How to Create Emotion in Photography, Part 2

Moving Against, Moving Toward & Moving Away.

Your Image

Humans react in one of three ways to stress — they move against, move toward or move away. These are our defense mechanisms in life and we figure out early on which one is going to work for us, and that becomes the crux of our personality. This is one theory on personality — but it’s the one that makes the most sense to me as a photographer.

How to Choose a Camera

It all depends what kind of photography you’re into.

Professional Studio and Professional Portrait Photography

I would only bring full frame SLR or medium format camera into a studio or to a high-end, professional portrait or headshot shoot, especially if I’m tethering or firing off strobes. My Nikon D850 is tailor made for a studio shoot with reliable performance, great dynamic range, easy access ports, Capture One compatibility, better/bigger/faster QXD and SD slots and a suite of available/rentable glass and backup bodies. The second most-important skill of a professional photographer, after getting the shot, is dealing with problems. There are always problems — it’s the nature of photography and humanity. I was reading a long complaint in a Fujifilm forum just yesterday about the camera locking up. It happens. But it happens less with Nikon and Canon than any other camera, because they’ve been iterating on studio-ready equipment for decades. But when things do go wrong, Nikon and Canon are prepared — as are the crews supporting you — with quick solutions to get you back shooting.

Finding Work and Truth on the Road

I would get two stacks delivered to my driveway.

On Working

When I was 11 years old, my mother gave me a book called Working, by Studs Terkel. It catalogued hundreds of interviews with people all over the United States, asking them about their jobs and how they felt about what they did. People were honest and forthright. It had none of the sheen of today’s social media friendly personal narratives. This was raw and exposed and I fell in love with these portraits of real people with real feelings and I thought, “I too will grow up and become a real person”.