Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It’s Friday so it’s Q&A Friday once again. These are questions sent in over the past week that we’ve chosen to answer here. Details about Q&A Friday’s are below after the question and answers.

Question: Since the market for photographers in South Africa is not that big, where in America do you think is the best place for a young photographer? Do you think New York is the best place to start or somewhere else? Or should I rather look towards Europe as a place to start a career in photography? These couple of questions are so important to me so please please try to reply if you can. Thank you very much for your help. - DL

Answer: That’s a very hard question to answer. I wouldn’t normally recommend someone starting their career in New York unless you plan on being an assistant for a couple years first. NY is not the kind of market the average person can just jump in and make a living right away. If you’re an insanely talented shooter whose work really, really stands out then you could pull it off.

The question also greatly depends on what kind of work you want to shoot. NY is big for advertising and fashion. But, as an example, if you were an outdoor lifestyle shooter, then it would be a terrible place to get started. Somewhere like the West Coast of the U.S. would be a great place to start a career like that.

Where you live greatly matters when you’re first starting out because at first you will only shoot in your metro area. Once you get to a certain point years down the road it matter less where you live because bigger clients don’t really care where you’re from as long as you can get where you need to be for the shoot.

Sorry but I don’t have any experience with how the European photography market is.

Question: I noticed you mentioned getting an alien bee for lighting…Would you recommend it and their triggers over say a “speedlight” and pocket wizards? I mainly shoot wedding/portrait work so would the “speedlight” be a better option for quick portability and moving it? Im looking at options for a good lighting setup but inexpensive..not cheap quality though? - JU

Answer: If you shoot weddings I highly recommend speedlights over strobes for two main reasons. The first is the issue of power. When you’re shooting a wedding or any other event, you can’t be running power cables all over the place. There are strobes that can run off of battery packs but they’re extremely heavy and cumbersome.

The other issue is that of metering. When using a speedlight the camera and flash talk to each other TTL (through the lens) metering. That means when you attach a flash to the camera the camera tells the flash exactly what power to fire at. This gives you a proper exposure most of the time.

With speedlights there is no way for the camera to tell the strobe how much power to use. Therefore you have to manually meter to get a proper exposure. This is pretty much a ridiculous idea when shooting events. You can always guess and maybe get it right, but then if you move into a darker room back up, etc, your exposure will be off again.

I recommend either Radio Poppers or the new Pocket Wizard Flex system to maintain TTL control while the flash is off the camera.

Question: I have always thought I wanted to be a graphic designer until I picked up a camera when I became a photographer in the US Navy. If I recall correctly you did graphic design as well? I remember the visual reserve days a little. Do you have any suggestions for someone who is passionate about making this transition from design to photography? - SJ

Answer: Being a graphic designer is a great precursor to becoming a photographer. Many of the principals are the same. If you want to make the transition to being a photographer I would ease into it. Keep doing your design and start shooting on the side.

When I was doing both I would use a lot of my photography in my design work. Any design project that i was doing, if it were at all possible, I would shoot what was needed myself. That kept me shooting a lot even when someone wasn’t paying me to do so.

Another thing I did was to leverage my existing design clients and turn a lot of them into clients for my photography business. This gave me instant clients when I went full-time with my photo career.

Also, make sure you learn all that you can about the artistic, technical and business sides of photography and the photo business. You don’t  want to be just a “guy with a camera.” You want to be a well-trained, well informed person who takes the job as a photographer seriously.

It’s Friday so it’s Q&A Friday once again. These are questions sent in over the past week that we’ve chosen to answer here. Details about Q&A Friday’s are below after the question and answers.

Question: You have said for a photographer starting out to shoot everything and anything. You would rather see someone shoot something free then someone shooting something for a hundred dollars. At what price does a image have a valve. - FN

Answer: There are two things here. First, when you are starting out as a photographer you usually don’t have a specific vision for exactly the kind of work you want to shoot. So with that in mind I tell those starting out to shoot anything and everything so they can get a feel for the kind of work that excites them and they’re good at.

As you get more and more practice and established you’ll need to narrow your vision down a lot to be known for shooting a certain one or two genres of photography.

The other thing is my comment on pricing. To me when someone offers to shoot a band for say $100, it worse than offering to do it for free. In my opinion when you charge say $100, you have then put a value on that photograph. You have just said that photo is only worth $100.

But when you shoot something for free, there’s no perceived value attached to it. The person knows they’ve gotten a huge deal. To them the value could be $1,000 or more. I’m not advocating shooting for free or for cheap. I’m just saying be careful about charging to low. You don’t want people to put a low value on your work and photography in general.

Question: I’ve looked at your videos, your images, and interacted with you on Facebook and email.  You’re such an unassuming person, so where does that creativity come from?  Do you psych yourself up or turn it on before a shoot?  How do you mentally prepare for a shoot? -LS

Answer: First, thanks for the compliment. Sometimes I do get very nervous before a shoot and sometimes I show up knowing I’m going to kill it. Just like golf, your success in photography is greatly determined on your mental state. You have to psych yourself up sometimes.

For me I put on some good, loud music, pray to God and just put myself in a good frame of mind. I also try to do as much pre-planning/production for the shoot as possible. There’s no worse feeling that showing up to a shoot knowing you’re ill-prepared. I’ve done that a few times and God has always come through for me, but it is hard on your nerves.

As for the creativity, I walk around life being inspired by every little thing. Some people walk by buildings, cars ,women, fashion, trees, etc. and merely see “things.” I see beauty and inspiration. That’s what it takes to be a successful artist of any kind; to see beauty in the everyday, ordinary.

Question: Lighting intimidates me. After attending your workshop last year and experimenting with pocket wizards, I would like to start taking steps into the world of lighting. So, what do you suggest I begin with? I mainly shoot portraits and weddings. Thank you. -S

Answer: I would begin with some inexpensive strobes from Alien Bees. They are the absolute best in their cheap price range. I would start with just one light and an umbrella or softbox. Don’t try to get fancy, just use the one light. I would say 70% of my portraits are shot with one light.

There are many sites dedicated to learning lighting. One is strobist.com. But I would say the greatest/quickest way is to find a photographer in your area and assist for them. Assisting is a sure fire way to see lighting in action in real world situations.

Also, some photographers, including myself offer private instruction in lighting.

Question: I’m a college student that is going to be graduating soon. If I’m going to start a career as a photographer of any kind, preferably a commercial photographer, where in the world do I start? -B

Answer: I’m going to answer this with some of same of the advice I gave the person above. As soon as you graduate find a photographer who’s work you respect and offer to assist. Even if you have to do it for free, you will learn more in 6 than you did in all of your schooling.

Once you’ve done it for free for a short time and proved yourself, seek paid assisting positions. IF you find a photographer who’s willing to actually teach you some things as you assist. Be assured most will.

Besides that I recommend building up a portfolio of personal work that relates to the type of commercial work you want to shoot. For example, if you want to shoot fashion, get some models and go out and do some shoots with the mindset that you’re actually working for a real client.

Once you start building up a portfolio you can then take it around/show it to the types of clients you want to work for.

Besides that, try your best to learn and pay attention to how the business side of commercial photography works. It’s a complicated world sometimes. As a primer on pricing I would pick up the book “Pricing Photography.” Best to you.