Mark Harris Photo blog: May 2009

O.k, so as you know I am a photographer with Open2view.com, one of the major reasons I am with them is that they're are a progressing company, always on the button and always pushing into new areas of marketing within the real estate industry, really we are world leaders in what we do and what we can do to help our clients sell their homes and move onto the next chapter in their lives. I often ask the vendors if I see them where they're heading to next as it is always interesting, they're about to embark on a new chapter in their lives and it is enlightening and exciting for them. So anyway I came across this link and thought I'd share it, so before reading any further, watch this first!:

watch this

Now, wasn't that just AMAZING!! Apparently that was shown by Sony to their executives at their last conference.

As a photographer progression is essential, keeping up with what is going on and coming up with new ways to show or tell a story, especially if we're doing something like editorial work. Whilst doing this though we also have to hold onto our own styles, which can be hard at times as there is just so many ways to shoot something. At the end of the day I suppose it is about trusting your own judgement, after shooting conceptual type imagery for a while it bcomes second nature to think in this way with a process, and then always refining that process. Similar with every business really. Now we take into account what that video shows and how fast we really are progressing, technology is just exploding!.

So, as a photographer how does this affect me, quite a lot, I have to keep up with this as it moves, if I lag behind all of a sudden I have to knuckle down and lock myself in my office in front of my computer for a few days and play catch up! Not to mention keeping up with the digital equipment! Luckily light never changes, we'll always be working in kelvin and light strength and temperatures, and studio lighting will always stay the same like that(I think), same with composition- it'll always be there, althouhg composition is another matter entirely as there are always new ways to break the compositional laws(although I suggest learning them before trying to break them if you're a photographer). So what is composition, composition is setting objects at certain places in visual arts so they fit into the rest of the piece of art. Really, it is about human consciousness and how it sees certain relations to things. As we all know the human concsious is expanding. So after looking at the above link it kind of makes me say "wow, and how will that affect our concious, and so affect how I shoot images".
Really, these things can also hinder your art, you can put too much thought into it and lose the artistic sight... Thinking with the left and right side of the brain, there has to be a balance there for everything to work I think. Which brings me onto another thought... digital cameras, they're getting so technical these days, and so it is actually becoming harder to be creative... I can hear you going "whatever", but hold that thought for a sec o.k. To be creative we need to think with the left side of our brains, to work something technical we need to use the right side of our brains, so the more refinements they give us for 'on the job' technical changes the more we have to think with the right side of our brain, getting it now? So what is the way around this? well for me it is getting to know my camera so well i don't have to conciously think about how to change anything no matter how deep in the menu it is, not easy when you only use certain things once a year if that. I also know what and how I am going to shoot before I am in the location, no matter what it is for. The old saying comes to mind with this, "nothing can replace experience"- Thanks Des McMahon for reminding me of this on your shoot:)
Not to mention photoshop and everything it can produce, a highly technical software! I have certain ways of dealing with the thought processes for doing my processing. I won't share that secret though ;)

Anyway, getting back on track. The link was to show you the progression we've made and are going to make in the future and how fast. And to also share a little secret, the best in the world use the best images in the world to sell themselves or their product. And they keep these up to date. It really is in our businesses best interest to use what is available to us to keep us on top of our market place. And when we think we're on top of it, we have to look further, because there is always further, break a record, it can be done and is done every day!

Have a great day:)

We've had a busy few weeks with a few commercial and family portrait shoots, wedding bookings and consultations, and a conference in Auckland last weekend for Open2view, so I have just finished processing a shoot we did a couple of weeks ago with a 1936 Chevy in a garage. While in there we came across the old couch in the tea room that screamed for a couple of quick shots, then onto the ones with the Chevy. Although I had a few ideas under my belt when I went into this shoot, the main image I was going for and heading towards was the one where the girls are sitting down with the one model's boot closer to the lens. The images were shot with the post processing in mind to give the images a more pronounced grungy/dirty kind of feel.

Enjoy=)