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A combination of practice and networking.
When I first started moving into portraiture, I was lucky enough to have some photogenic friends (and little sister) who were eager to let do crazy little shoots with me and help me to practice, as well as to build up a portfolio. ModelMayhem.com has been an invaluable resource for meeting local models, makeup artists, and designers. It was through networking on MM that I got involved in some more professional gigs, like shooting Fashion Week, and working with some fantastic clothing designers.
I definitely think that the first part of getting/doing professional jobs is how you present yourself and your work. I started treating photography more like a job than just a hobby, initially by presenting myself online in a more professional manner (rather than as a hobbyist), and I created business cards and such.
I actually found my age to be a bit of an advantage, at least when working with local creatives--if you're good at what you do, people tend to be that much more impressed when they find out you're a teenager. Starting so young also had disadvantages, mainly in lack of any professional work experiences, and trying to pursue photography while finishing high school. But, to this day, the more shoots I do, the more I notice improvement in not only my work, as well as my confidence for get past my shyness to contribute more verbal creative direction and whatnot when shooting models.
It's a very gradual process, but it's incredibly rewarding to look back on your previous work and experiences and noticing such a difference, and movement from a fun hobby towards 'professionalism'. -
To some extent. I guess anybody can fluke and take a good photo (key word being "a"). Though 'good' is completely subjective, I guess it would matter if enough people taking their own photos are satisfied enough with them to not need/want to hire a professional photographer for anything (or buy art prints, etc), in which case the pros start losing business. Though it's one thing to have an eye for good photography, but when you throw in manual exposure, lighting, etc, it's a whole different game. Overall, I try to take this whole notion with a grain of salt, along with "iPhones are pretty much pro-cameras, I mean LOOK at these photos Joe Blow took with them--WOW!" and "Walmart is offering wedding photography, we might as well go out of business now".
And besides, maybe advertisers are just being clever with their wording and really mean good image/file quality, which some of these cameras (particularly the SLRs, I haven't tried any new point and shoots in quite a while) do offer. -
Assuming you mean out of the more well-known/international ones, off the top of my head, Meghan Collison, Crystal Renn and Jessica Stam.
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Sure, I'd love to hear more about it, at least. You have my email, right?
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I'd have to do a lot more research before I could say which kind I'd like to get, I don't know a lot about any of the brands. That's good that the prices are coming down, though!
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I wish I was, I haven't had a photoshoot since October 31st. Most of what I've been posting lately is older photos that never got edited. I have some shoots planned in a few weeks though, so hopefully I'll have tons of new images to upload soon!
The only thing I've been actively shooting for lately is my 365 project, which can be found here: http://ariannabiasini.tumblr.com -
Usually there is somebody else at a shoot with me and the model(s), like a makeup artist or a friend (though she comes along on shoots as a creative director rather than an escort).
I do get kind of nervous if I've never met the model in person before (I'm like that around anybody I've never met), but in those cases I just try to initiate conversation to bring us out of our shells. Sometimes when shooting, I'll even be apprehensive about asking the model to modify their position a bit (whether it be to face the light a bit more, or to stay within the boundaries of a backdrop), but I just ask anyway and they happily oblige. -
I like almost anything, really, especially when the photos show a really artistic view of a subject matter that I dislike (such as macro photos of some insects, I'm not a fan of most bugs but they look fascinating close up).
The only type I can say for sure that I dislike overall is nudity without any artistic thought or intention behind it. -
Hm...I do love some of her work (lately it's been kind of hit-and-miss, but we're all like that now and then), I suppose I can see some sort of obscure similarities with the style of a few of my photos. I haven't gotten to her level of lighting yet, though. I'm hoping to experiment with that a lot more this month.
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My family's first digital (point and shoot) camera was Canon (as is my dad's good film SLR), so when it came to buying an SLR, I was already familiar with the settings (I find that there's hardly any learning curve between lower and higher end Canon cameras). The lenses work really well for me and I haven't found a camera brand that I like better (and I doubt I will, with the possible exception of digital medium format sometime in the future), so there's been no reason to want to switch all of my equipment.
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Thank you! I'm inspired by a ton of different things--music (I have a whole project of song-inspired photos going on), artwork, TV, other photos, nature--you name it.
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