Yet the internet allows us to do so much more. Lately, I’ve become very interested in podcasting, and what it could do for my business. Already, I co-host The Circle of Confusion with Peter Cox and Neil McShane. We use it to keep interest going between releases of Dynamic Range, our video series.

But I think I could do more and I’m currently exploring the possibility of a new podcast.

Be everywhere

At the heart of my interest in podcasting is what it could mean for my potential to earn passive income.

There was a time when for a photographer the route to passive income (income earned continuously for work done once) was through stock libraries. That avenue is now choked with enthusiasts and microstock. Don’t get me wrong. The work being produced and sold is of a standard. But the flood of photographs has destroyed pricing structures and photographs can now be had for a few dollars instead of hundreds.

There are alternatives, though. If you are willing to think laterally and put in the hard work up front.

Smart Passive Income

I’ve started following Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. I really like his combination of good advice, transparency and emphasis on hard work.

Pat runs a blog, YouTube channel and a podcast as part of a three-pronged strategy to reach and grow his audience. I recently spent my hours driving to and from Dublin (about 18 hours in total over the past month) listening to all of Pat’s podcast episodes.

As a photographer who is interested in writing, video and audio, it makes sense for me to develop a similar strategy. The most obvious space in which to do this is in photography, which is, after all, my passion. However, I have other interests that I could also develop into passive income streams.

Something’s brewing

So, behind the scenes, that’s what I’m working on. The Dynamic Range series of videos is one example. It has the potential to grow into something significant.

There is also another one. It’s not ready for prime time yet, but if you know me and if you look around a little, it’s there to be found.

And I keep coming back to podcasting. There is scope there, but I need to do some more groundwork.

Meanwhile, there’s always the latest episode of The Circle of Confusion. You can listen to it using the player below.

The lesson

One important thing that Pat Flynn has reminded me of is that whatever we do online must make the internet a better place. He stresses quality content and helping others to grow.

So, for this blog post, I hope you’ll take this away with you: check out Smart Passive Income.

And once you’ve done that, have a think about how you could apply your talent to earn while you sleep.

***ADDENDUM*** Just minutes after publishing this post last night, I got an email to say someone had left a comment. I sensed who it was, and was impressed. Click on the Comment tab below to see who it was.

Quick iPhone snap of some dedicated followers © Roger Overall 2012

One of the essential skills a documentary photographer has to hone is their ability to blend in. Once you become accepted in your environment, it becomes easier to take great photographs.

That can be easier said than done. Often, it takes a while before the people we are photographing become at ease in our presence. Yet we don’t always get that time. Documentary wedding photographers, for instance, have to get into the swing of things quickly. The same often goes for documentary photographers working in a commercial environment – an office, for instance. So how to do it?

Attitude

I think attitude plays a big role. My own tactic is to be the opposite of unobtrusive for the first few minutes. I let people know that I am there, either by engaging in a quick conversation or by letting them see me. After a few minutes, I become part of the furniture and I can then apply all the things I’ve learned that make me inconspicuous.

Now, I should add that that only works if the people involved know that you are supposed to be there. A wedding is a very easy environment to work in. After several hundred weddings, I have yet to be asked what I think I am doing taking photographs. The same goes for my corporate assignments. That said, I make sure the client tells their staff I’m going to be on site. I learned the hard way that you can’t assume they will. An incident with a locked gate and a very surprised site manager springs to mind. Not to mention a crazy horse – but that’s a story for another day.

It doesn’t always work

Sometimes, you just can’t blend in, no matter how hard you try. I remember arriving at a Guyana-Suriname jungle border post on assignment a few years ago. I waited in line until it was my turn to show my passport. Even before the officer had opened it, he said: “Welcome to Suriname, Mr Overall.” I knew they were expecting me (my client had arranged for me to enter the country without a visa – another long story), but how did he know it was me before he’d opened the passport?

I didn’t occur to me until much later that I was the only white face in line.

And today on assignment, I couldn’t shake off the locals at all. Just have a listen:

There are, of course, followers you really do want. Like subscribers. You definitely want those. Every blogger does. For instance, if you’d like to subscribe to this blog and receive automatic updates when new content goes live, either in your rss reader or by email, you can click on the relevant icon in the top right-hand corner under ‘Get Updates Via’.

It would make my day.

Here’s an example:

The border between Egypt (bottom) and Israel (top) © NASA

Of course, it benefits from some clarifying text.

North is in the direction of the top left corner, and the Egypt-Israel border runs in a straight line roughly across the centre of the frame from left to right. Talk about your line drawn in the sand.

From a documentary point of view, the most interesting thing is the human activity that is causing the colour shift at the border. If you were to go down to ground level, you’d be able to photograph it, but you wouldn’t be able to show the magnitude of its consequences. To do that, you need to step back. Waaaaaaaaaay back. Like International Space Station back.

It’s agriculture. And there’s a marked difference between what’s happening either side of the Israel-Egypt divide, which is what is creating the visual separation between the two countries.

On the Israeli side you can see the shapes of cultivated areas in the top left. On the Egyptian side, farmers rely more on livestock. As their animals move across the sparsely vegetated landscape, they churn up the soil, exposing the lighter underside of the crusty sand.

It’s a case of stepping back to reveal more. Something we should all do now and then.

***ADDENDUM***

Of course, some people say that you need to get as close to the action as you can. Depending on the circumstances, these people are either right or … erm … morons.

For instance, I am writing this post on my iPhone in a pub in Twickenham, during a work visit to London. I could never have imagined such a thing when I was living here ten years ago.

The internet is going to determine my career as a photographer. It will do the same for many of my colleagues as well. I have plans that have potentially infinite dimensions thanks to it.

The internet also allows us to enter into conversation with people we may never meet face-to-face. I have learned so much from others. Now I find myself in a position where I have a blog and readers are engaging with me and challenging me. Wow.

Please let me help

Readers are posting great comments on this blog. Sadly, their words often get lost in old posts and the subsequent debate happens out of the public eye. That’s a shame because I think a wider audience would benefit from their opinions and stories.

So, with the permission of the posters, I’d like to bring their great contributions into the limelight, such as it is, of the front page here. The intention is that this becomes a regular feature.

To get us going, set out below is an email that I received (after following up on a comment on the blog) and my reply. I have chosen to leave the identity of its author unknown. The internet, for all its goodness, is a place where honesty can be attacked and abused. I have experience of this first hand. That is a shame; it hinders sensible debate.

Turning part-time pro

Hi Roger,

First of all, thank you for taking the time to reply to my comment, it means a lot when the person behind a post suddenly comes to life.

Talking about your blog, this is the reason why I am actually sending this email.

I have spent I don’t know how long reading over and over again your posts:

“No Why, No Way“, “How Should A Newcomer Enter The Market?” and “The Wedding Photography Market Is Dying – Good” among others.

Thank you for these. I wanted to share my venture with you.

I am taking pictures since a long time, am 36 years old and decided to become a semi-pro photographer.

Why semi-pro? Simply because I didn’t want to become one of those week-end warriors that rip off the established photographers. I want it to be official, legal, be fully insured and pay taxes.

But I am setting up a limited company and decided not to go sole trader. Why? Because I need to grow my hardware, my bank account and my address book.

I have potential customers, I believe in my skills, but cannot afford to fail my family. A limited company allows me to keep a part time job and launch my business thinking about the well being of my clients more than “I need more money to survive, let’s take advantage of that couple, 20 pictures will do and they won’t complain…” This is what my wedding album was about. £1500 for 20 pictures 6 months later, not allowed to choose any of the photos, a joke.

On the top of it I decided to create an e-commerce dedicated to sell items from independent artists: music albums, DVDs, photo prints… As I am actively involved in the indie (as independent) community worldwide. This will allow me to ad a small income to the company.

So here we go, unusual, crazy but this is my view and my dream, being not a week-end warrior but an honest, registered photographer, insured and caring not only about the customers but my family by playing it safe.

Please let me know what you think of it.

Thank you.

D

My reply:

Hi D,

Thank you for emailing me. It is a very honest and open message.

I think you are going about your move into professional photography the right way. A professional photographer is determined by their approach to their photography, their clients and their business, rather than whether they have additional non-photographic income streams. There is nothing wrong with being a part-time professional photographer.

Part-time professional, full-time enjoyment

Of course, I have a vested interest in saying that. I do not earn 100% of my income from taking and delivering photographs. I’d say it’s in the 90s or high 80s. In the future, though, that is likely to decrease as I diversify my income streams.

My reasons for doing so are simple. Professional photography is under tremendous pressure with decreasing revenues for many in the business. And I need to earn more money than my chosen niche and passion can provide me.

For instance, I’ve started running seminars, which is a new income stream for me.

Rather than detracting from my professional photography, developing additional income streams will allow me to safeguard my involvement in professional photography. This income will also give me space to develop my style and follow my heart. That means I’ll be producing my best possible work for my clients.

Bear in mind also that nothing is as deadening to your photographic enjoyment and development as taking on soul-deadening commissions for work you don’t connect with. To my mind, that is a surefire way to have a miserable life as a professional photographer.

I think your strategy of building a part-time professional career, at least to begin with, in tandem with a secondary income makes total sense. To my mind, you are stacking the cards in your favour to achieve a long-term and fulfilling career on your terms.

Price and value

In your email, you beat yourself up a little bit about how you viewed the photographer-client interaction in the past. While it’s good to reflect on these things, and to work towards a win-win relationship, you must never undervalue your work. €1,500 for 20 photographs isn’t necessarily a bad deal, provided the photographs represent a win for your client.

Henk van Kooten is a Dutch photographer whom I interviewed for an episode of The Circle of Confusion. He had developed a wedding package that consisted of five prints at a cost of €17,000.

It would be too easy to say that this isn’t value for money. Yet when you delve deeper, you see where he is coming from. For €17,000 the couple are getting five works of art. His work and this wedding package isn’t for everyone, but it will connect with the audience he is aiming for. For them, it represents a win.

Provided your 20 prints are each able to make a powerful connection with your clients, then why shouldn’t you charge €1,500? As long as you are doing it for the right reason, no one can say that you shouldn’t do it. They may say it isn’t value for money, but then they are not going to be your clients.

Your vision, your voice

Lastly, you mentioned that in the past you didn’t give couples any input into which photographs went into the album. Again, that isn’t necessarily wrong. After all, they have commissioned you to photograph the wedding as you see it. There is nothing inherently wrong in extending that to the edit of the photographs that they receive.

In fact, you could be doing them a huge favour. Many couples often need guidance as to which photographs work best together to provide a coherent narrative. Or they may simply not have the time to do so. By providing that service you are merely extending the range of the help you are providing them in return for the money they have paid you.

Clients who are looking for that guidance will book you. For them it is a win.

I hope this gives you some reassurances as to the issues you raised in your email. You do sound as if you are coming at this from the right perspective.

Best wishes for your career as a professional photographer.

Warm regards,

Roger

Over to you

So what do you think?

And is there anything you’d like to discuss?

Email or leave a comment.

In the meantime, I’m writing an e-book called Documentary Wedding Photography From The Heart. In the past week and a half, I have penned a first draft of 22,000 words. The final book will, I hope, be almost twice that, once all the photography has been added, along with captions, anecdotes and references. We’ll see. In any case, my plan is to have it ready for download by the final day of March.

By stating that publicly here, my hope is that I’ll hold myself accountable to have it finished – otherwise, I’ll look silly. I do, of course benefit from the fact that March is a long month and that 2012 is a leap year. Those two extra days might come in handy.

The e-book will be a paid download. I haven’t figured out a price yet, but I will be doing an early bird discount of 25% in the run up to its release.

Cork seminar cancelled

You might have noticed that the button for my Cork documentary wedding seminar has vanished. I’d like to say that it’s because it’s sold out. In fact, quite the opposite. Some nibbles, but no bookings. Not a sausage.

One of the things Smarter Egg has taught me is to fail fast. I have already figured out an alternative to the Cork seminar. I’ll write about that soon. By the way, that’s the second mention of Smarter Egg in two days and I’m not even on the affiliate programme.

The Dublin seminar is a sell out (well, virtually – there’s one spot left) and I’m looking forward to this coming Sunday tremendously.

The Circle of Confusion – episode 15

I have to say, I’m really enjoying doing the new The Circle of Confusion podcast, which I co-host with Neil McShane and Peter Cox. If you have time, the latest episode is available now. Just click on the player below. (By the way, you can get the podcast via iTunes as well).

The Circle of Confusion Podcast #15 by The Circle Of Confusion

It is clear that the language used in the proposed legislation is too loose and that, if implemented, the new laws could harm the internet. This video below gives a quick overview of how opponents to PIPA see things.

Legislative moves to protect the copyright of creatives, including photographers, should be welcomed. However, it shouldn’t be to the detriment of the potential of photographers to earn money from their works. Were SOPA and PIPA to be voted into law, and were governments worldwide to follow the USA’s lead, it would severely harm the ability of photographers to monetize their work.

The internet is a fabulous marketing and delivery mechanism for photographers, giving them access to a global marketplace. In a bid to shield creatives from copyright abuse, the US government could set a process in motion that destroys income rather than protects it. What’s the point of preserving copyright in your work, if in the process you close a vital means to monetize that copyright?

As photographers, we should thank our legislators for endeavouring to protect our rights in the work we create. But we should also speak out if their well-intentioned attempts cause more harm than good.

And just for good measure, our favourite online spoof dictator doesn’t like it either.

What follows is a review for a book that I really enjoyed and found inspiring. I probably shouldn’t give away the ending already, but there you go – you needn’t read any further if you don’t want to.

I haven’t been asked to review or endorse the book in any way, but I have included an Amazon widget (on the left-hand side bar), which, should you click on it and choose to buy the book, will earn me a small commission. It’s about five per cent, so I won’t be putting down a deposit on a Bugatti Veyron or anything. And the commission doesn’t make the book more expensive for you. The same goes for the links relating to the book in this post itself.

I’m not asking you to buy the book, but if you did your action would put tin in my pocket. Just so you know.

So, with that preamble out of the way, on to the review.

On -vs- Towards

As photographers, we generally don’t spend enough time actively shaping our business and our destiny. I heard a great quote the other day in a podcast by Pat Flynn. He said, “There is a big difference between working on something and working towards something.” Most of us dedicate too much of our working lives doing the former to the detriment of the latter. You end up, well… nowhere. Just aimlessly ambling through your career with no destination in mind.

I’ve written before about how much benefit I get from my participation in the Smarter Egg book group for entrepreneurs – which, by the way, has evolved into a much broader and hands-on business development initiative. The latest book under review is Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen.

The book is, I think, wonderful.

It compares companies that consistently performed well above the average for their industry (ten times above or more) over a 30-year period (1972 to 2002) with competitors who achieved the industry mean, or worse, despite almost matching environments and opportunities. The book analyzes what had made the star performers great and what made their comparison companies mediocre. In essence, why does one business go intergalactic while a competitor in the same conditions barely makes it off the runway? The answers are eye-opening, to say the least.

For instance, it turns out that the star performers aren’t the biggest innovators. Nor are they the biggest risk takers. They aren’t luckier, either. In fact, all the things that you would typically associate with thrusting, healthy, vibrant, industry-leading, product-defining corporations don’t actually apply. Instead, what they do all have in common is that they are… predictable.

First the good news, then the bad

The fact that they are predictable is the good news because it means their success can be understood. Their principles can become yours. Greatness awaits.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

Well, that’s the snag. It isn’t, for one simple reason. Greatness takes a huge amount of discipline, preparation, stamina and hard work.

Bummer.

Fascinating and inspiring

Still, this is a very good book. Easily the best book about business that I’ve read in a long while. It is well written, well researched and well argued. It is also the kind of book that inspires. Yes, greatness and success only follow commitment and sweat and sacrifice, but at least these things are within the capabilities of everyone. Greatness doesn’t rely on some unobtainable magic pixie dust or fluke or privilege. There is a blueprint. But like I said, it’s one not everyone is going to like, especially not in our modern culture of instant gratification and instant success.

In my opinion, Great by Choice is an important book and its lessons will help our children fulfill their potential.

I lay in bed reading it one evening with my six-year-old daughter snuggled up next to me. “That looks like a good book,” she said.

I looked down at her and imagined what her future would be like if she were able to master what the book reveals. “It is,” I replied. “One day, you must read it.”

PLEASE NOTE: Links in this blog may be to affiliates who pay a commission on any sales generated through those links. Clicking on them may benefit me. Read more…

If you have time, the latest episode, recorded late last night is available now. Just click on the player below.

Advertising shoot

If you listen to the podcast, you’ll hear me speaking about a small national advertising shoot I was involved with over the past couple of days. It was a whirlwind experience, hugely enjoyable and incredibly intense. The end client was a well-known international company. You’ve heard of them.

That raises an interesting point. I’ve worked with respectable and well-respected clients before. In most cases, though, you’d shrug your shoulders at their names. They aren’t on the public radar.

This time, it is different. This time, even your friends in other countries know this company.

So, I’m wondering. What doors will such a client on my CV open?

Time will tell.

Documentary advertising photography

A couple of years ago, I visited lots of marketing and advertising agencies in Dublin with my documentary work. Based on advertising trends abroad, it occurred to me that the use of documentary photography in advertising material would soon find traction in Ireland. So I went to the market and … completely struck out. No one was convinced – despite the examples of  campaigns by the likes of Amex and Emirates.

Is the tide turning? This week’s assignment might suggest that it is.

Yet, I have to admit to you that the shoot was highly staged. We had two models, a location manager, a prop stylist, a make-up artist, a wardrobe consultant – and a dog. In addition, on set at any one point were the art director, the agency’s senior art director, a producer, an account manager, a graphic designer, a web designer and an intern.

And me.

I was there to bring a documentary feel to the photographs, rather than shoot documentary images per se.

Once the images have been signed off and the ad campaign has appeared, I’ll blog about the process in more detail. It was a huge learning curve for me and might interest anyone else looking to break into advertising work. For a start, do you know what a ‘scamp’ is? It’s not a dog.

Shameless sales pitches

On a different note, there is one place left on my Documentary Wedding Photography seminar in Dublin on Sunday 22nd January. If you’re a wedding photographer looking to improve your storytelling photographs, this is the seminar for you. It is very likely that this seminar will run only once this year, so don’t miss your opportunity. Click here to book.

If landscape is more your thing, I hope you won’t mind me plugging Dynamic Range, the photography video series that I’m involved with. We’ve had tremendous feedback from Episode 1, which only costs €9.95. We’re robbing ourselves.

The FujiFilm X-Pro1 - the perfect camera?

I recently wrote elsewhere that for the past three years or so, new camera releases have left me stone cold. I was perfectly happy with the cameras I had. Lately, however, my eye has started to wander. Since yesterday, it has more than wandered. The FujiFilm X-Pro 1 has been announced and I don’t think I have ever coveted a camera more.

A documentary dream

Mirrorless cameras have many benefits for documentary photographers.

For a start, the absence of a mirror means the camera is quieter, practically silent if built well. There is less vibration, too. A single lens reflex (SLR), on the other hand, can sound and feel like you’ve just let off an Enfield.

No mirror also means no prism or mirror chamber, making the camera smaller and lighter than an SLR.

The same applies to lenses for mirrorless cameras. Optical design is simplified, which means that mirrorless camera lenses can be teeny.

With fewer laws of physics to tussle with, the optical performance of lenses for mirrorless cameras tends to be excellent, and in many cases better than that of lenses built for SLRs – certainly this is the case for wide-angle lenses and most definitely for Canon wide-angle lenses. In my experience, anyway.

The rangefinder fail

The traditional mirrorless camera for documentary photographers has been the rangefinder camera. Once popular, it is now a design that appeals largely to older photographers or to people who don’t actually take many pictures.

These days, your new rangefinder camera choice is fairly limited. There’s Leica, which is expensive. Or you can buy a Zeiss or Voigtlander, which are both made by the same company (Cosina) and currently come in film versions only. All of these cameras are manual focus only. Old school.

I don’t get on with rangefinders especially well. And speaking strictly from a personal point of view, I think the rangefinder focusing system is not only a pain but also long past its use-by date. I’m not saying you can’t get spectacular photographs using a rangefinder. I just think there are better solutions available today that simplify the process of photography greatly.

Autofocus, for instance.

And electronic viewfinders (EVFs). Or better still, the hybrid optical viewfinder/EVF found in some mirrorless cameras, notably the FujiFilm X-100 – and now the FujiFlim X-Pro1, a camera that I think will change camera design forever.

Dribbling all over myself

The X-100 and its fixed focal length lens were well received. So also its younger sibling, the X-10, which has a zoom lens. However, while the X-100 is appealing to documentary photographers, it is glacially slow. And you are stuck with the one lens and angle of view – brilliant though that lens is. A little variety would be nice.

Enter the X-Pro 1, which has an interchangeable lens mount. You can even mount Leica lenses if you want to. That said, Fuji’s reputation as a lens maker is stellar, so it seems unlikely that the three lenses it has announced to go with the new camera will be slouches. They also cost a fraction of their Leica equivalents.

Did I mention that they are autofocus lenses?

In essence, the X-Pro1 brings together all of the attributes of a mirrorless camera that appeal to a documentary photographer, and adds in modern autofocus and viewfinder technology. And it does so in a body that I can only describe as “Yum”. It looks beautiful.

Apple appeal

What FujiFilm have produced here is a camera full of modern technology in a design that appeals to the senses. It has, in essence, done an Apple.

And it’s done so not purely from a design and functionality perspective. I think it has also managed to create a new type of camera design that others will copy.

Think of it like this. The X-Pro1 can do most things that a digital SLR can do in a much smaller package. Admittedly, I doubt it will be a match for any of the high-end, super-speedy Canons and Nikons used by sports photographers or wildlife photographers – yet. Who’s to say that in a few years’ time a mirrorless digital camera won’t be able to match a digital SLR for speed or telephoto reach?

For many photographers, including professionals, a camera like the X-Pro1 will do exactly what they need, and do so in a smaller and lighter package. I think the days of the mass-produced consumer-orientated digital SLR are numbered.

BUT

Sure, I’ve got a big crush on the X-Pro1.

Thing is, I’ve never actually met her. She looks gorgeous, but what if she’s a bitch? What if the viewfinder is pathetic, and the autofocus is glacial and the ergonomics are painful?

So, until I’ve used one, please feel free to take the above with a pinch of salt.

Some discipline is required.

Ctrl Alt Delete

I could tell you about my plans for 2012, about how it’s going to be the best year ever and that it will change everything. Thing is, while my horizons will no doubt expand, some of them even intentionally, I’ve come to realize that unless I outline specifically, point by point, what my plans and goals are and then revisit them at the end of the year on this blog, it’s a fairly shallow exercise.

Besides, I have a resolution for the new year.

Less is more.

Not less blogging per se. Rather less of me, more of things that aren’t me, specifically more documentary photography.

The first rule

So, there’s a new rule. I get one post a week about me, my work and what I’m up to. This one doesn’t count, by the way. I’m merely sketching the landscape here. The new regime starts… now.