A Mildly Complex View of a Few Things You Can Do LESS of to Get MORE

"It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." 

 –Bruce Lee

Check this out. I wanna cover a few details of some things of note that I think can help transform you into a better shooter. It may not make sense right off the bat, but stick with me. I think this can help. So do LESS of these things:

Ignore TV Less
What you see on TV is the final product of someone's content creation efforts. You can learn a plethora of information by observing what images made the final cut. Check out all the lighting schemes, posing,  and editing that you see. How effective do you think they are? What message do they convey and how successful do you feel they were at getting your attention and evoking an emotion in you to act on whatever they were selling, promoting, or how they were entertaining you.

We often times get left in the dust with recent trends. TV gives you an idea of what some of the latest technology is doing and how its being creatively implemented. You succeed when you can begin to backwards engineer what you see, figure out how its done, get ideas on what techniques or best practices you can employ in your own work. At the very least, you can see what the latest trends are and how you might differentiate yourself. Know what's happening around you and do something different. You don't always have to follow what the latest favorite is doing. In fact, I highly recommend it.

Watch TV LESS
All to often, the thing that can hamper us most is the Television. We'll have at least 3 TV's in the house to keep us updated on our favorite shows, like the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, or Dragonball Super. People can go nuts over these programs. Sheesh.... Back Away From the Idiot Box, people! I say that in jest, cuz I'm not missing a GOT or Dragonball episode for nothing you can give me.

I digress... If you can back away from some of the ad-laced content for a while, maybe you can pick up a book on photo for a change. Learn about some new night shooting techniques. Go watch an education video on Lynda.com on Lightroom. That's sorta like TV, if it will help you with your fix. Study and read up on things that will help you move forward with your camera. Amazon has some great material on that new camera you bought last year that you've only used twice in full auto.

Study LESS
Here's a new one. Get your head out of the books and go SHOOT! Study long...Study wrong is what my uncle used to tell me when playing basketball. The more you contemplate your shot, the more likely you're gonna miss it. Never more true. Paralysis by Analysis. There's only so much you can fill your brain with at one time. Most of the time, what you really need is to put the books down and go pick up the camera and just shoot! Experiment. Who learned to ride a bike with a book? What person researched the mechanics of swimming before jumping in the water?

Yes, Some research, study, reading, and observation is good for us. But at some point, you have to put it all down and let your mind and muscles work together with repetition and effort to finally learn something new. Go shoot! I can't emphasis that enough. Studying something too long is a huge contributor to procrastination. I know for fact this is speaking to some of you out there. Its time now to put to practice some of the brilliant things you've learned. Go for it.

"Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful." 

–John Maeda

Shoot LESS
You got that right. Shoot friggin' a whole lot less! Now this isn't for a few of you. I've worked with some students that I tell to shoot MORE. The vast majority of you, however, should shoot LESS. This is one case where LESS is truly MORE. The spray and pray concept of photography is only applicable in sports and other shots where you need to specifically freeze the action to capture a series of moving events. Shooting at 14 frames per second to capture the money shot of Russell Wilson escaping the clutches of a NFC West defender showing the look on the guy's face as that split second passes where he KNEW he had the sack, then nothing but air. Yeah...you can't try to time that shot and expect to get anything. No way. You select the drive mode for Hi-Continuous and you roll like Rambo.

That's not the typical scenario for most people though. When you come back with 30,000 images from a weekend camping trip, just know that you have a problem. Stop friggin' shooting so much! If you want to immediately have an impact on better photography, shoot less! Limit yourself and become more selective about what you are taking a picture of. And there's no need to get 12 versions of the same shot. All you're really looking for are a few good shots that tell the story or deliver the message. Personally, I'm a 10%er. It roughly averages out to editing a tenth of whatever I shoot. I come back from a gig with 300 images...I'm netting about 30 edited shots. I believe I usually shoot about 100 shots an hour when I'm doing constant shooting. That means I'm on a gig or have a photographic purpose in mind and when I'm finished shooting, I go home. So that's different from going on a day trip with my girlfriend and we're on the road for 15 hours. I may only come home with 200 images total because we are shooting, but we're also hiking and exploring and shooting between locations.

It saves you some time having to cull a million shots, but more importantly, WE DON'T WANT TO, NOR DO WE HAVE TIME TO LOOK AT EVERY-FRIGGIN' SHOT YOU TOOK! So just calm down a bit. Play the roll of a sniper instead of Machine Gun Freddie. Take some time to look at your composition and understand what makes it a good shot vs a snapshot by a tourist. You didn't buy that expensive camera to come back with the same kind of shots you've always been taking. Get to know the camera. Take if off automatic and get creative with it. Shoot less, but maybe more often. How's that for a compromise. Now I got a proposal to finish writing. And you now have some things to mull over. Get to it.

Five Things I'd Like to Tell My 20-Year Old Self

Camping at Kolob Reservoir, Zion, Utah

"13 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, 14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. 16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor."
~ Proverbs Chapter 3, verses 13 through 16

Oftentimes, you'll hear somebody say, "If I knew then what I know now..." followed by some proclamation of forecasted success. But the question might then become would your self back in the day listen to your self of today and heed that advice. I don't know if I'd have been hard headed or not, but this is what I'd like to say to 20-year old me:

Germany, 20 years old.

1. Listen More/Talk Less
Right before you turn 21, I believe this to be the second childhood in your life. I know old age has been rumored to be called that, but it ain't so. Twenty-One is. Why? Well, when you think about the earliest days of your childhood, its likely when you intake the most amount of information in the least amount of time. They say children learn at a faster rate between birth and 5 years than they ever will for the rest of their lives. The older you get, the more you think you already know. Until you become a brand new adult and now you're back at the bottom of the generation pool.

I'd tell myself to spend more time listening and observing. At this point, there is a lot of information coming your way in becoming an adult. I'd wish I'd paid attention to the things and people around me more. What was going on in my world? What were the issues, politics, and world events that might impact my well being and life choices. How could I contribute to the causes, campaigns, and movements that would help give me much needed advantages in life. But also, I'd learn to observe and study the systems in place that might exploit my naivety and learn how to avoid those things that would serve to undermine my interests or better yet, learn how to play the game.

Modeling days, 1998

2. Money
I'd tell myself to get to know and understand how money works. Where it comes from. How it moves. Who has it and controls it. What taxes are and how tax dollars are used. I'd study the history of it. Learn when it moved from a gold standard and what that has resulted in. I'd learn how it is created. Learn how you can work for it, or make it work for you. I would definitely learn to master the markets and how human emotion may control buying and selling instead of common sense and logical analysis. Then I'd get into understanding the entrepreneurial experience, and not focusing on the corporate world so much.  I would definitely be more of a saver during my learning and formative years. I'd tell myself that half the things I  bought that I thought I'd need, I didn't.

State Treasurer's Office 2009. Last corporate/gov't job.

3. Figure Out What Matters Most
Many of the things I thought were important when I was a kid were important to me as a kid. The problem was that I carried much of this over into my early adulthood as well. I mean, I still watch cartoons and know my comic books like a nerd. That's not what I'm talking about. I'd tell myself that it wasn't so important to keep up fashion trends. I'd ask myself to re-evaluate time spent with family and exploring the world as a priority over bigger salaries, newer cars, and bigger homes. I'd try to get myself to focus more on experiences than things.

4. Record Family and Friends
I'd say get into photography sooner, you idiot!! YOU love this shit!! Don't worry about how much a camera costs. Get a good one and learn to expose. ESPECIALLY get your portraiture work down and start doing portraits of Mama Carrie and Bubba! Capture those candid moments of them sitting around in the living room watching Adam 12 and Emergency. Get those shots at church. Get it all, shooting constantly.

How I shave. Magic Cream...not the power that stinks up the house!

5. Self-Improvements
This is where I'd have a sit down with myself. "Terry. Listen. I know you want to be a good dad, husband, and friend. I know you want to serve people. I like that you have a great and generous heart. But I also want you to serve yourself. Be a better you. Make it a priority to master Spanish and French. Then get two more languages down well. You'll get photography down fairly well, but start now on music. Get some good practice on a piano. I think you'll like it. You are already an avid reader. But start in on some of the classics. You don't have to just focus on business books. You can read some non-fiction sometimes too. And you don't have to wait til you're 40 to read the Bible in its entirety. I think you'll be a much better person much sooner if you start learning about your planet and the cultures that inhabit it now."

"And hey...everybody ain't like you. So drop some of the expectations. Especially with women, particularly the ones you're in love with. Be a little bit more easy on them. Life is already hard. I know its been important to be hard and tough, both physically and mentally while you're serving your country. But maybe get some counseling to help deal with balancing that shit out with your family while you're still in the military, so it doesn't kick your ass long after you're out. Lead your soldiers, teach your kids. But you can be softer with your women."

Last one's a bonus:

6. Relax and Travel
Traveling the world is not the purview of white people and you don't have to be rich to own an expensive camera or travel the world. You probably don't have to be so hard all the time. Try to balance the soldier better with the real world people you have to interact with. Relax more. Take more time off. Travel with the kids, camp with them, and go see some national parks out west. They'll like it.

The Narrows at Zion, in Utah 2008

Oh, and one last thing. Protect that left knee a little better, dog. Make sure EVERY single injury is documented and reported. DO NOT tough it out. I re-friggin'-peat!! DO NOT TOUGH IT OUT AND SAY NOTHING! Don't let them keep feeding you Ranger Candy (Ibuprofen). A Ranger Tab does not translate to invulnerability. Cuz later on, when you're REALLY feeling that shit, the VA will need clear and concise documentation that there was a problem during your service time and that you didn't just injure your knee last week on the basketball court. Okay? Be good. And don't be so hard on your son when he steals your VALUABLE comic cards, takes them to school, and then gets them taken away by a bigger kid. They are just cards. Its not worth it.

A Study of the Self-Portrait

The whole idea of a self-portrait is strange. I’m so strongly linked to how I see through the camera that to get to the other side of it would be difficult. It would be as if I were taking a photograph in the dark. 

- Annie Leibovitz

Maybe I've worked the Self-Portrait
more than I had initially thought

Methinks it is time to vary up what I shoot for a bit. I believe I will have 3 unique concentrations throughout this year that I will use to challenge myself and explore my creativity in unfamiliar settings using the camera. For starters, I've always been uncomfortable with self-portraits. Ever since I became serious with photography, I've rarely ever aimed my lenses at myself, which is sort of odd. I'm not the kind to shy away from the camera. I was a pro model for 3 years during my undergraduate years. I was an art model getting nude for art students for about 12 years. So its not like I'm not used to being the center of attention. If anything, I think its the lack of control that comes with my inexperience in shooting myself. Its not so easy to point the camera inwards. For me, I miss the ability to "see" myself which makes me unable to work the elements that I normally do in order to create a composition that I believe works. This can make me become very impatient with myself and not revisit the project again. This image where I'm looking like a madman, came from a vision in my head reflecting feelings at the time, but it took me an abnormal amount of time to compose and get that "just right" feel to it. 

© 2010 Terrell Neasley

When I get ready to take a shot of a model, I see everything. I don't just look at the model. I see all the surrounding elements and consider how the model integrates with the background, props, and environment. I compose based on what I see and may spot focus on a specific area within that composition. Well, I can't see myself when shooting myself and although I see many photogs excel at this skill, the talent currently eludes me. So instead of ignoring this genre any longer, I'll take it on and see how close I can get to mastering it. I would imagine it will stimulate creativity after you shoot yourself a few times, otherwise you'll quickly get bored. I don't necessarily have to be nude to do this. I've tried that before, as you can see below, and hated it. The results where unsatisfactory and it didn't have the same flair and signature style as when I do my regular nudes. And yes, I've shot guys before that I have been satisfied with. I've said I'll revisit that venture again, but I've ignored that option for now. I did a post a while back whereby I suggested every photographer who shoots nudes needs to do this at least once. Unbearable Lightness then suggested I post the images I had done, and I did. So I'll add that back in at some point, but the goal is to work creative aspects of the "capture of self" in various ways and master this skill.

A first attempt at the self-nude.
Hadn't tried it since.

A couple of other areas I think I'll pay more attention to is motion, low-light, and time-exposure photography. I don't get to do these as much, but I have a strong interest in it. I can actually combine all 3 of those doing a moving subject, at night using long shutters. Should be interesting and I'm definitely looking forward to it. Every so often, you need to get out of your comfort zone and shake things up a little. I can even try this out on myself and thus add in self portraits done, while moving around at night using extended shutter speeds. Regardless, it'll be good to just play. I hear of photographers saying all the time that they wish they could work on personal projects. That should be the priority. While I want to always earn a living from photowork, I never want to make it into a job. I don't take on assignments that I don't honestly want to do. There has to be an element of fun, challenge, or benefit just a regular assignment. You have to pay me a lot of money to make me shoot something I don't really want to shoot. I want to be successful as a professional photographer. I want to earn a really good living at it. But I don't want to chase the dollars at any cost. I'm not interested in forfeiting my love for photos for my need to make money. 

I’ve always cared more about taking pictures than about the art market. - Annie Leibovitz

© 2010 Terrell Neasley

 I'll throw in large scale panoramas as well, since I have a Gigapan that I haven't put to great use just yet. I can also add to that better artistic use of my 24mm Tilt/Shift lens. Those are probably the only two pieces of equipment that I have that I have not put hard to work. I've used them, but I haven't pushed their abilities. I haven't tapped their potential and integrated them into my workflow yet and I need to change that. Otherwise, why have them? The Gigapan system is a robotic camera mount that you sit onto a tripod. It can be programmed use your camera to take pics, one frame at a time over a selected area and then you stitch those images together for a high-resolution pano. The tilt/shift lens was originally designed for architecture use. It allows you to correct for the distortion of lines that may converge due to the shape of the lens. If you've ever tried to take a picture of a tall building, you realize you need a wide-angle lens to get it all in one frame, but then the edges of the building look as if they curve or lean backwards. With a T/S lens you can correct this by adjusting knobs on the lens that will move the front element of the lens left or right as well as upward or downward as necessary. A more popular use is capturing wide-area busy scenes that, because of the selective focus, they look like miniatures.These are the same functions you get with a large format view camera. A view camera is what you see that looks like an accordion and a person gets under a sheet behind the camera.

Last office job, State Treasurer's Office.
See? I clean up nice!

And then of course, I still have my continued nudes throughout the year. I'll always be doing that, especially now since I've elected to regularly do an annual for all the models I shoot. I'm getting better on my feet now, so I expect I'll get to do a shoot toward the end of the month. I have a project in mind already, but it will take more strength in my leg before I undertake it. I'm still not able to extend my knee out all the way and its still quite painful when I try to do so and stand on it. But I'm getting there. There is definitely measured progress, but I have to keep things light for the time being. You can even see a tad bit more muscle tone in my thigh muscle. Patience...

Best Practices on Photo Storage? I'm Asking...Not Giving

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best"

- Frida Kahlo

Damon

Back-ups! Storage is definitely getting cheaper, which is a good thing, but the tech for my money needs to be more efficient. Okay, I'm a little frustrated over my computer storage. When I had this thing built about 7 months ago, I figured a TB and a half would do me for a while. I'm already halfway through that and I know its mainly the RAW files I shoot. I only shoot RAW and I really never get rid of them even after I do my conversions and edits to Jpeg. But remembering to back-up on a regular basis is a pain in the ass. I use external drives to back-up, but I can see that I'm going to have to look at some other options, like either a home server or online back-up systems. I prefer the online option. I'd rather have off-site storage. Right now, its cheap. But it ain't cheap for photographers. If you need to back up a few gigs...cool. When you have to do that with 500GB of images... not so cool. Especially when you like having a minimum of 3 copies of everything. That's redundancy for ya. So I gotta get better at workflow management. I'm reminded of the folks that don't understand why photogs charge what they do for a project. Other than crack, I can't think of a more expensive hobby or career choice. Oh, that reminds me...I still have a donations button on the right over there. You may have to scroll down a bit -->.

Maaike

Something I saw recently that I thought was pretty cool is the iPhone app for photography contracts. My friend, John showed it to me while we were in Zion last week. The thing is cool. you can generate contracts for anything right on the spot. Some are preloaded sample and general contracts, whereas others you can customize for your own needs and requirements. You basically plug in the pertinent info like names, dates, etc. and the ap plugs all that into a full into the contract. And the best thing is that you can SIGN IT right on your phone with your finger! When John told me that, I didn't believe him. At most, I figured you'd have to have a special stylus or something but when he demonstrated it, I went bonkers. Whoa...did I just say "bonkers"?

Angeli

What's the best movie you've seen so far this year? I gotta tell ya...for me, its "How to Train Your Dragon". I know, that may be quirky for a guy in his 40's but I don't need to have young kids to go see movies like this. I can walk right up to the box office counter and ask for one ticket, with no shame whatsoever. Anyway, I liked this film on a bunch of different levels. First, it was funny. Second the story-line was superb. It took you where you just didn't think you'd go. How many stories, movies, TV shows end up with the dragon NOT being the enemy or getting killed? Sure, it starts off like that, but wait til the ending. Third, I like the relationship that develops between a father and son. I think I also have a propensity to favor story lines and thems where the least significant can change the world. Think about Hobbits. And then there's the Bible which is full of that. You also have in this movie the voice of Gerard Butler who sounds even tougher and more bad-ass than he did in the movie, 300. Contrast his character with Jay Baruchel, who you also just saw in "She's out of My League". You can't even think of two more different personas in the world alive today. Craig Ferguson's character was also funny which makes this a not-to-be-missed kind of show.


These are shots of some new friends, Damon, Maaike, and Angeli, that I shot last month. Talk about some remarkable people! They are all some of the most interesting people I've ever met. It was definitely a good day, well...evening. Hoping to see them again tonight. Other projects: More nudes. I haven't been shooting many naked chicks lately. I guess I accomplished my goal of shooting less nudes. Now I'm in withdrawal. I think I'm going to revisit my self-nude project as well at some point. I abandoned self-portraits, not intentionally, but rather just out of it slipping off my list of priorities. That stemmed from Unbearable Lightness' challenge to me a year ago, so I want to revisit that project again. Shooting your yourself is not an easy thing. I've tried being my own model and its exceedingly difficult,which is why I want to get back to it. I've seen amateurs do it so well. They make it seem easy. I've got a few shots that I've done (some of which are posted on this blog somewhere, but I'm too lazy to search and post a link) but weren't satisfied with the outcome. I think its cuz I may not have the patience. Behind the camera, I can see the shot, zoom, compose, and focus as I wish, and take the shot. That's much more difficult when you are alone and in front of the camera. Well, at least for me.