[Photographer Profile] #5 gloobag

The idea of these threads is to give some insight as to how some of your fellow photographers operate. Each person invited will write about their photography and provide some examples. This thread will be sticky for about a fortnight (longer if needed) During this time feel free to comment and ask questions. Please allow the subject to answer questions and do not do so on their behalf.
While this process is taking place, the subject will approach the next person to be highlighted. Please keep this secret and do not prompt.
All normal site and forum rules apply.

I]Stands up and addresses the group[/I

Hi, my name is Brian McNamara and I'm a photographer, of people mostly. I'm originally from Limerick, but moved up to Dublin about a year ago to take it all a bit more seriously. I love pizza, beer, puppies and straight talking folk.

Just as I was about start writing this post I received an email from a young girl looking to do some work experience with me. She also asked if I would answer some interview questions for a project she's doing for school. Looking over her questions, I realized that the answers touched on everything I wanted to say here. Being the lazy so and so that I am, I've decided to do the whole 'two birds one stone' thing. So, I now present to you my answers to some teenage girls questions about me as a photographer.

Enjoy...

1. How did you first become interested in photography?
It all started in February 2008. At that point in my life, I was just about to turn 28 years old and had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I would live out the rest of my days in an average job with average pay. I had a failed music career behind me, and had given up on ever fulfilling my childhood dream of being a comic book artist. Looking back now, I can see that while I was technically good at both, I lacked the drive to really go for it.

Anyways, back to February 2008. I was convinced by friends to tag along on a trip to India for a few weeks. I think I went just to break up the monotony of everyday life. I had no 'real' interest in India or even travelling in general at that point in my life.

I may sound like a pretentious hippy when I say this, but India sort of jump started me back to life. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the people, the food (oh God, THE FOOD). I think it may have been the shock of being in a place that's so far removed from what my 'normal' life was accustomed to that point. My senses were awakened from their years long slumber. This is when I started to notice things. Details in the environment, expressions on peoples faces, the way the light was hitting this, that or the other. I would see something and say to myself, "That would make a great photo!", but (and there's always a 'but') I didn't even bring a camera with me. My senses were so numb before I left, that I just didn't see the point. This will always be one of the biggest regrets of my entire life. I still get angry about it to this day.

So I returned home from India frustrated and pretty pissed off with myself, but at the same time re-invigorated creatively. One of the first things I did once back on Irish soil was to buy a 'proper' camera. I never wanted to repeat that mistake in India ever again. If I saw something that moved me, I damn well wanted a camera there with me.

So, I now had a camera, but hadn't a clue how to use it. I took a lot of crappy photos back then (mostly landscapes and my poor attempts at street photography), but every so often I would find one that wasn't so bad. I'd try to figure out why this one photograph was good and the others were bad and learn from it. That's pretty much how I 'learned' to be a photographer, and still apply this process to what I do today.

Eventually I got tired of landscape photography and found myself drawn more to portraiture. I realized that absolutely none of my all time favorite photographs were landscapes, and almost all of them were portraits of some sort. So, I plucked up the courage to organise some shoots of my own and started to really enjoy the process. As I got better, more talented people were willing to work with me, which helped to elevate the quality of my work again. I then decided to leave my steady job in Limerick and move up here to Dublin to pursue photography full time. That was a little over a year ago.

It's early days, I don't earn nearly as much money as I did in my former profession back in Limerick just yet, but there's a lot to be said for job satisfaction.

2. What was your first professional assignment, and how did you get it?
My first paying job was shooting a family event for a friend a few years back. It was pretty much a favor to them, but I did get payed. Although not that much.

I didn't really enjoy that experience to be honest. To me, it didn't really feel like photography. There wasn't really much scope for creativity, anyone could have done what I was asked to do that day. For a while after that job, I questioned whether I was actually cut out to be an actual photographer. It took a while for me to realize that just because I didn't enjoy one genre of photography didn't mean that I couldn't thrive in another.

3. How does a photographer develop their own style?
I don't think a photographer can consciously develop a 'style'. It happens organically over a period of years of constant shooting and by analyzing and learning from the work of others. In the beginning you'll mostly be attempting to emulate what others have done, but as time goes on, you'll learn what works for you and your vision and incorporate it into your own thought process.

I've been doing this for just a few years now, and I wouldn't consider myself to have a fully formed style of my own just yet. At the moment, I feel my work is an amalgamation of various influences (not necessarily photographers) cobbled together as best I can.

4. How do you prepare for photo shoots?
This is quite a broad question. Most of my personal shoots have weeks of preparation before the actual photography happens. It usually starts with an idea, often inspired by an image I saw, either online, in a magazine, in a movie or even in my head, and I'll then flesh the idea out from there.
If it's something that needs to be shot on location, I'll start researching suitable places fairly quickly.
Usually I'll try to reach out to various models, make up artists and stylists once I am confident I have a decent location.
Once I have the rest of the team on board and we have decided on a date to shoot, I will start gathering images that I can use as inspiration from various sources online (I use Pinterest to keep them all organised as well as share with the rest of the team). These images will give everyone else a better understanding of the general tone and feel I want to achieve with the shoot.

The night before the shoot I check on all the equipment I think I'll need. I usually bring pretty much everything I own, as you just never know exactly what sort of situations you're going to find yourself in when on location.
I charge and check all of my batteries (cameras, flashes, etc...), format my memory cards, clean all of my lenses and camera sensors and make sure they are all working properly.

I also make sure that myself and the rest of the team knows exactly how to get to the location.

In the few hours leading up to the shoot I am always very nervous. It's possible that I have never met any of the people I will be working with before, so I'm usually a little worried that they'll turn out to be difficult to deal with. This has rarely happened though. I'll often try to keep myself distracted by going over my ideas for the shoot, including the collection of inspiration images I had put together previously. By the time I start shooting, all the nerves are gone, and I'm left wondering what the fudge I was so worried about. This happens every time. Every. Damn. Time!

5. Do you prefer to shoot digital or with film?
If I had to choose one, I would shoot film the majority of the time. It's just not financially practical for me right now though. A roll of film seems to be getting more and more expensive these days.

Film, in my opinion, is superior to digital in many ways. It's much more forgiving when it comes to over/under exposing an image, film grain is a lot easier on the eye than its digital equivalent (noise) and just the look of film in general is more appealing to me. It's something you can (and I do) try to emulate digitally, but it's never quite the same to my eye. I guess you could liken it to listening to music on vinyl versus an mp3 file. The vinyl just has a little bit of magic that gets lost when everything is converted to ones and zeroes.

Having said that, you just can't beat the convenience that today's digital cameras have brought us. Being able to see the captured image instantly was a huge factor in how I learned to improve my photography. Also, the endless possibilities of what can be done these days in post production has become an art form in and of itself, and I think those possibilities often inspire me creatively as well.

I'm one of those guys who picked up a copy of Photoshop long before I ever picked up a camera, so i will always have a little bit of love for the digital image, no matter how much i get pulled more and more towards shooting film.

So, to answer your question, I shoot both

6. Whose work inspires you the most?
Henri Cartier Bresson, Edward Steichen, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Steve McCurry, Herb Ritts, Dan Winters, Mark Seliger, Gregory Heisler, Terry Richardson to name but a few.

Also, lots of ridiculously talented photographers over on http://500px.com/

7. What qualities should a photographer have?
I think the most important qualities photographers should have are, being a good problem solver, and the ability to learn from mistakes. If a shoot isn't going well, you need to be able to fix or work around the problem, all while maintaining your cool and making it look like everything is still going according to plan. Later on, you need to figure out what went wrong in the first place and take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Also, being your own worst critic and harshest editor is very important in my opinion. No one wants to see twenty variations of the same image. You need to know which is the best image from those twenty and why, and only show that one image. Always only show your absolute best work. Always.

8. Can you share any tips on how to take a better picture?
If you take a photo and it doesn't look the way you want, don't settle for anything less than your best effort. Ask yourself what is wrong with the image. Figure out why it isn't perfect, is it the composition, exposure, pose, etc..? Then take another image making sure to make the necessary corrections. Keep doing this until you get the image you want. This is what I do every time I shoot.


Well, that's it from me. It was such an honour to be asked to contribute to this series, so I hope I have kept up the high standard already set by the others, and maybe it has given some insight into who I am and what I do.

Anyways, to close, I've included some of my street photography below. I don't really share or promote this stuff all that much. It's essentially just personal work that I enjoy doing in my spare time.

If anyone would like to get in touch, you can get at me through any of the links in my sig below.

Later,

B.