Bridge City Hustle

My phone is buzzing and I wonder who would be writing me a text message at 6pm on Sunday night. It is Bill, excited that it stopped raining after few straight days of downpour here in San Francisco. 45 minutes later, I am running with a hot pizza in one hand and tripod in another, jumping in my car and heading out to pick up Bill.

Five more minutes later, we are on the island. Yerba Buena Island that is. It is not as romantic as it sounds though. Yerba Buena Island is a cold place halfway between San Francisco and Oakland. A tunnel runs straight through it. The tunnel is part of the San Francisco Bay Bride, that has two parts. The more famous half of the bridge spans between the island and San Francisco. The second part connects the island and Oakland.

Here is a behind-the-scenes photo of the location we settled at:

The narrow windy road at the top of the island was covered with broken branches and leaves after a couple of recent storms. The only people we saw were other photographers, easily recognizable by their tripods. We found a couple of holes in a fence and shot the less known part of the bridge (towards Oakland).

Here is the result of our night adventure... a photo of an old bridge, side by side with the construction site. You can clearly see the two levels of the bridge and their direction if you pay attention to the color of car lights. Yes, the red lights are heading towards Oakland. The construction on the left continues, and I can't wait to drive through this brand new steel and concrete bridge one day.

This last shot is taken at the same spot I photographed Meena and Evan. While shooting, I observed that the cars were coming out of the tunnel in waves. Can anyone explain why? They get in through a toll station and there is no traffic light to cause the "heartbeat".

I let the light paint the picture

I let the light paint the picture.

The technique:

This is one of the easiest things you can do as a photographer. All you need is a camera that has adjustable exposure. You might or might not need a tripod. All you do is point at something that moves, and press the trigger (ehm... I meant shutter). Like in this photo, I sat on a bus and shot cars on the freeway. The bus moved, the cars moved, everything was moving and painting the light on the camera sensor. The result is unpredictable and fun. You can try it million times and it always comes out different. Play with different exposure lengths and different apertures.

This is a four second shot of Las Vegas Strip at night:

You probably noticed that the first two photos are very different from the last two photos. It's because I used a tripod, which allowed me to capture the areas surrounding the light sources. Only light sources were moving in those first two photos. The thing on the left is an elevator in a city of Graz, Austria (the home of Arnold the Governator). And many of you American peeps will recognize the photo of Austin, Texas on the right.

Do you have your own "let the world paint itself" technique?

I want my money back!

Ok, this is an offshoot of another effort I did, but since I still find it amusing, I figured I'd share it with ya'll. For those who don't know who this is, it's my husband Bradford. The difference between these photos is less than seven months.

To set the record straight. I love my husband and adore him in whatever form and shape he comes in. He is one of those people who can rock a tux or go completely gnarl and look like a crazy scientist. He is the best and most loving and bublibicious man ever and I am honored to be his wife.

Photo credit for the left image goes to Jan Cechovsky.

Did digital camera kill the professional photographer?

I recently had this strange discussion with another pro wedding photographer about the business these days. His advice for me as I am starting out my wedding photography business was: "Please STOP, THINK and look for something else".

Let's look at the data first:

• According to a market research company Research and Markets, digital cameras were enjoying 48% penetration in USA in 2009 (up from 40% in 2004). This includes point-and-shoot cameras, as well as SLRs.
• Camera phone penetration reached 50% (106 million) market penetration among mobile phone users already back in 2007.
• Professional Photographers of America (PPA) estimated that the average wedding photography business needs to earn about $5000 per wedding in order for the business owner to make a reasonable living.

It does seem like these days everyone has a friend, uncle, or cousin who owns a DSLR. Therefore everyone can ask someone they know to take free pictures of them. Ooookaaaaay.... This does sound like a nightmare for the pro photographers. Is it really that bad?

Stop, think, and look for something else

What the other photographer said really intrigued me. Stop. Think. Look for something else. Is this business really that bad or is he simply afraid of new competition? So I asked him to explain his thinking behind this. He went on describing that the business got a lot worse since the digital cameras flooded the market, especially in the past five years. He pointed out that there are thousands of cousins and uncle photographers out there, who are willing to shoot weddings for free or close to nothing... which in turn kills the business for the pro photographers.

I think I can see where he's coming from. It's true that the business got more competitive as a result of the technology advancements and the lower cost of entry. You do not need much skill to shoot a photo that is properly exposed. You do not need to learn how to work with film. You do not need to develop films before you can see whether you screwed up. 

The business will survive only if the professionals differentiate themselves from the hobbyists.

So what is the key to staying on top?

Talent and hustling.

If you are only talented, your photos will be admired by everyone but you won't be able to make your ends meet. Every uncle and cousin photographer will stand in front of your photos in awe. But your wallet will be empty. You need to do one other thing, that is just as important as your talent: hustling. There is no safety bareer (high cost of entry) to protect pro photographers now. The game is open to all. Game on!

10 places you must bring your camera

You might think this list makes no sense, but hopefully the below photos will convince you. The camera is an amazing device and you can not go wrong if you take it pretty much everywhere. Here is a list of ten places that you might have been neglecting. They deserve to be captured and I'm adding some photos to illustrate why.

1. Shower

It is not a good idea to take a shower while holding a camera (though it might be intestesting), but you can shoot things and people in the shower from a safe distance. Think about water drops suspended in the air, rubber duckies, wet hair... 

2. Toilet

Yes, I said that. But no, I'm not asking you to take the camera to the stall or to use it while you're doing your business. That's just creepy. But after you wash your hands and nobody is around, it's a fair game. 

You can also find some funny reflections in bathrooms.

3. Subway

This is no brainer. Subways are urban and gritty. With your aperture wide open, and shutter speed at 1/40s, you can do miracles. When traveling to other countries, one of my favorite things to do is to shoot subways. Here are two photos from Prague metro:

If you don't feel comfortable aiming your "gun" at people, shoot at the trains. The driver in front doesn't count. Not that the driver isn't human.  He (or she) just won't jump out and chase you if you take a photo of a train.

4. Airport

What a perfect place for people-watching! If you are at the airport, your camera is probably on you anyways. Many things are going on. People meet their loved ones or say goodbye. People run, sleep, worry, people zone out... and you shoot it all!

If you are not comfortable shooting other people, you can always shoot what's happening outside of the terminal windows.

5. Airplane

After your laptop battery dies, and you are done reading the entire in-flight magazine, then.... may I suggest... play with your camera.

If you sit by the window, you might get lucky and fly over something interesting. Like this Hoover Dam on my way to Las Vegas. 

6. Train

This is one of the best ways to get unexpected photos. The scene changes in front of your eyes and all you need to do is to sit in your comfy seat and wait for the moment worth capturing. One thing to worry about is the dirt on the windows. I took the below shot at the train station in Alexandria, Egypt. It was one day after the terrorist attack on a Christian church in the city. Everyone was talking about it. Perhaps also the ladies in this photo.

7. Boat!

And then you can tell everyone that you are on the boat!

Can you guess what this is?

8. Kitchen

When you have that victorious moment of cooking something edible, capture it! Like in this photo, I lucked out and one of my popovers turned out to be shaped like a heart!

9. Work

When you think how much time you spend at work, it only makes sense to bring your camera there with you. People learn that you are the camera gal, and everytime something interesting happens, they call you to capture it. These are three Googlers jumping in front of our office.

10. Coffeshop or bar

The "coffeeshop" is not a typo. This photo was taken at a coffeeshop in Amsterdam, though the green thing are mint leaves. A wide aperture is your friend here. You do not need any tripod because you can just lay your camera flat on a table.

If you have a company, you can get really creative. This is a single long-exposure photo taken over 15 seconds, during which me and my friend changed positions.

I hope you now feel inspired to haul your camera to all these places. Did I miss any important ones? Where do you take your camera?