Sep
05
2013I wrote an article for UnknownPhotographer.net sometime last year, but the website and project has since disappeared from the internet, so I thought it would be fun to share an excerpt from the article here on my blog, as I think there are lots of important things that we (myself included) could all do with being reminded of. So here are the top 10 lessons that I took away from my largest project to date, Exit Through the Thrift Shop.
1. If you are just starting out with photography, it’s really important to try to shoot everyday. Henri Cartier-Bresson said ‘your first 10,000 photographs are your worst’ and he was absolutely right. Work through your bad patch as quickly as you can so you can start producing your great work. The other important thing to start doing straight away is sharing your work. The point of creating anything is to share it with others. If you make a habit of sharing your work from the very beginning, you will have fewer mental barriers standing in the way of your creativity later on. Both of these things were instrumental to the speed at which I was able to progress and improve my photography.
2. Use your initiative. Don’t be lazy, everything you need is available to you right now via the internet. 99% of what I know about photography I learnt from Zack Arias and I have never even met the guy. If you need a particular type of experience or skill, weave your needs into your personal work; that’s what it’s there for. You don’t need to wait for a client or lecturer to swoop into your life and spoon-feed you an assignment brief. You can give these opportunities to yourself, they are available to you right now. “A lot of people never use their initiative because no one told them to” - Banksy.
Some of the notebooks and folders I keep all my notes in from the various tutorials and workshops I have watched and learned from…
3. Incorporating something you enjoy or are passionate about into your photography work is the sure-fire way of a) sticking with it when you run into obstacles, b) having the desire to produce work that is to the very best of your ability, c) having the energy and motivation to keep working on it day after day until it’s finished, d) give you an eye for all the tiny little details that will set your work apart from anyone else doing anything similar. Your passion for the subject matter will spill-over into the photographs you produce and you will (hopefully) produce something really special.
4. Just because you don’t feel ‘ready’ to start on a challenging idea you have right now, doesn’t mean you should write it off altogether. Give your yourself some time and headspace and let the idea just settle in your mind. Test the water a bit and make some initial inquiries about things until you are satisfied that the logistics of the project can be managed. Don’t commit to anything unless you feel 100% ready for it because if you have any real doubts, it will eat away into your enthusiasm and you will procrastinate and never get it done. I can’t really explain the science behind it, but I think the well-worn Henry Ford quote ‘whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right’ is absolutely correct. The belief that you can do it is essential, and it if you haven’t got it right now, you just need to be patient, and let your mind work through the potential issues until it is satisfied that there aren’t any insurmountable obstacles left standing in the way.
5. Try not to become overwhelmed with all the little details and just work through the issues one at a time. All the pieces will fall together throughout the duration of the project and you will get what you need when you need it. Figure out a way to do the hardest bits first and then work through the rest as you go along. You don’t need to know how you are going to do every single little thing before you can even get started.
6. Focus. If there is something you really want to achieve, and it requires a lot of work, be prepared to cut just about everything else out of your life while you work on it. You can do something, but you can’t do everything. I spent every second I could working on this project, hit the pause button on everything else I was working on and I still had to take some unpaid leave off work just to get everything done in time.
7. Keep it simple, realistic and manageable. Don’t plan on shooting with a million lights, if you only really know how to work with one. Don’t make things so complicated and difficult for yourself that it will become a barrier for you and you won’t even make a start on it. ‘The smallest action is better than the greatest intention’.
Most of the images in this project were lit using just one light, and in order to replicate the implied lighting in the stencils, I had to be creative at times to achieve that look.
London Calling (c)2011 Linda Radosinska. All Rights Reserved.
8. It’s going to get messy. Working on anything challenging is really going to take it out of you. You will inevitably find yourself under a lot of stress, and at times it will get the best of you. There will be moments when you will hold your head in your hands and wonder what the effing crap you were thinking and times when you have to squint your eyes just to see your monitor through the haze of your uncontrollable sobbing. The key is to get it out of your system, so you can pull yourself together and get back to work. Things will get messy, but the only thing that matters is that you finish. No one cares about how you got there, just that you got there in the end.
One of my models having to paint the peace sign up on the wall on the day of the shoot, after the artist who was meant to do it flaked out at the last minute.
9. “Comparison is the thief of joy” - Teddy Roosevelt. I think it’s a really bad idea to spend an unhealthy amount of time obsessing over other people’s work. Sure it’s great to admire other photographers, maybe even get a bit of inspiration from them, but not at the expense of the confidence you need to go after your own goals. A good indicator that you need to step away from the computer is that you spend so much time looking at other people’s work that you start to lose faith in your own ability to create great work yourself.
10. Get help. You simply can’t do this sort of thing on your own. Call in any favours you are owed and don’t be afraid to ask everyone you know to help you. When the time comes, you will be grateful for every little piece of the puzzle they will bring to the project. I was surprised and truly humbled by the amount of generosity and support I received from the people around me.
Five people helped to create this image, and countless more to make the whole project come to life- check out the ‘Thanks’ page to see how many!
Umbrella Girl - Behind the Scenes Outtake ©2011 Linda Radosinska. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Aug
29
2013I started out with a really long blog post about this, but really I don’t think there’s any need to ramble on.. so here is the abridged version of my blog post on my experience speaking at the Pechakucha night earlier in the month.
Public speaking is hard and lots of people avoid it like the plague. I’m lucky in that I’ve had some experience in this area, so I at least know that I can do it if I need to. That doesn’t mean I don’t get super nervous, or filled with doubt and worries that try to talk me out of it. One thing I have learnt from my experiences in doing things that really push me out of my comfort zone is that just because you don’t feel ready/good about it/it doesn’t feel easy, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
I came across this awesome blog post from a dancing blog I subscribe to and number 15 is a real doozy (highly recommend the rest too!)..
“15. You will never feel 100% ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Dancers have to be willing to take risks. From letting go of the ballet barre to balance, to moving around the world to dance with a new company, from trusting a new partner to trying a new form of dance, dancers must have a flexible mind and attitude as well as body. The greatest opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means you won’t feel totally comfortable or ready for it.”
Of course, this applies to anything. Even if you put in all the work and preparation that you can, when it comes to the moment of truth, you will still feel like you are not ready, like you need more time, like you haven’t done enough.. the list goes on. All excuses- which ultimately stem from a fear of the unknown. You will never know how something is going to turn out, ever. All you can do is all the work and preparation you can beforehand, and then take the plunge and just do it. I encountered this lesson with my Banksy project as well.. I remember thinking the exact same things before the first day of shoots (and even as we went through the days of shooting), but even if I had spent a whole year in pre production getting things ready (instead of 5 weeks!) I know I would still have not felt ready. The moral of the story is that you do all the work + preparation you can, and then you just have get on with it.
Thank you to everyone who came out to show your support on the night, it really meant a lot to me- and we even made it into the Sunday Star Times! 
Aug
22
2013Last year I attended a writing workshop run by the Waikato Children’s Literature Association inc in Hamilton. I came home super inspired and even went to the trouble of writing a whole blog post about my experience- which I never got around to posting.. until now!! Better late than never I suppose, so here it is..
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a workshop set up by the Waikato Children’s Literature Assocition Inc in Hamilton. It was a day-long event where 3 prominent New Zealand ‘picture book’ writers spoke for an hour or so each about their backgrounds, creative processes and how they get a book from inspiration to publication.
Because the Alejandra project involves a writing component, I thought it would be beneficial to head along to soak up their thoughts and wisdom so that I could apply it to my own writing for this project. I often get asked where I find my inspiration for my photography work, and the truth is, I find it absolutely everywhere (the more unexpected the source, the better) which is why I think it’s really important to look for encouragement, inspiration and creative strategies in cross-disciplinary waters. I like to soak up as much as I can from everything around me, but I try to spend as little time as possible looking at the work of other photographers. Unless I am researching different techniques and how to use/do them, I steer clear of the work of other photographers because I think it inevitably leads to direct comparison (often) resulting in discouragement and self doubt. I like to be inspired by films, people, music, books, poems, art work and nature, and although viewing photographs does move me, it is seldom to create more work of my own.
Kyle Mewburn was the first author to speak. He had a less than supportive creative environment that he grew up in, but had the good fortune of having a great teacher at school who gifted him a pivotal paperback on his last day before heading off to high school. His story was one of the most inspiring accounts of rejection, perseverance and self belief that I have ever heard. He studied advertising and journalism before deciding to become a writer. His first book only sold 50 copies, and his second took a year of full time writing to complete. His third book took a year and a half, followed by his fourth book which was a historial novel which took 2 years of full time writing to finish. He then wrote 20-30 stories over 18 months, all of which were rejected by publishers, but instead of throwing in the towel and giving up because he did not meet any publishing success, he considers the time between 1998 and 2008 a ‘full time apprenticeship’. I wonder how many people would have the tenacity to hang on after such a long hard slog with no guarantee of success on the other side…
I left the workshop with my very own signed copy of ‘Melu’, one of Kyle’s awesome books- to serve as a reminder of how important it is to hang on and keep going even if you don’t achieve any great successes with your early efforts. Check out Kyle’s website here.
Dawn McMillan was the second author to speak, and had the following advice for aspiring writers:
- You need to have lots of discipline to do it
- It’s essential to make the time to write- write at night if necessary, and create a good space for you to do so.
- Personal experiences make great stories
- Keep all your work- put it away and save it, even if you don’t like it right now
- Never give up
- Thoroughly research the publishers you’d like to work with and their guidelines
Check out Dawn’s website here.
Mark Sommerset was the last speaker. He and his wife Rowan work as a creative duo (Mark writes, and Rowan illustrates) on Waiheke Island (NZ), self publishing their absolutely beautiful books through their publishing company Dream Boat Publishers.
Mark and Rowan walked away from a lucrative graphic design business to begin their publishing careers and having published 6 books in the 8 or so years they have been operating, they are about to begin production on the very first children’s story Mark ever wrote, a truly profound story called The Cherry Tree. I was incredibly moved by the short description of the story and am dying to see the finished version- I am sure it is going to be a huge success for them both. Just to give you an idea of how much work goes into writing a children’s picture book- Mark mentioned that he spent approximately 1000 hours at the computer working on their book ‘Cork in the Bottle’!! Be sure to also check out the visual feast that is their blog!
All in all, it was such a worthwhile workshop, full of wonderful stories, inspiring people and their amazing work. Special thanks to Anne Southall for inviting me to come along and for my awesome souvenir!
Aug
15
2013
These two images were taken in 2010. It was my very first shoot using off camera lighting, and I was photographing a model named Shana who I had found online and was also just starting out and building her portfolio. I had been watching some tutorials online about how to use off camera flash, and since I was just wanting to try it out, I decided not to buy any new gear and just hire a location lighting kit from Wintec.
We met up in town that night and just walked around to a few locations I had picked out earlier in the day and even though I didn’t really know what I was doing, and most of it was just trial and error (probably more error than trial!) I look back so fondly on this shoot and some of these images are still my favourites.
If you’re wanting to try something out, you can find alternatives to all the easiest ways of doing things if you just use your imagination a little bit. If you need to learn something new, the internet is full of information. If you need some assistance, there are always people out there who are also starting out and are willing to give you their time. If you don’t have the money to buy the equipment you need, you can always borrow it.
If I hadn’t pushed myself to work through my doubt and organise the shoot in spite of not feeling like I knew what I was doing, who knows how long it would have taken me to get to the point where I could shoot the Banksy project. If you want to do something, just get on with it.
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