So the new skill that I’m adding to my list of skills is Real Estate photography. And this might be the toughest one yet. My photography enlightenment started when I was photographing my watches and going to car shows with my parents. A small Canon point-n-shoot I borrowed from my friend and my venture into photography began. I was lucky enough to have a co-worker that was very studied in photography and mentored me along my way. Years later he’d even give me his 35mm Canon Elan IIe camera when he left for Seattle. I tried to learn as much as I could from him but it was mostly how photography worked. Not much on the creative side because that’s learned on your own. You learn your style, your eye and you develop that over years and hours of practice.
I wish I would have picked up photography back in Jr. High when I was offered the option of taking the class. My family, not having a lot, I didn’t pursue it but looking back now as much as my Dad spent on all the film he shot, I should have. So I didn’t get into photography until 2003 with this small Canon camera, the a80, which I still have. Once people saw my images from car shows, they wanted me to take pictures of their cars. So in late 2005, I had my first photo shoot with a few of my VW friends and my new Canon Rebel 300D. That’s where I began photographing my friend’s rides and scouting out locations to shoot and learning my style. So many of those locations are no longer around. But it was a blast and I made several lifelong friends and connections. My first publication was in May of 2008 with my friend Ross’ VW GTI in EuroTuner. After that came out, I start honing my skills and adding on more shoots. Later in the year, I photographed my first wedding and that was stressful! I’d never shot a wedding before and wasn’t sure what I needed to do. So I focused on what I what I wanted to see and I got some amazing images. I even had to learn quickly how to use an external flash before the wedding. Another skill that I’ve had to really learn how to use and has helped me produce some of my most famous images.
I never shied away from learning something new, I read books and blogs and asked questions about skills that I wanted to learn. I was never scared to try something and practice it till I got it right. Since painting with light was a new thing to me, I knew that I had to learn how to use light to make the picture. I was laid off from my full-time job in November of 2007. I was still paid until the end of the year and even received a really nice severance paycheck at the end of the year. So I didn’t need to find a job quickly and I focused my time on photography and looking for a job in the field. It wasn’t until May that I was hired on at Lifetouch, photographing Seniors for their yearbooks. I loved the job and did it for two seasons. I learned so much about how to use light to make an image. I learned all the different lighting styles and my photography took another step up, another skill added to my list. I applied my knowledge to my car photos, wedding photos, and portraits that I started doing outside of my job and advanced my skills further. I’ve learned photography is about 60% knowledge and 40% creativity. You’ve got to know how to produce the image you envisioned. You have to know how the light is going to act in the bright sun, the dark nights and how to apply it to get the results that you want. A creative eye isn’t enough to produce a great photo. When driving downtown around noon, you get to see these rays of light beaming down on the ground. It’s the perfect light. It’s soft but bright and sometimes it has an amazing color to it. It’s sunlight bouncing off the skyscraper windows. Every time I see them I wish I had a camera and a subject to photograph. And I’ve done it before. In several of my car photos rolling through the streets and even in some model portraits that I’ve done. You don’t have to have the equipment to produce the light you just need to know where to look for it.
Now that I’m adding Real Estate photography to my skills, I’ve learned it’s a very precise art form. If you take a photo that is 1/2 a degree off, the human eye can see it. So you have to make sure that you have everything perfect. Which is something I’ve never really done on my other types of shoots. I’m hoping that learning this now, I can apply it to my other shoots and better my photography overall. All other photos are loose, they don’t have to be as ridged. I’ve only been at it for 3 weeks now and I’ve got myself watching my angels and camera positioning while on shoots. There are certain positions that you’re supposed to photograph a car or model so you get the best view of them. And trying to make an image perfect isn’t the best way to make your subjects look best. So learning a new skill and learning when to apply it, is two skills in one. So half of your learning is learning the skill and half is when and where to use it. So never stop learning and every mistake is a lesson and a chance to learn the right way to do something.
“Once you stop learning, you start dying.” Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955)
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