Expert: Don Wood - 2/26/2008

Question
Hi, I was wondering if you could help me...
I'm studying on a photography course in Dublin, Ireland, and hope to go on to study in a degree course in college, and then to a career in photography. Part of this course is work experience, and I am working on a project on different careers available in photography. Would you mind anwsering some questions to help me with this project?

The questions are. . .

1. When did you first become interested in photography?

2. How did you end up working in the photography industry? Did you have any formal training, such as studying in college, before you embarked on your career?

3. What is the most challenging aspects of a career in photography, what are the ups and downs? (specifically in the fields you worked in, such as photojournalism)

4. When you worked as a photographer for newspapers, did you need any specific skills that are not needed in other fields of photography? Did you enjoy this work?

5. Do you have a favourite type of photography that you like to work on most, for example landscape, wildlife, etc.

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated!
Look forward to hearing from you soon,
Lyndsey

Answer
l. I was in High School, taking a course in journalism, and got interested in taking pictures. From there it was a step to working on the yearbook as a photographer. I also worked on my college yearbook as a photographer, selling the pix I was assigned to take to the yearbook. After finishing college I had a darkroom which I used while I taught for 8 years. This was in BW and I primarily used it to send pictures of the girls which Grandma had made clothes for and I sent pictures of the results home. I then took a correspondence course from the New York Institute of Photography. BW, but it introduced me to all the various venues of photography; Sports, News, pictorial, Groups, advertising, portraits etc. There are so many facets to this career choice. Bear in mind that this was back in the 50's when there weren't many schools of photography not associated with journalism, news paper, etc. We learned on the job how to take pictures for these various venues. This was in the days when you learned Focus, Aim, Cock, and Expose. We were just beginning to get camera mounted auto-exposure systems. Unfortunately many of the small newspapers would throw a camera at a reporter and tell him/her to illustrate their news article with a picture. Very few papers would send two people to an event, one to report, the other to take pix, because of the cost. I had one editor who justified a 5 cent raise in the cost per paper as being part of the means of raising money for the workers, but guess what, we didn't get a raise out of the increase.
In photojournalism, you must work with people, it's easier to get the pics you want from the situation if you have a pleasant rapport with the subjects. This skill is needed in all the other venues of photography. The grumpy photographer is not a very successful one.
I liked to take sports, and groups. The groups came about when the HS graduates would contact the paper for someone to take pictures at their reunion. I would offer to duplicate the B/W picture I took for the paper in color and take orders for the results. I would collect in advance so I wouldn't get stuck with someone not paying their bill.
In general, nowadays, there are many schools of photography so it is better to get as much training as possible in the field. Don't neglect to take some business courses that will make you a little more knowledgeable in the business end of photography.
You must bear in mind that the majority of picture-making is based on sentimentality, so this business is very much tied to a burgeoning economy. When times are tough and you must make a decision to either buy food, pay the rent, buy the gas, or buy the picture of your wedding or portrait, you have a dilemma.
This is an exciting era we're in, we're transitioning from film to digital. We're using computers to print our pictures, the film labs are also changing from film to computers. This is an exciting time.
But the principle are still the same. You have to be able to see the picture that you want, instead of taking a shotgun approach of shooting hundreds of pictures to find the one. You will train your eyes to see the pictures by scanning art books, photography books in your library, by going to the museums, by looking at examples at fairs, etc. All this will develop your photographic eyes.  Remember that the camera captures a slice of history, and preserves that particular slice for all time.
Best of luck to you, if I can be of further help please let me know.