If You’re Going Through Hell–Gannas

No, I haven’t abandoned my blog, my normal work schedule is seven days a week, 20-hours per day with no holidays in between. I’ve just been swamped with back-to-back, workshops followed with a private photography instruction client and of course this wonderful thing called life. Add to that, we’ve been working on Glamour1.com, updating software and the post-production of images for my next book while working on my house to sell it faster.

Over the past ten years I’ve bought and sold almost ten houses. Selling a home is a big task with all the inconveniences, both expected and unexpected, of moving from one location to another while still working to make a living. Add to that, the decision to sell the house this time was not based on my normal pattern of buying and selling but more on critical life issues—where is an angel when you need one?

This year takes the cake for exhaustion and exhilaration, one of the biggest years to test my life between business and family decisions. On my bad days I’ll often think how lucky I’ve been as a survivor of many military missions like the Drug War in Latin America (26-months), Haiti, Desert Storm, Rwanda (Zaire, Uganda & Kenya) and many others. I think about how lucky my children are when I recall the death in Rwanda and families eating out of garbage cans in Honduras and other poor countries, though I also have more pleasing thoughts about all the watery-eyes during the Fall of the Berlin Wall. I’ve witnessed more than the average human will ever see in their life and sometimes wonder, why me?

I’ve seen more than the average soldier will in their entire military career—eight years active-duty U.S. Army and almost 40 countries is not typical for any soldier, so sometimes I do feel lucky, other times I remember Hell-experiences I’ll never forget and wonder how I survived it all. However, what the guys and gals are going through in Iraq is worse than anything I’ve gone through and my prayers always go out to them, their families and their friends. I look at my time in the military as a cake-walk compared to what they go through.

Sometimes life is Hell and what we make of it determines whether we stay there or not. Our military members in Iraq however aren’t given that choice as their Hell has provided for 81,000 IED (improvised explosive device) attacks in Iraq since the IED’s were first named, according to the Washington Post, with 25,000 IED attacks this year alone. Now that is Hell.

The other day I heard the song, If You’re Going Through Hell (Rodney Atkins) and it reminded me about “gannas,” the Spanish word for “will” or the passion of your heart to want something. The song made me realize that I live for my passion in photography, my life-blood that started when I picked up my first camera at the age of nine.

When someone asks, “I need this or that?” Most don’t realize I’m already putting in 20-hour days, I suffer from chronic back pain, I have five kiddos who rarely see me (and I work out of a home-office in the same house where three live with me), I have corporate matters, I have workshop logistics, I have elder-unhealthy parents, etc., etc., more than most people have in a normal life—self-employment is not easy when you’re a one-man show—and yeah, sometimes I make a stiff drink and sit in my Jacuzzi tub, that’s called taking time off for at least thirty-minutes before I start my 20-hour day again.

Yes, my blog updates lately have been slow and I’ll use this holiday week to catch-up on them and other work as there are no holidays with self-employment—holidays are just another day to catch-up, though I will bake a turkey for my children as it’s their holiday and I should be a Dad for at least “Turkey Day.” God Bless everyone this holiday period and please don’t forget our military in your prayers, rg sends!

Style, The Manhood of Photography

Style. Some photographers have it, others don’t, many people don’t even know what style is and in photography ask five professionals and chances are you’ll get five different definitions about the word style itself. Established style however is a key ingredient that will identify a professional photographer from their colleagues and subordinate beginners.

Personally I define photographic style as the following:

Photographic style is a consistent, identifiable quality in a visual body of work that portrays the artistic personality of the photographer and the life-influenced reflection of what the photographer saw and felt during that depiction of time.

Normally photographic style is associated with those that have made it as the leaders in specific genres of photography. When one sees Playboy style images, few know that Ken Marcus influenced that style, though today it’s more associated with the current number one contract photographer for Playboy, Arny Freytag, Marcus’ former assistant.

Another photographer, Bruce Weber, noted for his regular contributions to Vanity Fair used his style of photography to help propel ad campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch while taking fashion and editorial photography to a sexier level. Weber will always be associated for his “chiseled,” youthful, erotic and sexy styled images made famous by Calvin Klein campaigns of young, “white-men” clad in underwear—a style often coined as “homoeroticism” and easily identified through the consistent, memoir-feeling black and white photos.

Like all photographers who’ve built their name, Robert Farber is no different with his painterly style. While Farber is known more for his commercial and nude work, his style was still evident in his latest book, American Mood, yet the inanimate subject matter of the landscape of America was brought to life though Farber’s style.

Annie Leibovitz raised eyebrows when she posed nude for Vanity Fair, 8-months pregnant, à la Demi Moore, a photograph representing Leibovitz’s photographic style, yet she was the subject in that image. Her style is identifiable that seems to come from the close collaboration between her and her subjects.

What many photographers don’t realize is that Leibovitz’s style primarily evolved from her work as the top photographer at Rolling Stone during the infancy of the magazine. Leibovitz credits the development of her style through the close and romantic relationship she held with Susan Sontag, a noted writer and essayist, who mentored Leibovitz with constructive criticism. Sontag once told Leibovitz, “You’re good, but you could be better.”

Ultimately style is something most photographers strive for but don’t know how to achieve it and those that have it are sometimes stereotyped into one genre of photography. All photographers passionate about their craft should set a goal to achieve their own style. Consider it as the ultimate becoming of a professional, the manhood of photography.

When a photographer’s work is consistently identifiable and often emulated by others, then it’s said that photographer has fully developed their style. Until then, photographers follow a path searching for their style and it’s often found through emulation of others, workshops, experience and ultimately life’s influences—though once found, a photographer is no longer just a photographer, this is the step in actually becoming a professional. Thanks, rg sends!

Every man’s work is always a portrait of himself. 
Ansel Adams, Carmel, California, 1979

The Greatest Photographers in the World

The greatest photographers in the world are those that understand the three “C’s” of being a professional photographer, comprehension, communication and creativity. While you’ll often hear the statement, “The difference between an amateur and a pro photographer is the pro never shows you his bad photos,” that’s more myth than fact, though practiced by some.

Let’s look at the first fact, comprehension. A photographer today not only needs to comprehend how his equipment works, i.e., the difference between an F/stop and a bus stop, but how his market, client and even audience functions.

While understanding your equipment is core to this first fact, especially knowing white-balance, lens choices, aperture and shutter-speed settings and all the gizmos cameras come with today like image stabilizers and matrix metering, comprehension has evolved to peripheral levels. Comprehending your market, its demographics including buying power and the intended audience is also important to you and your client. There are so many research tools available that there is no reason to fail in this category.

With Internet forums, support groups, web sites, manufacturer sites, search engines, etc., the information is always available, but also be careful, not everything on the Internet is correct. I once “Google’d” a client as we spoke on the phone, in that case the info was correct and I was able to cater easily to her needs and her publisher’s requirements.

The second fact of being a successful, professional photographer is communication. It’s often said communication, miscommunication or lack of communication is the root of all problems—this is something I truly believe in and have experienced first-hand. As a State of Texas Certified Mediator, I can tell you, communication is always the root of all civil disputes. Proper communication not only allows you direct a model into a proper pose, but to build rapport with her and to achieve her intended look in an image.

Ultimately the final image is a form of visual communication that will provide a story in an image to your subject’s intended audience. Just the lighting, dramatic verses flat, can change the mood of an image. The pose will do the same as posing is a form of body language.

Finally, the third fact of being a professional photographer, creativity is one that will always be argued, some are born with it, some are not, can it be taught? No one really knows the latter from a 100-percent standpoint, but I do believe fundamentals, principals and concepts of photography, art, graphic design and any artistic genre is teachable to those with passion. Those without the passion will learn less.

Creativity is strong in some and weak and others, but if the art/craft is continuously practiced, it will gain straight through reinforcement. Eventually the three C’s are obtainable if one strives passionately toward anchoring them in their photographic career and those that have achieved them as professional photographers, well let’s just say they rarely take bad pictures and always show you great photographs. Thanks, rg sends!

Life is What You Make of It

“Life is what you make of it” is a statement everyone has heard at one time or another, but I prefer to say, “Life is like boating down a river, you steer in one direction, sometimes on smooth waters and sometimes with rough waters, ultimately it’s how you navigate around its banks and obstacles that make all the difference in the world.”

I often like to think I’m the boat captain on that body of water, sometimes it feels like a Rhine River cruise, boring after the first few castles but in reality, it’s always a challenge to navigate the waterways and stay the course.

While experience is helpful in navigation, there is always much to learn on each trip. You’ll learn the short-cuts, the pitfalls, the safe zones, the dangerous curves and the safe water. You’ll find your passengers along the way are who they are, some real and some not, but ultimately your character will build through it all, and if you’re lucky, you’ll steer yourself in a positive direction.

Life is not so much what you make of it, but more of what you do with it as it’s placed before you. Life is great and the negative aspects it has to offer will only build your courage to grow within the community of life. Ultimately it flows in one direction and not losing that focus will keep you positive.

Those are my thoughts today as we start packing out for another Virgin Islands, Exotic, Glamour, Beauty and the Nude workshop for next week—the beauty of it all, the secluded island were we go is surrounded by water, hence why some call it paradise like no other when it comes to living life. Thanks, rg sends!