David duChemin's Blog, page 3

What’s the That?

After the start of my course, The Compelling Frame, there were some good questions and excellent conversations about the lesson on Intent. I thought I’d clarify it in the discussions we were having, but I’m going to post it here because I think it might be illuminating for a larger audience.

I want you to imagine you and I are walking in the woods together. We’re both paying attention to different things, both sharing the same activity but having our own different experiences. We round a corner and you say, Wow, look at that! Or perhaps we’re on a seashore together, walking back to the parking lot. The sun is going down and you turn to look at the waves once last time and you have a similar reaction. Wow! Look at that!

I turn to look. The trees. The waves. I see, well, I see a lot of things. What is the that that you’re asking me to look at, to react to. In the case of the forest, is it the bigness of the tree, the autumnal colours, the toadstools at the base of the tree? The rare bird on the branch? The light streaming in through the leaves? Back at the shore, is it the line of storm clouds coming in? The light peaking just under those clouds and dancing across the water? Is it the backlit spray of water as it thunders up and over the rocks on the short. What is the that to which you’re reacting, and which you seem to want to share with me?

“That” is our vision, or our intent, on an image to image basis. If you want me to see or react to something specific in the scene, you’re going to have to do more than just say “look at that.” Because I’m going to turn and see a lot of things, and what draws your eye at first might not be what draws mine.

“Look at that!”

“What, the frogs?”

“NO, not the frogs; THAT!”

“The cloud that looks like a frog?”

“NO! What is it with you and frogs? Look at THAT!”

“Is it BEHIND the frog?”

“Cheese and Rice, duChemin, what’s your problem? Look at the way the light is coming through the trees and illuminates that group of flowers!”

“Ah. Why didn’t you say so?”

“I thought I did.” ( fidgets in pockets, mumbles something about leaving something back at the car, wanders off. )

We often think we’re being more specific than we are. And while this is only one of several kinds of photographic vision, it’s the one to which I most often refer when I teach, as intent. The camera doesn’t know, any more than the rest of us, what it is you’re pointing at. You have to know that. And the more clearly you know what the photograph is really truly, deep down, about, the more able you will be to choose the framing that gives best expression to that. Or the lens. Or the exposure. Or the shutter. Or any one of dozens of choices that will help you interpret that for me.

Because most of us aren’t just saying “look at that!” We’re giving others a chance to see through our eyes and to think or feel something about the thing in question. It’s not “look, see what those flowers look like?” Because we’ve all seen roses. We know what they look like. What we’re really saying is “Look, see how red those roses are?” or “See how powerful that storm is” or even, “See how fast that horse runs.” These are simple examples. But the question I’m asking when I prod you about vision or intent, is this: is it enough that you make a photograph OF a rose, a storm, or a horse, or are you really after a photograph ABOUT the redness of the rose, the power of the storm, or the speed of the horse? Don’t just show me what you see with your eyes, show me how you think or feel about what you see.

Vision can be a bigger thing. But practically, it’s just this: why are you raising the camera? What – specifically – are you trying to explore or express? Is it a contrast between light and dark that caught your eye? A moment of joy? A peculiar thing? Then show me, through the decisions our craft makes possible, that contrast, that joy, that peculiarity. Show it to me as clearly as possible. And where possible, because we can only point to so much in a photograph, eliminate what doesn’t help express “that.”

An example. The image at the top of this post (RSS readers can see that image here) is OF a bear and a waterfall. But it was also ABOUT the patience of the bear in his context. Just waiting. Watching. I wanted some sense of the passing of time and tried hard to show that with the blurring of the water. So I chose a slightly wider framing to include his environment, and used 1/8 of a second to blur the water (handheld around 600mm, thank you Image Stabilization!). If this had been about the power and speed of the bear catching a fish I’d have framed it tighter, and used a much, much faster shutter. The look on his face mattered. If I what I was trying to say was “Look at the patience of this bear fishing” I wouldn’t choose a moment when he looked up at raven in a tree. Even the choice of black and white enforces what I’m trying to communicate, because tonally I’m connecting the white of the bear and the white of the river. They are, if only symbolically, one.

That’s all I’m mostly getting at when I talk about vision. What are you pointing at, and why? Show me how you see them, not just that you see them. Yeah, I see the flowers, but what about the flowers? If it’s the colour, you’ll expose it one way and aren’t likely to render it in black and white. If it’s the shape and the rim light around the edges you might underexpose it, cutting out so many of the details, but making the shape really clear, and the colour might not matter at all.

Without a sense of what the image is about, or what you intend with the image, regardless of how others will eventually read it (because we have ultimately no control over that) we’ll have nothing to do but fumble about, looking for a starting point, grasping for a technique, guessing at settings and framing. We might do that anyways. Do we always know immediately what that is? Often not, and it’s the camera that helps get us there. But it does get us there if we’re asking the right questions, and making a lot of sketch images. One of the best questions we can be asking is “What is the that?” – it’s another version of “what am I trying to say?” or, “what is this image about?” or, yes, “what’s my intent or vision for this image?”

Share this Post, Share the Love.

 

Change How You Make Photographs.

Today’s the day you’ve been waiting for! For some of you it’s the day I finally stop teasing you about The Compelling Frame. For some of you it’s the day I finally stop talking about it. If you’re among the first, then you’re in luck! If you’re among the second group, I’m sorry to say you’ve got another week to go. Why? Because enrollment in The Compelling Frame will only be available until September 20 and then it closes for at least another year.

Learn More About the Compelling Frame

This is the composition and visual design course I’ve been working on for the last 6 months – on one hand it’s really different for me – I’ve never done anything like this or anything this big – but on the other hand I hope it’s what you’ve come to expect from me – great education, free from rules and platitudes, with one goal in mind: to make you a stronger photographer.

Briefly – because I explain it way better on the dedicated page I’ve created to show the course to you – The Compelling Frame is a 19-lesson course designed to help you better understand visual design and composition, specifically how we use those to create more captivating, more powerful, photographs.

“I would recommend this course over and over to anyone wanting to know how to strengthen their photography and create more compelling images. I have taken a lot of courses over the years and David’s material truly goes above and beyond to walk you though each step so that you can clearly see the possibilities in a whole new way. I continually refer to the material and have a new sense of inspiration and excitement with my own work again. Thank you so much David!” ~ Rachel Nielson, Salt Lake City.

In addition to the lessons, all of which include video, written elements, Creative Exercises, and my Study the Masters section, there are also 4 additional About the Image videos, 2 Craft & Creativity videos, copies of my eBooks, Making the Image and The Photographic Story, and a free one-year membership to The Vision-Driven, my new mentoring community.

The Compelling Frame is going to change how a lot of people make photographs.

Take a moment and watch this brief video that explains this exciting course.

This course comes out of my desire to go deeper. My book, The Soul of the Camera also came from that desire, from a dissatifaction with the way I was teaching, and the knowledge that I could be pushing a little harder, being more thorough, and going deeper on this subject than I’ve gone before. I know I talk a lot about vision, but it’s occured to me that we can have all the vision in the world but if we don’t know how to express it, we’re no closer to making the kind of photographs we’re all capable of. I hope you’ll give this course a fair chance.

“This course will change how photographers think about their craft and the art of photography; it would be a tremendous value at double the price! You’ve invested in all the gear. Take a fraction of that and invest in yourself as a photographer. It will change the way you make photographs and you’ll love the results.”~ Ian Enright, Calgary.

I’m especially excited about The Vision-Driven. My hopes for it are that it will become a place where we can actually talk about our photographs – not a place for atta-boys and shallow praise. Anyone that utters the words “Great Capture!” will be symbolically shot on sight.  And it’s not a place for unkind criticism and some of the bullshit that internet seems to attract like flies to, well, to bullshit. It’s a place where we can connect, talk about images, get real, helpful feedback, learn to critique images and hone our visual language skills. And the only way to join is to be part of one of my MentorClasses, like The Compelling Frame which comes with a free one-year membership, or to take one of my MentorSeries Workshops.

“This course was addictive. I was eager to dig into each lesson, and then found myself even more motivated to study the masters, look at my past images with a critical eye, and discern my intent as I’m shooting in the field. I have never been so inspired to spend time with an online course. Invaluable!”~ Karen O’Hern, Denver

Enrollment in The Compelling Frame is open now and will close on September 20 at 23:59 in Vancouver. It won’t re-open again for another year and when it does it won’t be offered at the same price. For less than what it costs to do a one-on-one image review with me, you can get in on one of the most robust learning opportunities I know how to give you. I hope I’ll see you there. To enroll now or get more information about the course and all the bonuses, check it out now at TheCompellingFrame.com but don’t wait because it’s open for one week only.

3 Ways to Start Seeing Better

This is the final of three videos I’ve made to introduce you to the course I’m releasing next week. The Course is called The Compelling Frame and I’ll give you a sneak peek at it in this video. The video is about learning to see because while we’re exploring making stronger photographs with composition and visual design I think it stands to reason that we can’t compose what we haven’t seen in the first place.

Watch video 3, Three Ways To Start Seeing Better Now.

Next week I’ll be opening enrollment in The Compelling Frame. You’ll get the usual marketing stuff from me about it and I hope you’ll consider joining me for the course. If you read this blog then you get me pretty unfiltered here so let me say this about as off-the-record as I can be: this course matters. It’s big and while it costs more than most opportunities I offer you I believe it’s also worth much more. I’ve worked my ass off on this, which is neither here nor there to you, but it’s taken me 6 months to create and between the course itself and the bonus materials and the offer to join The Vision Driven mentoring community, I think it’s pretty special. If you’re on my mailing list I’m going to be a little more present in your inbox over the next two weeks than I normally am. Thanks, in advance for your patience.

I like to think I’ve earned your trust and that you know I wouldn’t offer this, much less put my name on it, if I didn’t think it would change your photography for the better and make your life a little richer. I can’t wait to show you this! I hope you’ll join me there. But even if you don’t, check out the video because it all starts with learning to see!

3 Ways to Improve Your Compositions Now

Last week I put up a video about Making Images That Connect. This morning I’ve put up the second video. If the first video was about the need to make stronger images, this is about how we begin to really do that. It’s not a long video and it’s not a full-on course in composition (that’s coming!) – but doing these three things will help you begin making stronger photographs, and you can do them now, and they won’t cost you anything or require new gear.

Watch the 2nd Video, 3 Things You Can Do Now to Improve Your Compositions

I mentioned this last week but I’m  trying something new, so when you go to watch the video it’s going to ask you to make sure I’ve got your email address, so when the next video – 3 Ways to Learn to See Better –  comes out I can let you know.   For subscribers I’ll be sending this video to you in The Contact Sheet as well today, so you can get there through that link without having to enter an email address. If you don’t get the Contact Sheet, giving me your address will do that for you, and you can always un-subscribe. 

Enjoy the videos! If you didn’t see the first video, Making Images that Connect, you can see that here.

How To Get Known: Part Three, My Story.

In a world where the opportunities to share our work with a growing audience have never been so vast, it’s easy to get paralyzed and to approach that audience less than intentionally. Over the past 12 years I’ve found an incredible audience for my work – both images and words – and in this last of three episodes exploring the subject, I want to tell you how I got here and what I’d do differently now.  This is an edited transcript of my YouTube show, Vision is Better, Episode 70, which you can watch here, or if you’d rather, can download as an MP3 here.  If you missed them, you might want to read/watch/or listen to Part One and Part Two of this series about sharing our work and getting the word out there.

Twelve years ago I left a 12 year career in comedy and came back to my first creative love – photography. At the time I knew two things – I wanted to do humanitarian photography and I wanted to teach. Those two desires became my north star and both of them required an audience. In the one case that audience was people who would follow my humanitarian photography and work with me – giving me opportunities to do what I considered – and still consider – a calling, and in the other it was people who would listen to me and invest their time and eventually their money, learning from me. Knowing that made it easy. I already had a blog that gave me an outlet to discuss my re-immersion in photography. So I started there.

I started posting my work and telling stories about my travels on self-funded assignments, and talking about the lessons I was learning as a photographer new to digital photography and humanitarian work. I blogged consistently and my blog grew. Very. Slowly. I commented on other people’s blogs, I interacted. I guest-blogged. I submitted images to places I thought I might get a feature. And my blog continued to grow.

I did podcast interviews. (The secret: you find podcasts you like, and you email the hosts and introduce yourself. You offer them something of value – usually, you know, an interview) And more readers came. But I wanted more – I wanted to do this as a career and I felt like I was off to a late start. So on the strength of a small but growing platform I connected – through other photographers I’d met – with industry leaders – companies like LowePro and Lexar and Gitzo and I asked for sponsorships which mostly meant I got some free stuff in exchange for writing articles for them which they then published and linked to my blog. It was a Win/Win and their audience became my audience.

You gain credibility one step at a time and with that comes exposure and slow growth. All this time I was relentlessly learning, and sharing my work. And I was connecting with everyone I could find that was either in the humanitarian / travel / documentary space or the teaching space. As a sidebar, if I don’t mention this I know someone’s going to leave a comment that says, sure, but how do you get a sponsorship? Like I said last episode – you figure that out. You find the right person by a series of emails. You introduce yourself, you tell them what value you believe you can offer them, and you have conversations until you come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Every deal is different and while I don’t do sponsorships these days, they’re just like any other collaboration with other human beings. You have something they can use (or you don’t) and they have something you can use – often it’s an exchange of audiences – I introduce the camera bag maker to my audience and share their excellent camera bags, and they introduce me to theirs and share articles about making better photographs. And your audience grows as people connect with what you share.

At the beginning maybe your audience is small but if your work is good these potential sponsors or partners might still want to be associated with it in which case what they get out of this is the ability to say “look at the talented photographers using our gear” implying there must be a connection between the two, a reason you chose their stuff over another.  In my case I was also giving them a way to connect to the good that I was doing through my humanitarian projects. That’s valuable.

Every opportunity in my life has come from a conversation at some point. So I had a lot of conversations. They often started with comments on blogs. But they grew. And once in a while I found the courage to reach out a little more. One of those was with Scott Kelby. We’d interacted a couple times on the back-end of our blogs and I liked him and sensed he was pretty open with “little people” like me, so I emailed him and asked if he’d let me buy him lunch and pick his brain about a book idea I had. He said yes, a friend bought me a plane ticket to Florida because things were super-tight and I couldn’t afford to do it on my own, and Scott graciously listened to my ideas and eventually introduced me to his editor. 10 books later, some of them best-sellers, and here I am.

(A sidenote: this all still seems so surreal to me. Many of you know me because of the books, so to you I’m a known author and of course I have books. But to me, I’m still just a little guy doing what he loves, who worked hard, failed a lot, and lucked out. And that can be your story too. Of course it can. So don’t write this whole thing off as “well of course it works for him – he’s made it.” Not true. This is how I got here.)

Each of my books has helped me grow my audience. Each one opened new doors to me and gave me new chances to share not only my writing but my photography. In that 10 years things have changed, blogs readerships across the board have declined significantly, while other media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have grown dramatically. Each new media brings with it a chance to interact with your existing audience, and to grow a new one. Some won’t fit you or your goals – like Snapchat for me: not at all a fit. But others will. I continue to learn and to experiment with new media and see if there’s a way to use it to introduce new people to what I do. Some work. Some fail. That’s life.

Here are a couple of the mistakes I’ve made and they’re the same ones I see others making.

Don’t mistake consistent broadcasting as interaction. Engagement is a two way street. I’m still learning this because I’m not naturally a super-social person but if I had to choose between doing three posts a week with no real effort and no time spent on interaction, and one post a week but leaving time to reply to emails, send happy birthday wishes to followers on Facebook, or replying to comments and questions on Instagram or YouTube, I’d choose the latter, for sure. Engagement is key to keeping people’s attention. Remember it’s about connection. And I don’t mean pretending to care. I mean genuine caring. Genuine connection. If you can’t do that, don’t try, because you can’t fake this kind of thing. There are so few people out there that truly give a shit so the more you care, and show you care, the more connections and the deeper the engagement.

Don’t lose focus. Even knowing what I really wanted to accomplish I was a little bit all over the map at times and it’s only in the last couple years that I have begin to understand the real value of not only sharing but sharing with real focus: focus on the kind of work I am sharing, and the kind of messaging I’m putting out there. Related to this I also allowed myself to get too comfortable and to take my audience for granted. That’s not a good thing.  There was a point a couple years ago where I just got so busy with other things and I think I just expected my audience to be there when I got back.

On a day to day scale I suppose there’s nothing wrong with this. I drop off for a while every now and then because I need it and the world’s not out there wringing its hands waiting for me to post again. But I wish I’d been less flippant about it. And when I stopped mailing it in, I found my engagements were more meaningful AND my work got better. I found that because suddenly I cared much more about my audience, that my desire to really serve them – really create strong stuff for them – went through the roof and I think out of that came my best books – A Beautiful Anarchy and The Soul of the Camera. With better work, more authentic work – as well as getting off your ass and promoting that work – comes more exposure and a growing audience.

Don’t Neglect Making, and Connecting with, Your Mailing List. The third thing I paid attention to later than I wish I had was a mailing list. This is not just for people that want to do this professionally, or “sell” something, though it’ll seem more immediately applicable. When you post to social media you rely on that platform and on FB serving your content to your audience. It’s passive. And there’s nothing wrong with that but it leaves the control in their hands not yours and God help us, if FB or Instagram or YouTube went under or got hacked or changed their terms of service – that could leave you disconnected from your audience.

Email is still one of the best ways to stay in touch with your audience and while not everyone will read what you send them, the engagement can be really high, and in your control. I didn’t get intentional enough about this fast enough. Find a way to connect with your audience and give them some reason – remember, it’s all about value – give them some reason to trust you with their email address. I let this slide for a couple years too and my emails got less personal and very corporate and full of slick marketing stuff and “buy my ebook” and that’s fine because I believe in the resources I create, and this is part of how I make my living. There’s nothing wrong with that. But lately I’ve gone back to sending much more personal emails, articles that exist just to serve, to teach, and to make people’s lives richer. And yes, once in a while I offer one of my books or tell them about a new resource, but that renewed engagement is way more human, way more concerned about the people on the other end of things, and my engagement is going way up. I’m getting thank you emails in reply to my bi-weekly emails to my audience. People are copy-pasting and sharing them on Facebook.

This kind of  reaction leads to the most fundamental marketing “tactic” of all – word of mouth. We all talk about word of mouth but we don’t really believe it. If you get really intentional about the kind of work you want to make, and allow that work to find it’s best audience and then you serve that audience relentlessly, people will tell people. Why? Because social media can be very un-social and the people that actually give a damn are pretty rare. And when you’re rare and you stand out and you give more than you take, people take notice. They open your emails. They engage and share and like and comment and subscribe. Forget the tactics – connect. Serve. Be intentional about the value you bring to this world. Then be creative and persistent.

I hope this series has been helpful and has given you some ideas. This week I’m heading north toward the Alaskan border to spend a week with spirit bears and whales and some friends – all of whom, by the way, I met in some way through my blog or social media and a willingness to use those media to connect with others. I’ll be back soon. In the meantime, if you’re not already getting my emails, go to MyContactSheet.com and the first email I’ll send you will have links to four of my best-selling ebooks, yours free and with my gratitude. Thanks so much for being part of what I do. Now get out there and make something beautiful.

Making Images that Connect

If you’ve been around here a while you know I’ve been on a bit of a tear about the importance of composition in making images that connect: images that do more than just get a like on Facebook or Instagram. And I’ve been around long enough to know that this is the big hurdle of most photographers – sure, we can master focus and exposure pretty quickly, but using those – and all the other elements and decisions at our disposal to make great photographs – photographs that connect and captivate? That’s a whole other story. So I’ve put together 3 videos to discuss and explore this. The first of these videos is available today and the next two will be out in the next two weeks – and once you watch this one I’ll email you as soon as the next two get posted.

*If you’re already on my mailing list and getting The Contact Sheet, you’ll have already received an email from me today – just follow the links in that email and you won’t have to enter your email again.

In this first video I address the big struggles that many of you shared over the last few months as I’ve tried to understand how best to teach composition and the creative and visual designs skills we need to master as we learn this craft.

Watch the first video, Making Images that Connect, now.

 

How to Get Known: Part Two

Last week I started a conversation about “getting known”, or finding an audience for your work and if you didn’t see read that post – or see that episode, you might want to take a couple minutes to do that first because those ideas are foundational this article will be more helpful to you if we’re on the same page. If you’d rather see this on YouTube, click here. If you’d rather listen to this as an MP3, you can download that here. Enjoy.

OK, so you took some time to ask yourself what you want to get known for, why you want to get known in the first place, and to what end. That’s your core. Keep coming back to it because I promise you’re going to get sidelined once in a while. You’re going to get distracted by numbers and discouraged by others. Go back to The Fear and the Hunger, if you need a little re-calibration. Now I want to change the way we talk about all this stuff, I want to redirect the language we use and re-frame the question to  this:

How do I find and connect to a growing audience for my work?

Here’s the simple answer: do your best work and find as many ways to get it out there as possible. In my experience the people asking this question haven’t done a thing. They haven’t submitted to major awards, to magazines, to popular blogs, they haven’t been intentional about their Instagram feed or their Facebook page. And I think mostly it’s because it all feels so – fuzzy. Go back to the questions we asked in part one again and again until you have a sense of what you want to share with the world. All of this is about that. Next, consider the following questions. These aren’t steps and there is no formula, but how you answer these questions and put them into practice is way more valuable than a 3-step process.

One. It is all about value. None of this is about what you can get. It’s about what you can give. It’s about value you bring to the table. So what do you give? What’s the one thing you want to leave as a legacy? Do you want to inspire people? Great! But inspire them to what? Do you want to educate them? Make them laugh? Motivate them to change? Challenge their ideas? Do you want people to stop killing sharks, or fall in love with puppies, or be inspired by your travels? All of these things are first about the audience. Give them something. Know what you bring to the table in this world, know what you’re really good at, and really passionate about, and find a way to tap that to give a constant supply of that to the world.

Two. Tell a Bigger Story. We respond to deeper and bigger stories. If you want a larger audience, go more universal – that doesn’t mean get less focused. Actually, it means the opposite. Be more focused on something bigger than just making photographs. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, go all in on love stories. It’s not about your photographs. It’s about love. Is there anything bigger than that? I teach photography but one of the things I hear over and over from my audience is that what I write applies to so much more than photography and that’s because I’m really writing about life. Yes, I want you to make better photographs, but more than that, I want your lives to be richer, to be more intentional. I just think photography’s a great metaphor for that, it’s a good discipline to learn how to be present and alive. Find your bigger story. Go deeper on that. Your audience will find you.

Three. Authenticity and vulnerability are big words right now and I worry we’re using them so much they’re going to be meaningless, but for now let’s assume they still carry some weight. Putting your work out there is only as good as it is also putting yourself out there. The more real you are, the more open and honest you are, the more that work will connect with others. People hunger for authenticity and vulnerability because it’s rare and because it’s deeply human. Yes, be professional and no, don’t air all your dirty laundry on social media, but know that the more human you are in all your interactions, the less you use marketing talk and talk instead in terms that are real, and passionate – the more you’ll connect. And that applies to your photographs and any expression of who you are. Live deeply. Connect deeply. Make your art deeply. Make it unmistakably you.

“Give them something. Know what you bring to the table in this world, know what you’re really good at, and really passionate about, and find a way to tap that to give a constant supply of that to the world.”

OK, I had to get those three ideas out because they’re the big picture. Now, how, practically speaking do you “get known”? You did your homework, right? You sat down and asked yourself why you want to do this and what you want to get out of it? You asked yourself what you want to be known for? Now I want you to ask yourself one more question: who is your audience? Who are they? Are they other photographers? Are they wildlife people? Are they future brides? Car enthusiasts? Be as specific as you can. The more specific you can be, the better because everything comes out of this – you can’t speak to an audience if you don’t know who they are and what language they speak. If it’s not to other photographers to whom you speak then stop filling your Facebook feed with stuff only photographers care about. If it’s to people who love animals than give them pictures of animals and stories about animals and behind the scenes footage of you interacting with animals. If it’s brides-to-be then serve them – show them great photographs to inspire them, point them to great resources for weddings or list of great honeymoon spots. Focus. Don’t give them photographs of car races and your cats and what you ate for breakfast.

Now you know your audience – find them. Where are they? Which social media platforms do they prefer, which coffee shops, which galleries, which stores? Figure out where they gather – online or in real-life – and find ways to share your work. That’s the creative part, the problem solving part of all this – you’ve got to be creative about it. Immerse yourself in their world. Are they on Pinterest? Learn Pinterest and share your work there. Do they read Fish & Stream Magazine? Find a way to write or photograph for Fish & Stream, or Hot Rods Monthly or Modern Photography, or whatever. If they’re on a certain Facebook group, go there, interact, look for ways to serve them. Don’t “sell”. Don’t “network” – just be a human being in that space and find a way to share what you do. At this point I always get someone saying, “yeah, but how?!” Look, figure it out. Pick up a copy of the magazine you want to submit to and read it. They often tell you how to submit. And they always tell you who the editor is. Reach out. Ask questions. Be a human being and talk to them. Don’t sell them on something. Don’t pitch them. Ask them how you can be part of what they do, ask if you can share your work with them and see if there’s a way to collaborate. This is all human to human connection. Find out what they need and then find a way to meet that need.

Here’s the simple answer to this whole thing: you will get known as you put your best work out there in a consistent way, and as you connect to your audience. It will be different for everyone, but you’ve got to be there – sharing, giving, serving. You’ve got to be willing to learn new platforms if that’s where your audience is and if it makes sense to share your work there. You’ve got to be willing to learn how the world works in which your audience lives. Is it galleries? Don’t ask me, I don’t run a gallery. Go into a gallery that shows the kind of work that your audience enjoys and talk to someone. Ask questions. Take them to lunch.

Here’s what I think most people mean when they ask how to get known – they mean: how do I get discovered. You don’t. No one is scouring the internet looking for the miracle that is you, or me, just so they can tell the whole wide world about us. You do the hard work of putting your work – whatever that is – out there. Find your audience and connect with them. Connect. Connect. Connect. And at each point of connection serve them. Scratch their itch. Give them something. There is a world out there full of media – there are thousands of print magazines – to which of them have you submitted this month? Make a list of the top ten magazines and submit your work to one each month. There are hundreds of awards and competitions – some of them better than others – have you submitted your latest work for consideration? Make a list of twelve awards you want to submit your work to and do one a month. There are blogs out there for every conceivable audience – find them, do an interview with them, write for them, send them an email every two months and show them your latest project – find out what they need and help them with that. Collaborate with people that already speak to the audience you want to connect to. You don’t get known any other way than sharing your work with a small audience and then with a larger audience. Consistently. Relentlessly. And remembering that it’s about them, and serving. And connecting.

“Find your audience and connect with them. Connect. Connect. Connect. And at each point of connection serve them. Scratch their itch. Give them something.”

Alright, I’m going to leave you with one final thing. If you have no idea where else to start, then consider starting with a really well curated Instagram feed. Show work that’s personal, show who you are, be consistent. Take some time to look through some of the better Instagram feeds out there and ask yourself if yours could be more consistent? Are you really speaking to the audience you think you are, and being intentional about it? Is it your best work going up there? Some people don’t use Instagram for that – they use it as more of a sketchbook – that’s fine, but know that very few artists get known by a larger audience based on the strength of the work in their sketchbooks. If I looked at your Instagram feed would I get a sense that you knew who your audience is? Would I be able to figure it out based on what you’re serving up?

Do you get my newsletter, The Contact Sheet ? Sign up now to get articles, resources, and fresh inspiration you won’t get elsewhere and the first email you’ll get from me will have free download links to four of my eBook – Ten, Ten More, Drawing the Eye, and Chasing the Look.

 

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How to Get Known: Part One

This is an edited transcript of Episode 68 of my show, Vision Is Better, which you can find on YouTube here. If you’d rather listen to it as an mP3 file, you can get that here. 

For the next couple posts I want to look at one big question – a question that I’ve been asked many different times and in several different ways, most recently by Richard Rawlings who asked “How do you get known? How do you get noticed?”

We live in a culture that not only hopes but EXPECTS on some level to get noticed, and I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. If you do work you believe in, it makes total sense that you’d want that work to find an audience. But that very desire and the pursuit of it, can sabotage our efforts and our hopes. First I want to look at the big picture and see if we can get a little deeper perspective on the subject of finding an audience for our work. In the next post I want to get super practical, and in the final of three I want to tell you my story, how I got where I am – wherever that is – and what I would have done differently.

Okay, first, it’s entirely possible that too many photographers are looking to get known for great work before they are really MAKING great work. As a result they aren’t making the great work for which they’d get known. “Getting known” is a by-product. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be crazy intentional about it. But it would be unfair if I didn’t begin by suggesting we take Steve Martin’s advice seriously: you’ve got to be so good they can’t ignore you.

Of course that’s only part of the story, but it’s the first part and it matters. You might need to forget this whole idea of getting known – for now – and work on your craft. We live in a culture of instant everything and “getting known” has probably never been so important to us. But I think we’re aiming at the wrong thing. You’ve got to aim (first) at doing your best work, not getting known. If you’re looking for fans before you look for critics, it’s a good sign you’ve got an opportunity to get better at what you do. My suggestion: be relentless about seeking criticism. Be open to the idea that your best work is ahead of you. Take advantage of opportunities to have your images reviewed or critiqued by people you respect, people who have skin in the game and have a diversity of experiences. Soak it up. Be more concerned about learning and mastering your craft. The first step to finding an audience for your work is being relentless about making that work as strong as possible, and that will always be your first step. Everyday. For the rest of your life. Or for as long as you pursue this craft.

The second thing I’d like to suggest is that we’re asking an incomplete question because when you ask: “How do I get known?” my first question is: known for what? If your reply is, “well, for my photographs, dummy!” then you aren’t digging deep enough.  Everyone wants to “get known” as if that means anything on its own. What we’re talking about here is audience and the question we’re asking, reframed, is this: How do I get an audience?

That question can only be answered when you know what it is you want to say, because they’re linked.  I’m going to be more practical about things in the next article, but for now: ask yourself what you want to be known for – and be as specific as possible. What kind of photographs? What kind of stories or messaging or ideas do you want to put forth? What kind of experience do you want people to have? What do you want to give to the world? Be focused about this. I know we all think we’re the exception, the one person that can just shoot everything so well that focusing our work isn’t important, but it is, and we aren’t.

The third idea I think we need to consider is WHY? Why is this even a concern? I’m not asking rhetorically. Unless you know what you’re trying to accomplish, you won’t know how to get there. For me it’s really important that I have an audience, but the size of that audience isn’t important, though – like anyone else – it’s hard not to get discouraged when I compare myself to others. I don’t want a large audience of disengaged people – that’s meaningless to me. And because I know this it helps me determine how I do what I do – for example, I’m strongly opposed to any tactics that would increase my follower count simply to grow the numbers. I could buy my way to a million followers. Much of Instagram already does that. It’s meaningless to me because I do this for the engagement and for the connection and “followers” that aren’t invested won’t engage. I have nothing to contribute to their lives and I’d rather spend the energy on real people and real life. I have no desire to leverage my social media following for sponsorship so I don’t need big inflated numbers.

Now, if you do want to do that, then there are ways. But either way, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. Fame for fame’s sake doesn’t interest me. Being invited in some small way into the lives of others, helping them do what they love, making their lives richer: that’s meaningful to me. That’s what I want. So know ahead of time if you want numbers for numbers sake or if you want engagement. I’ll take engagement anytime because engagement is how you get impact.

What do you want? Is it just to get famous for the sake of being known by a whole bunch of people? I can’t help you with that. Some people make sex tapes. But if you want to get known for something of substance, because you have ideas to share or something to give to the world, then we’ve got something to work with. And if you’re thinking, “Man, I just want to get a lot of followers so I can make a ton of money” then I really can’t help you. I have no problem with admitting you want to make money, money can be a beautiful thing that makes a lot of beautiful things possible,  but in my worldview that only happens as a secondary thing, once you have something of value to deliver, some way to serve the people you hope will become your audience. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Do me a favour – go get a drink, put the coffee on, pull out your notebook and before you move on to the next article, ask yourself – and write down some answers to – these three questions:

Why do I want an audience? To what end? What will having 20K or 1M followers give me that I don’t have now? What opportunities am I really looking for? It’s probably not about the followers but about what having those followers means to you, what it can give you.

What do I want to be known for?

Am I creating work right now that reflects that? Am I really ready? You have one shot at making a first impression – don’t rush it.

Until you think about these three questions nothing I discuss in the next post is going to make a bit of difference. You’re asking me about a destination and how you get there. But unless you’re really specific about that destination then no amount of strategy in the world is going to help. We live in a time when “getting known” whatever that means to you in terms of scale, has never been easier – we have tools that no generation before us – for good or bad – has ever had access to, and with those tools come some incredible opportunities, but those tools will work way better for you if figure out where you want to go and why.

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How to Get “Known” – Part One

This is an edited transcript of Episode 68 of my show, Vision Is Better, which you can find on YouTube here. If you’d rather listen to it as an mP3 file, you can get that here. 

For the next couple posts I want to look at one big question – a question that I’ve been asked many different times and in several different ways, most recently by Richard Rawlings who asked “How do you get known? How do you get noticed?”

We live in a culture that not only hopes but EXPECTS on some level to get noticed, and I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. If you do work you believe in, it makes total sense that you’d want that work to find an audience. But that very desire and the pursuit of it, can sabotage our efforts and our hopes. First I want to look at the big picture and see if we can get a little deeper perspective on the subject of finding an audience for our work. In the next post I want to get super practical, and in the final of three I want to tell you my story, how I got where I am – wherever that is – and what I would have done differently.

Okay, first, it’s entirely possible that too many photographers are looking to get known for great work before they are really MAKING great work. As a result they aren’t making the great work for which they’d get known. “Getting known” is a by-product. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be crazy intentional about it. But it would be unfair if I didn’t begin by suggesting we take Steve Martin’s advice seriously: you’ve got to be so good they can’t ignore you.

Of course that’s only part of the story, but it’s the first part and it matters. You might need to forget this whole idea of getting known – for now – and work on your craft. We live in a culture of instant everything and “getting known” has probably never been so important to us. But I think we’re aiming at the wrong thing. You’ve got to aim (first) at doing your best work, not getting known. If you’re looking for fans before you look for critics, it’s a good sign you’ve got an opportunity to get better at what you do. My suggestion: be relentless about seeking criticism. Be open to the idea that your best work is ahead of you. Take advantage of opportunities to have your images reviewed or critiqued by people you respect, people who have skin in the game and have a diversity of experiences. Soak it up. Be more concerned about learning and mastering your craft. The first step to finding an audience for your work is being relentless about making that work as strong as possible, and that will always be your first step. Everyday. For the rest of your life. Or for as long as you pursue this craft.

The second thing I’d like to suggest is that we’re asking an incomplete question because when you ask: “How do I get known?” my first question is: known for what? If your reply is, “well, for my photographs, dummy!” then you aren’t digging deep enough.  Everyone wants to “get known” as if that means anything on its own. What we’re talking about here is audience and the question we’re asking, reframed, is this: How do I get an audience?

That question can only be answered when you know what it is you want to say, because they’re linked.  I’m going to be more practical about things in the next article, but for now: ask yourself what you want to be known for – and be as specific as possible. What kind of photographs? What kind of stories or messaging or ideas do you want to put forth? What kind of experience do you want people to have? What do you want to give to the world? Be focused about this. I know we all think we’re the exception, the one person that can just shoot everything so well that focusing our work isn’t important, but it is, and we aren’t.

The third idea I think we need to consider is WHY? Why is this even a concern? I’m not asking rhetorically. Unless you know what you’re trying to accomplish, you won’t know how to get there. For me it’s really important that I have an audience, but the size of that audience isn’t important, though – like anyone else – it’s hard not to get discouraged when I compare myself to others. I don’t want a large audience of disengaged people – that’s meaningless to me. And because I know this it helps me determine how I do what I do – for example, I’m strongly opposed to any tactics that would increase my follower count simply to grow the numbers. I could buy my way to a million followers. Much of Instagram already does that. It’s meaningless to me because I do this for the engagement and for the connection and “followers” that aren’t invested won’t engage. I have nothing to contribute to their lives and I’d rather spend the energy on real people and real life. I have no desire to leverage my social media following for sponsorship so I don’t need big inflated numbers.

Now, if you do want to do that, then there are ways. But either way, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. Fame for fame’s sake doesn’t interest me. Being invited in some small way into the lives of others, helping them do what they love, making their lives richer: that’s meaningful to me. That’s what I want. So know ahead of time if you want numbers for numbers sake or if you want engagement. I’ll take engagement anytime because engagement is how you get impact.

What do you want? Is it just to get famous for the sake of being known by a whole bunch of people? I can’t help you with that. Some people make sex tapes. But if you want to get known for something of substance, because you have ideas to share or something to give to the world, then we’ve got something to work with. And if you’re thinking, “Man, I just want to get a lot of followers so I can make a ton of money” then I really can’t help you. I have no problem with admitting you want to make money, money can be a beautiful thing that makes a lot of beautiful things possible,  but in my worldview that only happens as a secondary thing, once you have something of value to deliver, some way to serve the people you hope will become your audience. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Do me a favour – go get a drink, put the coffee on, pull out your notebook and before you move on to the next article, ask yourself – and write down some answers to – these three questions:

Why do I want an audience? To what end? What will having 20K or 1M followers give me that I don’t have now? What opportunities am I really looking for? It’s probably not about the followers but about what having those followers means to you, what it can give you.

What do I want to be known for?

Am I creating work right now that reflects that? Am I really ready? You have one shot at making a first impression – don’t rush it.

Until you think about these three questions nothing I discuss in the next post is going to make a bit of difference. You’re asking me about a destination and how you get there. But unless you’re really specific about that destination then no amount of strategy in the world is going to help. We live in a time when “getting known” whatever that means to you in terms of scale, has never been easier – we have tools that no generation before us – for good or bad – has ever had access to, and with those tools come some incredible opportunities, but those tools will work way better for you if figure out where you want to go and why.

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The Fear and the Hunger

The life of the photographer, or any artist, really, can be an emotional ride. It should be. We’re emotional beings, and if the struggle doesn’t make you want to laugh or cry, or both, on any given day, you probably need to check your pulse. I wrote this for the latest episode of Vision is Better but I know many of you aren’t YouTubers, so I thought I’d post it here in written form. Would you do me a favour and let me know, in the comments, how many of you would prefer that I give you written versions of my Vision is Better show? I won’t always be able to do it but if you’d rather read than watch, I’d love to know that. If you’d rather watch this, it’s on YouTube here, and if you’d rather listen to it, there’s an Mp3 here. Or just read it, the old fashioned way.

I am at a place in my career, and my life, that I never dreamed of. Some of the hardest work I do is keeping track of the details needed to run a business while I spend a month at a time in places like Italy, India, or Kenya, while juggling plans to swim with whales or sharks. That’s a privilege I never dreamt of.  I don’t say this to boast, though I hear myself say it and I feel like the luckiest man in the world. I have an amazing audience. I have work I adore. And yet almost everyday I scroll through Instagram and see other photographers with these massive followings or another gallery opening or a connection to some celebrity, and I think, I don’t have that! What the hell am I missing?

I forget their path doesn’t look like mine and I wonder briefly why I don’t have more “followers” Am I doing something wrong? I look at the photographs they are making and I wonder what magic juju they have that I don’t.  And I look at ever-changing business models and wonder how long I’ll be able to keep the fear at bay. And I wonder how many books I’ve got left in me, and what my next steps are, and it’s hard not to reach for a bottle of something or wonder if I shouldn’t be medicated.

I tell you this because I think it helps us all to know that emotional states like envy, doubt, or fear are not relative to what we have or how far we have come. They do not go away when you hit a magical but arbitrary milestone like publishing a book, getting a gallery show, or getting twenty-thousand followers. They still lurk. And yes, 20K followers on Instagram is more than most, and much fewer than many, and is a number about as meaningful as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin  – I know that – but it’s hard not to compare and feel like I’m not playing the game the right way. But I felt like this last year, too. And 5 years before that. It never really changes, and I’m not sure it’s necessarily even a bad thing: it’s a hunger. I still have it. And it still gnaws at me.

Last week I flew to Calgary to do sold-out lectures to celebrate the launch of my latest -and 10th- book; a book I couldn’t have conceived 9 years ago when this all began. And I’ve been doing lectures and performing for over 20 years. And I’m still always nervous. I still always feel unprepared and worry they’ll all see I’m just making this shit up. And though I think really I’m saying a couple things here, here’s my point: if I ever don’t feel some of this nervousness or fear, it’s time to pack it in. Because that worry comes from caring – caring that I do this well. Caring that I’m moving forward and learning new things and leaning into the fears. When I rest on my past success, when it’s comfortable and there’s no risk, when I think I’ve arrived, that’s when I’ll just start mailing it in, and the passion and the excitement and the frisson of doing something new will fade. That’s when apathy sets in and I don’t want that for my life. And I don’t want it for my audience: for you.

So to all of you in the same place as me – that have put it all on the line for what you love and the dream that one day you’ll have a book, an exhibit, or a larger audience for your work- know this: it will probably never be enough and that’s a good thing. Because these things don’t happen by magic. They happen by the work and the dirt under the fingernails that only come from the hunger and the longing. And the more we step into the unknown – no matter how many times you’ve done so before – the more we look at that blank page and wonder, Now what? Or, What am I missing? The more it pushes us to risk and work and double-down. After making a living solely on my creativity for over 20 years, that is the only thing that is sure. It’s either that or back down, look over the shoulder, see what others are doing, and try those things instead. But that has never been the right path for creatives or artists. In fact, to come full circle, that’s what got us here, to this conversation in the first place. From “Luckiest man in the world,” and being so grateful, to “What the hell am I missing?” and “Where did I go wrong?” in the blink of a short-sighted eye. What changed?

I looked around. I looked over my shoulder.

This is not a race. It’s not a game with winners and losers. You can’t do your work looking anywhere but AT your work. And it’s only by doing our work that we will get wherever the hell it is we’re going. And that fear? Those sweaty palms and sleepless nights? It’s just a voice saying, “What if?” and there’s more than one way to answer that. The work of any creative is to respond by doing their work, by letting their work be the way we discover the answer to that great, and often scary, question. What if? The only relationship that truly matters is the relationship between you and your work. That will determine how you relate to the audience your work finds for itself. That will keep you from looking over your shoulder.

The fear and the hunger – that’s the constant battle of the creative. We all have it, on some level. It’s a sign that you care. It’s a sign that you’ve got skin in the game and a dog in the fight. Don’t try to escape it. Leverage it. Let it fuel you and push you forward, and off your ass. Learn to feel that spark of nerves, fear, whatever, and see it as a good omen – a sign that change is coming and out of change comes something new, something better, or deeper. Learn to see it as an indicator – that you’re still alive, still making, creating, doing, and still so, so lucky to have another day to make an impact and pass that spark on to others. Don’t worry that it’s been 5 years, 10 years, whatever, and you still feel the fear and the hunger, instead: worry the morning you wake and you look back and you realize you haven’t felt that hunger for years.

And while all that’s happening, don’t forget to be grateful and to love where you’re at, and to remember how lucky we all are to do what we do. Don’t forget to celebrate the work of others and learn from it, and to give back to this wonderful craft. Just don’t compare yourself to others. Your path is not theirs, and your path will never be fully your own while you’ve still got one eye on what they’re doing.

The creative life is never without its ups and downs. A couple years ago I wrote what I now consider to be the first of my two most personal – and I think important – books: A Beautiful Anarchy: When the Life Creative Becomes the Life Created. We spend all this time talking about how to use cameras to make photographs that we forget to even talk about how we create, how to be creative. This book talks about that, and I know so many of you already have a copy, but I sometimes forget that there are always people new to me and my blog and I wanted to introduce you to this book if you haven’t seen it.

“A Beautiful Anarchy is raw energy bundled up in a book, and opening its cover is like lighting a fuse. This isn’t an ordinary book.  Read this book if you want to make more meaningful photographs and live a more complete life.”  ~ Chris Orwig, author of Visual Poetry, and The Creative Fight.

 

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