Webspinner wrote:
I am good at anything, as long as it does not make money.......

Pshaw.. If not making money were arm wrestling.. I'd tear yer arm off..

But seriously.. If I can uncross the wires in my brain long enough to write a post that stays on topic AND makes sense...

What areas of photography/modeling do you excel at.. Which areas do you NOT excel at.  Do you wish you could expand into more realms, or get even better at what you already do?

And for the pros (self appointed or real), which would you consider more valuable?

Personally, I very much like the bits I'm good at.  What I can do makes me very happy (well, as happy as I get..)  But when I find something I'm not good at (recent examples are the glamour genre and certain types of editing) I get very petulant and frustrated..  It's a challenge to overcome, but sometimes the more you fight the worse things get.

Looking at other people's work..  A good majority of people's styles are very distinct and fall into 1 or 2 areas..  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  I have no idea?

Do styles grow from limitations or perfecting one's expectations? 

Don't know.. Some of my favorite pics of mine are my darker stuff.. But in all honesty this stuff was born from the fact that my seamless paper backgrounds had wrinkles and they were pissing me off..

What about you?

W.G. Rowland wrote:
I'm putting this in general since it applies in front of the camera and behind, but...

What are you good at?

- Fashion, Glamour, Portaits, Nudes, cute puppy dogs and fluffy Bennies? (er, Bunnies.)

Do you specialize or can you change hats as needed?  What are your limitations?  Do they bug you?  Should I wake up more before starting open ended posts?

Just curious.  At a time when I'm trying to expand what I can do I'm running into my own limitations, so it seemed like a good time to ask.

My area has primarially been nature/architecture photgraphy.  My big downfall is model photography (of most styles) which is why I've sought out this site.  to learn from others involved in many aspects of this photography.

When working with models, though, I usually tend to have "conceptual" photographs, as opposed to a straight foreward bikini babe on the beach etc etc...

I like to try to tell stories through my models.

W.G. Rowland wrote:
What areas of photography/modeling do you excel at.. Which areas do you NOT excel at.

Developing a rapport with customers and people I work with. This counts for a lot in bringing potential to application, and achieving a response or reward.

I'm not fine tuned, but I'm effective in provoking the response I'm reaching for. I guess that makes me more pragmatic or entrepreneurial than artistic. Slick perfect work that never gets noticed litters the sides of the road to success everywhere.

There should be a balance to that somewhere.

W.G. Rowland wrote:
Do you wish you could expand into more realms, or get even better at what you already do?

Of course. Unless I'm dead. At that point, I'm not sure what happens anyway.

W.G. Rowland wrote:
Looking at other people's work..  A good majority of people's styles are very distinct and fall into 1 or 2 areas..  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  I have no idea?

It's both good and bad, depending on how it manifests itself. It can be a rut. It can be the photo equivalent of writers block.

It can also be market positioning and name brand recognition. It can develop and separate you out as a recognizable entity amongst the ocean of others out there who are nameless and look like everyone else.

http://www.determan.net/Michele/mposition.htm


The last part about limitations being a help or hinderence:what we can say is that all successful people in any particular place have success in common. Beyond that one uniting element, the way they got there varies widely. It varies by far more than the number of people who have reached a benchmark of success. Trial and error. Very few people hit it right the first time. Lots of people fall into success through the back door, then develop it or not from there.

Get a cold six pack of Becks beer and go find Click Hamilton. He's good at this stuff.

...Stacy wrote:
I would have to say that I don't excell at nudity, but I do excell at showing up on time.  Do I get a cookie?

Yes, but it's waiting for you in California..

W.G. Rowland wrote:

Yes, but it's waiting for you in California..

wow... it's going to be stale when I get there.  you can just eat it. 

W.G. Rowland wrote:
I'm putting this in general since it applies in front of the camera and behind, but...

What are you good at?

- Fashion, Glamour, Portaits, Nudes, cute puppy dogs and fluffy Bennies? (er, Bunnies.)

don't you mean fluffing Bennies

Benny-H wrote:

don't you mean fluffing Bennies

I wish you and MHana would tie the knot..

MM needs the pitter patter of a bunch of little Benny-Hana's running around..  (Oh well, sounded funny in my head..)

studio L wrote:
I'm good at pissing sir bob off.

(it's my life's calling)

You undersell yourself.. You're apparently also adroit at thread sinking.. (Just teasing.. Seemed funnier than saying *bump*)..

Bob Randall Photography wrote:
My clients think I'm good at directing people, I think they are right.

So what do you do if you can take a good picture, have a good eye, but are absolutely hopeless at directing people?

The perfect answer would be quite useful, I think I've got another shoot coming up this week..

Marcus J. Ranum wrote:
I'm really good at being annoying.

mjr.

No you're not.

W.G. Rowland wrote:
No you're not.

I didn't say you weren't better, sensei.

mjr.

W.G. Rowland wrote:

So what do you do if you can take a good picture, have a good eye, but are absolutely hopeless at directing people?

The perfect answer would be quite useful, I think I've got another shoot coming up this week..

When I first started working in photography I never gave a thought to how I would handle people because I was a product table top shooter. At one point I was asked to speak at a seminar filled with prepress people and their clients. I was so nervous I must have taken 30mg of Valium to get through the day. As time went by I started thinking of shooting people as my business and I knew my shortcomings around people, so I invented another persona to deal with people. This guy I invented knew he could get anyone to do anything he wanted without hesitation, and if for some reason a person balked at my other persona's ideas he would call them an idiot and kick them out of the studio. It only happened once and that was with a real piece of shit rock star. I, could hide behind the persona. It was fun and it eventually brought me to the person I am today. Try to suspend reality and pretend you arte watching someone else ask the questions and demanding the results. As preposterous as it seems, it works. I can talk in front of thousands at this point as easily as I can talk to you. I no longer use the persona because it became me and I became it. The more you use it the easier it gets.