CC Photography & Videography

"My phone takes better photos" says guest... I call BULL... This is what a guest from a wedding decides to tell me when standing in front of me. But lets not upset to many people, Fact is cell phone do take amazing images, Photographer, Jerry Gionis  has gone as far as submitting a wedding album into a WPPI competition and winning an award. Fact is my phone itself has a Lecia Camera system with a 20 mega pixels and UHD Video, that is amazing. But, here is the reality: Starting on the Left, This is a full frame sensor from pro-range DSLR cameras, The middle is a standard sensor from consumer range camera's, and the the right is a cell phone camera sensor. Do you see the problem? Well the problem does not lay in the quality of the image, it is in the ability to crop the image or even enlarge it, with the sensor size decreased, the enlarging of these images means that they are going to distort before the pro-range camera's. So whats the moral of the story,

One of my biggest pet peeves is communication, it grinds me when people don't communicate effectively. We were taught and drilled when we were growing up that we need to talk, but now days... its like talking is becoming a rapidly extinct habit. I can just hear people now going yeah... its the cell phones, or the game machines or facebook. BULL. I grew up with all of these things and I communicate just fine. Now you may be asking me why this arb topic, well in the photographic industry we run into alot of clients that just neglect to meet, inform us of important items or changes and leave us standing looking like idiots. We can not do anything without information. Here is the reason, every one is different, every shoot is different, talking and sharing helps the photographer adapt and adjust, giving you the best photographs possible. So for photographers, you need to meet with your clients, you need to communicate with them as much as possible and even go as far as sucking i

I don't know how many of you have been offered a photo-shoot with the promise of getting your photo's the next day... Or even how many of you thought this was awesome and booked that photographer. Well, if you did book that photographer, and you received your photo's you may have noticed that you could have probably taken better pictures on your phone. There is a very good explanation for this. That photographer is what we call a "Snap & Burn" photographer. They get a camera and realizes that they can take some pretty good images, but dont know anything more that that, or anything about post editing. They literally just take a load of "Snap Shots" and the burn them onto a disk and give it to you the next day. As a Professional Photographer, we take at least 3-4 days just to download and do basic corrections to our images, from there our images go through an intense crit and selection process, followed by photoshop adjustments. Usually, on a

We have all come across "That Photo", the photo that makes us stop and look again and again, ending with an attraction or emotion being evoked with, "That Photo." So what is it about "That Photo" that makes us stop. Well photographers actually put a lot of work into getting that image, spending a lot of time researching and learning how to achieve it. With the more skill and experience a photographer has, obviously it will be easier.  Joel Grimes , a renowned sports and fashion composite photographer says, "Awesome, you got that shot, now go do replicate it 300 times more and then you can say you can do it". "That Photo" does not just happen, it takes lots and lots of practice. Many people will say its the gear, "You have the best camera, off course you will get the best photo". That is so not true its just not funny, its like saying, your oven makes fantastic cakes! World Top Wedding Photographer  Jerry Ghionis , has

Now this is probably not going to make me famous, and definitely not liked; but I will stand for all the Photographers that feel the way I do. My letter to you Under Cutters!! Dear Under Cutting Photographers I am a hard working semi-professional photographer striving to achieve a full time Professional status. That means I have to leave my day job and be able to have my photography fully support myself and my family. It has to pay for food, clothes, school fees, rent, cell phone, petrol, car and all the other bills I have. I don't want to seem spiteful, but just because you bought a camera at Game or Makro or Bid or Buy, doesn't mean you are a photographer. Just because you went on the free camera course that came with the camera, doesn't make you a photographer. It just makes you a person that has a camera. So charging R100 per person, or R200 a shoot, R2000 a wedding; talking people away from us actual photographers; giving your "models / clients" a

There is always those out there that try to get things for less than what it cost, and don't feel they deserve to pay full price. As a photographer I am always running into these types of people. So how do we deal with them? Well firstly, make sure you are comfortable with your prices and your product. If you are not comfortable then you can easily be talked down. Make sure you have a compliant contract and terms and conditions, compliant with the Consumer Protection Act. With this in place you are not infringing on your clients consumer rights. It's also very important that you communicate during the shoot and inform your client of any additional charges and let them sign for the confirmation. A Verbal agreement is a valid agreement but it is just difficult to prove, it becomes a "he said she said" debate. This is what you need to make a stand... and don't be scared to stand your ground, your client wants their photos... 9 times out of 10 they will pay. 

Now I know this may seem like a dig at "other photographers", but it real isn't. During a few of my recent shoots, something I heard a phenomenal photographer,  Susan Stripling  say during one of her courses, came ringing back; and that was that everyone thought she had amazing photographs because she photographed at amazing locations. Susan went on to explain and show where some photo's were taken. I watched this course on Youtube almost a year ago, and it only clicked the other day, which is so true; a true photographer is not phased by the location of his/her shoot as they are able to make something beautiful regardless. And realistically as a client you should engage with your photographer alot, and share your idea's and hear their vision. You will be amazed at how quickly your photographer can take your idea's and create art. You need to meet with your photographer, analyse their work and ask question of where they took certain photos, Im almost gu

As photographers we know that clients are going to contact many photographer, and look for the one that suites them best. There is nothing wrong with that, you need to find the photographer that suites your needs and style; hopefully its not only based on the cheapest... But... you have taken the time to contact all these photographers, looked at what they have to offer; and narrowed down a list of photographers you want to meet. I hope you meet with your photographer, if you don't how do your know what you see on their web and social media is actually them. You then meet and choose the photographer that is perfect for you and your needs, and that's where you leave it. If that is the case that is actually really rude. You have contact a good number of photographers, alot of them have their hopes set that you might use them, and may even go as far as doing a block booking for your date. If you don't know what a block booking is, it is a temporary booking to remind t

It seems every week I encounter a situation that leads to me writing a blog, or just maybe I am more aware because I need material for my blog... Oh well either way works. On Sunday morning, again ... I got up early for a sunrise photo-shoot... this is so not like me; probably why the weather has been so cold. Never the less, we arrive at our location and noticed a photographer taking landscape photographs of the sunrise over the sea. Not thinking anything of it, our model couple arrived and we started getting set up to shoot. What was nice to see is this photographer came over and introduced himself and started asking questions on what we doing;... okay... at this point it may not sound strange, so I'm going to digress into why this was different. In my years of photography, I have found some photographers to be very guarded and secrete, not willing to get involved and not will to help. Having been one of those at one point I realized its because they want to keep their sec

You will have to excuse me, its a bit of a vent session. I belong to a large number of photography societies and have been noticing that some photographers, even in my local area... do not have respect for the human form. In its natural and perfect form, the human body is an amazing piece of art created by God. So why is it then that some photographers don't respect this, they seem to exploit the beauty of art and a females body, to get more likes? I don't know. BUT STOP IT. There are some amazing photographers that really create art out of the beauty of the human form, making amazing empowering images. Artists like  Micheal Stokes , and  Steve Castings  know how to really make the human form look amazing. Even tho Steve has an Erotic section which pushes it too far for my liking, but that is my personal opinion; but yet his work is amazing and respectful. My thing is that the human form should be respected, especially the female form. If a photographer does choose t