Penny De Los Santos at TEDxAustin »
Penny is a travel and food culture photographer whose work has appeared on numerous publications including National Geographic. I became aware of her when she was a guest on TwitPhoto and recently she gave a 12-minute inspirational talk at TED Austin where she spoke about her role as a visual storyteller, about what a true moment really is and how the combination of being open, present and vulnerable has taught her to be a better photographer, none of which as to do with the mechanics of a camera.
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“Don’t worry about being better than anybody you know personally or whose work you admire. Simply try to be better tomorrow than you were yesterday. You are not so much in competition with others as you are with yourself. Be your own toughest critic. Show only your best and develop your self-editing abilities so you know just what your best is.”Advice from Bill Allard as he explains on how he became a National Geographic photographer. I suspect we’ve all gone through this feeling of not liking ones own work and the times I’ve done it, I can’t recall anything good ever coming from it. The consequence of it can go either way. You’re either inspired to challenge yourself more or you’re completely unmotivated to continue pursuing the passion you thought you had towards photography. If you choose the latter than you were probably never passionate about it in the first place.
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Mann & Gruber on Your Blog & Credibility »
2 years ago at SxSW, Merlin Mann and John Gruber gave a 60 minute talk filled with inspirational words and viewpoints where on the surfaced it seemed like it was all about fabricating a better blog but it turned out to be much deeper than that.
If you’re the type that makes or publishes anything for an audience and you often think about how you can do it better, then I highly recommend either listening or reading up on this talk. I propose the former.
In it, there’s a part where Gruber talks about having been forwarded an email where a 21 year old wrote in asking for advice on what he could do as someone who’s seeking to take this blogging thing seriously. Regardless of what type of creative venture you’re involved in online, the response to this question is applicable to you and me as a photographer:
- Give away more stuff than you think you should, and make it easy for people to get.
- Focus on diverse secondary revenue streams, and always have your eyes open for new and replacement ones.
- Don’t do stuff that seems profitable, but potentially messes up the reason people like you.
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“Liked” Photography Articles in My Instapaper Queue
Reading has a host of benefits. In fact, it should really become a habit as common as bathing. As far as photography is concerned, there’s those that’ll tell you that you should be spending less time reading about the craft and more time doing it. Even if I think highly of Trey Ratcliff’s HDR work but if I don’t have the gear or sheer inclination to replicate similar type of photographs, then I don’t bother spending endless hours reading up on the technique.
I believe my time would be better spent either actually photographing or reading up on the type of writing that sparks ideas and feelings about wanting to photograph more. With the exception of most of David duChemin’s books, the shelf above my desk is hardly occupied with books on every aspects of photography.
How can you evaulate if what you’ve been reading lately has had a positive influence on you creatively? Mark Shead illustrates exactly what’s happen to me more than I would like to admit:
Personally, I can tell if I’ve been reading enough high quality writing based on the number of ideas I have. For example, if I sit down to write and have a very difficult time coming up with anything to write about, it is usually a sign that I haven’t been reading enough. On the other hand, if I’ve been reading a lot of high quality content, the ideas just seem to flow.
90% of photographic material relating to advice or instructional information is extracted from blogs and I wanted to share with you a couple of my favorites that have received a well deserved “Like” from me on my Instapaper queue in no particula order.
- For Love or Money? by Laurence Kim
- Some Thoughts on Photography by Sean Bonner
- Novelty of New by Daniel Milnor
- Can You Teach Yourself Photography by Virtual Photography
- Getting Close: Does It Really Make You a Better Street Photographer? by Simon Garnier guess posting on Eric Kim’s Street Photography website
- From Enthusiast to Professional Photographer by Paul Indigo
- Dear Aspiring Travel Photographer by Mitchell Kanashkevich
- Have a Purpose for Your Photoblog? by Scott Webb
As a photographer who equally takes pleasure in writing, I don’t just enjoy the sites I read. I try to pinpoint reasons why I enjoy them. Is it the narrative style of the author, their tone, their thought-provoking viewpoints? It’s all of that. Unless we can fully understand the effect that one particular article may have on us, we’ll never make sense of why we’re attracted by it. Theories and opinions come second. Experiences are first.
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“Don’t make it [photography] for the market. Make it for yourself. And then have whatever comes out of yourself sold to the market.”Social Documentary Photography Phil Borges talks about how he started taking pictures and how to keep the fire alive. With photography being such a competitive market, there was a quote in the video that resonated the most with me as a photographer aside from the aspect of travel that I’m inherently intrigued with.
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“People will send me questions like, ‘How do I get paid to do my dream?’ That’s a great question eventually, but the first question is, ‘How do I get great at my dream?’”I’d be lying if I told you I spend every evening reading photography related content. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I purposely indulge on non-related photography stuff as a form of inspiration for the work that I do with the camera. Having read Jon Acuff’s book Quitter is a perfect example because I learned a lot about myself from it as a photographer. Something I ask myself all the time is how do I become great at what I love doing already? I can’t think about charging for something I may not feel confident doing yet. As Jon points out, the focus should be on getting great at your dream first before you think about how to monetize from it.
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