Who or what influenced you to get into photography
I was always “the art kid” in school. I could draw and I loved everything about art. But I also liked doing science projects and working with chemistry sets, etc. When I was a Junior in High School I discovered photography… wow, you can mess with chemicals and make art at the same time! I was totally hooked and decided at age 16 that I would be a professional photographer some day.
Where do you get your creative inspiration from?
In addition to doing a blog for fun, I work as a commercial photographer. I easily confess that much of my work is quite derivative. I see things I like and I decide that I will incorporate that style into my own style. Sometimes you can just stumble onto a technique, but most of us gather inspiration from looking at what other people have done before us. I make no apologies for that. I love going to museums and looking at art. My wife and I tend to take our vacations in large cities rather than going to the beach for relaxation. Big cities are where they keep the art. And by the way, looking at a beautiful print is not the same thing as looking at it on the Internet.
What type of camera do you use most and do you prefer digital or film cameras?
I started shooting long before the digital era so I used film for many years. I have used every film medium from 4×5 sheet film on down. I got my first serious digital camera in 2000 and never looked back. To me, film is now a historical medium. When people tell me that they prefer film because of some esoteric quality they get out of it, I ask them why they stop at film…. why don’t they get some glass plates and coat them with egg whites and silver solution like Matthew Brady in the Civil War? He did some great work like that. Have you ever seen a daguerreotype? I mean a real one (not a tintype) on a silver plate that has to be viewed in a darkened room with special lighting? The quality is astonishing. Daguerreotypes are very, very difficult to make so not many people do it. Digital is faster and easier and allows one to get incredible results so that you can shoot and refine your work over and over. Digital has so many advantages and few disadvantages… personally, I’m not looking back. I paid my dues in the darkroom smelling acetic acid.
Most of my blog work is done with a tiny little Fuji F100 pocket camera. There’s an old saying “The best camera you own is the ONE YOU HAVE WITH YOU.” The quality of the F100 is great and it does very, very good macro work and I always have it in my cargo pants. I also use Nikon DSLRs in my work. I use a D300s most of the time, and I also have a D700 which I break out when I want to get shallow depth of field.
What is your next planned equipment purchase?
I keep meaning to get a Fuji F200 but the F100 is still too good to put on the shelf. I just bought a super-cheap Opteka 800mm mirror lens just to fool around with. The quality of the lens is crap but I’ve never owned a really long lens before and I wanted to play around with one just to see what I might or might not like about it. For $179 I can experiment without feeling like I’ve wasted much. If I decide I like having a super-telephoto I may invest in a good one.
What do you see as the next evolution in digital photography in terms of trends and new products?
Who knows? I’m constantly amazed at the continuous march of better quality and lower prices. The $600 dollar DSLR you buy today is a better camera than my first DSLR for which I paid $5000. HDR photography (high dynamic range) is so popular, I keep wondering if camera manufacturers will somehow incorporate this technology into the hardware.
Could you share a favorite recent image you took and tell us a little about it?
Let’s look at some of my “fun, bloggy photos”, rather than my commercial work.
These are two images made on the same day. One was shot from the car with a $300 pocket camera and one was taken with a $2000 dollar camera body and a $700 dollar lens. Which is “better”? They are different, but they are similar in subject matter and both are pleasing. On my blog, I say “it’s not about the camera”. Of course in some ways it’s always about the camera, but what I mean by that is that you can do good work with just about any camera, you just have to work within the limits of what the camera will do. I can take incredible macro shots of fruit with my little Fuji F200, but I can’t shoot basketball with it. I would never even try. If I concentrate on what the camera can do, I can always do good work.
What are you favorite websites or blogs that you frequent?
I follow Joe McNally… http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/ I’ve taken seminars from Joe and I’ve emulated his work for years.
I depend on DPReview for info on new and upcoming equipment. http://www.dpreview.com/
I listen to several podcasts on the TWiT network to keep up with ever-changing computer technology. Photography and computer-tech are merging into one thing. http://www.twit.tv/
Any advice or tips for someone wanting to become a photographer or to improve their photography?
The best way to improve your photography is to shoot more. Back in the days of film (ancient history), we all longed to be “that guy” from National Geographic or whatever (insert deep-pocketed client) who could shoot roll after roll of film trying to get just the perfect shot. If we could have afforded it, we’d all shoot hundreds of frames trying to perfect that one best shot but we needed to budget our film carefully. Perhaps we’d allow ourselves to shoot 5 or 10 frames of one setup (10 frames was a third of a roll that would cost around 10 dollars for film and processing). In the digital age we’re all “that guy”. There’s absolutely no downside to shooting more, yet I still see amateur photographers shooting one or two or five shots of a given subject. Five shots is just getting started. Work the subject. I don’t care if it’s a fast moving ballet dancer or a green pepper. Work the subject. Shoot from all angles… try lighter and darker… try different color balances. Try everything you can think of. This is never more important than when shooting people. If you shoot 100 frames of a person, one of those shots will have the absolute best expression and usually it will jump out at you when you are reviewing the photos. How many times do you think the best shot is the first one? Hardly ever.
Also, look at more photography. Go to museums… buy books… study the greats.
Regarding “becoming a photographer”. This is a very interesting question. First of all, there are all different kinds of photographers… being a wedding photographer is very different from being a magazine photographer or an advertising photographer. When people say to me “I love photography… I wish I could make a living at it”… I question them and advise them on different routes into the profession and what I often discover is that people aren’t really interested in the actual profession of photography. What they want is to shoot the kind of things they already like to shoot and get paid for it. That’s not likely to happen.
Shooting assignments is a very different thing from just going out and taking pictures for yourself. If you are doing it for fun, you choose your subject and if it doesn’t work out, you just throw away those shots and move on to something else that might work better. If you are assigned to shoot a particular thing, be it a fashion model or a piece of industrial equipment, your job is to get something good or at least something the art director can use. This is why photographers have so much equipment. If I’m shooting a scene of a couple dining in a restaurant, what do I do if the lighting sucks? I go to the car and get my own lights and I light it myself to make the light interesting if not spectacular. The client needs this to be great. This may not be what I’d shoot if I were just shooting for my own amusement or for an art exhibit, but this is the kind of thing that people will pay good money for. A professional is someone who can deliver good, usable shots… every single time. A professional also needs to be able to work with a client such as an art director who has specific needs. The photographer may want to shoot something a certain way, but if that’s not what the client wants, you need to shift gears and not complain about it. If that pressure doesn’t appeal to you, just keep doing it for fun. There’s nothing wrong with that.
If you are doing photography for fun, I still think it’s important to have an outlet where it can be seen. Start a photo blog, or plan to have an art exhibit. If you are working towards a goal of showing your work, you’ll quickly get more serious about it. At the very least, join Flickr (flickr.com) and share your work that way. Flickr has many groups where people who have a passion for certain types of photography can band together and learn from each other.
Rick Lee has worked as a professional photographer for more than 25 years. He was staff photographer for the State of West Virginia’s Division of Culture and History for six years. After that, Rick started a commercial photography studio specializing in advertising illustration, corporate-image and architectural photography. His work has appeared in many national and regional magazines. The majority of his work comes through the top advertising agencies in the region, serving business and industry with a special emphasis in health-care marketing. In 2005, he started a photo-blog as an outlet for his personal photography.
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