That Love/Hate Relationship

By Jeremy Hoare, Travel Photographer, London





         Advance Notes: When faced with the nitty-gritty, how do you discipline yourself to "just do it," as well as pace yourself?

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         Now that I am back home in the UK, I'm starting to go through the 8,000 pictures I shot over nearly three
 
months -- eight weeks in Australia, and four weeks in Japan. As ever, it's a daunting task just to edit them, so I tend to do what most freelancers do at these moments: have another cup of tea, read a magazine, etc., anything but get on with it. But in the end I have to, and this self-discipline is the most important asset for anyone who's a freelance, no matter what they do.

         First I put the images onto a lightbox, passing over each sheet of 36 exposures very quickly. This gives me the overall impression and lets me see the big picture.

         Then I go back over each sheet again, but slowly and looking for the frames with selling impact. What is that? I wish I knew for sure, but after a decade doing this I think I am beginning to understand what makes a picture sell. But then again, sell where? There are so many markets out there today. A look at the magazine racks in shops will tell you this, and they are the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Today, with selling pictures online, I have made sales into areas there is no way I would otherwise have been able to access or even know about: Hungary, Spain, France, Korea, China and even the USA are some, just since the start of 2004.

         Sadly, however, I won't be doing anything with those, because the Nixvue Vista 30GB portable hard drive I bought failed so spectacularly, losing the 250 pictures I'd already downloaded and erased from the CF cards. Besides the time spent taking the pictures (wangling my way into Japan Airlines Business Class lounge at Osaka, shooting Brisbane at night), this is a real potential loss of future income, of course. So I only used the Fuji S2 Pro digital from then on, when shooting in difficult lighting conditions -- at a winery in Australia where they were harvesting grapes
during the night with just lights on the tractors, for instance. But I can't get hung up about the loss, it's just one of those things, but you do learn from mistakes. I now think that the link between the digital camera and computer when out in the field is the missing one, and my experience backs me up. One day the whole process will be solid state, no moving bits that almost always go wrong. Roll on...!

         So now, when I get 'slidelagged' over the lightbox, I take a break and just do something else, but that most of the time is moving over and sitting at a computer, and yes, looking at more slides, but on a screen.

         In the end, like a lot in life, being a photographer means loving the good bits and hating the boring ones. It has its ups and its downs. But hey, I wouldn't swap it for anything else!

Happy Researching!

Jeremy Hoare is a freelance travel photographer residing in London, England. Phone/Fax: +44 20 7722 2065. E-mail: jeremyhoare@hotmail.com. .

         Travel editors will find profitable information in the newsletter, TravelWriter Marketletter, published by Mimi Backhauser. For info: mimi@travelwriterml.com . Ask for a sample to be sent to you.

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