JWilsonphoto
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?Jim, I initially tried to respond to your post on Fred Miranda's Forum but for some reason it wouldn't let me. Those are some great air to air photos! I'm an aviator and just getting started in photography and have been very interested in learning more about air to air photography. Unfortunately there seems to be very little information about it out there and the few people that I've written to with questions about it haven't responded to any of my emails. Can you recommend any resources about the technical aspects? How do you find assignments or jobs like these? What kind of platform are you shooting from for your air to air shots (t-6, t-34, or something else?) Have you found that a certain piece of equipment has really made a difference for you? Those are some breath taking images your making there... keep it up because I'm definitely enjoying them! I appreciate you're time."
Blue Skies,
Josh
Hi Josh,
I don't know why you are having a hard time on the thread. Glad you're enjoying our shots and conversation. All of your questions and many more are answered in the 200+ pages, but I'll try to give you the "Cliff Notes". I think you'll find that I'm a fairly optimistic personality, but I would be doing you a dis-service if I didn't answer your query honestly. Here goes...
First, there are a handful of aviation photographers, probably less than that, being hired at a fair rate to shoot the types of assignments that I am blessed to shoot. I had the skill and desire long before I was able to break into the market. You can see the quality of the work that makes it's way to our thread, a sliver of these fine photographers are making a money with their work. The reason none of the photographers you have inquired of have responded is a bit of reality in itself. You can Google a number of studies that researched photographer's average income, broken down into categories. The average income for a commercial photographer in the US is $35,000 annually. The highest income category was portraiture at $72,000, which I find odd because most those guys charge a modest sitting fee and mark their prints up. It doesn't take a great deal of math skill to figure out you can't buy a lot of $8,000 digital bodies and thousand dollar lenses, pay a thousand a month in health care, plus a myriad of other expenses, vehicle, gas, advertising, before you have devised a scheme that will circumvent ever having to pay income tax.
There are two possible reasons that photographers don't respond to questions about launching a career. One is that they are up to their ears being a one man band and only have time to address the issues of the day relating to the survival of their small business. Second, and I don't want this to sound nasty, but I can't sugar coat it either, they have no interest in helping someone launch into the business of photography so that they can have another competitor. There are a few altruistic souls in the business, Paul Bowen being one, who will sit with you and explain how he does what he does, and he'll do it without once beating his own drum, he's a rare individual.
There are the guys on the circuit giving presentations on lighting, marketing, camera techniques, but these people are being substantially compensated by corporate sponsors and they've traded schlepping equipment all over the world for a laptop, an airconditioned room and three squares a day. Truthfully, they are probably making more annually than when they were scrambling for assignments. My point is, they are in a position where they don't care if you learn something and win over an assignment or two from their clients.
This is a thought on the side, but I could spend days on end with large numbers of aspiring photographers, giving them every secret I've learned in 27 years. Very few, if any, could implement what they learn from me without a tremendous amount of practice, and it's unlikely that I would be losing income to them any time soon. Secondly, only a very few have the innate talent to be able to hone their skills to that point. I don't want this to sound egotistical. I could sit in a room with the most gifted mathematician for the rest of my natural days, and I might improve my skills slightly, but I do not have the raw aptitude to go much further than I am today in that discipline (it would be nice to be able to count into the teens without removing my shoes though!).
Along with the realities I have enumerated, there are a couple more that relate specifically to your (our) areas of interest. Aviation, car racing, and all subjects that are saturated with color, speed and emotion, attract a limitless supply of photographers. Certainly many of them are not greatly skilled or overly equipped, but enough are, and digital technology has blurred the line between the pro who knows he captured it before he sees it at his film lab, and the wanna be pro who can just keep shooting, looking, deleting and shooting, until they get something that's usable. Sorry to say, but you just can't over estimate the value of "free" or almost free when a seasoned pro is going to charge thousands of dollars. There are a huge number of potential clients out there that are willing to overlook a great deal in the area of quality, if it's cheap.
You see the quality of the imagery displayed on our thread.I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb when I say that the vast majority of my talented friends here would jump at the opportunity to shoot air to air, or be a preferentially credentialed photographer for an event like "The Gathering", or "AirVenture". The lines of shooters credible and not, who would shoot all day for free just to have the opportunity, stretches farther than you can imagine, and somewhat saturates the market for Pros. Every museum has volunteers on staff who love photography, most can't capture what a seasoned Pro can, but they're FREE.
Josh......Josh....... come out from under your bed. This is where the positive stuff begins. One of the most difficult mind sets I had to overcome in building my business was the perception that there are a million talented photographers out there and most of them are starving. That, by the way, is not far from the truth. However, out of all the photographers and wannabe photographers on this earth today, a very small percentage are going to succeed beyond their wildest dreams. Those will be the ones that had the mix of innate talent, the drive to never quit, no matter how discouraged they might momentarily be, the ones who work and develop their business and marketing skills far beyond the realms of mortal man. The ones who just will not quit and are filled with a love and passion for what they do and who they do it for. Those are the individuals that will be sought out and for their skill and zeal and will be paid for their efforts.
A lesson that is very difficult to learn is that if you give your work away, soon that's what it will be worth. Don't get me wrong, I do occasional shoots for free now, but I choose when they're free, the marketplace doesn't. That's tough to hold yourself to when you want to do a shoot so badly you can taste it, and you need something cool in your portfolio, but do it for free, and you become "the guy who shoots for free".
Well, you asked what time it is and I've proceeded to tell you how to build a watch! I've answered all the questions you didn't ask, here are the answers to the ones you did. I get the assignments I get because I have a reputation for getting more than the client expects, regardless of conditions, and everyone comes home alive and unscathed.My job is to make it look easy and anyone who has been there will tell you it isn't. You need to seek out the clients who value professionalism over economy, results over "free". My platforms range from my 182 to a C-130, with A-36's, Saratoga's, B-25's in between. The best equipment is typically my 24-70 or my most trusted 70-200/2.8, all Canon of course.
I hope to see your name in lights, somebody's will be, might as well be yours.
JW
PS. Guys, feel free to chime in if you think I'm off base here. But I think it's important to know the realities before you launch into something.
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