It’s been almost two years since I’ve had an opportunity to shoot gymnastics, and I forgot how difficult it is. Everything moves far too fast to get what I want in one take. (Shooting this event for OSU’s Student Multimedia Services)
I’m working on a series of multiple exposure illustrations of athletic events. Go Beavs!
OSU Pink Out, 2013 – Uneven Bars, Makayla Stambaugh
OSU Pink Out, 2013 – Beam, Kelsi Blalock
And here are some favorites from the night:
What a happy Valentine’s Day it was. An experimental photoshoot with a fog machine, and an awesome, powerful garment design by Keith Nishida, made almost entirely from soda can tabs. Crazy! But soo cool. Easiest model to work with: Jamie Cheung. She gets the vote for best smile.
Fog Machine: hooked up to an car power inverter, and then to my car battery… I also had to buy a service vehicle pass to park so close to this area. And I went around to as many offices nearby with windows to warn them about the smoke… I don’t like when police arrive because they think you’re starting a fire…
Photo Credit: Vinay Bikkina
My friend and assistant for the day, Vinay Bikkina (vinaybikkina.com), helped me out tremendously.
Two speedlights, one rim light from behind, and one soft box from front/side. Our pocket wizard sync cable was missing! So we had to set up the Nikon to trigger the lights (hence the on camera flash position)… not ideal, but it works in a pinch.
Photo Credit: Vinay Bikkina
And there you have it. Great day… testing out new techniques and working with great people.
Final images:
Why do professional photographers cost so much?
Photographers hear it often. Sometimes they even hear an audible exasperation during an over the phone quote. Something like, “That’s outrageous!” A little ashamed to admit this, but I’ve said it too—back when I was an inexperienced amateur with a shiny new camera, telling my friends, “I’ll do it for 20 bucks!” But, I was really only worth 20 bucks, and that was the quality of work my friends received. While it may seem like an insult to have someone question your hourly rate (because they indeed are judging your worth)… don’t get upset. Don’t take it personally. They might not understand what goes into professional photographer’s work. Here’s a breakdown for those who’d like to know…
Here are some typical numbers I see (many are outside of this range, example: really high-end photo studios in Los Angeles…):
Wedding photographers: 6 hours of shooting, $1000 to $3000
Portrait session: One hour, $75 to $300
Food or product photography: One hour, $150 to $400
Fashion photography: One hour, $200 to $500
Sports or other event photographer event rate (2-3 hours): $300-$500
Wildlife photographer/underwater photographer or other specialized: $400-$800 day rate plus per diem.
But many variables… location, turnaround, danger, where the images are used and how often, etc.
Personal equipment (not rented or borrowed) ranges from $10,000 to $20,000. More if they use studio lights, backdrops, etc.
Conservative estimates:
Professional camera body: $2,000+
Professional camera lens: $1,000+
(Specialized equipment, let’s say perhaps an underwater housing and ports: $3,000+)
Accessories like sync-cables, backpack, flash cards, strobes, stands, soft boxes, etc… more $$
Editing software: $$
Cleaning supplies and repair: $$
Camera insurance: $$
And keeping up with technological advances feels like a seemingly endless amount of $$
1 hour – phone, discussing assignment, quoting, collaborating, planning shoot, light factors, location, specific requests, etc.
1 hour – Preparing and cleaning gear, charging batteries, sorting and packing essential items, reformatting cards, etc.
(If applicable, 1 hour renting equipment)
(If applicable, 1 hour hiring/training assistant)
30 minutes – of travel time
1 hour – Shooting.
30 minutes – more travel…
1 hour – Downloading cards, archiving on hard-drives, (sometimes metadata, keywording, etc), and Editing.
And more time for compiling on DVDs, uploading files to a server, and delivering the data to you.
(A really detailed editing job, the kind where we remove blemishes, stray hairs, nose gunk, yellow teeth, baggy eyes, etc… Not to mention, color correction, tone mapping, saturating in all the right places, cropping, resizing, dodging, burning, and so much more… add time. Most photographers I know are very particular about their images.
So let’s say about five hours for your one hour shoot. A “one hour” shoot at $100 is essentially $20 an hour.
Some photographers are certainly worth more than others. Equipment. Efficiency. Proficiency. Personality. Experience and expertise ranges greatly. Some are great at weddings. Others are great at fashion. Sports. Food. Portraits. Some are good at many. But all of these skills take practice. So much practice. Classes cost money. Tutorials cost money. But most importantly, our time costs money.
Gas is expensive.
For those who are self-employed, tax is an extra 6 percent.
For those who print, (and if you’ve ever replaced your printer cartridge) you know well that ink is expensive.
This is important. We’re competing with everyone else, because almost everyone else has either a consumer DSLR, an iPhone, a point and shoot, and everyone seems to love taking photos. But there are only a few who make a living from this art. And we’d like to continue our profession. We see great photos from amateurs all the time—but that’s because there’s a million amateurs taking a million photos every second, they’ll get a good shot once in a while by pure odds. Professionals are about consistency and craft. Unfortunately we see this regularly… a family friend shoots a wedding for $200, and the images look terrible. No one says anything, because it was the family friend. Meanwhile, the professional keeps getting undercut.
Let friends practice their photography for you. But if you can, try to hire more professionals, and fewer friends.
She’s an anxious dog, our newly adopted rescue, Sierra. She wishes you all a happy New Year!
This was meant to be a gum print for an alternative process experiment.
Can I ask for a do-over? Not the best game I’ve ever seen, plus the rain… Here’s a few images to tell the story of UO dominating OSU.
A future famous writer -
Meet Adam Michaud, MFA candidate at Oregon State University, and friend. Well known for his patience while photographers scramble to fix unrelenting technical difficulties, East Coast native Adam enjoys long walks on the beach, playing Catan with fellow graduate students, and creating poetic and uncanny representations of his classmates.
Had the pleasure of shooting OSU’s volleyball vs. CAL this weekend. Sadly, we lost. But NMC student and OSU basketball player Roberto Nelson tagged along with me. He’s a quick study – I give him a few tips and he went around shooting his first volleyball game. A few of Roberto’s photos at the end…
And some great shots from Roberto Nelson:
Images from the Oregon State University vs AZ State game on October 3, 2012. Images not in chronological order.
OSU vs AZ State
Blog is up! Not that I really have much to say here yet. But here’s an article that came out today… It feels silly, but it’s still a small rush to see my work published.
Full Text at: http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/confluence/1-3/ocean-literacy
