Here’s another reader question from the mail bag.. one I get quite frequently.

I enjoy both food and travel and love flicking through cook books and magazines. Your photos are exactly the kind of photography I could look at for hours!!

Do you have any advice as to how I could build up a good portfolio and gain some experience? I’m doing an intensive course in photography but don’t know much about how I could go about creating a specific portfolio.

My main piece of advise is just to practice, practice, practice. Take your camera with you everywhere and try to take the kinds of photos that you like to look at. If you are more interested in travel, start looking at your own city as a tourist might… imagine the kind of article you’d want to photograph for. If you are more interested in food, start cooking & shooting… or just buy easily transportable stuff (bakeries or candy shops are best) and shoot it at home. (notice I didn’t say start shooting in restaurants… you’ll be at a disadvantage because you can’t control the lighting).

Once you are ready, start finding folks to give you feedback on your work. Flickr is a great place for this… look for groups that specialize in food & travel and offer critiques. And, don’t be afraid to add a note on your description asking for feedback. you’ll get a lot that isn’t very helpful (ie, the “great shot” type stuff which makes you feel good, but doesn’t help you get any better), but you’ll also get some nuggets of wisdom.

Also, simply because it helps you shoot and get your work seen, I think everyone should have a blog and try to publish on a regular schedule. Even if you don’t want to write much, you can post photos. It’s a good exercise in delivering something on a regular basis, and you never know… you could be discovered. It’s free to do, so why not!

Of course, if you want to go pro, schooling is a good choice. If you can afford it. Personally, I think both culinary and photography schools are outrageously expensive. But, you will learn to deal with all kinds of situation and build a solid foundation of skills.

Finally, again if you want to go pro, find a pro photographer in your area, and ask to take them for lunch or coffee and get to know them. Maybe they can give you a portfolio critique. See if they have internships. Watching others work is a great way to gain experience.

How about you? What did you do to get started?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the business end of photography these days. I’m in the midst of reading John Harrington’s Best Business Practices for Photographers, a book intended for professional photographers with well-established businesses, but still a good read for those just getting started. It goes into almost painful detail about licensing and rights for all different types of photography, and what and why you should charge. It’s filled with all kinds of real-world scenarios from Harrington’s own business and I’ve gotten so engrossed with it that I’ve found myself still reading it at 2am. But, perhaps I’m just weird that way.

Photo by Thomas Barwick

As luck would have it, I also got to spend a bit of time this morning with one of the local Seattle photographers whose work I’ve been drooling over for the last six months or so. Thomas Barwick’s work really struck me in the November issue of Seattle Magazine. All of his photos in the issue (as well as subsequent issues…) have been beautiful, but the one that really grabbed me was a photo of well worn hands all covered in dark soil holding out a selection of cranberry and string beans… brilliant pinky purple speckled pods hiding a few dappled beans. Simply gorgeous. So, being the goof that I am, I googled to see if he had a portfolio, and popped off a piece of mail asking if he’d indulge me in a little chat over coffee. It took a few months for him to find some time in what sounds like a very nutty schedule, but everything finally fell into place this week, and we chatted for a bit at El Diablo Coffee, in the Queen Anne area of Seattle.
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Most professional photographers out there put some sort of transparent-ish watermark on their images when posting them to the web. It’s one of the few, albeit not necessarily fool-proof, ways to keep your photos from being used without your authorization. For pros, this is important not only to protect the value of the work, but often because the photos are under exclusive use license… it’s bad for both the photographer and their clients if those photos are misused.

With services like Flickr making it so simple to “borrow” images from, unauthorized use is becoming more of a problem. I can name quite a few cases where Flickr photos with All Rights Reserved clearly indicated on the web page were taken and used in magazines or websites without permission. In fact, I just stumbled upon this post with an old image of mine that was used without my permission. As a result of this kind of issue, more and more people are tagging their images with a copyright notice, and sometimes even quite a big one.
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After I got back from Matt’s, I realized how much meeting a group of folks that share my interests in food styling and photography meant to me. It was just such a thrill to see people light up the way I do. Obviously, that’s a large part of the appeal of blogs… to connect with others with similar interests, but there’s something different when you are actually sitting down face to face, sharing a meal, or wandering through a market. Newly inspired, I decided I needed to find other people in Seattle that share this same passion. But where to start?

I was already a lurking member of a couple of groups related to photography… showing up to one of those would probably be a good start! But, none of those groups really focused on food… more shooting landscapes and people. Not really what I was looking for. So, with a fire in my belly, I decided to simply start my own. Build it and they will come. I went to meetup.com and created a new group for food stylists and photographers in the Seattle area. Frankly, I hoped I might get one or two people interested, but I really wasn’t expecting much.

But, lo and behold, just a few days later, I have 18 people in the group… most of which really do share my same excitement about food styling & photography! I have to say, I’m a bit taken a back and completely thrilled. Who knew it would be so simple to connect with other people! Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

Which leads me to this post. Having a local community of food stylists and food photographers in your area can be a huge motivator and learning experience. Whether you are an amateur or professional or somewhere in between, there are great opportunities when you can share what you know. If no group exists in your area, try starting one yourself and doing a little local publicity (Craigslist is free! Or, make print outs to post on the bulletin boards of local artisan cafes and shops).

If you are looking for ideas of what to do with a group, here are some that I came up with:

- Have field trips to restaurants that feature gorgeous food
- Arrange tours of farmer’s markets or farms
- Hold photo lighting classes
- Educational seminars on food styling and presentation
- Prop swaps
- Host potluck dinners
- Share studio space
- Collaborate on food projects (cookbooks, freelance stories, etc.)

If you have other ideas, let me know! And, if you are in the Seattle area and food and photography is your thing, feel free to join us!

Technorati Tags: Food, Food Styling, Photography, Seattle