JULY WRAP
What's been happening of late: client emails, scanners, scouting, plus more.
Welcome to the July Wrap, where I call "wrap" on set with a summary of the smaller and often overlooked steps taken in the creative process. This is a behind-the-scenes look at the going-ons in my process, from scouting locations to analysing job proposals and the more technical side of photography. At the end is a Grocery List of things I need to look into in the following month.
Even the smallest contribution or part played in a project propels it forward. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be on set to feel like you’re working. For me, a lot of the project’s work goes into pre-production. It’s where the heavy lifting takes place. And learning about how creatives manage their work inspires me and pushes me forward.
I’ve always been interested in methodology and process, and one person who inspires is Alicia Waite and her weekly diaries on her wonderful Substack ‘Picture Papers’. She journals her photography progress week-by week. I would like to share my process in a similar way, but at the moment there isn’t enough happening in my day-to-day to write weekly updates. I’m currently in the last stretches of my day job, and in the past I would have preferred not to mention it and to have kept the two worlds separate, but it doesn’t feel authentic to be talking about what I do in photography without mentioning that 40+ hours of my week are tied to a desk. I wonder how other creatives with day jobs fare. Do let me know.
I planned to save the first update for August before realising I did quite a few things in July. One way to remember what you got up to was to scroll through images on your phone. The quick photos and screenshots will surely remind you what you were investigating, even when I was on set only twice this month.
No matter how much you do in the month, there’s always something to be done or looked into. So, at the end of the article, I’ve created a grocery list of things I need to get done in the coming month.
SCOUTING LOCATIONS TIMES TWO
I do love a good scouting day, which can look like me meandering throughout the streets to find the perfect spots to shoot. I completed two location scouts this month for two shoots I haven’t gotten around to locking down yet but know they’re on the way. I have the model and makeup artist in mind, but finding a stylist, for me, has always been tricky. The first scout was at The Rocks, the other around Coogee. My plan is to have both of these as fashion narratives (film stills and a super 8 short video with a script), and I think that’s partly why it’s difficult to lock down a reputable stylist as they usually want an editorial for a publication.
WORKSMART
Throughout July I had been going back and forth with a brand who emailed me asking to shoot a campaign. We had been negotiating on pricing and deliverables — I couldn’t justify delivering so many images for such a low rate at a rush — before the brand went with someone else. I’m not sure a brand realises the difference between a photographer who shoots film and one who shoots digital. In truth, I’m not sure how a digital photographer sets there rates when it comes to shooting. With film photographers, it’s deliverables, but also the cost of film and developing (which is an expense and does not come out of the photographer’s day rate). Do digital photographers charge a hiring fee on their gear to brands for the day. Not exactly the full amount. Or maybe I’m asking this wrong.
In truth I felt relief that I didn’t get the job. I don’t think it lined up with me, and I saw bts of the shoot day and saw which photographer they went with. I check out their work and was so happy for them because I think they do fit in with the brand (and they shoot digital), but I’m also happy I stuck to my guns about a higher rate.
ON EDITING + DELIVERING PERSONAL SHOOTS
In late July, I shot two projects: one a test shoot, the other a personal project. Both with amazing models and makeup artists, and in the same small studio space in Potts Point, Sydney, that I recently stumbled upon. They will both be published later next month. I’ve recently received the scans from the test shoot; I dispatched the super 8 footage I shot on both shoots; and am holding onto the rolls from the personal shoot until my lab (Ikigai, Melbourne) returns from their well-deserved holiday.
Right now I don’t trust any other lab with this personal shoot (which will be another fashion short short film), and I really love how Ikigai, my regular lab, scans Frontier and they know my profile preference for colours, tones, etc, (something developed over a couple of years of consistently sending my work to them), so I’m waiting patiently.
For the first shoot, a small test, I got to experiment with a new lab in Sydney CBD who only scan on Noritsu. This is Do! Film Lab. While the scans were lovely, they didn’t feel like “me”, and it actually reminded me of some photographs from other Sydney photographers whose work I’m familiar with who I know scan at that lab. While there’s nothing wrong with this, the work doesn’t feel like my style. I had to edit the colours and blacks a bit in post to get them similar to what I like: punchy colours, vibrant. This Sydney lab is good, really, and I know I’ll send more work to them if a client needs a quick turnover and I think the shoot needs a Noritsu scan (sending rolls interstate and asking for a rush order can add up to be quite pricy).
So with this test shoot, I’ll send out the images once I edit the super 8. This was the first shoot I had done since late April, which feels like such a long time ago — partly because I’d had about 2-3 shoots lined and cancelled, and when they did get cancelled I didn’t put much effort to producing them again as I felt flat and worn out (I’m in the last stretches of an office job that bores me to ulcers) — and so it was good jumping back in with this test shoot. It was light, with no real pressure, I could get back into the motions of shooting with the team I had on board, shoot. The images were beautiful, I got to try a new lab as my trusted lab was on holiday.
BRIEFLY ON SCANNERS
Adding to the above thoughts, it took me a while to figure out scanners, or imagine the what the end result will look like. Happy to say I’ve reached the stage of knowing what type of scanner I want the project to go through even before shoot day. I wonder if there are other photographers (who send their work to a professional lab rather than hand-print) who are the same, or do photographers opt for one scanner over the other. For me, each story has a certain feel and texture about it, and I know which scanner it has to go through to help tell the story. For example, Summer Pastoral and Long Weekend were without a doubt Frontier scanners complete with the overscan to get those black boarders. The boarders are an important touch, they remind me of frames a painting would sit in, and it completes the work somehow. For a lot of my city shoots, like the campaign for Acler, I had these scanned on Noritsu because, and I can’t give any technical reason, it felt like that. While Noritsu I would poorly describe as clean, Frontier I would describe as textured, richer. I do, also plan to play in the darkroom and handprint my work later this year.
GROCERY LIST
Reach out to stylists for the two personal projects
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