Practise, Practise, Practise

The idea that 'practise makes perfect' has been drilled into me from a young age. While I don't believe you should wait for perfection (nothing is perfect and so you will wait forever) I do firmly believe perfection should be something we strive for. We will always miss but the closer we get the better our creations will be and the more consistently we will be able to create.
Practise has the real risk of becoming being dull, however. When we repeat a task over and over again it can take something you love and push it firmly into the mundane and risks killing creativity. I have first-hand knowledge of this with product photography. A field where repetition and consistency are key for image creation but remove nearly all forms of creativity from the act of creating.
So the balance must be made between repetition and gripping boredom. If only my school teacher had figured that out. Without this balance, you will burnout.

Variations along a theme, this was shot on film and then processed by me!

This is nice and all, but why are you talking about this?
At the time of writing this, I have been shooting with a model ( Instagram:- @kirstyspence ) for a while and we have been doing the same style of shoot. While not a bad experience it is important for us to stay creative and we are getting better at this style of shoot. Continuing to shoot like this wouldn't be a bad thing but it is going to be difficult to keep creating interesting images by repeating ourselves.

Same old same old

So its time for something new?
Yes and no. We will probably come back to a shoot like this when we have another idea that warrants it but for now, we are looking to shoot in a different setting and create differently styled images. This was it keeps things fresh and what we create will be of more use to us in the future. It also allows us to explore new ideas and maybe hone what we really want to continue doing. Ultimately, exploration is so important in any form of practice.

Switching it up a bit.

Contact Front

Join the Army they said...

In 2004 I did just that. Ok, it was in a fairly limited capacity as a student but hey they gave me a uniform and paid me so it kinda counts and for 4 years I got a lot from it.

Then in 2008, it fell apart. I couldn't get a job with my Engineering degree (cheers recession), all my friends were moving away/on with their lives and I found myself alone, broke, unemployed and slipping away into somewhere dark. I left the Army.
2 years passed and as luck would have it I had a chat with one of my friends who had risen to a position of authority in my old unit and a deal was made. If they let me take photos of their training I will provide all the imaging material they could ever need for about 10 years. "Feed me, house me and, don't leave me behind on exercise and I will make you fuckers famous" was my pitch to him at the time.

It was an oversell.
It worked.

Now let us be clear, the British Army has an excellent group of photogs who form a part of what is known as the Media Operations Group. Check out some of their work on Instagram here:- @Britisharmy . They really are some of the best photographers in the world and would have been able to do this project a lot more justice than I could at the time with one crucial difference, they didn't care. They really did not give a damn about the day to day operations of a (very) low priority, undeployable and, not very sexy training unit. Sure they might show up to the odd event but why the hell bother when regular units would always have much better opportunities. This was to my advantage. Instead of covering 1 event I would cover EVERYTHING from training nights on Wednesday to formal functions right up to field weekends and overseas training exercises. I covered 4 years of that unit which meant I tracked some recruits from entry to commissioning as officers into the British Army. I made my coverage personal.
It was Awesome.

You spent a lot of your time in a ditch waiting for something to happen...why?
Ok so yeah, there were bad times. I once spent 4 hours waiting in a puddle in the Pentlands for a section attack that had actually been cancelled. I managed to stop an entire company of troops in my second year there because I had become a "combat indicator" and if they could see me they knew their "shit was about to sideways". Then there was the winter of 2010 and the infamous 'Charlie 6' exercise where it got so cold I had to take out the battery in my camera and put it next to my body to keep it working!
I did all this and more to find my limits. I did it because no one else would. I did it to learn.

What did you get from it?
4 years of consistent challenge in a field you enjoy provides an accelerated learning path. I think I got about 10 years experience in 4 and a portfolio from it that was nearly unmatched at my level. I got a job from that portfolio. I made friends. I made contacts. I gave back to a unit that gave me a lot in the first place.

Problem with being in the ememy position is your abit of a target…

Would you do it again?
Yes.

Be polite
Be efficient
Have a plan to shoot everyone you meet

Collaboration and doing Work for 'Free'

I HATE the term free

To a lot of people, free simple means worthless. Not worth anything and therefore pointless. In reality (in this context) it simply means no money! There are plenty of people who will argue that free is worthless and these people a very wrong and should be avoided. Remember you can pay plenty of money for something worthless. We do it all the time, so let's stop that and understand free means 'without monetary gain'.

Collaboration is often free. Not always, sometimes there is money involved or some form of remuneration but mostly, no beer tokens are exchanged so if you want to 'get rich quick' I suggest you go forth and multiply.

For the Love of something

This IS the most important reasons for doing anything, anywhere, ever. If you don't get it then don't collaborate on something, you will not enjoy it and you won't see the value in it.

When people have a common interest or goal or passion we see the result of that all the time. Sports teams, creative artworks in large spaces, racing, running, etc. We see the results of people who care about what they are doing and they tend to be amazing. This is what collaboration hopes to achieve, to create something that both parties enjoyed making and see value from working with each other to move there creation or career forward.

For practice

The simple act of doing what you do with other people makes you better at what you want to do. If you have heard the phrase '10 000 hours to mastery' you know that to get good you need to do something a lot.

If there are few and far between paid opportunities to practise your craft, collaboration offers you the ability to do what you do and 'get good'!

Its arty and all….but its outta focus!

To Start Something

Nike is right!!!

"Just Do It"

Start, NOW. I mean finish this blog first but then whatever you want to do, go do it. To start a collaboration you need to talk to someone. So write that email, send that letter, feed that carrier pigeon and get on it.

Once you start you start building momentum and if the only way to do that is to collaborate then F***ING DO IT (that's a better line for Nike I think)

Simply to meet people

Often freelancing can actually be very lonely and this in its self is a very serious problem. Not only does it isolate us from the industry we might work in it also can cause us some real harm. Now imagine you talked to others in the industry! (Shock Horror) or maybe just to meet new people.

So maybe you have a cunning plan you want to test out or maybe you are working with someone new. Best doing it with other sympathetic individuals before you fuck it up in front of clients...or not, your call.

Feel the love people

When NOT to collaborate

One of the most (only) valuable things I learnt while working in a camera shop was what NOT to buy. There are a lot of very rich people out there trying to sell you a lot of absolute shite you do not need.

In turn, there are a lot of very rich people out there that see no value in your work and will promise you the world to get what they want. The time not to collaborate is when you would give up your time for NOTHING in return. Everything I have talked about above is a situation when you would get something (Education, prints, experience etc.) in return for your work. When that return is not present do not do it.

Things to watch out for:-

-"We can give you exposure for your work!" - BOLLOCKS, firstly, I can get exposure through Instagram doing EXACTLY what I want and not having to bow to others pressure. Exposure is what perverts do in trenchcoats to passers-by, not people looking to collaborate.

-"This could lead to future paid work" - NO IT WON'T! This person has already valued your work at £0 why would they pay for it next time!

-If someone wants you to do something that is outside of the field of work you do, reassess if you really should do it. This isn't a no no but it could wind up being pretty pointless for you.

-Sometimes there are costs for collabing (I hired a studio recently to collab, I will travel to collab) but be careful you aren't footing the bill for everything. This would fall into exploitation.

I really recommend looking into ' @annacod ' and ' linktr.ee/fjandco ' for more help on the subjest. She produces some really good content to do with freelancing. It's great.

#fairpayforfreelancers

Be polite

Be efficient

Have a plan to shoot 'with' everyone you meet

Notes - the importance of showing your work

‘Show your working’ was possibly the most annoying thing I heard at school. Ironically, I now love the act of taking notes and do it on a daily basis.

While it might seem like extra paperwork, the note-taking process for me has become a massive part of my workflow with every idea I have been written down in some manner so it can be preserved clearly later.

One of the great advantages of writing down these ideas is the freedom to express any thought in a form that is private. Regardless of how bad an idea I might have it really helps to be able to look at it without the need to worry what someone else might think. It can also let you dissect bad ideas for nuggets of genius and help develop those into something useful. This really takes the pressure off and while these ideas, in reality, might not be any use at the moment it may have some use in other plans I put together.

This flow means I have a resource to go back to again and again when I am putting together a shoot. A resource that really only gets more detailed with time. My notes play a vital part in just about everything I do and keep me focused on the task at hand.

It also allows me to write down any tangents that I might want to explore in later shoots. This again only gives me more to draw from later and keeps me on task.

Tangents and ‘to dos’ are kept on this. I keep it on me at all times.

While the initial notes that I take really aren’t that much use to anyone, the more advanced plans can really help when I try to communicate my ideas to others before or during a shoot. Any drawings, clippings and, diagrams also help if I am trying to communicate a mood, pose, theme or feeling to people.

A great book to read if you want to understand the importance of note taking is ‘Nude photography Notebook’ - the work of Allen Jenkins by Eddie Ephraums. When you read it you actually get a solid understanding of what Allen was doing, how he got the results he did and why he did it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/504636.Nude_Photography_Notebook

One last thing, if you are like me and really only shoot digital the act of note booking and scrap booking may feel a little odd. I exclusively only do these 2 things with real books and pens. Contact with IRL art supplies!

The tactile loss from analogue to digital is actually something a lot of people lament in the creative industry. Being able to utilise the digital and analogue not only helps me create better work it also makes my work more enjoyable and therapeutic.

Enough of my chat, what about you. Share with us your thoughts on note taking and scrap booking.

Be polite

Be efficient

Have a plan to shoot everyone you meet.