First and foremost, I would like to thank the photographers who had joined my shoots. I must also thank Darren who gave me this opportunity to organize here on the CS forum.
When I set out to organize this shoot, I want to organize the shoot in the way I believe a shoot should be produced - to provide the opportunity for the photographers to create images they want to capture, and have fun doing it.
When I made up my mind to take on this challenge, a very good friend of mine warned me, that every single one of my trolls, the regular ones, the cloned ones and all their cousins will be scurrying out of the wood works to “slam” me. They did, but some for reasons that still befuddled me. And therefore, my friend stressed, that I should spare no expenses and do everything to make sure the pictures from the shoot is perfect. We talked about what can be done. After some thought, I decided I should do it in such a way to make this a typical shoot, in term of costs, expenses, available equipment and location. I could have provided portable strobes (will be a serious extra cost factor) or arrange of a private location (cost and availability), but fo the normal price/cost, this is not fair to the challenge posed by Darren.
I believe I have achieved most of the objectives I set out to do when I decided to accept this challenge. The photographers at the shoot had fun. I hope they had good images that they like. No one walked nor asked for a refund. I also learned a lot about organizing. One thing that is apparent, I do not enjoy organizing. Let me clarify this point. I had a lot of fun interacting with the photographers, but I rather shoot.
The original challenge from Darren was, to show how a shoot can be organized better. From this experience, I truly believe shoots can be organized in much better ways. However, I doubt I can nor want to do it, because, I am just not motivated to organize.
This is more a logistic nightmare rather than a creative challenge. Creating is much more fun and rewarding.
This is also an exercise to cater to the demands of others. I am designed to cater to my own whimps. I found having to satisfy the needs and wants of others a very daunting task. I think I did a passable job, but it was not an easy job.
I also discover that, there are also many factors that are simply out of my control. Weather was one. However, as an organizer producing a shoot, you have to factor in the weather. What to do when it rains, what to do when there is not a cloud in sight and it’s 11am. All the photographers are there waiting for you to pull the rabbit out of the hat to give them that opportunity to capture the killer shot. Pressures!
Finally, there is the model. I found this is the most challenging of all the variables, and in particular, how the model interact with the photographers. This is key. Even though in a group soot, every single image is in fact an one to one collaboration, no matter how fleeting that moment was.
My experience also led me to believe that, most of the shoots being advertised on this forum, can be organized better. There are so many details that needs to be managed, orchestrated and executed. A good organizer is a producer. No details can be missed. I missed a lot of them.
I am going to cut short what is already a very brief career. I just don’t have it to organize, nor want to, nor have the desire to. Those who wanted to join my shoot, or have joined and like to experience my idiosyncrasies more, pm me, maybe we can do some collaboration in the future, and have some fun together.
After all said and done, my impressions and opinions regarding some of the organizers remains the same. Many here who are organizing, they either lack the skills and mindset to organize or they just do not care as long as they can make a quick profit. Sad. However, I must tip my hat to the good organizers. I am not going to name names, but they are here, be it they are a very exclusive group, and most of them had retired, but they all delivered good shoots on a regular basis.
If I cannot do it better, that does not mean that I cannot hold an opinion or express such opinion freely and directly. To the dismays of my detractors, nothing will stand in my way, when a picture needs a slamming, or a shoot deserving one. This experience only made me understand better what needs to be done, and hence, I can really be relentless about it. After all, this is a push to create better pictures, better photographers. Don’t you agree?
One thing I sincerely hope but likely to be disappoined is, all the energies my collections of trolls had spent on slamming me, would that not be much better spent if they start channeling these energies towards criticizing constructively and honestly the works that had been posted here on CS, especially the P&P sub-forum?
Again, I have to thank Darren for this opportunity.
Just remember, you don’t need to be a good photographer to enjoy the photograph, and you don’t need to be a great photographer to slam a photograph.
Let’s go and shoot some more.
When I set out to organize this shoot, I want to organize the shoot in the way I believe a shoot should be produced - to provide the opportunity for the photographers to create images they want to capture, and have fun doing it.
When I made up my mind to take on this challenge, a very good friend of mine warned me, that every single one of my trolls, the regular ones, the cloned ones and all their cousins will be scurrying out of the wood works to “slam” me. They did, but some for reasons that still befuddled me. And therefore, my friend stressed, that I should spare no expenses and do everything to make sure the pictures from the shoot is perfect. We talked about what can be done. After some thought, I decided I should do it in such a way to make this a typical shoot, in term of costs, expenses, available equipment and location. I could have provided portable strobes (will be a serious extra cost factor) or arrange of a private location (cost and availability), but fo the normal price/cost, this is not fair to the challenge posed by Darren.
I believe I have achieved most of the objectives I set out to do when I decided to accept this challenge. The photographers at the shoot had fun. I hope they had good images that they like. No one walked nor asked for a refund. I also learned a lot about organizing. One thing that is apparent, I do not enjoy organizing. Let me clarify this point. I had a lot of fun interacting with the photographers, but I rather shoot.
The original challenge from Darren was, to show how a shoot can be organized better. From this experience, I truly believe shoots can be organized in much better ways. However, I doubt I can nor want to do it, because, I am just not motivated to organize.
This is more a logistic nightmare rather than a creative challenge. Creating is much more fun and rewarding.
This is also an exercise to cater to the demands of others. I am designed to cater to my own whimps. I found having to satisfy the needs and wants of others a very daunting task. I think I did a passable job, but it was not an easy job.
I also discover that, there are also many factors that are simply out of my control. Weather was one. However, as an organizer producing a shoot, you have to factor in the weather. What to do when it rains, what to do when there is not a cloud in sight and it’s 11am. All the photographers are there waiting for you to pull the rabbit out of the hat to give them that opportunity to capture the killer shot. Pressures!
Finally, there is the model. I found this is the most challenging of all the variables, and in particular, how the model interact with the photographers. This is key. Even though in a group soot, every single image is in fact an one to one collaboration, no matter how fleeting that moment was.
My experience also led me to believe that, most of the shoots being advertised on this forum, can be organized better. There are so many details that needs to be managed, orchestrated and executed. A good organizer is a producer. No details can be missed. I missed a lot of them.
I am going to cut short what is already a very brief career. I just don’t have it to organize, nor want to, nor have the desire to. Those who wanted to join my shoot, or have joined and like to experience my idiosyncrasies more, pm me, maybe we can do some collaboration in the future, and have some fun together.
After all said and done, my impressions and opinions regarding some of the organizers remains the same. Many here who are organizing, they either lack the skills and mindset to organize or they just do not care as long as they can make a quick profit. Sad. However, I must tip my hat to the good organizers. I am not going to name names, but they are here, be it they are a very exclusive group, and most of them had retired, but they all delivered good shoots on a regular basis.
If I cannot do it better, that does not mean that I cannot hold an opinion or express such opinion freely and directly. To the dismays of my detractors, nothing will stand in my way, when a picture needs a slamming, or a shoot deserving one. This experience only made me understand better what needs to be done, and hence, I can really be relentless about it. After all, this is a push to create better pictures, better photographers. Don’t you agree?
One thing I sincerely hope but likely to be disappoined is, all the energies my collections of trolls had spent on slamming me, would that not be much better spent if they start channeling these energies towards criticizing constructively and honestly the works that had been posted here on CS, especially the P&P sub-forum?
Again, I have to thank Darren for this opportunity.
Just remember, you don’t need to be a good photographer to enjoy the photograph, and you don’t need to be a great photographer to slam a photograph.
Let’s go and shoot some more.
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