My Photography Journey (so far)
Where it all started
I have always loved photographs and
was under the impression that if I bought myself a fancy camera the logical
outcome would be great pictures. In 2010 I had saved up enough money to buy
myself a brand new DSLR camera (that was the good news) but other than being
able to switch it on, I had no idea how to use it (the bad news). To my dismay, I realised that there were an awful lot of buttons, dials, and switches that I
had no idea what to do with, and so I opened up the user manual. After trawling
through the first few pages my head started to hurt. There were all these fancy
words, descriptions of things I had never heard of: f-stops, focal points, and
depth of field - it felt like I needed a user guide for the user guide! Feeling
more than a little intimidated I snapped the user manual shut and phoned a
friend of mine, he was a photographer in his spare time, and I knew he would
help me.
He advised that the best way to learn
was 'to do' and recommended I spend some time with other photographers. He instructed
me to join a camera club, and so I searched for the nearest club in my area.
The rest, as they say, is history. I
learned how to operate my camera, but more importantly, I learned how to feel
the moment and create a photo rather than just snap a picture. Initially, I
started out taking photos of family and friends but soon found myself dubbed
'the official photographer' for a wide variety of events.
Some of my earlier work:
 |
| This photo of mine made it to the front cover of a magazine :) |
The studio
In 2011 I decided to invest in my
own studio equipment. Of course, I was reminded (yet again), that owning the gear versus actually knowing what to
do with it were two totally different things. I remember standing in the shop
nodding at whatever the salesperson told me. I had no idea what it all meant,
but after paying over what felt like an awful lot of money, I eventually drove
home with a couple of strobes and a backdrop. With a bit of trial and error, I
eventually figured my gear out, and, have been blessed to have photographed
mommy's-to-be, newborn babies, little children, models, families, and couples in
my small studio. Although I have been privileged to have photographed numerous
events at a wide variety of interesting and unique venues, my little
studio remained my favourite place to be.
Of course, life gets in the way every
now and again and for a couple of years, my photography took a bit of a back
seat. What with work, training for marathons, and other commitments, I didn’t have
(make?) the time for the one talent of mine that has always brought me immense
joy.
The funny thing was that photography refused to take a total backseat in my life. Somehow, the connection that I had with a camera has stayed alive. Nowadays the smartphone cameras deliver excellent quality pictures, and, if you follow me on social media, you will know that my travels are usually accompanied by heaps of pics (mostly taken on my phone). Regardless, my DSLR camera has refused to sit unused in its big black bag. Be it the odd random request for a studio session, a wedding here and there, or occasionally a family shoot, clients continued to contact me.
Sadly, the gear I’d used the least
in more recent years had been my studio equipment.
The global pandemic forced me to
reflect on many things, and one of the ways that I have coped with the many
restrictions placed on my life has been to declutter our home. [As an aside,
this was only a good idea in theory. In practice it was exceptionally tedious,
since cleaning out one cupboard had a knock-on impact, resulting in my tackling
every single cupboard in our house.] My studio equipment came under scrutiny
during this process, and, just as I decided that I had no need for it, guess what
happened?
Yep, exactly! I received a request (actually a lot more than just one) for
a studio shoot…
Sigh.
‘Can’t get rid of that stuff I suppose’,
I decided with a shrug.
Those who are familiar with
photography will know that this art is all about light. If your lighting isn’t spot
on in your studio, then it follows that your pictures won’t be either. For a
good number of years, my studio had frustrated me. I’d see the photo that I
wanted to create but never seemed to be able to get it quite right with the
equipment that I had.
Let me be clear, I’m not knocking my
gear, it has worked hard over the years, lighting smiles and capturing many precious
memories. The problem is never the equipment, it is mostly always how you use
it. My frustrations were mostly based on the fact that my style had evolved since
2011. My little home studio just didn’t have the functionality to cope with
what I wanted to achieve as a photographer. For a while, I tried to convince
myself that I didn’t need a studio. Natural light photography has become
increasingly popular of late, which (if you get it right), almost completely
negates the need for studio equipment. Whilst I enjoyed working with natural
light, I didn’t appreciate the fact that the sun (or lack thereof) held my
photoshoots hostage.
Use it or lose it
Recently (as in a few days ago recently),
I had what I think is sometimes referred to as an “A-Ha” moment. This was perhaps
attributable to my decluttering of the house, or maybe due to photography’s refusal
to take a back seat in my life (I’m still not sure).
The crux of the matter was I concluded
my studio equipment had no place tucked away in a cupboard. My thoughts were
clear - dithering about the matter was no longer an option, if it wasn’t what I
needed, then I should sell it, or else I should use it. Either way, something had
to happen.
Just ‘getting rid’ of the gear didn’t work
for me – I loved studio work. What I didn’t love was that my gear was unable to
do what I wanted it to. And so, in typical Zoë style, I consulted Dr Google
and started researching the available technology
Go big or go home
Like most things in life, once one
bites the bullet, the process becomes so much easier. With a clear idea in my
head of what I needed to buy, I put a budget together, contacted the supplier
to make sure I hadn’t missed anything during my laborious trawling of the
internet, and consulted with the hubby (his opinion matters a lot to me, and I didn’t
want to go off on a tangent if he thought my idea was nuts).
With buy-in from the hubby, confirmation from the supplier and armed with my credit card I made the trip to CameraStuff (the store that stocked the equipment I had researched).
This time around, I had a much better idea of what I wanted and needed to achieve, which made the conversation with Pieter (the salesperson) so much more productive. It wasn’t long before my little car was loaded with boxes, light modifiers, and a PVC backdrop.
‘Remember you must put the softboxes
together, which can take a while’, Pieter said with a smile as he handed me the
receipt.
‘Sure, no problem’, I responded confidently
as I tucked the receipt into my wallet.
How hard could it be?
Once home, hubby helped me offload everything and
our living room soon looked like some crazy combination between a photography
studio and a cardboard box meets plastic bag explosion. His Royal Highness the
cat was unimpressed, he gave the boxes and gear a dismissive sniff, let out a
disgruntled MEOW and then sashayed
off to his (much more orderly and quiet) bedroom.
I won’t lie I was rather excited, it
had been a very long time since I had bought any form of photographic
equipment. I wasted no time opening up the box of one of the three lights. I
plugged the cable into the light and went in search of an adaptor for the weird plug at the
end of the cable.
Right, first problem. We had only
one adaptor that would accommodate the plug, and I had three lights.
Undeterred I used the one adaptor I’d
found and switched on the light. It came on (good start), and was very bright.
That’s where light modifiers (softboxes) came in – the harsh light needed to be
diffused. By way of modifiers, I’d become the proud owner of one largish rectangular
softbox, one small octobox, and another enormous octobox. Recalling that Pieter
had cautioned that the softboxes needed to be put together, I decided to start
with the smaller octobox. I soon understood why he’d indicated the process took
time.
 |
| Finally! |
Bearing in mind that there were eight
of those long spines, and the loops are really
really tiny - it was an exercise that required surgical precision to insert all
the spines into the correct loops and manage
not to poke one or both of my eyes out in the process.
By the time I was done, it was late afternoon.
I contemplated the small explosion in the lounge and elected to make a cup of
coffee before tackling the tidying that needed to be done.
Expect the unexpected (especially around me)
Whilst I waited for the machine to
finish brewing, I decided there was no need to rush to resolve the issue of
finding two more adaptors for the lights, and constructing the remaining light
modifiers. There were at least two weeks before I needed to use my studio - plenty of time to put everything together and figure out how it all worked.
Right. Since when did anything ever go
according to plan?
I had just sat down at my spot at our
bar when my phone pinged announcing the arrival of a text message. Noticing
that the message was from an unknown number, I took a sip of coffee and opened
it to see what the person wanted.
“Hi Zoë, a friend forwarded your
number to me. When can you fit me in for some professional photos for my CV?”
There was a bit of back and forth, and
then…
“How about 8am tomorrow morning?”
I choked on my coffee and stared at
my phone. The message clearly warranted a response.
“Sure that can work, no problem” I
sent back, mentally smacking myself over the head.
I checked my watch - 4pm, there was an
hour before the shops closed. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. 'Time to
put your big girl pants on’, I whispered.
Fortunately, my mom was aware I’d
purchased new lights and had volunteered to be my guinea pig and model for me “some time”
before my next scheduled studio shoot. It was time to expedite that plan and
rope in reinforcements.
I sent her a text message - “Crap. I
have a booking tmw at 8am in the studio”, and went in search of my car keys. Once in the car, I called her to explain my dilemma in more detail. The last thing I
wanted was to put someone in my studio with new, untried equipment. Enthusiastic
as always, mom agreed to model for me that same evening to allow me to figure
out the lights.
I had a long list of items to tick off
my ‘To-Do’ list before she arrived, which meant the hunt for adaptors, whilst
necessary, could not be a long one. Fortunately, I found adaptors at the
hardware store and was soon back home busying myself with the blasted softboxes.
 |
| Setting up the lights |
I’m still
not sure how, but the studio was mostly set up by the time mom arrived. There
was the small matter of operating the lights, but I delayed thinking about that
until I absolutely had to, and, helped mom with her makeup instead.
Once we
got to work, I was amazed at how easily I was able to operate everything. It
was weird actually, almost as if I’d owned it all for years. What I enjoyed
most was the upgrade to the lights meant once I’d set it up, I could spend my
time focused on the model in front of me, instead of faffing with the
equipment.
In spite of the huge rush to put the studio together, mom and I really had a blast during the photo shoot, and I absolutely loved how her photos turned out. Check out a few of our favourites:
Eventually,
after what had unexpectedly morphed into a very long day, I switched the lights off and went
to bed. All the effort had been worth it, I was confident I could tackle my scheduled shoot for the following day.
Here’s what I’ve
learned:
- If I don’t use something – figure out why not and address the
real issue
- To-do lists don’t have to take a long time, sometimes a
little pressure is the best way to tackle onerous tasks
- The best memories are borne from impromptu situations and a
willingness to embrace what life throws at you
- Although there are many definitions of “photography”, I’ve
come to understand that for me photography is about celebrating the soul of the
person - in my opinion, that's where the magic lies.
“I didn't choose photography, photography chose me”
- Gerardo Suter
Have you read my book yet? by Quickshift Publishing, Running in Heels is available on Amazon and in good bookstores. Alternatively, check out my website, sign up for my newsletter.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment