How To Interview A Photographer

Specializing in fine portraits of Families, Children and high school Seniors for over 30 years in Hawaii.

 I've been creating portraits and commercial images in Hawaii and in California for about 35 years now. I remember when, oh maybe 15 or even 20 years ago, it wasn't all that unusual for a person who wanted to hire a photographer to ask questions like, "how long have you been a professional?", and "who have you done work for in the recent past?" These are good questions.

In the last 12 years or so since so many hobbyists have "come out of the woodwork" with professional DSLRs and offering their services for hire, a strange thing has occurred...It seems the only question people know to ask a photographer they are considering hiring is "how much do you charge?"!!

With some things, you just know that what you want is the 'more expensive choice'. When buying fish for example. If you have 2 fish of the same kind, and weight, one is $5 per pound, and the other is $1 for the whole fish... Pretty obvious there's something wrong with the dollar fish! No Thanks!

When shopping for cleaning supplies, and the local grocery store has the detergent you're looking for priced at $10 for 24 ounces, and the "big box" store right next door has the same thing for just $6, it makes sense to walk next door to buy it! Detergent isn't going to "spoil", so you're not risking anything buying the lower priced product.

With photography, as personal as portraits are, price really is the least important qualifying aspect to use when comparing photographers! I always say, "Price is what you pay, Value is what you get". When it comes to portraits, and hiring a photographer to create portraits for you, this is indeed true! This is one of the main reasons I wrote the book, "The Guide To YOUR Perfect Portrait". (It will be available by June 1, 2012 on Createspace.com, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com)

For now I'd like to share a few excerpts from my book with some important questions to ask photographers you are considering to hire, and the answers you should hear from a photographer before you hire them...

First thing to ask is: “What is your guarantee?” I mentioned this before, and I believe it is vitally important. If the photographer doesn’t have a guarantee, or doesn’t guarantee that you will be really happy with your portraits, then he doesn’t have confidence in his work. If he isn’t confident in his own work, how can you be?! If he doesn’t guarantee you will be happy with your portraits, or he’ll refund your money, cross him off your list and move on to the next photographer!

Here’s another important questions to ask: “Why did you choose photography as a career?” I really don’t know why many who are in this business got into it. I’ve met a number of photographers who seem completely devoid of personality. I’ve met a lot of photographers who only complain about how demanding their clients are, and what jerks they are! If a person doesn’t love people and love working with them, portrait photography is just the wrong career for them!

In my case, I was raised in a family of artists. My dad was a professional pianist. My older brother was a great horn player. I took to drawing and painting at a very young age. It was just a natural expression for me, and I always loved drawing people. People have always been my favorite subjects, so when I discovered photography in junior high school, I fell in love with photographing people. (Especially pretty girls!) 

I remember being so excited when in the summer of my junior year I got a job with the local newspaper as a “stringer” photographing local sports events! That progressed into working in the paper’s darkroom, and I was just in heaven! That only lasted for the summer, but from then on I have been constantly photographing people. I love making portraits, and I absolutely love

the reactions I get from the people I photograph when I show them their portraits! 

If the photographer you’re talking with answers this question without any passion, you should move on to the next one on your list!

These 2 questions are, I believe, far more important than the question of price. I know we all have to live within our budgets, and investment is important...just not the most important qualifier when looking for the right photographer to create YOUR portraits!

Film or Digital

Specializing in fine portraits of Families, Children and high school Seniors for over 30 years in Hawaii.
First I want to announce that I've changed the title of my book from "Creating Your Perfect Portrait" to, "The Guide to YOUR Perfect Portrait". After much thought and discussion I felt the original title sounded too much like a "how to" book for photographers, when it's really a guide for people wanting to have a great portrait made for them.

Secondly, I've been meaning to get back to this for at least 2 weeks now...but have been struggling with the cover art for my book. Now it's settled, I want to share a bit more of the book itself. This is an excerpt from the 4th chapter: "What to Expect"...

As explained in the first chapter, a portrait is more than just a photograph. Besides the planning and preparation, and then the photography, after you’ve chosen the image you want made into your portrait, there will need to be work done to the image. Things like removal of blemishes, softening of lines and wrinkles, whitening teeth, and more.

Back in the day when film was the only option there were a number of artists who were trained and skilled in “retouching” negatives, and doing certain kinds of artwork to the prints. Those days are past now, and the art of negative retouching and art working the prints is also a thing of the past. Today all the enhancements and artwork are done digitally.

How does this affect your portrait? Well, if a photographer uses film, in order to do the enhancements and artwork, the negative will need to be scanned and a digital file made from it. Then the work is done to the digital file. Or a print can be made from the film negative and the print scanned to make a digital file to work with.

The problem with scanning is that with every scan a little detail is lost. With every little bit of lost detail you loose some quality and sharpness, which will affect the final print, and limit the maximum size that can be made. So, it’s better to work with the original image, and it therefore makes better sense to work with a photographer who uses digital capture.

Why Should I (YOU) Have A Portrait Made?

Specializing in fine portraits of Families, Children and high school Seniors for over 30 years in Hawaii.
Here's the first page of Chapter 2 of my new book, "Creating Your Perfect Portrait". This book is all about helping people who want to have a great portrait made to succeed in that quest...And encourage more people to have a portrait made.

Why Should I Have A Portrait Made?

You may think that only people who are important, or
famous, or wealthy have portraits made of themselves or
their families. You may think that you aren’t a good subject
for portraiture, or that people will think you are egotistical if
you were to have your portrait made.

Let me assure you that people of every status in life have and
enjoy portraits of themselves and their families. And that
every person is a good subject for a portrait! And if someone
should think poorly of you because you have a portrait of
yourself, well, that’s his or her problem! Now, if you have
every wall of your home covered with larger-than-life
photographs of yourself, well, maybe your ego is a little
inflated…That’s a subject for a different kind of book.

It is true that wealthy, famous and important people have
portraits made of themselves and their families. You may not
consider yourself to be wealthy or famous, and that’s fine.
Most of us aren’t. But you certainly are important! You are
important to your family and friends, and you are most
definitely important to you! But let’s consider your family,
progeny and society in general for a moment.

You are important to your family no matter what part you
play in the family dynamic. If you are an unmarried child,
you are no doubt very dear to your mother and father. If you
are a husband or wife, you are very important to your spouse.
And if you are a parent, your children depend on you. You
are a very important person within your family and circle of
friends. For that reason alone you should have a nice portrait
made of yourself.

Testimonials

Specializing in fine portraits of Families, Children and high school Seniors for over 30 years in Hawaii.

Yesterday, 1/25/2012 I received one of the greatest testimonials I've ever received! It was better than most because of the specific, enlightened appreciation that my client expressed.

I want to mention that this client invested several thousand dollars in their portraits...I'm not disclosing this because I want to brag about myself, but because it's validation and verification of my belief that portraits, especially Family Portraits are more valuable than most material possessions.

Besides all the wonderful, beautiful expressions of how much they all love the portraits, how great the experience was, how fabulous they turned out, and how they "are the talk of the town of Gallup, New Mexico", my client commented specifically about how beautiful the day was, (when we did the photography), and that "the lighting was perfect"..."everything was perfect!"

And it's true...it was a beautiful day, the weather was great...and the natural light was good. But it was the artwork that I did after the photography: saturating the sky; bringing up the clouds; and adding light by use of speedlights at the location, and then painting the faces in post production that made the finished portraits look "perfect"!

My client couldn't tell that I did all that to the portraits because it looked so natural. Only I know all that I did to improve on what was captured in camera. But I do know, and it's very gratifying when a client says: "You made it perfect!" "Your work is worth every penny of investment!" (She actually repeated that statement 3 times!)

Price is what you Pay: VALUE is what you Get!

How To Choose Your Professional Portrait Photographer

In today’s market place, with so many amateurs with nice DSLRs claiming to be professional photographers, how does one determine who to hire to create their portraits?

It used to be a lot easier. In times past it was fairly rare that you would see an amateur with a professional camera. They were too expensive, and one needed a working knowledge of the science of photography in order to operate a professional camera. (I’m referring to the days of film and before Program mode was built into pro cameras as an option.) And certainly one would never see a professional using a point and shoot camera on a paid assignment!

Now days, while it is easy to spot the difference between a point and shoot camera with built in zoom lens, and a DSLR, so many hobbyists are carrying “pro-sumer” DSLRs, one can no longer tell a pro from an amateur by the camera they use.

So, why is it important to know if the person you hire is a professional or not if the cameras are the same? Because, simply put, cameras do not create photographs. What?! You say… That’s right…cameras record the light that is reflected by whatever the lens is pointed at! Creating photographs is the job of the person operating the camera.

What’s the difference, and why does it matter? You can have the best camera and lens in the world, but if you don’t know how to operate it, you can’t make a photograph. If you know how to turn the camera on, put it on program mode and press the shutter release, you can indeed make a photograph. Well, one might say, that’s all you need then, right?

The answer to that depends on what you expect from your photographer. If for example a person knows how to turn the ignition of a car on, and put it in drive, that person can make the car move. However if that same person does not know how to use the steering wheel, accelerator and brake, you wouldn’t say they know how to drive a car…and it wouldn’t be long before they crash!

You see, photography and creating photographs is much more than turning a camera on and making a lot of exposures in program mode. With today’s advanced metering systems and computer programs built in, one is likely to get some fairly good photographs that way, but if that’s the extent of one’s knowledge, the law of averages is not with them.

A professional photographer knows their equipment and how to operate it so that the image they have in their mind, they are able to create in the camera. A professional photographer knows how light and shadow affects the image, and how to balance the light to get the effect they want. A professional photographer knows the difference between a snapshot and a portrait, and how to enhance a photograph so as to turn a photograph into a portrait.

Particularly for portraiture, you want to hire a professional, because a pro knows how to light and pose you to accentuate your best features, and hide less desirable features. You do want to look your best in your portraits, don’t you?

So, how do you know if the photographer you are considering is really a professional? You need to ask the right questions. Some good questions to ask are: Where did you learn photography? How long have you been a professional? What is your guarantee? Can I talk to some of your portrait clients? Why did you choose to become a professional photographer?

Besides being competent with their camera and lights, a professional portrait photographer should also put you at ease, and give you a sense of confidence that they will do the kind of job that will make you happy!


Specializing in fine portraits of Families, Children and high school Seniors for over 30 years in Hawaii.

Why Family Portraits Are So Important

I have lots of snapshots of my family. I have snapshots of me and my brothers and sisters at the beach, at parties, etc. And I have snapshots of mom and dad in various places and times. But there are no portraits of my family with my parents and siblings all together. Both my parents and one brother are deceased, so that portrait of my family can never be made.

The tragedy of not having a portrait of my family, (actually there aren’t even any snapshots of all of us together), is the fact that my children and their children, etc will never know what we all looked like as a family. It’s about lineage and family history. If there are any photographs of my grandparents in existence, I don’t know of them. It’s a shame.

I don’t know why my parents never thought to have a family portrait made, but I sure wish they had. All families are different, and my family completely unraveled shortly after my youngest sister left home. Shortly after that I left the roost, (being the youngest child), and then my parents divorced. No getting back together for a family portrait after that!

Just an hour ago a young family left my studio. The husband is a medic in the Army, and will be deployed to Iraq in two weeks for an undetermined length of time. The wife works for the Army doing outreach and helps those families and spouses who have lost a family member. She determined to have a special family portrait made before he deploys. Her main reason, she said is because she works with bereaved families and knows what their regrets are. One that stands out to her is when the spouse or family has no real nice family portrait to hold on to. She’s not about to make that mistake.

Beautiful, sensitive family portraits certainly portray the family members in the most complimentary way possible, but they also give a sense of the personality of the family, the individuals, and the relationships within the family. The love and connection.

As with many other families, my older siblings left for the military, university, and marriage, and went of to various parts of the world to start their own families. And as many of my clients do, having a fine family portrait created before the children go off to college or other pursuits can bring back the added warmth and comfort to the empty nest. When going about your daily business in the home, you can look at your family portrait on the wall and see the expressions, all the personalities, all the love of and for your family members is called to mind, and warms the heart.

Family portraits also preserve the record of your heredity. Looking at older family portraits you can likely see where you got your nose, or who you inherited your jaw line from, or your eye color, or curly hair. Portraits are a wonderful way to remember your ancestors, and a wonderful heirloom to pass on to your children and grandchildren.

Fine family portraits can give “life” to ancestors from past eras, and give proof to your inherited features. They can fill an empty home with warmth when family members are away. They can bring comfort and preserve precious memories when family members have been lost.