Reading the Script

One of the great things that I get to do is work on great TV shows and incredible movies.  It's an interesting part of what I have been able to do over the years.  With it comes a family like an experience that is nothing like anything else you can experience as a freelancer.   

The crews that I have work on over the years have helped me in so many ways.  These are the best of the best, but more importantly is the fact that they willing to pass useful information on about the process of filmmaking and motion images.  It's almost impossible to think that I have been able to work with some of the most incredible directors, writers, actors, gaffers, designers, camera crew, and many more departments over these years.  With each project, you continue to learn from the best Directors of Photography and the incredible Directors who each bring their styles to the tables.  Thanks to each person that I have had the privilege to work with over the years.

Sticking with it

The one thing that most successful people do is stick with something while others move away from it.  Photography is no different.  When I started thinking about photography as a career,  photographers informed that you needed to take 1000 pictures on slide film before you would be even considered an average photographer.  Now that was in the days of film, but the point still stands in some way.  Today with digital, I would think that number would be more around 25,000 images.   

What's the difference?  The difference is that it cost you money for the film and processing.  For every 36 frames, you would spend on average at least $15 for the slide film plus the processing.  This caused you to think before just pushing the trigger on anything.  It forced you to think about what was best in the image and what was not right with image.  Digital has changed the way we shoot since it cost us a little less in the cost of film, but the digital cost is a misleading when you consider the cost of the cameras and the storage of data.  It now cost more for professional cameras and the cost of hard drive space is something that is over looked.  

Some of you will say that digital is cheap, but it's not that cheap.  More images shot cost you more time and energy to view and process.  The cameras are more expensive and wear out faster due to the action to shoot more, plus they become outdated so quickly since we are only talking about a computer.   So I would recommend newer photographers to think before taking an image to find the most important part of the image, the story.

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.   -Albert Einstein