My Kinda' Wedding

A brief rant on the lack of imagination I’m seeing with modern wedding photography. Lotsa images in there too

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Customer Service

As my previous post shows, I’ve upped sticks and moved country. For the most part the transition has been smooth… I don’t have very many possessions and my entire wardrobe fits into a large duffle bag (along with a tripod, 2 external hard drives, a couple of empty camera bags and toiletries). 

I had two unexpected interruptions to the plan:

1. Some promotional cards I designed and ordered along with business cards from moo.com didn’t turn out as expected (colour prints on the promo cards were washed-out and skin tones were off)
2. My ‘must-have’ items (Computer, Printer, Backup hard drives, film camera and accessories) which I shipped with DHL didn’t show up. 

The first issue I reported to Moo as soon as I saw the cards (it was on a Saturday). On Monday morning I received an email apologising for the flaw and requiring a sample of the issue so that they could fully diagnose the root cause. I sent images as requested, and very shortly after received a response detailing the cause, outlining how to avoid the same problem in future and apologising again for the inconvenience. On top of that, the customer service agent (Zachory) corrected the issue on his end and resubmitted the cards for print with a priority tag, so they get done almost immediately. Fantastic customer service… prompt, knowledgeable & professional. As a result I have no hesitation in recommending Moo.com, and will defiantly be using them again in the future.

The experience with DHL was a complete contrast. I’m not going to get into a rant, but in summary the saga entailed over 16 hours on the phone, a trip to the DHL office/warehouse, two promised ‘callbacks’ which never occurred and an ‘express’ delivery which arrived a week later than other (less urgent) stuff I had sent by regular post at a fraction of the cost. In the end, it took a threat to call my bank to cancel the payment to DHL in order to get my items delivered. I will never give DHL my custom again. 

The purpose of this post is not to bash or praise either company, it’s simply to highlight the difference good customer service makes - because this can be applied to a career in photography too. Unless you’re blessed with luck, there are going to be days where shit just goes wrong and a client isn’t going to be happy about something. How you handle yourself in these situations can make the difference between gaining repeat business from your client (and potentially some word-of-mouth referrals) and losing a client forever… not to mention the negative press from the incident. 

Good customer service is really easy to achieve and if you’re in a position where you make a living directly from your clients, then it’s as important as technical competence with a camera. Really. 

More coming soon…

 

Changes, Dreams, Fear (& Quotes)

“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow”

There have been several significant changes for me in the past week, and although they’ve been planned for a long time I’m somewhat shell-shocked by how quickly time has passed. 

First and foremost, I’ve said goodbye to the office job, along with the nice salary (and security) that goes with it. Over the past few years my love of this craft has grown to the point where I can’t not pursue it fully. To be able to make a living from this love in itself will be a dream come true. It’s the foundation for ‘the ultimate dream’ I have, which I’ll share with you in the follow-up to this post. 

On top of the career change I’ve moved to Canada, and am currently getting my bearings in Calgary city. Anyone I’ve spoken to so far has been extremely friendly and welcoming, and aside from a lot of incompetence on the part of DHL in failing to ship some essential items over, it’s been a pretty smooth move. 

Depending on how you look upon it, the move can make the career change a lot easier or a lot more difficult. Time will tell. Being so far away from my family is the hardest part, while the internet makes it easy and cheap to stay in touch and up-to-date, it’s no substitute for being able to jump in the car and arrive at the motherland within an hour. 

What does this career in photography entail? Right now there’s a few different avenues I’ll be pursuing:

• Freelance commissions & 1-to-1 tuition (a continuation of what I’ve been doing to date)
• Assisting established photographers whose work I think highly of
• Working for established businesses in the area (print labs, studios, camera stores/suppliers, galleries etc)
• Creating a user friendly mechanism for the sale of my own limited edition prints (then finally adding more images)

Marketing is going to play a huge part in all of the above. Fresh business cards & somewhat unique ‘Picture Résumé’ cards have been designed, printed and delivered, and the hustle is just getting going. 

So, an adventure begins and the road less traveled awaits. Without my old safety net it scares the shit out of me. I’d be a fool to think there won’t be days ahead where the office seems like the logical place to be… and on those days I hope I’ll be able to learn, bear with it, push forward and remember the fact that logical choices haven’t led me to where I want to be. 

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
- Samuel Beckett  

These changes would not have been possible without Niamh, my ‘friend-with-benefits’, constant source of smiles and editor-in-chief (with the unsavoury task of beating my rambling scribbles here into somewhat logical posts). I don’t even know where to begin thanking her. 

 

More coming soon…

It's not the camera!

Like most other photographers I lust after the latest and greatest photography gear. My ‘wish list’ (yes, there’s a list) amounts to over €45,000 worth of equipment, and if I had the cash to spare I’d make it a reality list in an instant.

Yet I know that none of that gear will make me a better photographer. Not one bit better, and certainly not €45k better. Sure, a Mac Pro would enable me process images and video a lot quicker than my aging iMac, but it’s not going to make those images any better. A shitty image shot with a 200mm f/2 on a 1D Mk IV is still a shitty image.

In December 2008 I made my way from Dublin to Cork to partake in the social event known as “The 12 Pubs of Christmas” - a festive crawl through 12 pubs, sporting fancy dress and a sense of humour. Spirits are always high on the day and the opportunities for fun photographs are plentiful. Half-way to Cork I realised I’d left my pocket camera sitting at home on my desk… disaster!

The camera in question was a Canon G9, the very best ‘pocket’ camera available from Canon at the time… with a fast sharp zoom lens, manual shooting mode, RAW capability, quick and accurate focus and metering, large LCD screen on the back and built like a brick shithouse. It was an excellent little camera, with a price tag somewhere in the region of €400-500. Add an 8Gb memory card to the mix and there was capacity to shoot all weekend without running out of space. I was disappointed (and somewhat ashamed, being the photographer of the group) to be showing up to the party without a means to document the event.

I decided to pick up a disposable camera, so at least there would be some visual record of the day. For a whopping €4, I had myself a plastic camera with a flash and only 27 exposures. A stark contrast from the G9, but it had to do.

The next morning all 27 shots had been taken, so I dropped the camera into a 1-hour photo lab for development. After getting the prints I was happy with the results. My expectations weren’t all that high, but we had some fun images to remember the event by.
I recently scanned the negative roll of film from that camera and in doing so had a fresh look at the images. When viewing them on-screen the memories of the banter and craic from the day came rushing back and evoked an immense feeling of happiness. I laughed out loud. This is what’s important in an image, the message it conveys and how it makes you feel, not pixel quality.

Will the images from that disposable camera resonate with you? Probably not, unless you were there, but I’ll show a couple anyway:

What’s the moral of the story? Don’t forget your camera, carry it with you always… but also, it’s not necessary to be overly concerned with gear. We’re far better off devoting energy to making images that resonate, rather than fussing over the tools we use to do it. It’s essential to be reminded of that sometimes.

More coming soon…

Prolific Ranting & HDR

A description of dynamic range, some tips and technique for shooting HDR and tone-mapped photography… and a rant or two!

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Interpol at The Olympia

Some images from a recent Interpol gig, plus a few tips on how to get better images if you’re in similar lighting conditions

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