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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

A quick update about WORLD BUILDING

Sounds big and grand…

…but it is really just the formation of characters and a style around an overall plot. The idea is that once you establish the world in which these ideas live you can establish a set of rules to how things should look. Green in my world, for example, represents Data, Information and, everyday technology. Knowing this I can then ensure that things in my world glow green if they are connected.

If they are dangerous the glowing Red. Weapons, viruses, that sort of thing.

A place to Work

So what are you doing?

I am renting a workspace. Away from my living space. Currently I operate my ENTIRE life from 1 small room and frankly, it's getting a little crowded in here. Ignore the fact that I own too much crap anyway, we then have to deal with the issue of my all-consuming passion for photography and by its nature the tendency to take up a shit ton of space. Space I have very much run out of...6 months ago.

My desk, after I have had a tidy. Yes, I am serious.

I am also trying to live and work very close to one another which (as I know from past experience) doesn't work too well. I type this blog within 1m of my bed! A mere 30cm from my Xbox (god I would kill for a game of Sea of Thieves right now).

Isolation is also a problem, I have blogged about this before (don't worry you didn't read that one either) and how damaging it can be. If there is someone in my room, however, I want to be doing something other than working.

Ok so, there is never someone else in my room but this only means I am stuck in my own personal echo chamber with no means of engaging with the outside world. Not a very creative environment.

Isolation was a hole I barely escaped from.

So I go to cafes to work. I am haemorrhaging money in black coffee and cake. I need to stop that.

This is actually an old photo of how I used to turn up at starshmucks and just f**k the place up! (I still do this just at better places than starbucks!)

What is the Plan then?

Setup - I need to set up my location and get the equipment and supplies I want to use from my space to the desk area. Taking all the things I might need is a fairly big deal as it will force me to separate life and work. If I have the urge to create I can't just get out of bed and start working...which means I get to stay in bed!

Production - I'm not just getting this space for photography. I am actually learned to sew and by extension, I am also learning to make clothes (because no designers want to get involved in the Search.er project I decided 'Fuck'em, I will do it myself then!') and other things. Its time to create then ship and ship often!

Collaboration- This means not stuck in my room with the only youtube for company! I might actually be able to speak to people and other creatives at that!!!

So how will this affect my future work?

Hopefully, a more organised working environment and setup will lead to a more coherent workflow and final results. This should be a lot more engaging for you.

It also means I will be able to create more and have the option to sell it because, well, I got bills to pay! (ship and ship often)

It also gives me the time to interact with you guys a bit more. I haven't been too great at staying in touch with people who express interest so making or connect with a community has been difficult. this will change and if you want to ask a question please do so.

I will post photos of my work in the future and I might even start a Patreon live stream if you want to see some BTS videos.

Patreon - www.patreon.com/itchyphotog

Ko-fi - www.ko-fi.com/V7V3W7SW

Instagram - @itchyphotog

Be polite

Be efficient

Have a plan to shoot everyone you meet.

Instagram, the social nightmare that we all share

Lets start on a positive note, Instagram is a place to share your work. Whether it is a post to build an account or a story to simply to engage with whatever following we can scrape out, Instagram allows a platform for us to show our work...sort of.

This post had to be re-written a couple of times. I didn’t realise how much of a rant it had become but sadly Instagram can be a very negative place so I will start with that and end positively.

Not for photographers

Because if it were a place for people to show there work, photographers and illustrative creatives would be top dog. As we know, this is not the case. Those who market the best ‘win’ the hardest.

‘Style’

Knowing it is all about marketing, you will begin to notice that instagram has it’s own style and if you don’t follow that style it can often (but not always) be very difficult to attract a following.

Large accounts that that celebrities curate are often filled with selfy after selfy and show nothing but the lifestyle that they want you to think they lead. These images can be interesting (we do something similar in glossy mags) which is why people follow it but lets be clear, that’s not photography. That is an option for them instead of getting papped. This way they control what you see and how you see them. Very powerful. (keep reading...im not all doom and gloom)

Because of this success you can see the a few types of images repeated again and again. Hopefuls will post their very curated moments onto the medium hopeing you will want to see more.

They bought into a lie!

ITSLIESALLLIESITELLYA!!!...sorry, we now return you to normal broadcasting.

The above people are buying into the idea that if you have a large enough following you might get paid or get free stuff. Fine. But that means the 1 or 2 accounts that have HUGE followings are then the norm that is replicated again and again. We start seeing these images everywhere and fatigue sets in very quickly. The lie is that this type of picture will get you followers.

But you knew all of this, right. We have been aware of how much damage instagram is doing to us for years.

Ok ok, So why are you using it?

I want to show my work so between my website and instagram I show it. I ignore the set style and show my work. Because of this I can’t be on instagram to get followers. I just can’t. It would probably drive me insane.

Detaching myself from the BS of instagram is difficult but this platform could still be of some use. Believe me however, if platform comes along that isn’t pay to win then I am all for it.

One of the big things about Instagram is actually engaging with the people who follow you. Speak to them and take the time to comment on their work. I have actually made a good few connections this way and it can be quite rewarding so long as it doesn’t become my primary focus.

So, if you read this. Lets talk. No really I am interested if you have any question or have any projects you would like some help on (advise included in that). Communication is important with creativity.

@itchyphotog

@itchysworld

Be polite

Be efficient

Have a plan to shoot everyone you meet