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Stop Taking Perfect Pictures

By Seth Haley on October 26, 2014 in Learn Photography, The Difference

A few months back I said to a friend “…I feel like all the learning I’ve done is now hindering me from freely thinking…” and what I mean by that is now I’m always trying to think what will make the technically perfect picture, making me miss the perfect moment or causing me to be stuck in a creative rut.

STOP TAKING PERFECT PICTURES –> Free your mind from those technicalities. Last week I was doing some research for an upcoming video project when I ran across a few photos that were super powerful, they captured an emotion so well that I instantly felt a part of that photo and that emotion. Isn’t that what photography and video are really about – connecting the viewer with that moment, emotion, story, etc?

ARE YOU SERIOUS? —> Yup. Stop taking “perfect” pictures. Openness and vulnerability is what it takes to capture photos in this way. Here’s a few things that might happen if you decide to go beyond technicalities.

The subject of the photograph could feel misused, misunderstood or imperfect, because who wants to look “bad” in a photo?
The Photographer could be criticized for their “bad” job at following photography “rules,” or you name it.

SO YES —> Stop thinking about what you’ve learned, forget almost everything you’ve ever learned about photography and go back to the real reason for taking pictures. When I first started mobile photography I felt like I saw things totally different. I forgot about the ways I was trained to look at photography and was free to take a picture in the way that best communicated that moment.

Below are a few photos from recent shoots that I feel captured personality.

Always be on the lookout for candid photos, you’ll often get the best photos just before or after the subject thinks you’re done, like this one below.

I’d like to challenge you to forget about the rules and get creative. Will you share a picture with me that captures something special about that person? Share your photo on our Facebook page here.

The Glamour of Photography, Or Not

By Lynette Eby on October 8, 2014 in Inspiration, The Difference

Being a photographer is definitely not a glamorous job. It doesn’t really matter to me how crazy I look or what positions I have to get into in order to get an image because after all I’m behind the camera and not in front of it. Sometimes I have to stand on chairs because I’m not tall enough for the shot I want, and normally I’ll slip off my shoes because I don’t want to hurt the chair. What you don’t see in this picture is that a horde of mosquitoes were eating me and the bridal party alive. Fortunately, one of the bridesmaids brought insect repellent and anti-itch spray. Note to self: bring insect spray everywhere.

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Very often you can find me lying down on the ground when I want a more dramatic angle. One downside of lying down is that when I came home from the wedding in the first picture, I had 64 chigger bites. It looked like I had chicken pox.

One of the tips I learned for getting children to look at the camera and smile when I’m taking family portraits or flower girl/ring bearer pictures is to say goofy things like, “Do you see a blue dog in the camera? Look really hard for him in the big black eyeball here and show him your teeth with a big smile.” Whereupon I will start barking “Woof, woof” from behind the camera. This always makes everyone have more natural smiles including the adults. I make lots of animal noises from behind the camera, and one time I let out a long “Mooooooooo” whereupon this little ring bearer pointed at me and asserted “Cow”. Later on I took this picture of his grandma holding him, and you can see him reaching out to me while innocently calling me “Cow”. So apparently I will be seen as cow to him for a while.

I have definitely have had my fair share of embarrassing moments. Here’s one from last week. In the picture below you can see me taking photos of a candlelight ceremony at a banquet. It was a very sober, inspirational occasion with music soaring and emotions high. The circular sign behind my back was attached to the front podium, but a few seconds after this photo was taken, I left that spot and I must’ve somehow unbalanced the sign because it slowly toppled over onto the ground. In front of everyone. No one ever mentioned it to me so hopefully few people noticed that I was the cause. I wish I could say that I’ve never knocked anything over while photographing a wedding, but that wouldn’t be a true statement…

Follow Christina on Facebook for glamorous in-front-of-the-camera shots, and definitely check out her website.

From the Other Side

By Lynette Eby on September 24, 2014 in Inspiration, The Difference

I’ve wanted to do this for awhile, talk about photography from the other side of the lens. A lot of photography and cinematography is focused on the same things, and I wanted to hop in for the ride to focus on people on the other side of the camera, or in this case person.

The Actor

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Rusty Martin Jr. has acted in a number of films since 2008 in a variety of roles from pre-medieval times to present day, and is a notable actor in movies that were released or are still post-production, such as Polycarp: Destroyer of Gods, Courageous, Princess Cut and more. His dad is also an actor, and they both worked together on the set of the Christian film, Courageous.

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I recently had the privilege and fun to get to know Rusty a little while we were both attending a film festival in San Antonio, TX ** and one day got to chat with him a bit about what goes into the life and heart of being an actor. I asked a few questions that day, and later on, and got his permission to share it on the blog today. I’m still inspired by how he’s chosen to make a difference.

How old were you when you started acting?

I started acting when I was about 8 years old. I discovered my passion for acting after I participated in a school play. The experience really got me excited and so, after prompting from my mother about whether this was something that I wanted to do or not I found an agent in Raleigh (Talent One) and two weeks after signing with them I got my first role in a national commercial for an “Adventure Landing” type company; since then I have been able to grow in my acting career.

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You’ve acted in faith-based films, where do you think Christian films are headed in the future? Do you think people are ready for cleaner, moral story-telling?

I do believe that there is a shift in our culture and audiences are ready for cleaner, family-friendly films. I also believe that audiences are ready for excellent quality Christian films; films that can be put on the same field as Hollywood blockbusters yet still allow people to keep their spirit clean when watching it. I only foresee these things happening however if there is an influx of money into the Christian film industry. There are hundreds of bright, young Christian film-makers who want to take films and even just good quality entertainment to a level I never thought possible. The problem is they don’t have the necessary funding to create these projects on a level they would desire to please audiences. I think there are so many places that Christian films haven’t touched yet that are waiting to be excavated for their rich impact on audiences. In summary to hit the next level of Christian films there will need to be unity in the church audience to support films that honor God, and there needs to be substantial funds pumping into that particular film industry.

What is the most important thing as an actor to remember? i.e How do you get into character? What makes a role come alive for you?

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Other than the standard process of doing my general homework on character development and memorizing my lines my answer is two-fold.

1. The most important thing to remember as an actor is to just be real with the other actors around you and the story. Try to make it personal. I don’t use method acting but instead I try to find experiences that I have been though that I can apply to the situation/scene, and if I can’t then I try to imagine what that would be like or try to talk to someone who has been through a similar circumstance. Most of all I pray about every role and every scene, especially the ones that are emotionally tense because I realize that I can only go so far on my own strength, but with God I can do so much more.

2. My second answer is: you as a person on set are just one piece of a puzzle of making a film. Every piece is integral, so be genuine and kind to everyone on set, you don’t know what other people are going through, so be a light in their life. Basically, act in a way on and off set that will make that process of filmmaking all the more smooth and enjoyable for everyone.

What would be a dream role for you to play?

I would love to be in any role that would stretch my acting skills and take me to places I never thought possible. That was vague, but some examples would be like an action film, or a really sappy romance (mostly because I am a very romantic personality) or a really intense character role. But topping all of those is if I could be in a film like Lord of the Rings! The epic, medieval, good vs. evil character-driven films have always inspired me.

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Any upcoming roles?

None as of right now, but I do have multiple auditions in the “can” that I’d be excited to hear back from.

You mentioned a little bit in San Anotnio of what your goal for the future is in acting, in life? Where do you see youself going, making a difference? etc etc

That is a very good question because I have no set plan right now. I realized awhile ago that God has plans for my life that have not been revealed to met and so I cannot plan on one set idea for the future, because I just don’t know what is in store for me. But I will say that I love Christian films and I’d love to continue to do them. I also would enjoy being on a secular film set (as long as I feel comfortable with the content) and be a light on the set.

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Finally, I see myself starting a production company and helping fund/create the films that I think audiences are ready for at a quality they desire.

Make a Difference

Check out Rusty’s site here, and definitely go watch some of the films mentioned.

**Christian Worldview Film Festival

Photography & Poverty Porn

By Lynette Eby on September 7, 2014 in Inspiration, The Difference

Shocking title. Not a pleasant shock either, because no one wants to think that we might be guilty of exploitation.

But is that what we’re doing, when we go to photograph and raise awareness for people in less-than-ideal circumstances?

It’s a question that every traveler, missionary and humanitarian photographer has to ask themselves, because it’s too easy to be guilty of riding success on the backs of real people, called exploitation. Don’t get angry yet, stick with me just another couple of minutes because I believe that the last thing any of us wants to do is exploit those we’ve gone to photograph from motives of human compassion.

There is a story I heard recently of a photographer, who took a photograph I’ve known about for ages. The story is this:

In 1994 there was a great famine in Sudan, and the situation was desperate and heart-wrenching. Kevin Carter, a photojournalist along with several other photographers was on a trip through Sudan in March of ’94 to show the horror of a country on the brink of death. Carter, while preparing to take a photo of a toddler trying to make it to the feeding centre saw a vulture land nearby the child, waiting for the baby’s death. Carter took the picture, but not before reportedly waiting 20 minutes to try and catch the vulture spreading it’s wings.

Why not help the child to safety and food that very moment? Carter’s decision can be justifiably criticized, but there are a few more things to consider.

1. He was forbidden to touch the people in any way, as many of them were carriers of diseases.
2. He was there to take pictures.

And he did help the child.

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The Photo was sold to the New York Times, and won a Pulitzer Prize

Carter became famous, and the photo even more so. But Carter’s success came at a high price, as he committed suicide only 3 months later because he couldn’t handle the horrors he’d seen in Sudan and the successive criticism.

I don’t know about you, but a part of me wants to applaud Carter, for the bravery he showed in going there at all. It takes courage to go somewhere to cement forever in others’ minds a moment in history.

At the same time there is justice in what was said in his critique, but that is the cost that photojournalists and humanitarian photographers face. The line is really fine between expoitation and awareness, and is found in the motives that can’t always be seen by everyone else. Are we going out of motives for compassion, to give someone what could be their last story or the only moment of their history of life that might ever be documented with truth and justice? Would we still take the shot even if we would be as misunderstood as Carter was?

Are we doing it for them, or for us?

There is another fine line. Them, and us. The only difference is location and circumstances, and were it only for change in birth, you or I could be that starving toddler in a sun-baked field in Sudan with a vulture hovering nearby waiting for our death. We are in another world, but not another species of humanity. What they went through could’ve been our story.

On the field there is no place for a superiority of worlds, only their story and our story crossing paths. Photographers are the people who bring two worlds together by making a permanent image of life so that many more paths can intersect, and hopefully help the suffering of people, the people just like you or me. It comes with a cost, and for someone like Carter it was too much, so think about the cost and your motives now.

If this were your story, how would you want it remembered? With a detached photo that somehow makes it’s way into another world, or a photo of bare truth that goes straight to the heart of compassion and makes a difference?

Photo used under Fair Use Law for the purpose of teaching and showing.

Journey to the Solomon Islands

By Lynette Eby on August 24, 2014 in Inspiration, The Difference

You know those awesome stories you keep in your back-pocket? The cool, timeless ones? Well, at the beginning of this year I traveled to a remote part of the world, lived in a tropical jungle (slept with ants) and met my dark-skinned, salt-water brothers & sisters; the stories from my stay there are my back-pocket keepers.

The trip was for photography & to assist a doctor who travels solo doing missions all over the world. We left at the end of April for the Solomon Islands. After our 20 hours of flight we boated nearly 4 hours (in a rinkydink thing reminiscent of something from Gilligan’s Island) then traveled via hilux 45 minutes into the jungle to reach our village: Fa’arau.

The people of Malaita & their love for life & Jesus left a huge impression on my heart. I’m so honored to have had the opportunity to be taught so much about simple living, gratefulness, and true worship while I was there.

I’m will be starting a mini-series of posts documenting my stay & excerpts from my journal entries from that month.

(Be looking for that on my blog)

Madeleine is a photographer based out of Houston Tx, shooting a wide variety of styles. She loves to “create and expose beauty” and is an artist as well as photographer. Check out her amazing work and get to know more about the person behind the camera, Madeleine Bonin.