Interesting conversation with Dave Howells, advertising photographer, and ex-photojournalist as he’d love to call himself. He explains how he creates his signature frames and his experiences photographing famous people in his clientele. It’s the passion of a person towards his craft like this that puts a quintal of inspiration into you. Thanks, Becki and Chris for hosting this.
Some stuff from the conversation that I felt entertaining:
- The earlier you get in on a job, the more input you have – one of the earliest piece of advise that he received when he started pursuing photography.
- Advertising – clients pay for ideas. Editorials – Client pay for filling space in the newspaper or magazine.
- He walks through his decades of experience in photography in news and media. Technologies that used to be the thing at that time pop up occasionally during the conversation (high-speed flash, for instance). Very interesting.
- He was asked who was his favorite among the famous people whom he had photographed and he responded that his favourites aren’t famous and that everyone has a story.
- “If I think your idea is crap, I’ll tell you it’s crap and I’ll be fairly blunt about it in a charming accent, but if it’s a brilliant idea, I’ll probably steal it“, he says.
- “It’s not about the gear, the picture should happen in your brain long before it’s got to your fingers“
- ” There’re a lot of photographers who photograph what people look like, but there’re only a few who take pictures of who they are!” Wow.
- “The more you shoot, the better you get.“
- ” Ready, fire, aim“