The Post in Which I Answer 20 Questions

I was asked by a Santa Monica College photography student to answer 20 questions for a class assignment. She promised it wouldn't appear anywhere but in her class. But since I spent some time answering them, I figure I'd share them with you. Also, I'm a former reporter and one of my editors said I couldn't clear my throat in 15 inches. That means, I'm wordy. And this is wordy. But here you go!

• What would you consider to be an ideal workday? I usually work late so my ideal day would be to have a shoot doing my signature style, transfer my images to my computer, have dinner, and then start to do the post-processing. I really enjoy the post-processing because that’s where you create the art, if everything else has gone right.
•  What’s the best advice you ever received? Oh my gosh, so much good advice out there. Well, definitely walk before you run. I’ve always liked, “Don’t just practice until you do it right. Practice until you can’t do it wrong.” Run your race alone. Don’t look at others to copy, look at them to learn techniques, then turn it on its head. If your work is like everyone else’s, who hires what photographer largely depends on price. You’re a commodity. When your work is different, you can command a higher fee because there isn’t anyone like you. I also like Ira Glass’ insights on the Creative Process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHrmKL2XKcE Oh, and everyone should learn marketing.
•  Who do you admire most? It’s not so much anyone in particular as it has become lately to observe those who are in the upper echelon of their chosen career or avocation. It takes a lot to break through the noise and I admire people who have risen to the top. There is no one best anything but there are people who can really blow your mind with what they are able to do. I like Malcolm Gladwell’s idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. We all start at the bottom so you can’t let that get in your way. Bob Ross said, “Talent is a pursued interest. Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.”
•  Do you have any favorite books or movies on photography or photographers? Way back, I enjoyed Markus Klinko and Indrani’s reality show “Double Exposure.” There was also an Annie Leibovitz American Masters, “Life Through a Lens.” Platon was featured in an episode of “Abstract: The Art of Design.” For a drama, I loved “High Art.” I have a lot of photography books. I’m a big fan of Cindy Sherman and have two of hers and several of Annie Leibovitz. One of my favorite photography books is “The Silence of Dogs in Cars” by Martin Usborne. I love Tim Fallen’s “The Hunger Games.” That’s next level post-processing right there. Oh, there’s also “Dogs Vs. Ice Cream!” That’s my book, published by Familius in 2019.
•  What’s your best advice for handling criticism? Well, if you aren’t too mad about it, see if there’s any truth to it and pivot.
•  What’s next for you? Developing my style and really honing it. Attracting clients that want a certain look. Since entering competitions and wanting to stand out, I’ve been renting studios in Los Angeles which gives me a totally different looking session than other pet photographers. I’m thinking about sets, about cinematic lighting. These are more advanced level concepts that I want to use and do to put me in a different category.
•  Which photographers influenced you, and how did they influence your thinking, photographing, and career path? I always credit Grace Chon for being the first pet photographer I really noticed, let alone admired. She has a really clean, natural style. Now I realize that isn’t the style for me but I was really attracted to it early on. I was also attracted to Sue Bryce’s magazine style portraits but I tried to incorporate that with my pet work instead of people. I have a huge list of contemporary photographers I really like, some pet photographers, most of them people photographers. I don’t really want other pet photographers to influence my style so much.
•  What was your career path? How did you get from being an aspiring photographer to a professional? I always loved photography, it is my great passion. I studied photography in high school and college and was a newspaper reporter for 15 years. I dropped photography until about 2001-2002 when I got my first digital camera while I was an editor at a large website. I learned photoshop and when I eventually got laid off in 2011 after 11 years, I had all of my equipment and began doing photography and video. In 2013, I discovered pet photography and began taking photos of my neighbor dogs. I didn’t charge for that because I was practicing to see if I was any good at it. I ended up loving it and got better over time. Beginners tend to think they are good at photography but I do feel it takes a lot of practice and it takes a while to unlearn the bad practices of a beginner. My only advantage was I had done a lot of photography before but I still did some horrendous things while learning, like selective color (not with pets, thank goodness) and cutting off the paws of a dog or cat in camera so you can’t salvage it later. Wah-waaaaahhhh. I still do it now once in a while. Cringe.
• Where do you find inspiration? I love museums and paintings and photography and magazine illustrations and movie and television posters. I keep several inspiration boards on Pinterest. I love making myself laugh and learning new things. In 2017, I visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and was totally taken with the still life paintings. It’s like I was seeing them for the first time. Two or three years later, when the pandemic hit and I had no clients, I decided to create a still life with my cat Kiwi and cat and dog toys. It’s one of my favorites. And it was directly correlated to my visit to that museum and the photos I took on my phone of the paintings even if the image didn’t look anything like one of the Old Masters.
• When is your favorite time of day to create? Night
• How do you define success as an artist? Do I like it? Am I proud of it? Does my work resonate with my clients? Do other people recognize my vision and want it? Will someone pay me for it? Am I learning? Am I moving forward?
• In what ways does art help you in other areas of your life? Photography is my reason to live. It is an understatement to simply call it a passion. I’ve never considered myself an artist per se because my drawing and painting skills are non-existent. But I find myself studying art more and I’ve barely touched the surface. Studying art helps me see the world in different ways, makes me pay attention to things.
• How has your style changed over time? I started out doing dogs on the couch, cats on a bed, dog in a park, etc. Now I gravitate toward studio portraits and storytelling images and I’m especially interested in retouching and color grading. I think it’s the value I put on educating myself to reach higher levels.
• What are your favorite and least favorite parts of being a professional creative? Marketing is my least favorite and should be my favorite. My favorite part is working on something that pleases me and pleases my clients
• How do you manage work-life balance? I don’t have an issue with it, really. I do stay up too late.
• How useful has social media been for you? It’s certainly put my work in front of more people. It’s tedious, it’s the monster that always needs to be fed. But I don’t think it really gets me a lot of clients. But I think you definitely need to do it.
• Are you working on any special projects right now? I am working on a few competition images but I’m not sure I’m entering this year.
• What do you think is the biggest challenge of being a photographer? Marketing. Rising above the noise. Having other people recognize the value that professional photography brings to them. I mean, you can’t make them value you but you can bring interesting work to their faces. People may like something but not be willing to pay for it.
• What is the biggest mistake you have made within your career to this point? So many. But if I had it to do over again, I would definitely think about my style and what I want to accomplish and show only those things. I can do other things, but if I want clients who want a consistent look, a recognizable style would really help. Also, I suck at marketing.
• What steps do you take to continue to grow and develop as an artist? Oh, my goodness, I buy so many educational classes and incorporate them into my developing style. Also, I enter a lot of competitions. Putting your work out to be judged is scary but you learn so much. I am looking for co-conspirators as well, both photographers and models and clients. I want to plot with them to create something beyond ourselves individually. I think when you start to open yourself to the community of photographers, your growth can accelerate.