free choice and if that was to allow Him to direct your driving, then that's what He intended. But you still have the choice to allow something or someone else take the wheel. You have that responsibility whether you claim it or not. Don't grow old out of control and unhappy. Get behind the wheel, take control, and drive, drive, drive!

Well that's it for me today. Have a great day everyone!

Richard

Pro Pix Tips: Speaking Meter Language

Hi everybody! As promised, I'm posting a Pro Pix Tips on metering. So let's get right to it!

I few years ago (there's that phrase again) I called my brother about making a purchase of something that I have forgotten what it was so don't ask cause it don't matter now. I do remember telling him that the price was a large percentage off I guess in an attempt to gain some kind of uh aw response. Instead, what I got was this question; "Percentage off of what? Compared to what?" I tell you this because as we go into this Pro Pix Tips we need to remember that when we talk meter language we have to remember that the basics of metering is based on comparisons. Meters are pretty high tech nowadays but I still haven't found one that reads the photographers mind or correctly identifies the object being photographed and what kind of details the photographer is trying to capture. If you went out and tried to do the suggested assignment of taking a picture of the moon, you would have at least a vague idea of what I'm talking about here. For you that just didn't get motivated enough to do the shots of the moon I will at least touch on it a bit. But to do so I will talk to you as though you did the assignment. Where you surprised at the fact the speed, aperture, and ISO settings were at least comparable to settings you would use during a sunny day? In fact, did it surprise you when you took the picture that the moon came out like a all white ball with little if any contrast to it and just all white even though the meter appeared to be set perfectly on the exposure? How long did it take before you realized that the speed and aperture would have to be set so that the meter gave every appearance that the picture would be under exposed only to find the picture finally yielded out a great picture of the moon along with all it's craters and plateaus? I direct your attention back to the words of my bother.

Simplifying things a tad, most meters today are calibrated to take there readings on items of the photo that fall in the mid tone areas. Things like green grass and tanned skin would be examples of mid tone items. Ansel Adams, a world renown photographer who best know for his work in black and white photography, came up with a chart that named and showed the steady progression of shades from pure black to pure white. He named these zones and labeled them from pure black as zone 0 to pure white as zone 9. In the middle of this shaded zone areas was zone 5 making up the mid tone range. Now keep in mind that pure black absorbs 100% of the light (theoretically) while pure white reflects 100% of the light (theoretically). In between we see varying amounts of reflected light and at varying frequencies which we call colors. With respect to camera meters, they deal with zones 0 to 9 in judging the exposure of a picture. It just so happens that a perfect grayscale level zone 5 reflects 18% of the light that is shining on it (for you more enlightened photographer, does the 18% thing sound familiar? Think white balance!). If you are pointing your camera at a dark surface, the meter is comparing the shade of that surface with zone 5 or mid tone region and, thinking it is metering a mid tone surface, is giving a reading based on how much more or less light is need to make that mid tone surface to reach zone 5 shading. Now as I said, this is a over simplifying of the subject but does give a base concept understanding of how the meter is giving the readings it does. Now other things do come into play such as the type of metering you are using. There are three basic types of metering; spot, center weighted, and matrix. While meters vary some with each manufacturer, with the Nikon cameras I use, these basic meter settings are at least similar enough with other brands that you should get the basic idea.

Each camera has a certain number of measuring point. The more point the better in most cases. Switching between the types of metering settings directly effects how the measurement readings from each of the points is considered. In spot metering only a small portion of the measuring points (amounting to about 2% to the overall picture being taken) is considered. Whatever light or lack there of is in that small area is measures, averaged, and compared to the mid tone level with a reading given accordingly. The other 98% of the picture area is not considered. In center weighted metering, all the measuring points are considered but with center portion of the picture having a much higher degree of consideration then the rest of the picture area. In many of the cameras, the amount of weighting and the amount of the area that makes up the center weight portion of the picture is adjustable. In the Nikon I use the ratio of weighting is 75:25 with the 75% part of the reading taken from the center of the picture and the remaining 25% from the area of the picture outside the center. With the matrix setting, the entire area of the picture is being equally considered. And remember that the meter is taking the average of the levels of light reflected and comparing it to the mid tone region. Now let me make a correction of sorts. With matrix metering or metering which considers the entire area of the picture, the Nikon at least, uses a thing call scene recognition to compare the picture you're taking and compares it to a data base of thousand of image with different characteristics and matches the two with the meter reading coming from there. But folks this is a Pro Pix Tips not a college course.

The idea here is to show you how easy it is to get a reading from your meter that may not jive with the photo you get. Let's look at the moon picture for a second. The area that the moon is occupying in the view screen effects how the meter reads. Remember, the light is being averaged. That is why your picture of the moon is so over exposed even when the meter says it's perfectly exposed. That also explains why you can get some great photos in low light conditions that the meter says you can't get.

When you're focusing and taking meter reading be sure to note what your meter is taking it's reading off of. Remember mid tones is what the meter is looking for. What type of metering settings are you using? How much of the picture is being considered in the reading and how much dark and light areas are within the metering's area and which if any is more dominant.

One final tip is to take the picture anyway no matter what the meter is saying. Look at the results yourself and make the call. Just remember about the ISO factor as it pertains to "noise" in your picture in low light conditions. The meter is a valuable tool but it should not control you completely. You take control and responsibility for taking and judging the picture. You brought that picture into this world with the shutter and you can take it out with the trash can.

Well as promised, I brought a Pro Pix Tips and I will plan on doing another one really soon. Hope this one was a help in understanding your meter a bit better. Have a great day everyone and happy Labor Day!

Richard

Doing Impressions

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I love a good joke. A number of years ago (this phrase is often used by people who don't want to give away their age) I heard a story that goes something like this. After going through basic training soldiers were split into two group, the red team and the blue team, in order to have a war game training. All the soldiers were told that due to budget cut backs they did not have any weapons to train with so they would have to use imaginary ones. As the training progressed one of the red team soldiers spotted a blue team soldier walking slowly in a straight line across an open field. The red soldier jumped out from behind a tree and shouted "Bang, bang, you're dead!" But the blue soldier just acted like he didn't hear him and kept right on walking straight across the field. Thinking that the blue soldier was hard of hearing, the red soldier decided to get up close and personal. He ran up right behind the blue soldier and while hitting the blue soldier on the back yelled, "Stab, stab, you're dead!" But again the blue soldier just kept right on walking straight across the field. Now angered, the red soldier runs around in front of the blue soldier and throws an imaginary hand grenade at the blue soldier and yells, "Boooooom, you're dead!" But still the blue soldier kept on walking straight across the field. Absolutely livid, the red soldier ran, grab the blue soldier and yelled, "I have shot you with my imaginary gun, I have stabbed you with my imaginary knife, and I blew you up with my imaginary hand grenade and you keep going straight across this field and refusing to die! Just who do you think you are?" Finally coming to a stop, the blue soldier turn to look at the red soldier and answered, "Rumble, rumble, I'm a tank."

A comedian said (I'm not sure who) that everyone does their own impression of Ed Sullivan. Some of those "everyones" do a real good impression while others really suck (yes, mom, I really did use that word.)! Around here in this area, we have a lot of people doing impressions of entertainers and singing group from the past. We probably could claim to be "The King" sighting capital of the world. Now while it's true that nothing is exactly like the original, some of them get really, really close while other, well if they didn't tell you who they where suppose to be.......well, you get what I mean. There's one thing I have noted about most of the really good ones. They have studied thoroughly the person or persons they portray. They can almost tell you how many times they used the bathroom each day. They practice till they're exhausted and then practice some more. The others tend to just put on some kind of costume and grab a musical instrument whether or not they can play anything at all on it and in many cases don't even bother to learn all the words to any of the songs and expect people to give them top billing at the biggest theatre in town.

There are a lot of people doing impressions now a days in every walk of life. We have folks doing impressions of real parents, husbands/wifes, plumbers, mechanics, contractors, doctors, lawyers, preachers, teacher, and, yes, even photographers. Folks, putting a golf club in my hands doesn't make me a golfer or at least a good one. I have, however, used my camera to take numerous photos that are in a movie, brochure, magazine, and website, not to mention individual photos across the area and country. Give my camera to my mom and she might not know where the shutter is. But if my mother does manage to find the shutter release and take a picture, well is she not the photographer of that photo?

I have made mention in earlier post that theres a difference in those who take photos. Ask yourself this question, what is my definition of a professional photographer. My staff has heard me say over and over again that just because you take a clear well focused well lighted photo doesn't make you a professional. We think about the quality of the picture, or the fee asked for. What happens if one of these folks doing their impression of a professional photographer has their camera break or malfunction while their shooting your event. What happens if they fail to make backup copies of the shots they took at your once in a life time event and loses them somehow. What if they sell you pictures they have printed out using low grade ink that fades in a very short period of time or on a disk that loses those filed pictures in just a few years. How good of an impression of a pro photographer do you think this impressionist was if any one of these or a number of other potential problems results in your not have the photos you paid for. And trying to correct the problem with them might resemble the story I gave earlier and you would be the red soldier. If they are a friend, family member, even a friend of a friend, all of these could really cause years of regret. If they're just a bad impressionist, well "rumble, rumble" cause they will have in most cases not way to make it right for you. Sure you can get your money back through the courts but wasn't the point to have those irreplaceable photos?

If you choose to get a person with a "good" camera to take photos of a project for you because of a cheap or for free price just be ready. What a professional makes look easy may turn out to be a real impossible task for the lazy impressionist who just put on the costume. You can't fly just because you have big red S on your chest and a cape on your back! We all wish it was that easy but we are not children any more. We have learned that there is not such thing as fairy dust and while many of us would like to go there, no Never Never Land either.

I take my car to a "shade tree" type of mechanic. Lewis is a great guy and I have been acquainted with him for years. But that's not why I have him work on my car. He doesn't have a fancy place or a great location with a cool sign and catchy slogan. He has the right tools but that doesn't mean he knows how to use them. It's because I know he does good work cause I've checked him out with those who take their vehicle to him for repair work. He's more than reasonable on his price and parts. I am very fortunate to have ran across Lewis years ago but he is not the norm. There are a very few good pro photographers out there who give a great product at a cheap if not free price (we have had our experiences at this). Check them out. Don't run the risk of not getting what you wanted. It might take a few years to find yourself disappointed. You wouldn't have serious surgery done by the lowest bidder before checking them out would you?

Well, I have had a number of things take place that have really got to me lately and I think we will put them in a series of Pro Pix Tips. So next post we will start by looking at the on board metering of your camera and can you really trust it. Until them try to take a picture of the moon or some other low light object. What is your meter telling you compared to what the picture itself looks like.

Well that all folks (thanks Porky). Have a great day everyone.

Richard