Why mastering a technique makes us masters of precisely nothing.

I've seen a few cover bands over the years. What is it about music and photography? Many of us photographers also seem to have an affinity for music - in all its wonderful forms. Anyway I'm a pretty big fan of a lot of sixties music and the only chance I will ever have to hear that music played live is to see somebody else playing it. All the greats seem to have been taken by drink, drugs and other excesses way before their time. Janis, Jimi, Jim Morrison.

But I've been able to see some pretty impressive impersonators over the years. Good enough that they really made me believe that I was seeing the real thing. Only I wasn't. And it wasn't because their technique wasn't any good. They all had the guitar licks, the drum beats, the vocals down brilliantly.

So what's the difference? The cover bands didn't write the music. They didn't get the flash of inspiration that created the intro to Foxy Lady. They didn't write 'the scream of the butterfly' after seeing a marquis for a porno movie of the same name! (The Doors in case you missed that reference.)

All the best technique in the world still makes them nothing more than pale imitations, no matter how good their technique may be. And it's the same with our photography. Buying an 85mm f1.8 and travelling overseas doesn't make you Steve McCurry. Buying 50 SB900's doesn't make you Joe McNally. And perfecting some post-processing method don't make you Chase Jarvis.

And that's a good thing. Because there's already one of all those folks in the world. We don't need any more. Just like we only needed one Jimi Hendrix, we only need one of each of us. If we want to be more than photographic cover bands we have to use our technique to create something that only we can. To inspire the world like only originals can.

So practice your off-camera flash to your heart's content. Create an image with 52 layers in Photoshop, all with some funky effect on it. And buy all the 85mm f1.8 lenses you can carry. But then do something magic with them. Wow the world. Amaze us all. And let everybody else follow us.

Oh and you're welcome to imitate this shot above but you're going to need a model as beautiful as this one!

Fantastic FNQ photo Friday

One of the thing I often lament about 'travel photography' put out by some tourism bodies and PR agencies is that it's often 'tourism photography'. Which is understandable I guess. Getting people to invest in spending their money on attractions and tours when they arrive in a destination helps keep the local economy alive. But I often wonder whether pictures of models pointing at fictitious birds in trees with big cheesy grins on their faces is the only aspect of a region that people want to see before they decide to visit.

Frankly I don't give two hoots about whether a pretty blonde looks good sitting on a rock on the side of a pristine rainforest stream! I'd rather see the local pub owner, toothless smile and all, as he welcomes people into his friendly watering hole.

Take this image above. I was on assignment for the Mercedes Magazine covering the southern Atherton Tablelands. I'd come to Lake Eacham looking for something interesting to photograph when I noticed this young man, with another, jumping into the lake with joyful abandon. Not only did it make me want to join him, but I knew it would make a great photo. So I went down to introduce myself and found out that he was a young man with autism who was with his carer.

They were having a day at the lake and he was more than happy to do a couple of extra jumps for me to take his photo. Up until that point he'd just been doing his regular bombs but I think the attention must have inspired him because he opened up his hands to the heavens and jumped in with this fantastic pose.

Sure he'll never make a male model but he's the real kind of character I love to discover and photograph. For me the major interest in a destination is the local people and culture, and the only real way to discover that is to get out on your own and meet them.

Whilst I can value the importance of tours and attractions to keep a local economy viable, especially one that is so reliant on it as is far north Queensland, if this is all you see of this beautiful region then you're missing out on its greatest asset.

So rent a car, a bike, get out and walk. Take the time to meet and photograph the locals. You'll come away with a far better understanding of your holiday destination, create wonderful memories and even better portrait images of the people you meet.

Oh and if you're looking for some blog posts on how to photograph strangers just do a search in the little box at the top of this page. And on my website you can find more images I photographed for that story on the southern Atherton Tablelands.

Fantastic FNQ photo Friday

As I look out from my back yard patio I can see my little creepy-crawly pool cleaner doing its thunka-thunka dance as it makes its way around the pool keeping it nice and clean. Heading towards summer and the rest of the nation is getting ready to head to the beach - all except for those of us here in the tropics.

Our beaches are indescribably beautiful. Pristine, tropical stretches of sand lined by picturesque palm trees and crystal clear blue waters filled (during the summer months) with deadly jellyfish and the odd crocodile! The Chinese may have their water torture but this is ours. You can look but not touch.

Only during the summer months mind you. With a balmy winter we all head to the beach while the rest of the country is freezing their bums off in sleet and snow. And in the summer? We all head for the swimming pools, freshwater creeks and croc-free lakes.

Sure we have stinger nets designed to keep the bigger jellyfish out. Last summer a woman at one of our local beaches shared her early morning dip in the nets with a crocodile! I'll stick to the pool and the creek during summer and leave my beach trips to the winter thank you very much.

Show a newbie the ropes.

This is Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. An amazing place at any time of the day, but to see it at its best you need to be there at the crack of dawn for the giant tuna auctions. Why this picture today?

It kind of ties in with my post on Monday about how to earn a fortune in travel photography. Up-and-coming photographers need to know this stuff. They need to know about proper business practices so they don't make all the same mistakes that we made.

My cousin lives in Tokyo and is a photographer. Not a professional one at this stage but he's working on it! Laurence was born in LA and his Mum is my wife's mum's sister. So he's half Japanese and technically my wife's cousin not mine. Neither here nor there. He's a great guy and a really keen photographer. You can see his website here. Anyway he sent me a long email the other day asking for some advice on how to move his career forward and I penned a big, long reply with a whole bunch of tips.

More importantly I put him in touch with a mate of mine who's a  well-established photojournalist there in Tokyo as well, somebody I know will give him some sage advice about working as a foreigner photographer in that amazing part of the world.

If you're already established as a professional it's really important to show a newbie the ropes if they come looking for answers. Showing them how to price themselves properly, license their images and keep their copyright, and why they need to do so to survive in the industry, will help them stop undercutting you. Look what happened with stock. Digital created a whole bunch of eager photographers who wanted to license their images the traditional way. The big agencies wouldn't let them in and Microstock was born - and look where that's got us!

It's not about price fixing. It's about giving people the knowledge to make good business decisions based on more than just the fact that they have a passion to take pictures. I'm about to head off to have coffee with a local real estate and architectural photographer who's graciously agreed to meet me to give me a few pointers. Hopefully I can give him a few on travel photography.

It's all about passing it forward and trying to make sure that we all end up competing on skill level and style, as opposed to the current method of seeing who can charge the least amount possible and still eat more than a single meal a day!

So if you're an established pro in any art form I would encourage you to reach out to aspiring professionals. Take them under your wing a bit and show them what a great, long-term career this can be if you play your business cards right.

Do you want to make a fortune as a travel photographer?

I've seen this headline on the internet a few times over the years and it always makes me laugh. In travel photography, simply put the best way to make a small fortune is to start off with a big fortune! Many travel photographers take the editorial route of combining their travel photography with writing about the places they visit. Their main clients are still magazines and newspapers, with the occasional foray into writing for online sites such as Yahoo and NineMsn.

But here's the clincher. This kind of travel work, which many travel photographers of my generation grew up on, won't have you rolling in clover financially. In fact of all the friends I have who still make a living this way, all except for a bare few are either single, have a second job, a spouse with a job, or another business to help support their love of travel.

In other words if you're thinking you're going to be supporting your family of four with a mortgage and a couple of cars living in a major capital city then you might want to think again.

But for many of my colleagues this doesn't worry them in the least. Because they get to travel for free. When you write articles for major publications your travel expenses are usually covered by companies that work within the travel industry - for the most part PR companies and state and national tourism bureaus.

Getting your name in print gives you legitimicacy in their eyes and a few well-timed introductions can lead you to the inner sanctum where you receive emails and phone calls out of the blue asking if you'd like to go here or there.

If you saw my Facebook Wall you'd see my friends traipsing everywhere from PNG to Antarctica, Japan to Europe. And that's just this month! Next month they'll all be on the opposite side of the globe having more adventures.

Sounds pretty glamorous doesn't it? But the reality is that it is of course very competitive, a lot of hard work to meet deadlines and pull interesting stories out of sometimes very uninteresting places, not to mention the fact that you actually need to be able to craft a feature article! And of course there's never a guarantee that what you write will get published.

 The reality is that you often stay in hotels and take part in tours the likes of which you could never actually afford in your 'real life'. The gap between the luxury you enjoy with work and the frugality you survive at home can be huge.

Add to that the fact that in this modern age of cost-cutting and budget constraints the fact that many magazines are now refusing to pay for all those beautiful photographs you take (why bother when they can get them for free from the aforementioned tourism bureaus?) and you might get a bit frustrated to discover you've become a writer and not so much a photographer any more. If you love writing then you'll be more than happy. If you write as a way to get your photos published you might not be so content.

Licensing stock images from trips used to be a good way to help pull in extra passive income to help balance the books but thanks to Microstock and a general collapse in the state of the stock industry that's not such a viable option anymore.

This all sounds like I'm trying to dissuade you from following your passion. Far from it. If you're young and single or a bit longer in the tooth and the kids have left home, and you don't mind being away from your friends and family for a large part of the year then go for it I say. Not all of us need a big paycheck to be happy with our lot in life and you will have more adventures in a year than most people will have in their entire lives.

Just have your eyes open going in. The headline of this blog post isn't very factual for the vasy majority of travel photographers. It's a lifestyle choice. A fantastic, adventurous, wonderful lifestyle. But with as little as $300 being paid for a travel article you are going to have to publish a hell of a lot to break even, even with free travel.

Oh, and what was the second option I was talking about. Shoot other work that pays a lot better and use the profits from that to go and indulge your passion for travel photography. In other words make enough money from other photographic ventures such as commercial work, photography tours or workshops to be able to pay for it yourself. You can still claim your travel expenses on your tax if it's a legitimate work trip and you can prove that, but you won't be so worried about how much money you're spending while you're away.

Documentary-stule travel photography is a passion. A beautiful, exciting, often spine-tingling passion. And it is a wonderful way to live your life. I honestly can't imagine doing anything better for a living. But beware snake charm sellers telling you you'll be the next millionaire as you sell your travel photos all round the globe. It ain't gonna happen. Love it for what it is, just don't do it because you want to be on the next Fortune 500 list.

Fantastic FNQ photo Friday

Sometimes you have to accept the gifts the universe throws your way.

This shot was totally unplanned until about 3 seconds before the plan flew overhead.

It was taken on the main drag leading into Cairns from the North - the Captain Cook Highway. And this is Captain Cook himself. The statue has been there for decades and looked like being demolished at one point. But on it lives, constantly pointing to the sky.

Anyway I was sitting on top of my car waiting for a young guy on a pushbike to come along the road. A Swedish tourist whose name escapes me, he was riding his bike for charity, or at least planning to when he got home.

Anyway while I was waiting I looked up to see a Qantas plane coming in to land. I saw the red in Captain Cook's vest, the red in the tail of the Qantas phone and my little brain synapses yelled out 'picture'.

I had a brief instant to bring my 28-70mm lens up to my eye and snap the shot. Sometimes all the planning in the world can't provide you with as good a photo opportunity as pure serendipity.

Final Photographer's Intensive for 2011

Well the dates are set for my final Photographer's Intensive for the year and things are all ready to go for a November of intensive photography immersion here in Cairns.

Over the period of a month we’ll have a series of four hour lectures, running two days a week at Hambledon House in Edmonton. The days (Wednesday and Thursday for 4 weeks) are:

9/10 November

16/17 November

23/24 November
30 November/1 December

and the lectures will run from 10-2.

The cost of the full month’s tutorials will be $550 (incl GST).

In between lectures there will be an online discussion group and area to post pictures so that you can get critique from the other members of the group as well as full access to myself. I will be available all month to answer questions and personally guide you to improving your photography.

With a small number of students (maximum 10) we will be able to tailor the course so that you get the most benefit out of your four weeks. To really learn what you need to to improve your images. We’ll concentrate on the technical side of things to the extent that it helps you improve the creative side of your art. To create photographs that share your own vision and way of interpreting the world.

Starting with topics such as lenses, light, flash, photographing strangers and developing it from there we will definitely cover a lot of ground. And this is where the inspiration for the intensive came from.

I received a lot of feedback over the years from people that they enjoyed my weekend workshops but wanted something that lasted longer and helped them keep up the momentum and enthusiasm. This is it.

For those who don’t know me I have been a professional travel photographer for more than a decade. I am represented by Lonely Planet Images and my pictures have been featured in more than 50 of their guidebooks ranging from Thailand to Tokyo, from Nepal to Southern Africa and lots of places in between. My images have been published in magazines such as National Geographic Traveler and TIME (US) and I have been teaching photography workshops for most of that 10 years.

What past students have said:

Hi Paul

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the photography course we have just completed.  I must say at first I was a bit worried about the length going for 2 days a week over four weeks but in the end I found myself wishing it went for longer.  Not only was it most informative but you made it very interesting.      Your passion for photography is quite infectious and your willingness to share your extensive knowledge made it a pleasure to be a part of.   

I now have reinvigorated my love for photography and I look forward to being a part of another one of your courses sometime.  Thanks again.

Kind regards

Warwick Bourguignon

'Paul's course is well worth doing, no matter what your interests are. 
It was really enjoyable and a great learning experience.  He is an
excellent teacher and had plenty of time for individual queries and
critiques.  We covered so much, including flash photography which I'm
now hooked on!  The spread of the sessions over a month worked really
well, allowing time to practice in between.  This course has opened up
so many new photographic opportunities for me - I am so glad I did it!'
Jackie Hammer, Cairns

So if you think you’d like to improve your photography and really delve into your creative possibilities and would like to find out more please contact me at info at dymond dot com dot au  or check out my website .