How to improve your photography - My top 3

   What would be the top three things for a photographer to own? Good and expensive gear maybe? I'd loved to shoot with a Hasselblad or some other digital medium format camera, but no, in my opinion gear is not on the top of this list. So what then? Here's my list:

  1. The ability to see! Usually a photographer can see of course, but what I mean by seeing is not just        seeing the obvious, but also being able to notice light, shapes, how the subject is related to the background, colors, what to include in to the frame and what to leave out, story etc. The list probably could go on and on. Camera is just an instrument to capture the light, but the photographer has to have a vision and to be able to see so that the image will have an impact on the viewer.

  2. Good social / communicating skills! Imagine a situation when the photographer won't talk to the model! Our talent might feel a bit uncomfortable during the shoot, most likely resulting in mediocre or even bad photos. But if the photographer is constantly communicating with the model, giving direction of course, but also talking in general about this and that, the model will probably feel relaxed and good in front of the camera and thus her/his performance will also be much better and this will be seen in the final images.

  3. Self-discipline! This also is important. It's not so that the shoots will always go as you plan. Your model gets sick and the shoot is canceled. You or the model is stuck in the traffic and you have postpone the start of shoot. Someone is just having a bad day. Often it would be nice to just go and shoot, shoot and shoot, but then you need to plan, you have to do some editing, keep in touch with clients and  taking care of the business side, marketing and all that photography related paperwork, and the list goes on. Only by showing some self control you can be a successful photographer.

  These three things are not available in the shop, you can't order them online. For some part you could have some tuition, maybe in form of a course, to shape for instance social skills or ability to see, but in the end the only way to own these three things is to practice and practice a lot. In the beginning it might feel difficult, but in the end you'll notice that these qualities or things will make so much more to your photography than a new expensive camera or a lens could ever could do. So hardware is nice, but it's not the only thing and most likely not the most important thing that will make you a good photographer.

  Last Friday I had a chance to practice number 1 and 2 on this list with Emma. A nice couple of hours in the center of Helsinki. Here's a few images from that shoot...

           

Saturday shoot canceled! How to survive?

   What could be more fun than have a Sunday shoot with a gorgeous model, nice surroundings and great weather? I had a shoot planned for Saturday a week ago, but what sometimes happens the model had to cancel the session due to feeling ill, and I would say that during the pandemic it's wise to backup if you feel sick. Of course I wasn't very happy because my shutter finger was itching and I so felt I want to do a shoot. In the last moment on Sunday morning I typed a message in a local tfcd-group. A last minute call so there were no high hopes, but you can always give a try. Surprisingly I got an answer fairly soon, Roza had time for a shoot! When planning for a shoot you always want to know where to shoot, and what's the theme or styling. For the canceled Saturday shoot the theme would have been a fantasy shoot, but with this sudden change I just decided to give the model free hands with the styling, with the only requirement from my part that it's a clothes on shoot. For the surroundings we decided to choose villa Sinnebrychoff in Espoo. There's some cool old buildings and a little piece of a forest, something fairly easy to use as a backdrop. It's always interesting to collaborate with someone you don't know, so I was pretty exited to get to know my model and see in what kind of outfit she would appear. Finally after a little confusion with where to park the cars we met in front of villa Sinnebrychoff. My model turned out to be a nice young lady who'd just finished modeling school. She'd prepared two outfits, one which I would define as a street style outfit and then she had brought with her a more ladylike skirt combination, both very cool looking! Even though it was somewhat difficult to find a place where she could change her clothes, we managed to use both outfits during those couple of hours. All in all we ended up with some images that in my opinion just rocks and some images very ladylike, taking my imagination to Jane Austens "Pride and prejudice" surroundings, and then of course we had some good time. So no harm done even if my Saturday shoot was canceled! Here's a few images from the shoot...