The Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast

An Amateur Photographer (I Just Earn My Living This Way)

It's 5am. The birds woke me, the sun was already up, and I couldn't get back to sleep — so this one's recorded on a laptop in the lounge with a cup of tea that went stone cold while I was talking. There's also some big news: after twenty years and two Defenders, the Land Rover has gone. We've leant firmly into the future with a very quiet, very electric VW ID.Buzz Cargo. Some call it a van. I call it a lifestyle choice — cheaper per mile, exempt from Oxford's congestion charge, fits in a normal car park, and my feet stay dry in the rain.

Which turns out to be the whole point of this episode. Stand near a group of photographers for five minutes and you'll hear two things: the (humble) brag, and the war story — the blown sync, the client from hell, the lens that died mid-wedding. We are, as a tribe, absolutely magnificent at misery. And yet we do a job we genuinely love. So why does it never sound like it?

This one's about negativity bias — the ancient wiring that has us scanning for the tiger and ignoring the sunshine — and why photographers have it worse than most. We're professionally trained to find fault: judging teaches you to spot the one soft eye, retouching is hours of hunting flaws, self-critique is how we improve. The very skill that makes us good is the skill that makes us miserable when we turn it on ourselves.

A few things I'm going to try — and you might too:

• End every shoot by naming three good frames before you're allowed to mention what went wrong
• Retell your war stories as the win stories they usually are
• Drop the fake "so humbled" and just be honestly proud
• Keep a note of the day's good things
• Celebrate someone else's work, out loud
• Ask your clients what they loved

Because we chose this. Nobody makes you a portrait photographer — it's a tough, precarious, extraordinary way to spend a life, making people look at themselves and feel better. The war stories aren't the truth of the job; they're just the loudest bit. The critical eye that makes you a great photographer isn't going anywhere — just don't let it edit the whole of your life.

I'm an amateur photographer. I just earn my living this way.

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Come and shoot with me. I run small, hands-on Mastering Portrait Photography workshops on location in Oxford — strictly limited to six people so there's plenty of time with each of you — as well as one-to-one masterclass days and a 12-month bespoke mentoring programme. If this episode struck a chord, come and spend a day chasing the light with me: https://masteringportraitphotography.com/academy-portrait-workshops-mentoring

And if you've enjoyed the episode, please do subscribe wherever it is that you get your podcasts — a review on Apple Podcasts genuinely helps others find the show.

 

Tramscript:

Paul [00:00:00] As an industry, have you ever wondered why really there are only two broad modes of conversation? There's the bragging, of course there's the bragging. Sometimes humble bragging, but nearly always bragging. Somebody quietly telling you how well they've done, and they didn't even know th- they were in for a prize.

"I didn't even do any editing on that image." And then someone telling you it all went horribly wrong.

If you've ever stood near a group of photographers for more than a few minutes, I promise you'll hear a couple of things. You'll hear someone quietly telling you how well they've done, and someone telling you in equal detail exactly how it all went wrong. The blown sync, the client from hell, the lens that died mid-wedding.

We all have these war stories, and I guess right now, AI is firmly in the mix, how AI is robbing us of [00:01:00] our work. We are, I think, as a tribe, absolutely magnificent at misery. And the funny thing is, when you think about it, we all do a job we genuinely love. We all came into this industry for our love of people and our love of photography.

So why, why does it never really seem to sound like it? I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast

So let's do the big news first. I know it's gonna bring tears to your eyes, The Land Rover Defender has gone. After all these years, two Defenders, and [00:02:00] it's come to an end. So if you're used to the sound of a clattering Land Rover, that is no more. If you liked it, I'm really sorry.

If you didn't, well, congratulations. Uh, we now have a very quiet, very, very electric Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo. Now, some might call it a van. Others, myself included, a lifestyle choice. Sarah and I decided if we're gonna get rid of the Land Rover, it was one project too many in this very busy life of ours. It needed a load of work.

It has had a load of work. It has more or less been, um, rebuilt from the ground up, uh, but it was just too much. So we've leant firmly and squarely into the future. Now, I've mixed views about electric cars in as much as very big battery packs and the support systems around them, I'm not sure [00:03:00] are the long-term solution.

What I do know is electric cars, electric vans, electric vehicles are the future. The combustion engine is gonna come to an end, except in the world of specialisms, the world of remote areas where you can't charge things. I'm sure there is probably many, many decades, if not a century more, of combustion engines left out there.

But If you look down that telescope to the future, I think electric is the way to go. And if I'm honest, I love it. Don't tell other Defender owners that, but I do. It's quiet, it's clever, it is comfortable, it's quick. Blimey, does it go. I like the gadgets. And I did a gig down in Southampton the other day, which is a round trip of a couple of hundred miles from us up here, um, which meant I knew I had to stop and charge it, not [00:04:00] because it didn't have the range, but because the next morning I had to go straight out and do another gig, which I needed the miles on the battery for.

So instead of in the old days, I'd just say, "Oh, I'll just fill up on my way to the job," now I have to think ahead. So on the way back from Southampton, I stopped at a service station, plugged it into a rapid charger, went and had a coffee, did some work which I needed to do on my laptop anyway. It had to be done at some point that evening, 'cause all the images had to be backed up and managed.

Got a text message when it said the car was charged about 20 minutes later, climbed back in, and off I went. It's as simple as that. And truth be told, I kind of relished the idea that I knew I had to stop. Now, I know that's not gonna be ideal all the time, I understand that, but when you bake the simplicity of it in with the fact that it's a good idea to stop, have a stretch, do some work, maybe drink an iced coffee, life isn't bad.

And of course, with everything [00:05:00] going on with fuel prices at the moment, uh, the thing runs at about a quarter of the price of the Land Rover Defender per mile. So there we go. It's gone. The Defender's gone. Welcome the future, uh, VW ID Buzz. And those of you on social media, you will have seen us asking for ideas for how to brand the thing up, 'cause it's a whole new body shape.

And having had Land Rovers for about 20 years, uh, it's a, a whole new style of logoing. So, um, I'm relishing it. It's quiet, it's comfortable, it's cheaper, it bypasses Oxford's congestion charges, I can park it in a normal car park, and for once, when it rains, I won't be driving with wet feet. So there we go.

That's the big news. On to the topic, really, of this subject. By the way, I hope you're well. It's been a while since I've recorded one of these. Um, I'm sitting, it's 5:00 o'clock in the morning. I have a cup of tea. I have a laptop in front [00:06:00] of me. I haven't got the right microphone, so I'm hoping that the AI cleanup does a decent job of it.

Uh, but I woke up, the sun was up already. The birds were singing. It's the middle of the summer, and I just could not get back to sleep, so I thought I'd take the opportunity- Of sitting and recording a, a podcast, something I love doing and haven't found time to do for, well, it seems like ages. So let's talk about the natural ability of...

I mean, to be fair, it's a human trait, but photographers seem to land on it, which is to focus on the negative. You do hear photographers... I, I'm always a bit cautious 'cause I ... Here's the thing I know I do. I humblebrag. I don't mean to, I try not to, but I do it. I do that thing where, really I'm trying to talk myself up, but I make it sound like I'm not.

But I can't help it. Um, I try not to do it. Um, my kids are really good at [00:07:00] spotting it and laughing at me, and I try to keep an eye on it, but it's not the easiest thing. And the other thing I do, as all photographers do, is I dwell on the negative. Now, why does it happen in this industry so much? I'm not sure I understand why.

The thing is, it's called a negativity bias, right? It has a proper name. It's designed, I think, evolutionarily speaking, to help protect us from things that might kill us. We look for the bad, we ignore the good. Unfortunately, in the photography industry, I think we're hyper-focused, to use the to use the, um, word, uh, in a very particular way.

I think we're hyper-focused on it. I think we look for things. I think, I think as creatives, I think as creatives, we are so used to looking for fault in the images. Partic- I think judges do this, and I think [00:08:00] because judges do this, as the photography industry, we look for it, too. We look for the little things.

We spend our time analyzing our own work in a, in a way that probably someone who, I don't know, does spreadsheets maybe, or... I, I don't know. I don't... I... Maybe, does a driver at the end of the day look at how well they stopped at red lights and things? Does it... I don't know. I honestly don't know, because I'm none of those things.

But it does feel that our industry, our industry in particular, is focused and almost trained to find fault. You know, judges, or judging rather, teaches you to spot one soft eye. Retouching essentially is a couple of hours of hunting down flaws. Self-critique, I guess, is how we get better. The exact skill that makes us good photographers, I think, the relentless fault finding is the skill that quietly or loudly makes us miserable when we point, point it at our own lives and work [00:09:00] I mean, a good example for me, actually, we-- I'm luck-- I'm really lucky, and I acknowledge that I'm really lucky, and I try really hard to focus on the positives.

So, uh, give you an example. We ran a workshop, uh, last week. It was our on location in Oxford workshop, and I love it. It's one of my favorite, uh, workshops. And of course, at the end of that, we send out, uh, a, um, a form for people to give us some feedback, and feedback is where the problems start.

I won't read it out of the gate: sarah has to sort of code it to me because I find it really hard to translate people's very constructive words into something positive away from the negative. And it's been brilliant. The, the, the, the comments have been lovely. The reviews, this is a straightforward brag, [00:10:00] uh, five stars across the board.

But one of the attendees commented on something that was actually nothing to do with us, but it... and it was a fair point. And one of the reasons I'm awake at five o'clock in the morning is that I'm dwelling on it. I know exactly what they're saying, and they're right, by the way, the comment they made. It was out of our control.

It wasn't us. Like I said, everyone gave us five-star reviews, which is wonderful. But- That one comment, and this has happened before where someone gives us a really good review but says, "But if there's one thing I might like to change, it might be this." And I try really hard, and I coach people to try really hard to take it in context and only see it as a positive way forward, but it's really hard when it's about something you pour your heart into.

And maybe that's the puzzle. Maybe as portrait photographers, we are tuned to give everything we [00:11:00] have, to be present, to be relevant, to be all of these words that we use all of the time. So of course, when someone says simple things like, "Listen, for the future, maybe you wanna think about doing this," and that, for us, becomes a focal point of all of our insecurities, um, and becomes a real energy and emotion suck.

And I think that's the thing. We are taught to be critical, but the critical eye is just a tool, and tools in your downtime should be put down. Uh, stop, stop thinking of all the negative things. That's easier to say, of course, uh, than to do because in the end, when you're... And I speak from personal experience here.

When I dwell on the negative, I miss all of the good stuff. I miss the laughter, the successful pictures. I miss the friendships we build. I miss, I don't know, I miss [00:12:00] so much when I'm dwelling on one negative comment or one thing that isn't running right. Even, even when we made the decision to sell the Land Rover, I s- I focused so much on how sad I was gonna be to get rid of it, I forgot or didn't pay attention to the fact that actually life is a load better now I own a car that is bang up-to-date and for the future.

We lease it. I know that's not financially, when you do the calculations, it's not financially particularly savvy, but I love the fact I don't need to worry about it. It's not my car. It's Volkswagen Finance own it, which is great. So I don't need to worry about all the things I used to worry about, and trust me, if you own a Defender, you spend a lot of time, um, worrying about it So right now I'm doing all of the things I dreamt of and so much more.

So I need to stop, [00:13:00] I need to stop dwelling on the negatives. If you're new to the industry and you're listening to us swapping war stories, just be aware that it's just a way of venting, and I think we all do it. Do not think that the, the industry is entirely negative, because it can put you off this brilliant job that is genuinely a privilege.

So if you're new to photography and you're new to the podcast, let me just reiterate, this is a job I adore and I take a huge amount of, um, joy from it, and there's nothing I'd rather be doing. But even in, in the position we're in, where after all of these years, I still love it.

I was asked the other day, maybe this is a podcast all in and of itself, I was asked the other day if I was a professional photographer. One of my clients, one of the kids said, "Are you a professional?" And I'm laughing because no, not really, I'm an amateur photographer. I just earn [00:14:00] my living this way. I get that as a line.

I've be- I've been thinking on this line for a while, but it's true. I am an amateur photographer. I just make my living this way. Why do I phrase it like that? Why do I think of it like that? Because it reminds me, I do it because I adore it. I do it because every day when I get up in the morning, all I want to do is create pictures.

I don't... I've never lost that wonderful sense of excitement when I peer through a viewfinder, or when I spot a patch of light, or when I see... You know, I'm forever in the street just watching people and think, "Oh, that'd make a great photograph," or, you know, "I'd love to photograph those people," or whatever.

I've never lost that. I've always had the same, the same excitement for it. Now capturing that in social media posts and in podcasts and in, on our website is really, really hard to do, but that's the truth of it. [00:15:00] I'm an amateur photographer. I just earn my living this way. And for our clients, of course, that's important.

They only want to hear the positives. They don't wanna hear you grumbling about things that have gone wrong, or, you know, they haven't got the ideal clothing, or the light isn't running well for you today. They don't wanna hear all that. They wanna hear that you're pouring all of this positivity into, into your work.

So try really hard not to let that leak out into your client interaction. I'm really lucky that way, I have to be honest, is it's really unusual, really, really unusual for me to be negative around my clients. It happens, of course it happens. But I'm pretty hardwired in the short time that I have with a client to be energetic and upbeat.

And that, going back to being an amateur photographer, [00:16:00] imagine, right, before you start out, before I started out, if I imagine me before I became p- a professional photographer, someone said to me, "Here's a family. Here's a studio full of thousands of pounds worth of kit. Here's a world-class camera, and here's some great light.

Go play." What on earth would you think? You'd be like, "Oh my God, this is amazing. I can't believe I'm here." And yet somehow when it becomes your living, it can grind you down So I try really hard not to let it beat me when I am feeling it.

Here's some ideas. For trying to keep a balance and try to, try to offset the natural imbalance of the human brain.

We are naturally biased. I love, I love the idea of biases, human biases, natural biases, um, [00:17:00] because once you understand them, you can see them in your everyday life. So the negativity bias is quite a big one. It's designed to keep you alive. It's designed that if you see a tiger, you run because you naturally assume the worst.

It's not a big puddy cat. Um, so here are some ideas. Here is just some ideas that I shall try, and maybe they'll be useful to you, too.

Uh, three good frames. At the end of every shoot, it's not a bad shout to sit and write down all of the good things that happened in that shoot. By the way, it's pretty good, um, CRM, um, customer relationship management practice to sit at the end of a shoot and capture the detail that you went through, capture the stories, capture the laughter, capture the things your client mentioned.

It's never a bad idea to do that. And of course, these days with dictating straight into text fields on your phone, um, we use Lightblue here, big shout out to those guys. Just open up the [00:18:00] text field, jab the microphone on your phone and talk. You can tell the stories. Tell three good frames, three good things, um, that, uh, went right before you mention anything at all that might have gone wrong.

Uh, when it comes to war stories, turn them into something where it's a win. I nearly, I nearly said the line turn the war story into a win story. That sounds so cheesy. Uh, but it is what I've written. Uh, I've luckily caught myself before saying it. Um- Ultimately, ultimately, we nearly always survive these things.

We nearly always survive these things. I have a handful of war stories where they really did go wrong. They really did mean the end of a client. Of course I have them. We all have them. That's normal. I don't talk about them because I don't really want to dwell on them, but I'm still here, I'm still shooting, I'm still laughing, I'm still loving [00:19:00] it, so surely that's got to be a win.

My energy for this, my positivity for this vastly outrode anything that came from those stories. But lights die, cameras die, lenses collapse, stuff goes wrong. Try really hard not to let it get the best of you Like I said, I was gutted when I lost the Land Rover. I thought that was absolutely the end of my enjoyment of driving.

Couldn't have been further from the truth. Turn that negativity to find the, the good outside of the bad. Uh, humble brags. This is one for me more than you. Um, if you're gonna be pleased with something, just be pleased with it. Um, can I let you into a secret? And this is, I, this is not something I do. Um, I see posts, I don't see them so much anymore, maybe because I don't read the social media so much anymore, [00:20:00] and it's something like, "Oh my goodness, I've won an award. I'm so humbled." Well, no you're not, are you? I mean, no, no, no, no, no. You can't be posting, "I've won an award," on social media and be humbled. Those two go, don't go together. Humbled, go look up the definition of the word, is not that. Brag, be proud, be pleased, be energized, be excited, be grateful. These are all good words if you're gonna celebrate a win.

But saying that you're humbled, hmm, I'm not so sure you should be writing that down on social media. And that's one for me, too. Um, I try really hard to use, if I'm gonna win something, I've won it, I'm gonna tell you. Or Sarah is, somebody is. I rather, I'd, I'd be honest, I'd much rather somebody else tell the world about something I've done, but as we all know, the world doesn't do that.

You have to do it yourself. But just be proud, be honest, try not to hide it too much. Um, this one, [00:21:00] uh, keep, uh, uh ... I've written down, keep a win jar. Uh, Harriet gave me a book, our daughter, gave me a book as a gift, and she said, "Dad, at the end of every day, write three things that made you smile in it." I'll be honest here, I haven't actually done that.

Mostly because by the time it gets to the end of a day, I'm exhausted. But I do try, when I go to bed, to lie and just think about the things that have made my life better that day. Might not write them down, probably should write them down. Maybe that's a note to self. Maybe I should just get an app on my phone and just record it in.

But you should do it, and this quite, by the way, this is quite a well-known piece of psychology, um, the three good things, um, every day.

Uh, here's another thing, and I'm lucky in that I get to do this a lot, which is to celebrate somebody [00:22:00] else's work. Celebrate photography or people around you. For me as a judge, as a coach, as a mentor As a trainer, as a writer, these things actually are part of my everyday because it's just a lovely

It's a privilege for me to do it. I was judging yesterday morning, um, and it's so lovely to be able to celebrate an author's work. Of course, in all of the hundreds or thou- actually, this, these couple of months, I will have judged thousands of images for five or six different organizations around the world, and it's brilliant.

I love it. Man, I love it. Does it mean every picture I see is great? No. No. But, but Those pictures that are truly great, oddly [00:23:00] enough, I don't remember the bad ones so much. Or sorry, that's really terrible language. I don't remember the images where we'd suggest some coaching points so much. I do remember though the great images.

I remember the images that make me stop and just enjoy what's on my screen. I do remember those. And for all those cynics out there that say judging destroys the love of photography because it's all about the technical, you could not be further from the truth when you're working amongst great judges.

That isn't how they work. Just simply isn't. If you read the guidelines and the training notes for us as judges, it always starts and ends with impact. Yeah, okay, we have other words, originality, storytelling, center of interest, composition, colors, production, all of these words are in there. But in the end, fundamentally, did the image stop us in our tracks?[00:24:00]

If after we analyzed every other thing, is it still stopping us in our tracks? Then that's a great image. That's what a great image is. Because judging is about ranking images. It's about creating a sense of order amongst the images. But it's still, for us as judges, about loving what we see on the screen.

So celebrate. Celebrate others. Celebrate another photographer's work. Celebrate what's going on around you. My weak spot here in the business is that we get so embroiled in the business, I forget to celebrate my team, which is a real sadness for me, and I forget it perennially. This is not news. My team is incredible.

I've got around me the nicest people, the smartest people, the funniest people, and I love every single day of it. Uh, ask your clients. Why don't you ask your clients what they love? We have this... I'll talk about this more at some point, a little system where we get them to [00:25:00] write down a few words. And incidentally today, hopefully thanks to the wonders of Amazon delivery, um, I'm getting one of those little NFC pads where people can tap their phone and leave us a Google review, because having done a thorough review on our website, something that's been long overdue, I do apologize, um, we noticed that, um, I don't really ever ask for reviews from people, and consequently we don't have them.

The ones we have are lovely. Uh, and we have every, every single client writes a little note to us on a print that I keep on our wall, um, so that I can look back over all of these incredible clients, these incredible people, and these beautiful moments These images that just remind me of why we do this, I do have those on my wall behind my desk, and I read them all the time, and our clients write them.

What we don't do, though, is get those notes out onto the website so that our SEO is better. And of course, in this day and age, we need to do that. So [00:26:00] overall, try not to focus on the negative, but to do that because it's so ingrained, ingrained in what we do. And, and I don't just mean that as photographers, I mean that as humans.

Focusing on the negative is so part of us that you have to have some kind of strategy for holding onto the positive and making the positives outweigh the negatives, at least as we perceive them. And remember, we chose this. No- nobody makes you a portrait photographer. No- nobody. It's not like you landed in it, and this is all I could do.

Uh, it's not how it works. Photography is a tough, tough gig. It's precaria- it's precarious weather, the gear is expensive, you're constantly having to sell your skills. You're always running on the, the insecure end of insecurity. It is an extraordinary way to spend your life. We get to make people look at [00:27:00] themselves and feel better.

There aren't many people, there are not many people who can say they do that. The war stories are not, are not the truth of this job. They're just the bit that makes the most noise. The truth really is the quiet bit we forget to mention most of the time. Yet most of the time, honestly, we love it. So the critical eye that makes you a great photographer, well, you can't do a lot about that.

Just don't let it edit the whole of your life. Remember that the good vastly, vastly outweighs the bad if you only choose to look for it.

Anyway, there we go. That's my ... I'm gonna have a, I'm gonna have a slurp of tea. I'll shut the mic off for this bit Oh, me tea's gone cold while I was recording it. Anyway, thank you.

Thank you [00:28:00] for listening. Thank you. Now have a think about what your three good things for the day are. I know mine. It's already 5:00 o'clock in the morning. What time is it now? It's half past 5:00 in the morning, and I'm grateful to be here. It's gonna be another hot day in the UK. England are through to the quarterfinals, um, of the World Cup.

Can't watch it, by the way. Way too stressful. The Land Rover, the switch from diesel to electric, at least so far, has gone so well. So, so well. I cannot believe it. I have a team and a family around me who I adore. Well, life could be an awful lot worse. And this aft- oh, sorry, later this morning, I'm photographing an author who is coming back, uh, for the second time.

I photographed her author's photos at the point she signed her multi-book deal. That has gone on to international [00:29:00] bestselling success, and so she's coming back today to do some more, and I, for one, will be forever grateful I have clients like that. So thank you for listening wherever you are in the world.

Uh, if you get the chance, please do leave us a review somewhere, having talked about reviews on Google. Uh, so head over to Apple. Apple probably is the best place, the Apple Podcasts, uh, or iTunes is the best place to leave us a review 'cause that seems to be the one that all other, um, podcast players, uh, look to.

Uh, please also subscribe wherever it is that you listen to your podcasts. And genuinely, genuinely, I hope today you find it really easy to identify three great things that vastly outweigh anything else that's bad going on in your life, in your work, with your customers, your photography. Whatever else happens, remember this: be [00:30:00] kind to yourself.

Take care.