Michael J Huxley Photography » Philosophy

What have you done that’s terrified you?

Michael — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:28:11 +0000

What is the one thing that terrifies you? For me it’s always been public speaking in any way shape or form. In college I had to take a Public Speaking class and hated every minute of it. Our final project was to teach the class something – anything – but it had to be an 8 minute speech and we could not use notecards. Mine clocked in at just over 3 minutes and to this day I can’t remember what I even talked about. I nearly failed that class.

Fast forward to last week. I was challenged by a friend of mine to get up on stage at a Karaoke bar and sing Spoonman by Soundgarden. I couldn’t do it the first time we went, so this time was my chance for redemption. I succeeded. I got up on stage and I sang. Was it the best version ever? No, it probably fell on the OTHER end of that scale – but the point is, I did something that terrified me and you know what? It wasn’t so bad. I even went back up on stage for another song. I lived – I embarrassed myself – but I lived.

Why is this relavent? Well, that fear of public speaking crosses over into business portions of my life. I can’t stand calling strangers on the phone and asking for work – but it’s a part of my job and I have to learn to control that fear to be a successful business person. By making the conscious choice to put my fear aside and do something that terrifies me, I’m growing not only as a business owner, but as a whole person as well. Suddenly, picking up the phone and talking to strangers doesn’t seem so bad after making a fool of yourself on stage in front of dozens of people.

So…what have you done that’s terrified you?

How to be a better photographer in 4 steps

Michael — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:02:02 +0000

If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of better stuff.

–Jim Richardson

Quick tip today: Whether your camera is a point and shoot or a $5,000 pro level camera, there is always room for improvement and I’m going to show you how to achieve that improvement. Ready?

Shoot some stuff
Edit that stuff
Ask for critique
Repeat

Underwhelmed? There’s no magic bullet. No little red pill. No one piece of equipment that’s going to make you a better photographer. Shoot. Try new things. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Get a critique from someone whose opinion you value and trust. Don’t just pop your pictures up on Facebook or Flickr and wait for all your friends to comment with things like, “Wow! Great picture. Love it!”. That’s not a critique. You can ask a fellow photographer for an honest critique, or you can join a Flickr group devoted to giving honest feedback. Don’t take everything that’s said as gospel truth; listen to what is being said and change what makes sense. Not only does this improve your photography, it helps you grow a thick skin; which, one needs in this industry.

So go out and shoot; whatever interests you. I hope this helps!

The Raw vs. JPEG Debate

Michael — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:26:55 +0000

Found a link to a post on the Lightroom Blog that had me dash off to the computer to write my thoughts. It concerns the whole “Raw vs. JPEG” controversy. To sum up the article, RAW is great but there are circumstances you consider sticking to JPEG. Just like any “vs.” in the photo world, the lines are clearly drawn, and the community seems pretty divided. Now, I’m not going to tell you what format you should be shooting in. The best format is the one that works for you. I’m sorry if you came here to get a loud-mouthed opinionated jerk on a soap-box, but that pretty much sums up my thoughts. If you’re comfortable shooting in JPEG – shoot in JPEG. If you’re a pixel-peeper, keep going in RAW (which is not to say all RAW shooters are pixel-peepers). I can only tell you what I shoot in (RAW) and why.

Why RAW?

I shoot in RAW for a couple of reasons. First, disc space is dirt cheap these days and image size should not even be a factor in the decision. Besides, I’ve always felt that the more images on a card the scarier that situation gets. When (not if) that card fails you lose that many more images. The biggest size card I shoot at is an 8GB card and even that is scary to me.

Second reason I shoot RAW: information. RAW packs much more information into the file; all the information from the scene is there in the file. It gives latitude in processing, not laziness. If your photographer is shooting RAW for the sole purpose of being able to “fix it in post” you are not working with a professional photographer. Run, don’t walk, away from that situation. I don’t care what file format you shoot in, shoot to get it right in the camera. I hate post processing. I’d probably be a much better – not to mention efficient – photographer if I learned my Photoshop chops a bit better. But honestly, if I can’t get it just about right in Aperture and I need to do a lot of post to get it right, I failed. A little healing brush on blemishes, a Soft Light layer, maybe some High Pass sharpening or a touch of some Surface blur (thinking I’ll to a post processing post soon), that should be it. Done. If I gotta clone large portions of the image or throw 20 Actions on my images to make them look right then that’s an EPIC FAIL.

Third reason I shoot RAW: With RAW I can take the file from Aperture and convert it to a TIFF file as my working copy. TIFF is a lossless format, which means that I can open it, make changes, and save it as many times as I want to without it degrading in quality. JPEG, on the other hand, is a lossy format (which is why it’s so small) each time you open it and save the file, you lose a little information. That pretty much sells RAW for me, I don’t need any other reason.

But those are MY reasons. I’m not you. I’m not in your situation. Like any choice, there are advantages and disadvantages to each. It all comes down to understanding what you’re shooting, who you’re shooting for, and what you’re most comfortable with.