The Vleisfees is basically a big celebration and meeting of lamb lovers who serve it up from early in the morning to the public in the town of Calvinia in the Karoo. This annual event is an experience that one should try and do at least once in your life especially if you live in South Africa and appreciate a good braaied (barbeque if you live elsewhere) piece of meat! And you literally have the option of everything from the head to the tail if you can stomach it, which is also on the menu by the way!

So a few weeks ago, we returned to get the larger Karoo lamb story and stayed with farmers and their families gathering more insight into the processes and what makes Karoo lamb, Karoo lamb. Simplistically put it appears that the species of bush and the way in which the lamb are slaughtered affect the final flavour and taste but Nikki, who is writing the story, has done thorough research on this subject.

The story is very fresh so will post some of the images I took on a later post. But for now have collated my iPhone images giving a glimpse of some of what we experienced while on the road.

Most of these images were worked on camera+. I have spoken about the iphone in an earlier post but can highly recommended this as the app to beat on the iPhone. Sometimes I pass the image several times through the app to get the desired look I want.

A few weeks ago, I got to shoot with the Col’Cacchio pizzeria team again. Their brief was simple,  make their food more of a focus and sex it up a little! We shot on location at one of their restaurants but with the help of wizard stylist, Lisa Clark, we constructed (and deconstructed) contexts to emphasize the quality of ingredients and bring out the yum factor of Col’Cacchio pizzas, pastas and salads.

I picked this up from www.digitalphotographycourses.co.za  - ’Where South African law differs from international law is in the line “commissioned photographs are owned by the commissioner (client)” This means freelance photographers have no rights to their work.This is a contentious issue that may be covered in further articles and forums. But fortunately this issue can be circumvented by mutual agreement even when it takes the form of a verbal agreement.  The act allows for negotiation of these default terms, and consequently any agreement negotiated comes under contract law which then overrides the Copyright Law.’

As a country, here in South Africa, we have been brought up, mostly by the magazine industry, to believe that we sell all rights to our images no questions asked. It is standard practice if you are commissioned to shoot editorial in this country, to give it all up, forever! You can use the images in your portfolio but that is it. So much so, a magazine that you shoot for can not only syndicate it to their sister magazine groups worldwide but can and do set up stock libraries internally with all the images they have commissioned, for sale to third parties. To be fair some will pass on a minimum royalty to the photographer but often not at all.

To give you an example, I have shot for a magazine in the past, only to walk into a well-known unrelated paint brand store to find my same  images in their catalogues selling their paint?

This is wrong!

It does the whole photography industry a disservice and devalues our worth, here the paint company doesn’t need to commission a photographer for the job, the revenue goes to the magazine who has commissioned the photographer for editorial on editorial rates. Once the paint company uses the images to market their brand this becomes a commercial usage for which the photographer was never commissioned or remunerated. Like the fees that magazines impose and mostly haven’t increased in over ten years, the rights issue will stay. The premise, as I understand it, is that if you are not happy with these conditions then another photographer will be happy to oblige. So we accept and lose the copyright to our work.

I was shocked (from being fed on our system) when shooting for an American magazine, by contrast, that after three months of the magazine being on the shelf, full rights were returned to myself. This means that my travel story to Botswana was now part of my library of images for sale to prospective lodges, tour agents, financial institutions or any other commercial use. We need to look at the US and England for direction on this.

What we really need to do and don’t have, is a body that represent the rights of photographers in SA! We need to protect ourselves from ourselves. We all start, and you may be there right now, where we offer everything for nothing just to get a foot in the door. This will be good for your early career but make it difficult and harder to sustain later on. If the client can’t shop around for a photographer that will hand it all on a free silver platter then they would have to accept our terms. But this is naive to expect.

I also understand the reality of needing to work. Sticking to your principles and in the process losing a job is not an easy option. I often admire the photographers that value their worth and say no. This has to be weighed up with your context, need to make money and work schedule I guess.

Copyright is often left out of the equation when we quote on jobs. Like mentioning usage for our images in quotes upfront we shouldn’t forget to mention that copyright is retained by the author or photographer if it is the case. I don’t do it often enough and should. It  gives you greater negotiating power. If the client wants copyright but can’t afford to pay your fee then perhaps you can explain that you will meet their budget but retain full copyright to your images after x months of usage. Furthering the library of your own images for sale at a later date. The ethical thing here for me would be to stipulate that the images would not be sold to a direct competitor within a certain time period or if ever. It can all become legal and intimidating for clients but this needs to be communicated and negotiated upfront. If not there is the potential for conflict and misunderstandings down the line. Another point on usage is that if you are clear as to what usage your client is buying then one can negotiate on different usage when for example the images for a magazine client now become the works of a book that they want to bring out. If you retain copyright you have the power to negotiate additional usage.

And I am not saying that you mustn’t give your clients the copyright of the images for their purposes, just factor it in to your negotiation or at the very least explain that for the higher price you are charging you are passing over the copyright. You can also give them permission to use the images for unlimited time and usage but not give over copyright which means that they are not allowed to sell or hand over your images to a third-party.

And just a point about social networking. Apparently Facebook have the right to use your images if you post them on your page which I have still to verify. As it stands in this country, If you took the shot, unless commissioned, then it belongs to you. But still include the copyright symbol, your name and date of origination to drive that home. And all blogs that reference your work need to have it back linked to your blog or site as not to claim ownership.

The point of this post was not to sound bitter and twisted about the industry that by default does not favour photographers but more to get you thinking as photographers as to how to protect yourselves. Our clients make money from our services but when they do this by selling our work to someone else than as the author of that work we should be benefiting.

To read more on the copyright law as it pertains to SA go to www.c21.za.org

I have to break from the regular blog posts that I have been submitting here with one of my new son! Danyel was born on the 3rd of Feb and he has already been subjected to prodding and propping under my harsh studio lights, and he remained a champ! I am a proud father and count myself blessed.

I remember very clearly the morning that I received the mail form Australian based Gourmet Traveller Magazine, asking me to shoot a story on Cape Town! I had to look twice. In my opinion, Australia has some of the best food photographers with the likes of Con Poulos, Chris Court, Ben Dearnley and Petrina Tinslay, many of whom if not all have shot for Gourmet Traveller. So it was with great enthusiasm that I jumped at this challenge.

Max Veenhuyzen, a freelance writer based in Oz, had already written the copy and so I was presented with a brief of places to cover and the feel of the images they were looking for. I used this as a guide but went to places that I thought were ommitted too. For visual style It was accompanied by some references of their previous travel shoots:

The brief was specific, they wanted to portray a buzzy, fun-paced and packed holiday destination with vibrant, graphic and glam imagery. So generally no empty streets or restaurants void of life! Initial emails were sent out to all the chosen spots on their list informing them that I would be coming to shoot. This generally works well and gets the location ready for your arrival and chefs prepared to make a dish that needs to be shot. It was my job to contact them and arrange times to fit everybody in over a relatively short time period. Most (but not all) of the spots I went to were accommodating, ranging from ‘couldn’t do enough’ to ‘doing me a favour’.

I find it is always tricky to portray your hometown as one would a foreign place. You have to look at the city with fresh eyes and imagine what would capture the imagination of someone paging through a magazine in Sydney or Melbourne for example. Not that it is difficult in Cape Town but having lived here my whole life, one sees it differently and sometimes take the beauty for granted.

With the intention of impressing and giving the magazine a wealth of choice, I sent over 90 images from Franschhoek to Steenberg Estate in Constantia. I was pleased with the result but felt that the picture choice was not entirely on the money. I have included here some of the images they used as well as some that didn’t make it.

For the first 5 encounters or so after meeting Liam Tomlin, I hadn’t seen him cook a thing! But the sense you get when you meet him is that there is more going on then cooking, much more in fact! Having just opened Chef’s Warehouse in Cape Town after successfully running restaurants in Oz, our paths crossed. After he realized that my pictures make him look good (ongoing joke we share) and some work we did together, exactly a year ago we joined forces and have been working on a book. Full of useful knowledge from preparing different cooking stocks and olive oils, step by steps on everything from shucking an oyster to making gnocchi, Liam has poured all his knowledge into this. I have been the lucky one to experience it first hand albeit behind a camera and not at the dinner table. We hope to have it on the shelves by Christmas and have already secured a publisher. Sorry for being so vague but it is all still in the early stages to be giving too much away. Here are some shots taken behind the scenes in his kitchen and school at Chef’s Warehouse.

Bailey is a big fan of our book especially when we shooting the meat chapters!

When I spoke at the Getaway Travel Blog conference in November, I was asked an interesting question which got me thinking. To paraphrase, how does one successfully engage when shooting people on your travels?

Before I attempt at giving some kind of answer to this question I need to make clear that the success in this often is more determined by your character than your photographic abilities. Some people naturally are engaging and have the kind of personalities that draw people to them. They have a charisma or warm disposition that instantly makes people feel comfortable in their presence. The difference between a good and bad portrait photographer or any photography with people for that matter, is often how they interact with their models and get their muse to feel at ease in what could potentially be an uncomfortable situation.

The pressing of the camera button is the easiest part in fact. It is how you get there that counts.

Having said that there are various techniques to get your Nepalese monk or Turkish fisherman to show you his (or her) best toothy grin.

Different cultures and people have different ideas about being photographed. It is often very important to be sensitive to these differences and to research this before visiting a new place. I am not of the school of doing what ever it takes to get the shot even if it means making the person angry or compromised in achieving your goal. I  believe that the best emotions and reactions come from getting some kind of consent from your subject (I am excluding documentary style shooting from this where you are less involved in what is happening with your subject). Back to my original point, if you know that the Thai people for example, feel you steal their spirit when you take a photograph of them, then be sensitive to this and take some time to communicate before lifting the camera to your eye and build a report with them. Look at taking images of people as a currency that needs to be reciprocated. By them allowing you to take their image, you can at the very least pay them the respect back.

Luck and a little good timing may be on your side but if you don’t have the time then don’t expect the best portrait!

You would be surprised what you can achieve with a little patience and effort. Everyone wants to feel that they are somehow special, so when approaching into their space and say there is a language barrier in asking them permission for taking their portrait, use universal gestures like pointing at your camera, smiling and gently pointing at them as if asking permission. And being humble all the time, knowing that if they refuse you will walk away. They after all are doing you a favour, not the other way round.

If you are shy and you would rather drop your camera into the sea then go up to someone and ask them permission to photograph them then there is the long lens approach. While it gives you a comfortable distance to zoom into someone’s face and isolate backgrounds with more shallow depth of field, it won’t get the expression that you can get by directing or interacting with someone.

Having an assignment often gives me the courage to go up to strangers and explain what I am doing. If you are shooting a travel story on a city and you explain this, often people will oblige as they feel that there is a purpose to you taking shots of them sitting in a park or giving life to an otherwise deserted street scene. If you mention the title of the magazine or client this also may help. The psychological difference for you as the photographer in this situation can‘t be downplayed. You have a mission and an editor somewhere is depending on you for these images. It is a great motivator to get into the thick of things and make friends. The obvious advantage to this is that you can arrange visits to key places where waiters, staff and even customers will be prepared for your arrival and will eagerly pose for the story.

Often, especially here in Africa, children love their pictures to be taken and will go out of their way to pose for you. This has happened to me and I made good use of this to create a wonderful series of bright smiley children. Often showing them the image on the digital display can go a long way to show them gratitude for their enthusiasm.

To sum up, try to take some kind of control of the shot, even if it is making the person aware that you are there. We have all tried do the ‘get your friend to pose but really take a shot of the interesting lady behind’ trick. But these are always un-rewarding and something has to be cropped off the image. So be in control and take ownership of the shot. Go and ask the person or people you would like to take a picture of if they wouldn’t mind, you never know you may get a very favourable response with more than satisfying results. The worst thing that can happen is that they will say no and you have at least tried. It is a case of those that dare win.

Last month we spent 4 days in studio creating a library of images for Sasko to use in their marketing campaigns. The brief was very much inspired by the look and feel of the gorgeous work by Katie Quinn Davies featured on her blog What Katie Ate. The idea was to produce individually styled images that could be used together or alone and that hinted at the product rather than be glaringly obvious. Jules Mercer sourced unbelievable props and backdrops and prepared all the delicious treats we shot, we could not go wrong! I have said on a post before that you MUST surround yourself with brilliance.

We had a great 4 days with the agency and client and I was really happy with the end product!

Cedits:

stylist: Jules Mercer

agency: Saatchi Cape Town

client: Sasko SA

location: Wembley Road Studios

We spend a lot of time and energy trying to acquire new clients and spend less time looking after and keeping them around. Photographers, just like so many others in business, are in the service industry. And I don’t mean just in producing magnificent images for our clients but all the stuff that goes around taking pictures. I started out naively believing that all I needed to do was produce unparalleled images and they would come running and never leave. Yes, it is very important to have a superior product to compete in the creative market place but no it is not enough!

Everyone and their aunty is a photographer.

The digital age has changed the playing field forever! It has in effect narrowed the gap between photography professionals and Joe with the latest DSLR; the barrier to becoming a ‘professional’ photographer is almost non-existent.  In the days of film, one generally invested in medium format camera or top of the range SLRs. Costly Polaroids or contact sheets to check exposure and composition were the only back up. Film and processing costs as well as portfolio prints and that ubiquitous black leather porty case all cost dollars to produce and tested your commitment. Today with minimal investment required, the digital camera has made it all accessible and the web has made it free to present your work to the world. And the result of this all is that there is so many more people for your clients to go to for photography (most of them not having to leave their day jobs).

My message to professionals is not one of gloom though and am not suggesting packing it all in but rather to use this as an opportunity to differentiate and stand out. Your work is one way to do that but you will need to market and add value to your offering like never before to keep those interested parties well, interested!

The days of photographers being prima donnas are over.

I remember working in Paris as an art director with top photographers who had paid their dues and now were on the top of their professions. They had 4 assistants and when the first assistant had pulled the polaroid, the photographer would walk in, look at it, move a light and walk out again. Those were the days!

Not to say that there isn’t a small cadre of photographers in the world who are not larger than the subjects that they are shooting but for most of us mere mortals we need to be good partners to our clients. I’m not suggesting for a minute that we must give up our creative integrity because that is sure death, but to listen and collaborate with them. You need to make sure they are looked after. Everything from making sure the music playing in the studio is likeable to having good coffee to offer. The experience from the first call you make to the time you hand over the images must be one that is considered positive in general. You won’t get it all right but the take out must be positive!

Add value.

Make it difficult for your client to leave you! Offer your creative input on a campaign sometimes before it gets to the shoot. Ask if you can sit in on the brainstorming session if the agency has asked you to quote on the job. Be careful though as you don’t want to start doing the art director’s job and stand on anybody’s toes. So be proactive but not annoyingly so and your level of sensitivity will be your guide on this. Be part of the creative team and not just the last step in the production. Another example, I have a good network of people around me that I can call upon from stylists, assistants to retouchers and lighting suppliers when a job arises and in a fairly short turn around time put a production together. This clear advantage to my client gives them peace of mind that the whole shoot is taken care of and that you are working with a team of people that has worked together before. I am in this case more than a photographer, I become a mini agency!

Communication and reliability is also crucial. There are many photographers out there but as a ‘professional’ photographer you need to make time for preproduction meetings, be at the other end of the phone or at least email, and make good on timelines and deadlines.

The truth is you need to shoot and schmooze!

You have to be good with people to a large extent too. People like working with people they know and like (sometimes regardless of the quality of the work).  You do need to make effort with people and spend time schmoozing a little. If this is not your thing then it takes more of your energy but a little will go a long way and it needs to be genuine as much as possible. I must add that don’t expect loyalty from clients and you will not be disappointed. I have mentioned before to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket and not to depend on one client no matter how big. Also don’t expect to get on with everyone. Sometimes you just gel with a client and with others, no matter the quality of work, there is no connection. This also applies to stylists and art directors.

Showing that you genuinely care about your work and the clients’ objectives will help form bonds. Offering your time to chat or go and recce locations, that may be beyond your duty, will mean so much to them. You need to go the extra mile! Your current clients, assuming all went well on the shoot, have already formed a relationship with you. This is a great foot in the door and opportunity to turn the relationship into a long term one.

Don’t play the price game!

A piece of advice that I learned from another photographer once was not to compete on price and make low fees your added advantage. Sure if they are on a tight budget or they are good clients you can negotiate but be careful that you are not just the cheapest! The clients often perceive your worth this way too and will not give it a moments thought to look at other portfolios next time a job with a bigger budget comes around. The flip side to this is that you shouldn’t milk them dry either. Rather price yourself fair and keep them coming back.

So with the slow down in ad spend and the closure of magazines, the mind blowing number of images flying around on the net, a smaller client base with interesting budgets and a ton of competent photographers out there vying for the job, you need to be holding on to your existing clients with all the heart you have.

I have always had a fascination for spaces and people’s places!

When I visit someone’s home for the first time I always feel the desire to walk around their whole house. Just like the shoes a person wears, It gives one a good insight into their personalities, well almost!

I started my career shooting decor and interior photography and still enjoy it even though I seem to do less of it now. One of the rewarding aspects of shooting spaces, is that it usually belongs to or is the product of someone’s work, be it the interior decorator, architect or the home owner themselves who are very proud of it and are delighted that here you are with your camera giving it the time of day.

There is a definite art in capturing and representing the feel of the space to someone who has never been there before. Sometimes you have to capture this with a single image that will accompany a small article in the entertaining or travel section of a magazine or you will have 6 to 8 pages in a main decor editorial piece.

Often I have the luxury of being accompanied by a decor stylist who besides bringing flowers and props like books, cushions, throws etc. will help to order a shot and often remove what is not needed or clutters the frame. This is huge win when you have to shoot the bed and the all too often discussion arises: do we leave it pristine or give it the just-slept in look? Often the idea when shooting a home is to represent the way the home owners live and there fore not to bring too much from out side and misrepresent their taste but to rather isolate the essence and key pieces of a home. If it is a decor story for example say on bathrooms or reception areas or interesting lights then often the stylist will source the different items to tell the story. Here the space is almost the back drop to your story rather than the story itself.

The client or magazine that you are shooting for will also dictate the style of shooting. An architectural story will be more about the lines and space while a paint story will be more about the walls and colour. Likewise House and Leisure have for a while now introduced people and lifestyle into their interiors so kids or dogs playing or an adult opening the fridge will be integral to the shoot while Elle Deco may just want more cutting edge design spaces with out people. This too will dictate what happens to the bed I mentioned earlier.

When I used to shoot for Real Simple magazine we had prescribed angles that we could shoot as set out in their guide lines. It was designed to be more graphic with straighter lines. So we had the option of shooting straight on, classic three quarter or from above.

Angles and light:

Daylight is again my preference when shooting interiors. It simply looks more natural and gives a better indication of how the light passes through the space. This does present some problems however. The light differential is often more than 4 stops different from outside to indoors. This means that when the property agent asks you to shoot the Clifton beach cottage and make sure to get the sea and bathers through the windows, easier said then done! Our eyes are amazingly designed to read a much larger dynamic range than film or camera sensors. What would read as a correct exposure inside typically reads greatly over exposed outside. When shooting outside in, what looks right outdoors with the same exposure reads dark indoors. The obvious solution when shooting interiors would be to expose more for outside and lift the indoor light artificially with flash thus balancing the light more. However, you will soon realise that this alters and detracts from the interior light and all mood is lost.  My only solution, dare I say it,  for this is to shoot multiple exposures, a correct one for inside and a darker exposure for out the windows and comp them together in post. Or to tell the property agent to take the pic himself!

I must add here that if you are going to comp then leave the outside brighter and a little more over exposed compared to the interior or it will look false and we have seen this all too often, yich!

I like to keep mood in my interior images, call me romantic but it elicits more emotion and wonderment then lights all on and shadows filled in.

Unlike a controlled lighting set up, buildings have windows sometimes in the wrong places. We as photographers have to work around an existing structure with light sources sometimes coming from behind us which tends to drop off quickly giving dark far walls or the opposite where we have to shoot directly into a window and can get nasty flair. My solution to this(and sometimes it is unavoidable) is to walk through the space and work out how many shots you have to take and what direction the sun will move through out the course of your shoot and plan accordingly. If you want lots of bright sun pouring in then follow that through the house. if there is a room with out windows or is independent of the light outdoors then shoot it when your out side light is not in the correct position for anything else.

Also, if the house or space is dark and moody then reflect that mood in your images by creating enough light to expose the detail of the room but don’t crank up the exposure to make it look like a sunny loft!

I have a pet hate for lines that are not straight! My previous medium format film camera, a Mamiya RZ, on its tripod was a magnificent interiors camera with lenses that never distorted unless they were ultra wide. With digital SLRs the lenses and slightest movement will throw the horizontals and verticals out. The trick is to keep the back of the camera parallel to the back wall as much as possible. When you start shooting high and angling the camera down or shooting low and pointing it up the lines will distort more. I have a little spirit level that fits into my hot shoe to help me gauge my camera’s angles. It is a small thing which I find helps a ton.

I try not to use a wide angle lens for interiors for the same reason but sometimes this is unavoidable when you are in a tight spot and need to get a lot in to your frame. If you can move back and use a longer lens then generally do that. I try not to shoot wider then 50mm but often end up at 35mm correcting distortion in post again. I do miss medium format!

When shooting an interior, try and put yourself into the shoes of the viewer of the images. If you have enough pages and shots of the space and you want to capture the flow of the space then shoot connectors. What I mean by this is shoot a room with a piece of furniture or a door that appears in another shot from a different angle so that one understands how it all fits together. Also fill the frame with interest. If the building is quirky or different show that in the images. Remember people are voyeuristic and want to get a glimpse into how other people live and work.

Often a good detail shot can tell more about a person then a full room. It also makes for good layouts to have some pull back images together with close ups.

If you are introducing people into your shot you have to be careful with their movement unless that is what you want. Often i am shooting at 1/4 of a second on a tripod and while a still life study will all be crystal clear the Jack Russell probably will not. If you can get the person (or dog) to sit very still or even introduce a little beauty dish balanced with daylight to up the shutter speed then good. Just be careful that when you introduce artificial flash that it looks natural and is more of a fill then a key light.

Often, interior or decor stories require a portrait of the home owner or family/kids. The trend has moved away from formal poses to them interacting with their environment. It is important to take control and direct this and not try and get something spontaneous. You need to recreate spontaneity!

Exterior shots are best left for good times of the day like early sunrise or near sunset. Again be aware of converging lines and being too close to the facade. You want to show the exterior lines and dimensions so get to a point where you can build context but not with too much distortion, generally speaking.

My last point on this post is that you will find that you will be asked to photograph a space that doesn’t appeal to you. It can’t happen that you like everything you shoot. There are too many different styles and people in this world with their own taste for you to be in-amid with it all. It is up to you as a professional to extract the beauty to the maximum and do justice to that the person who has designed it that way. Sometimes you will walk in and not be able to get a bad angle while other times you will have to dig deep.