Blog #66 The Photographer’s Ethical Responsibility to Photography
Blog #66 The Photographer’s Ethical Responsibility to Photography
Ethics related to photography usually involves the responsibility of the photographer to the individual being photographed. In most places, people in public can be photographed and images can be used under a fair use clause. For commercial purposes when money will be exchanged or for marketing or promotional reasons, written permissions are usually required. Model releases and property releases are necessary for commercial purposes. For more on this subject, check out Blog #14 & Blog #15.
What about the photographers’ ethical responsibility to photography itself or other photographers for that matter. Do we need to give back? I would argue that yes we do. While there is nothing wrong with shooting for oneself and the hobbyist and/or amateur does just that without constraints. The professional photographer, however, ought to answer to a higher authority, so to speak. It’s simply the right thing to do.
Printing and sharing images for friends, family, and others can be fun and helps to give photography a good name. John Free, street photographer from LA, takes this notion one step further and would say that if you do not share your photos “You’re a punk!”.
He goes on to posit that photography is a gift. I agree.
Photography is a gift that should be shared. As professionals, we have an obligation to do so. There are multiple ways in which we can share and give back to the field. Critique, prints, classes, workshops and tutorials, or simply being a supportive and positive force through social media are but a few vehicles in which photographers can communicate and return the gifts that have been given to them.
I have been fortunate to be involved in a photography series of classes through an international school in which I work. Teaching students to shoot, develop, and print film has been an immensely rewarding experience. I find enjoyment in sharing images and prints of my friends and family. Sometimes I will go the extra mile and get the prints framed professionally before giving them away. People really enjoy the gesture and I get a kick out the experience of sharing my images.
My fiend Mike has a small Instax printer and snaps photos, prints, and hands them out along the way. This is exemplary and helps to establish the act of photographing people (even strangers) as a fun, harmless, and collaborative process. More photographers should do this sort of thing. Everyone would benefit from this type of selfless sharing.
“I wish I hadn’t given away so many of my photographs”, said the photographer on their deathbed, never!
Shoot
Share
Repeat
I think I will get T-shirts made with these words. Would you buy one? What size are you? Orders start soon.
Remember, the light is always right.
jhg
Blog #65 Summer is for Travel to Somewhere New (Hanoi)
To extend your skills as a photographer, it’s common to hear:
Buy books (and travel), not gear.
I agree with this directive and would add that travelling to someone new has some distinct advantages that should lead to improvement. When you travel to a new place for just a few days, you can’t see everything. Therefore, you need to make some decisions about what to do (and shoot) and what not to (and not shoot). Weather should be a factor in your decisions. You might get lucky, or you might not. That’s the beauty of the situation, you never know what to expect. You might have a plan or you might not. Either way, having a suitable camera and lens that works for the environment that you’re in will lead to some interesting interactions. Regarding gear, bring back-up by all means. Smartphones count.
How will the locals respond to you? What are the rules of engagement and attitudes of people in this new place? Do I want to shoot people, buildings, food, or all of the above? These are but a few of the questions that you might need to discover when shooting aboard far from home, out of your comfort zone.
This summer I went to Hanoi, Vietnam. It’s an absolutely amazing place. The 1000 year old capital city has about 7 million people and 3 million motorbikes. It’s a blend of old French colonialism and modern day Asia. The food is outstanding and the coffee…out of this world! Their home grown coffee was some of the best I’ve ever had and I’m admittedly a bit of a coffee snob (life’s too short to drink crap).
In this post and third of a series on summer travel, I would like to encourage your travelling to someplace new and make photos there. The mere act of doing so will force you to make all types of decisions that will exercise your brain and get you thinking about photography again in a fresh way. You will meet new people and maybe make some friends. One of the keys to a long and happy life is social connections. It’s not money, or personal possessions, it’s people and connections. Your camera is your passport to friends, happiness, and life. Use it!
Remember, the light is always right.
jhg
Blog #64 Summer is for More Travel (Miami)
Blog #64 Summer is for More Travel (Miami)
In the second of a series of three blog posts on travel. The previous post was about travel with the intention of giving you some food for thought on how to approach making images while travelling. Looking from the outside in can only reveal so much. As travellers we have some natural limitations that we need to try to overcome in order to capture the essence of a place. Meeting people and experiencing places that are off the beaten path can reveal more about a place than the typical tourist might see.
In my case, on a recent visit to Miami, I stayed with family and was able to shoot some images of nature at my brother’s house that most people would never get to see. These, I have posted in black and white along with some color images from around town that I thought worked for various reasons. Travel is great and travelling with a camera gives a new vantage point for the traveller.
For the record, I did ask permission of the cigar store owner to make his portrait. I chatted with him for a bit and learned that his son was also a photographer working in New York. He was a nice guy and if you’re ever on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, check him out. The smokes are primo! I would also highly recommend the NSU Art Museum and Boca Raton's Art Museum as well.
The light is always right.
jhg
Blog #63 Summer is for Travel (Denver)
Blog #63 Summer is for Travel (Denver)
As mentioned in the previous blog post, this is first of a triple series, Summer is for Traveling. In the last blog, I posted some photos that were made from my window seat on the plane. They were mostly of clouds and some particularly interesting farm lands around the middle of America that look like a patchwork quilt. These were shot while flying from Denver to Miami. The world looks much different from 35,000 feet and the fresh perspective is cool and different much like the new trend of drone photography. Have you ever wondered how long that trend will last?
Here, I’ll share some photos of Denver, the Mile High city in the first of a three-part series on travel.
A few relevant questions to ponder while traveling is what type of images will you shoot? Of course there is nothing wrong with the quintessential travel snapshot that we all shoot as regular human activity. However, some of us seek to push that boundary and go beyond.
How does one capture the essence of a place? There are some characteristics of the people from a place that may describe some of this essence or spirit of the people. Fashion, dress, or occupation can provide hints as to the nature of a sense of place and its climate or at least the climate at that time of year. Getting close to people, or hanging out with friends from a place can give a unique perspective and “insiders vantage point”. While this can be a real challenge as a foreigner and that challenge is compounded by language barriers, but it comes with the territory for the professional photographer.
Architecture and building façades can reveal the nature of a place as well. The building styles, shapes of the roofs, colors, and building materials can give hints about the uniqueness of a city, region, or country. Of course landmarks are an easy way to communicate elements of a city, but that’s taking the easy road. Give the viewer a little more work to do to figure out the context of the image. Keep them guessing. Make them work a little, but not to much. Avoid being too obvious or stereotypical in your images. There are some universals in many cities that could be anywhere, or at least anywhere USA. Might see the image and think “Somewhere in the mid-west of the USA”. That’s close enough. If the image screens “DENVER”! You’ve gone to far. Dial it back a bit.
I made these images in this post on a recent trip to Denver, Colorado, USA. There are both black and white and color. In general, I avoid posting both together as there seems to be some photography faux pas for doing so, but sometimes you need to break the rules to tell your story in the way that you want to tell it.
The final task in making travel images is deciding if you want to share them, with whom, and how many. Most would agree that 10-20 is plenty of images and appropriate for anything other than a book. I chose 19 that illustrate my adventures in Denver for about five days. I did see some friends while there and really enjoyed the place. Notice this post mentions cameras, lenses, and gear exactly zero times. This is intentional. Sometimes, it’s best to divorce ourselves from the discussion of the technical aspects of photography and focus on the story and the place, and the people. The rest can be rather academic. For more on this topic, check out Blog #58 on the subject of Micro & Macro Education.
Until next time, remember, the light is always right.
jhg
Blog #62 Shooting [from] A Plane
Blog #62 Shooting (from) A Plane
July 4th is the unofficial start of summer in the USA. In Hong Kong, 1 July is HKSAR Establishment Day. This year, the event marked the 20th year of the infamous 1997 Handover [of Hong Kong from the British back to China (sniff!)]. Big Boss Man President Xi from Beijing was in town to oversea the transition from Chief Executive CY Leung to Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s first woman Chief Executive. There were lots of protests and rain (as usual) so venturing outside to brave the crowds and photograph the fireworks was a PASS (no thanks!) for me, this year.
However, as the regular school year and summer are ushered in by the heavy rains, my thoughts are drawn to making images now more than ever. Summer is the time for travel. In May I went to Denver (for my other work) and then Miami for a few days to visit my family. Of course I wear a camera so I was happily snapping away pretty much the whole time. In two days from now, I will start my summer travel plans with a brand new destination (for me). That place is Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital city.
Over the the next few blog posts I will reflect on travel and making images along the way. In this blog, I will post some images that I made en route to these places, from the plane. I usually carry my cameras, lenses, film, and gear onto the plane since the temperature and conditions are generally more hospitable for sensitive equipment compared to the freezing cold belly of the plane. I generally request a window seat since there are really cool things like cloud formations [not to mention the earth from 35,000 feet] that I don’t get to see on a regular basis. Plus, I’m admittedly addicted to making images, so it goes.
The images here I think work well to give a fresh perspective and pilot eye’s view of the world.
There are those that advocate for buying experiences through travel and photography books rather than gear. Of course you need all three ultimately but every dollar spent on travel and photography books is worth ten (or more) spent on gear.
Where are you going this summer? Will you bring a camera, smartphone? How about your imagination or photographic vision or plan? Don’t leave home with that.
The light is always right.
jhg
