I went ahead and confirmed the shoot and asked the couple to show up at 10am in the morning. As expected it was bright and sunny day. We went to the beautiful location of Collierville Town Square garden for the shoot. Trains, Graffities, Gazebos, and many more landscape to give a perfect look and theme to the couple shoot.

The couple arrived at the location before time, and looked very excited for the shoot. So was I! Had a lot of concepts in my mind and I was so looking forward to execute those. 

I started shooting the couple nwxt to the train first with sun on the opposite side of the train. So basically I was shooting the couple in the shade of the train. Click, Click, click and the I did a bit of chimping (photographer who looks on the camera display to check how the shots came out). The shots came out to be really good, but there was somethin which didnt feel right. The exposure on the couple was just right, while rest of the picture looked clipped (section of the photo which is entirely blown up i.e. either too dark or too bright. In this case, bright). 

My photographer instincts kicked in fast and I decieded to increase the shutter speed (to reduce the natural light intensity), but i had a limitation too. I wasnt using HSS (high speed sync) flashes. So the max I can go is 1/200th of a second. Tried that and the shot came out OK.

Assuming everything will be alright, I asked the couple to move to the train tracks (not a live track. Please never ever shoot on a live train track, even if the photographer asks you to). The challenege, the sun was right on top and there was no shade at all. Asked the couple to pose and took few shots. It was so clipped and the subject's faces had very very strong shadows. Utterly dissappointed, I decieded to use a flash to fill in the shadows. Again facing the limitation of not being able to go more than 1/200th of a second, I took few shots with the flashes. Took a look again at the shots and it wasn't right. 

What was going wrong?? Finished the shoot with a heavy heart. I showed the pics to the couple, and they liked it. Not me! From a photographer's point of view everythin was just so wrong!

Summation of what I am trying to say through this blog is:

• Sun is a very dense source of light. Its so dense that it cannot be considered as a soft source of light. This type of light is what we call it as harsh light. Why? Because it produces harsh shadows. Remmeber whereever there is light, there has to be shadows. And if you need good pictures, stay away from conditions which would produce harsh shadows. And it gets practically impossible to get rid of those, no matter what software you use for editing. Hence, please say NO to shoot if its sunny! 

• Always use flash! If its sunny, the more is the need of a flash. Why? As said, harsh light produces harsh shadows and you can lighten up those shadows using a flash. However, i would still stick to the golden rule: do NOT agree for a shoot if the weather is sunny and the sun is out!

• Always prefer shooting during Dusk or Dawn. That's the time when the sun is optimal for the camera lens. Trust me, the photographer can get creative if there is a bit of sunlight (neither a lot, nor no sunlight at all). 

• High Speed Sync compatible flashes is a must! That way you wont be limited to shoot with a limitation of 1/200th of a second. You can go upto 1/8000th of a second and can produce amazing result! This way you can reduce the natural light to a max, and can still use flash without the curtains of your lens showing up on the photo. 

If I want to summarize in one line what I am trying to convey here is: say NO to shoot on a sunny day and prefer to shoot during the dusk or dawn, to get amazing pictures. You are payin money (photographers: you are building memories for your client). So please do not take a chance and do justice to your work/effort/money!

Every photographer has a unique taste and style of his/her work. To bring this unique taste and style, a photographer invests not only in getting quality equipment and accessories, but also invests a lot of additional software (which are not cheap 😊). There are other tangible costs like the props, the disposable batteries, cost of the location, gas money, print product cost, etc. Rest aside, don’t forget the skills of operating these variety of equipment and produce the best results. Hence the cost, of a photography cannot be compared between photographers. With introduction of high end lighting and equipment everyday in market, the cost of a shoot is definitely on the rise!

Let it be weddings, engagements, portrait, maternity, kids, fashion, editorial or any other genre of photography, the clients always wants the best value for his/her money. Hence definitely watch out for the other tangible (Ex: Print Products, Online gallery, etc) and intangible (Experience) benefits before you take a call on the price of the shoot session  

How does photographers who charge very less work out? Are they devaluating their work? Are they cheap because their work is not that good? Answer is: May be. As detailed above, it entirely depends on the persona interested in getting the best value for the money. Of course, expecting a 1000$ value by spending 250$ on a photoshoot would be unrealistic. In case that happens, the client got lucky and the photographer has seriously undervalued his/her work.

So how these cheap and affordable photographers sustain in the market alongside with actual pricy and quality photographers? That’s because the market/customer segment is different for these photographers. Their clientele are mainly those customers, who don’t have a high budget for their shoots, and are willing to compromise on the quality of the photos. Very rarely you would come across a person who has spent around 4000$ and have complained about the deliverables from the photographer. If such complains are there, then the photographer (and his products) might have truly not been worth of that kind of money.

What I have tried outlining here is, never compare two photographers in terms of cost. Photographers have different costing models which they spend a lot of time figuring out. These include a variety of cost which a client might fail to understand. And most importantly, the photographer is a technician, and the technician gets paid for the thing he does the best. In this case, its taking awesome and Dash-ing pictures!

Ever since I got into photography (which is like about 6 years now), my vision and creativity has taken a humongous shift from what it was 6 years before. I have tried polishing my knowledge which I have learned from various sources and from indefinite seminars attended in these years. These not only helped my camera skills get better, but also developed the Professional photographer within me. These are some precious and very important events in my life as a photographer as it shaped the vision for me and guided me through all these years. My two cents for people who want to be into photography: Learn and PRACTICE! Theory and definitions of photography is not going to help you master the art, unless you execute often and you execute it sincerely! Remember, as per some article which I read through long back, it takes about 8 years on an average before you get your first client!

 Few of my accomplishment in the field of photography includes:

1. Member of Professional Photographers of America
2. Volunteered 2 years now in IMAGINGUSA, which is one of the biggest international photography convention and expo.
3. Member of Memphis Camera Club
4. Member of different photography communities near my Memphis/Collierville/Nashville areas
5. 1K followers and growing with 124 Instagram posts.

My dream is to be called as the people photographer of Memphis! Yes, I would love to get myself recognized not only because of my photography skills but also for my professional attitude in this line of business. Photography market and photographers have been like baby boomers and the industry is now being flooded with many upcoming and rising photographers, but what makes a key difference in this line of business is how professional, welcoming and respectful you are towards your clients, peers and fellow photographers.

Finally to summarize my definition of Photography: This being a creative line, there are many situations where in someone refers to a photograph to be Bad or not good enough. This is not essentially true. Creativity is just like beauty and it lies in the eyes of the beholder. Creativity is unique. Creativity is a taste. Hence, it will be entirely injustice to call someone work as less creative or not good enough, because the image which you don’t like, might be liked  or even loved by someone else, with a different taste for creativity.

That’s the beauty of photography!

Cheers!