WEBVTT
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that's what's required as photographers.
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You've got to be able to tell the future or at least predict that something's important is going to happen in the future.
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In my career, the most important thing was seeing moments that I had missed.
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It wasn't capturing the moments, although that was the end goal.
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Because when I started as a photographer, I just would walk out of a assignment going I didn't really see anything in there.
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Then after I'd missed them over and over and over and over again, then I started to say, okay, now at least I saw them in retrospect.
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And then I started to anticipate
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Hey, welcome to the beginner photography podcast.
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I'm your host Raymond Hatfield and each week I interview one of the world's most interesting photographers to learn what does it really take to capture beautiful images so that you can start to do the same?
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In today's Rewind episode, we are chatting with Craig Strong about the creative impact of storytelling in photography, as well as the journey from photojournalism to weddings to innovating with Lensbaby.
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But first, the Beginner Photography Podcast is brought to you by Cloudspot.
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Impress your clients with a beautiful gallery that is easy to view, share, and of course download on any device.
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You can control your image size, add a watermark, and of course, set download limits.
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So you can grab your free forever account over at deliverphotos.
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com and only upgrade when you are ready.
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Craig Strong is the founder of Lensbaby.
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Lensbaby makes these camera lenses that are designed for, creative visual effects.
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They're super fun.
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So today Craig talks about the challenges that many photographers face when trying to tell a story through their lens.
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He shares a ton of his experience from his transition from more traditional photojournalism to creating, these unique photographic tools that pushed his creative boundaries and then making them available for you as well.
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He talks about mastering the art of timing, embracing experimentation, and how to move beyond the fear to discover creative freedom in your own photography.
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Tons here.
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So with that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with Craig Strong.
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Craig, I know that, when I think of Lensbaby, I think kind of off the wall.
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I think unique.
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I think innovative.
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I also think maybe a little experimental.
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Are those the same words that you would use to describe your earliest days in photography?
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That's a great question, Raymond.
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I would say that my early days in photography were all about the learning of the technical.
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It wasn't artistic, it was just purely I was fascinated with what this gear could do.
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A friend of mine in seventh grade, Holly, Holly love had a project.
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Her project was on SLR cameras and I was just fascinated by how things worked.
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My dad was a mechanical engineer and the fact that we have this mirror that apparently is instantly getting out of the way of the film and then different kinds of shutters that move out of the way of the, you know, to change the shutter speed or doing things at different speeds.
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That was just super fascinating.
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Another friend of mine brought a little view, like a type camera.
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I think it was an AGFA, little range finder camera, and it had the split image that went through.
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And I was super fascinated with that.
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And so for me, it was really on the end of the gear and experimental?
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Absolutely not.
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I was just like, from the get go saying, Hey, I want to know how this works.
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And then it wasn't until I learned the way the gear worked that I started saying, well, I kind of want to be a photographer now, cause this is so neat.
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My dad was a mechanical engineer.
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And so I think that kind of, DNA for me was where the photography bug started.
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And, I think of all these, you know, 60 some year old men who are buying gear and they've never really become photographers and they're super proud of all these amazing pieces of gear they have.
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But for me, I got over that real early and, you know, but that was the initial thing that invited me in.
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Yeah.
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It wasn't years later.
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It wasn't until years later that I would say there was experimental would be a descriptor.
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So, the technical side is what drew you in.
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How long was it that you studied those cameras and got used to those before the idea of photography, as maybe a profession or the art of image making, became as important to you?
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Yeah, I would say that that happened pretty much the moment I stepped into a dark room.
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And that wasn't until college, my freshman year in college, I was going to school in Los Angeles and I went out for the track team and it was so hot.
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And like it was, I remember there was a day, I think it was 105 degrees and we had to run sprints around the track and six minute miles.
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I don't know.
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I don't know where it is.
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two, six minute miles.
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And I saw my dorm and I just kept running straight.
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I was just like, I'm done.
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And I never went back to track again.
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I'm like, okay, well, well, what do I do now?
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I don't want to just be here for academics.
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Let's figure this out.
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I love photography.
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I went to the student union building and there was a need for a photographer or staff photographer.
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And, uh, I had never stepped foot in a dark room.
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And once I did, I was like, Oh, this is magic.
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And that magic of watching the images come up into the, developer and all of this, it was just like, it was something so amazing for me that again, like we're back on the technical side, but at this point I was a good photographer.
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Right.
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They gave me a roll of 10, a bulk loaded roll of 10 frames of triacs to go shoot as my interview.
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And I went, I spent like, every minute.
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They said, have it to us by, I don't know, eight o'clock tonight or five o'clock tonight.
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And, I spent every minute going and framing and doing all these images.
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And, I think that might've been the best 10 images I shot during college, at least certainly my freshman year.
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And so I was an accomplished photographer at this point, but it really hadn't become part of like, a real sense of compelling identity.
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This is what I have to do until that moment.
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And then there was just no choice once I'd seen what was possible in the dark room.
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But this was my path.
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Why do you think those 10 frames were your best?
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I think they were my best because I spent time really deciding what is it that I see here and went seeking things that were important to me.
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And, I was brand new on campus.
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I didn't know this place.
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I didn't know the people that much.
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There was a friend of mine from high school who'd gone down to LA, the year before.
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So I sought out her, that was the one people shot, like posed portrait that I did of her and her roommates and, there was this incredibly ugly fountain.
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It literally looked like, and people would refer to it as elephant poop.
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And, um, and, uh, there's a huge story behind it too.
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Super controversial because the art department was never, consulted in the construction of this.
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They just handed over to the physical plant and said, here's a bunch of lava stones, make a fountain.
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And, uh, and so but apparently I made the best photo of that fountain that had ever been made.
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I didn't know that it was supposed to be ugly.
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So I think both having that new perspective and saying, okay, what is it, what is it that I see?
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And really pondering, something that is part of my vision.
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And that may be one of the first times that I was super purposeful rather than just going out and seeing, what do I find?
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What do I see?
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What's going on here?
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Yeah.
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So before we get into, your college career as working for that, was it the paper or the Yeah, it
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was for, student publications.
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So the newspaper and the yearbook.
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Gotcha.
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So before we get into that, I want to know a little bit more about the learning process for you in photography, because I think it's probably easier than ever to learn photography today just because you do get that instant feedback, but I'm always interested in those earliest days for all photographers.
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So when it came time for you to actually learn photography, what was the hardest part for you to grasp for you to understand from a technical standpoint?
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Well, I'm going to go back to the gear because that initial fascination, was followed by gear that failed me or that I just didn't know how to use.
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And so my vision was never that great, but I could squint and get 20, 20, without my glasses.
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And so, I never knew I needed glasses.
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And shooting through, I think I had a, you know, early seventies, late sixties, Mamiya TL or 500 TL, SLR with a 50 millimeter 1.
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7 lens on it or maybe it was a 2.
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0 lens, but I would rely on the little diamond pattern thing and the split image.
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And sometimes like my eyes just didn't pick up what was going on fast enough.
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So they were way out of focus.
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That was a problem because everything obviously was manual focus.
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And then I was so fascinated with the gear and thought it was so neat that I went after that camera died in a rainstorm because it was at the bottom of my tent and all the water just ended up in my bag with my camera.
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I went and got a, an old Nikon F with what is purported to be to this day the worst zoom lens ever made 43 to 86 millimeter.
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I think it was a three five to five six.
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you just couldn't focus that period.
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And it had a shutter that was slow or a mirror that was slow getting up.
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So I could only photograph at shutter speeds of, I think a 10th of a second and longer.
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Um, so, which I got around, I actually started making some really cool images with it because I found myself on a trip right.
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After I discovered that, oh, wow, I've got this diagonal vignette going through one corner of my image.
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And so, but it only happens on stuff or it didn't happen on this one long exposure.
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So maybe I can, take long exposure.
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So I ended up on this trip to Canada with a bunch of friends and I remember being on a ferry and taking this long exposure of a friend pretending he's hanging on to a post, pretending like he's being blown by the wind and I'm shooting a half second exposure and it turned out great.
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And so for me, like, it was kind of a circuitous route to go, Hey, I can, I don't have to do this, with a 60th of a second or faster.
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I can do different things and they come out kind of cool.
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Wow, that's funny to think about.
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This is going to sound ridiculous.
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I had a friend who, um, growing up who had a broken arm and, he would pitch in baseball and he had to learn how to pitch.
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it didn't heal back correctly.
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Like it wasn't straight.
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So he kind of had a bend to his arm and he had to learn with essentially broken equipment and the way that he works like I think still to this day is now entirely different than anybody else.
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So do you think that you working with a broken camera there essentially in the beginning, still changes how you shoot or affects how you shoot today?
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I think it opened my mind up to the fact that there's solutions to problems that you didn't expect.
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And so when I experience a problem in the field, I'm immediately thinking, or about Lensbaby products or whatever, I'm immediately thinking, what's the fastest way to fix this?
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Because as a photojournalist, I worked as a full time photojournalist from the time I, well, left college for sure, but clear through college, I worked as a photojournalist.
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And then for 10 years after, continued that full time.
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And if I'm in a situation where my gear breaks, I still have to come back to the newspaper with a shot.
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There's just no other option.
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And I can only think of one situation where I wasn't able to do that.
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And that was the film, the back of my camera, the little latch broke on, an F 100 Nikon body, and I didn't have a backup body.
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And so I've never gone to a shoot since without a backup body.
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And so I do think it, made me more of a problem solver to say, oh, there's another way to do this that may not be obvious now that the regular way is taken away.
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Of course.
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Yeah, I think that it's a very important skill set to have, especially in a fast paced environment, such as photojournalism.
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So, you went out, you did your interview, so to say, of the, your 10 frames.
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You come back, you show the images, you get the job, obviously.
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What do you have to learn at this point?
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Because now you are being thrown into a world of being able to, having to tell stories with a camera rather than just taking snapshots.
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Is that right?
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I think so.
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Right.
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And it's a pretty forgiving environment.
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I think a student newspaper, you're not expected to, uh, you're not going to get fired.
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I think I was making less than 6 every two weeks like that was, you know, there wasn't much of a budget and I was on the bottom of the totem pole.
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And so for me, what I needed to learn was to be proactive in getting names from people that I photographed and yeah, I'm new on campus.
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I don't know these people and most of them are upper class people and they know the place and are intimidating and I was fairly introverted and not super secure about myself as a person or as a photographer.
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So I think getting over those hurdles of doing people photography and then needing to get the names for the captions, that was a huge one for me.
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I know that street photographers have to get over that they just have to be so incognito that nobody ever notices it.
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But for me, that wasn't really an option.
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As a photojournalist later, I had to come to grips with the fact that I'm on scenes that people don't want me there, it could be an accident could be a fire could be robbery, who knows what it is.
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And so I've got to deal with police, I've got to deal with a situation that may be in crisis while I'm photographing it.
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And those were important skills to take baby steps toward when I was in college to just go, Hey, you know, we all go to the same school.
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This person's not going to punch me in the face.
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But I still have to get over this barrier that I had of talking to a stranger.
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Yeah, obviously I was never in a situation of crisis, I guess, but, I think some of my first weddings, it was like that, like I was scared to, say, talk to the parents or ask them a question and now thinking back.
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It's like, how would I be scared?
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What are they going to do?
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You know, and like, they want better photos.
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So, as far as from an image perspective side right now, What became most important to you because before if you if we're just taking snapshots, friends, family, just things around the house.
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Now being put in a situation where like a photo has to tell, exactly what's going on.
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Was there a steep learning curve there for you?
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Or did that come pretty naturally?
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I would say that sports photography was probably the best teacher for me because I had played sports.
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I played baseball and basketball.
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And I was playing volleyball at the time, intramural.
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And so for me, there was a certain understanding that I went in with.
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And yet at the same time as a photographer, I'd never photographed these moments.
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Like I, knew after the fact that, Oh, this happened.
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But what was the still image that would have summed that up that somebody could look at after the fact and say, Oh, this is an accurate representation or this is the key moment in that buzzer beater shot, or, does it happen before the shot?
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Does it happen during the action of the shot?
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Does it happen when it's going into the basket?
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Is it the reaction of everybody afterwards?
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I would say sports is very similar to weddings where there are so many important moments that are happening throughout that day and throughout that game that you know there's something right behind it.
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If I go out and I walk around my neighborhood.
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I might see a beautiful scene.
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I might not.
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I might see a moment happen between a couple of dogs or owners or people walking on the sidewalk.
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I might not.
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I might, you know, it's a crap shoot.
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Right.
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I mean, you think about the emotions that go into sports, like there are moments that take on monumental weight and importance to the people that are a part of this and the people that are watching.
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And so these are important moments.
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And I think that was really good for me to hone those skills.
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One, to be able to say, okay, I know this, like I had some point of reference and two, to be able to go in game after game after games say, I am coming away with nothing.
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And even though this is something I'm familiar with, these images don't tell the story.
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And so that frustration was a big part of it.
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And eventually I started capturing those moments.
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Eventually I started realizing that, okay, there's something that I can anticipate here that I know is about to happen and be ready for that.
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So did that just come through just you being at more games or does that come from you looking at your images and reflecting and auditing your work after every assignment?
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Well, I think the nature of, working in newspapers, working at a school paper, working, in the student publications is that you've just got, you've got to document everything.
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And I do think that putting yourself in any situation, whether it's photography or work or.
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Like community that you want to build having those regular accountabilities to say, Oh, I've committed to this because I've got this role or this job, or, I'm meeting with this community.
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Cause I've, named myself as a member or whatever it is that you start that ball rolling and you make that commitment, especially to other people.
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if I don't shoot those games, then I don't keep my job.
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Then that just.
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continues the, the cycle to say, okay, well, I'm going to the soccer games.
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Now I'm going to the baseball games now.
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and now we've got water polo season and we've got this and we've got that and the other thing.
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And so all of this, those deadlines ended up, creating the need, creating the, Hey, my name's going to be under this picture.
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and so as I went to more and more games and I started to connect with, Hey, these moments are unfolding.
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I actually have seen them happen a thousand times.
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Now I might actually capture one.
00:19:17.076 --> 00:19:19.076
that would be the other thing that I'd say is that.
00:19:19.895 --> 00:19:25.516
In my career, the most important thing was seeing moments that I had missed.
00:19:25.655 --> 00:19:29.965
It wasn't capturing the moments, although that was the end goal.
00:19:30.955 --> 00:19:38.155
Because when I started as a photographer, I just would walk out and of a assignment going, I didn't really see anything there.
00:19:38.645 --> 00:19:46.945
Um, but then after I'd missed them over and over and over and over again, then I started to say, okay, I, now at least I saw them in retrospect.
00:19:47.296 --> 00:19:52.181
And then I started to anticipate because that's what's required as photographers.
00:19:52.230 --> 00:19:57.500
You've got to be able to tell the future or at least predict that something's important is going to happen in the future.
00:19:57.784 --> 00:19:58.055
Yeah.
00:19:58.095 --> 00:20:07.159
I can't imagine having that skill or seeing that in yourself develop, is probably something that is, I don't know what the word is here, but like it really feels good, right?
00:20:07.159 --> 00:20:09.539
It feels like you're making progress in this field here.
00:20:10.139 --> 00:20:15.404
So at what point because you didn't take this job until you already in college.
00:20:15.404 --> 00:20:17.625
And then when you graduated, you continued with photojournalism.
00:20:18.014 --> 00:20:30.734
At what point did photography for you become so important that you thought to yourself, whatever reason I came to college, I don't know what your major was before, but like, I'm going to abandon that and I'm just going to go full steam, into photography.
00:20:30.784 --> 00:20:32.154
Was it a certain assignment?
00:20:32.164 --> 00:20:33.565
Was it a certain photo that you took?
00:20:33.575 --> 00:20:34.944
What was the catalyst for you?
00:20:36.264 --> 00:20:42.569
I had worked at daily newspapers as an intern in the LA area.
00:20:42.569 --> 00:20:44.359
I'd worked at the Whittier Daily News.
00:20:44.700 --> 00:20:49.509
I guess the La Mirada paper was a weekly, but I was published there as well.
00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:56.680
I'd gotten published in the LA Times and Associated Press and I don't know where those initial images ended up.
00:20:56.680 --> 00:20:58.500
I didn't even know to ask at the time.
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:05.599
And so for me, I had gained this passion and this love for photography and I, tend to obsess about things.
00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:15.052
Like when I was on the gear kick in late junior high and high school, I would get a Shutterbug Magazine.
00:21:15.093 --> 00:21:17.452
I would get an Outdoor Photographer Magazine.
00:21:17.452 --> 00:21:21.863
I would get a Popular Photography Magazine.
00:21:22.181 --> 00:21:44.426
Seems like there was one other one and every single one I would read word for word beginning to end all the ads, all of the classifieds in the back because there'd be little ads for like stove and omni bounce and I wouldn't have any idea what most of these words meant it was for me I was just laying the puzzle out on the table to go, okay, this is all part of photography.
00:21:44.476 --> 00:21:46.567
I don't understand how it all fits together.
00:21:46.866 --> 00:21:57.796
But that obsession, then went by the time I got to college then went to how do I become a great photographer how do I walk into a scene and be confident that I'm going to see a moment.
00:21:57.846 --> 00:22:04.316
I'm going to anticipate moments, not just miss them all and walk away with something that's important to me.
00:22:04.875 --> 00:22:28.993
And having done that for four and a half years, when my job fell through, cause I had studied anthropology, I'd planned on going into overseas, nonprofit work, and it was not until 1991 when there was no money in the organization that had offered me a job and they said, you should probably look for another job.
00:22:29.124 --> 00:22:29.384
Yeah.
00:22:29.384 --> 00:22:30.953
Cause we can't hire you for six months.
00:22:30.953 --> 00:22:33.733
And I said, so I've got a job in six months.
00:22:33.733 --> 00:22:34.943
They're like, no.
00:22:36.063 --> 00:22:48.267
And at that point, but like the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders because I had planned on going in this field for pretty much my entire college career, most of it.
00:22:48.817 --> 00:22:52.376
And I went, Oh, I can be a photographer.
00:22:52.376 --> 00:23:04.510
And that was really the first time that I considered, and this is two months before graduating from college and it was the first time that I considered, Hey, this could be something that I could make a lifetime out of.
00:23:05.431 --> 00:23:05.901
Wow.
00:23:06.141 --> 00:23:10.100
So at that point, you start putting the resumes, you're like, this is where I want to work.
00:23:10.120 --> 00:23:11.340
And this is what I want to do.
00:23:11.721 --> 00:23:18.124
So you shot you were photojournalist for how many years, because I know you transitioned into weddings at one point as well later on.
00:23:18.604 --> 00:23:28.997
So I spent two and a half years in a weekly newspaper here in Portland, I had interviewed with the photographer, and there's only one photographer for four or five newspapers, five newspapers, I guess.
00:23:29.176 --> 00:23:33.517
And, so obviously he wasn't going to give me his job, but they let him go.
00:23:33.626 --> 00:23:41.594
I don't know, a month later and came across my resume in his top drawer and brought me in as a lab tech.
00:23:41.673 --> 00:23:48.263
So I'm only 20 hours a week getting 6 an hour as a lab tech.
00:23:48.364 --> 00:23:49.523
I've got college debt.
00:23:49.574 --> 00:23:50.884
I've got to pay my rent.
00:23:51.213 --> 00:24:02.719
And I negotiated a situation where I got 5 per photo, if I took photos for as assignments, because I knew that was going to happen because Vern was gone and he was shooting everything for 5.
00:24:03.019 --> 00:24:12.798
Five newspapers, and now I'm a lab tech and all the, non photographer writers, which there were about eight of, they're the photographer.
00:24:12.798 --> 00:24:17.731
So I kind of saw the writing on the wall that this is going to turn into a, full time gig for me.
00:24:17.751 --> 00:24:26.341
And so that, five dollars per photo ended up being probably taking me up to eight or 10 an hour, which was enough for me to live on, which was great.
00:24:26.561 --> 00:24:30.182
So for two and a half years, I was there at that group of weekly papers.
00:24:30.422 --> 00:24:42.431
Through kind of a humorous now a set of circumstances where they had cut my pay, taking the 5 per photo away and told me, this is an opportunity for you to go do freelance.
00:24:42.461 --> 00:24:44.230
And so, I'm in Portland.
00:24:44.230 --> 00:24:50.966
I start freelancing for the Oregonian two days a week, making more than I was making five days a week for them.
00:24:51.385 --> 00:25:00.576
And pretty soon I overlap into one of those five newspapers regions and they say, well, you can't shoot for the Oregonian in our area.
00:25:00.586 --> 00:25:02.026
I'm like, this is a small town.
00:25:02.046 --> 00:25:02.846
Are you kidding me?
00:25:03.076 --> 00:25:08.056
What kind of opportunity were you offering me when you cut my pay and, took away the stipend.
00:25:08.326 --> 00:25:20.945
After that two and a half years, because at that point I gave my notice and immediately took one of the most powerful images, like two days later after I gave notice, probably the most powerful image I've ever taken in my life.
00:25:21.235 --> 00:25:25.836
And, on a shoot that I never would have taken had I not just given notice.
00:25:25.935 --> 00:25:43.576
So that, that led to working freelance for newspapers Tanya Harding within a couple months did her thing at the Olympics, or, the prep up to the Olympics and all of a sudden Portland was just inundated with photojournalists and all these agencies were needing.
00:25:44.311 --> 00:25:46.091
journalist to follow her around.
00:25:46.101 --> 00:25:50.811
So I staked out Tanya Harding for a couple of months, and which was just abhorrent.
00:25:50.821 --> 00:25:51.481
It was horrible.
00:25:51.769 --> 00:25:55.379
She lived a couple of, like three miles, two miles from my apartment.
00:25:55.389 --> 00:25:59.119
She lived in, nearly as dilapidated apartment as I did.
00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:05.619
So I would go sit out there and shoot the breeze with all these photographers from all over the U S.
00:26:05.619 --> 00:26:20.072
And so I got connected with all of these agencies that, over the course of the next couple of years, those photos that I took of Tanya, really paved the way for me to be able to pay my bills while I went full time freelance.
00:26:20.082 --> 00:26:21.712
I also had to take a night job.
00:26:21.712 --> 00:26:37.522
I was working at a grocery store that I'd worked at in high school, from 11 at night until 7 in the morning, stocking shelves and then doing freelance work during the day for magazines and my, and the agencies that I'd gotten connected with through Tanya.
00:26:37.623 --> 00:26:51.829
So that was how it all started, but, I am super grateful for my editors and other photographers at the Oregonian, because they ended up funneling a ton of work my way for Sports Illustrated, for all these agencies, for New York Times.
00:26:52.170 --> 00:26:57.490
And without their mentorship and without their help, I would not have been able to have a career.
00:26:58.379 --> 00:26:59.339
That's fascinating.
00:26:59.399 --> 00:27:03.633
So then at what point, because it sounds like things are starting to pick up for you, starting to go pretty good.
00:27:04.002 --> 00:27:06.778
At what point do you transition into weddings?
00:27:07.427 --> 00:27:11.387
So I was talked into my first wedding in We
00:27:11.387 --> 00:27:11.758
all are.
00:27:11.768 --> 00:27:12.298
We all were.
00:27:12.637 --> 00:27:19.397
Yeah, in, I think, the end of 93, because I'd gone freelance October of 93.
00:27:19.800 --> 00:27:28.661
Leslie, who had been a writer at the newspaper and had gone freelance just a couple months before I left, she called me and asked me to shoot her wedding.
00:27:28.661 --> 00:27:30.560
And I said, yeah, I don't shoot weddings.
00:27:30.630 --> 00:27:34.570
I shot a wedding for a professor in college and it was just an absolute nightmare.
00:27:35.030 --> 00:27:38.750
Um, and, you know, she was pleased, but it's just too much pressure.
00:27:38.750 --> 00:27:47.728
And, I'm sure that was one of my, most nightmarish prep times because the first dozen weddings that I shot, I did not sleep through the night.
00:27:48.077 --> 00:27:57.113
I still, when, when the occasional wedding that I've, shoot, which is generally shotgun weddings for family, I've got a very large family.
00:27:57.582 --> 00:28:13.319
Um, but, those weddings that I'm shooting now, or, it's been three or four years, I will have dreams the night before where, I forgot my pants or, you know, there's no film in the camera or, something horrible goes wrong.
00:28:13.319 --> 00:28:14.619
So they're quite stressful.
00:28:14.889 --> 00:28:18.029
But regardless, Leslie asked me to shoot her wedding.
00:28:18.029 --> 00:28:18.700
I told her no.
00:28:18.700 --> 00:28:19.700
She called me back again.
00:28:19.700 --> 00:28:20.964
She said, Please.
00:28:21.284 --> 00:28:23.565
I said, no, I don't shoot weddings.
00:28:23.605 --> 00:28:25.605
And the third time she didn't even let me talk.
00:28:25.605 --> 00:28:27.875
She just said, Craig, we're not going to tell you what film to shoot.
00:28:27.875 --> 00:28:29.704
We're not going to tell you what pictures to take.
00:28:29.944 --> 00:28:32.855
We just want you to shoot the way you shoot for the newspaper.
00:28:32.865 --> 00:28:38.384
And that was one of the most flattering things a photojournalist could hear and so how do I say no to that?
00:28:38.424 --> 00:28:40.284
And, and Leslie was a friend of mine.
00:28:40.284 --> 00:28:42.355
So I said, okay, I'll shoot your wedding.
00:28:42.664 --> 00:28:43.654
And I didn't believe her.
00:28:43.654 --> 00:28:55.914
I believed that there was going to be a mother in law that would come take me by the elbow and, tell me to do this and shoot that and don't do this and don't eat that and don't touch this and go stand in the corner but none of that happened.
00:28:55.954 --> 00:28:59.085
Apparently she had a stern talking to her,
00:28:59.085 --> 00:29:00.335
her parents and her in
00:29:00.335 --> 00:29:00.714
laws.
00:29:01.224 --> 00:29:02.548
And, so that's where it went.
00:29:02.548 --> 00:29:09.268
And that was one of the best photo essays I'd ever shot, because here I am working for a newspaper where I might have a half hour.
00:29:09.298 --> 00:29:21.512
I might be able to come back three times over the course of a month and shoot the same thing and do it a little bit better or fill in the story before, my editor says, we have to publish this.
00:29:21.512 --> 00:29:24.962
You know, it was always me holding back on, I, I'm not quite ready with this.
00:29:25.113 --> 00:29:28.802
If it was a multi-day shoot, which very rarely happened.
00:29:28.952 --> 00:29:37.292
Mm-Hmm, Um, but, that was part of the problem was they never had a beginning, a middle, and an end that could be defined except for we had to go to press with this.
00:29:37.453 --> 00:29:43.903
I would say that wedding for me was like, Oh, this is a full story and it all happened in like four hours.
00:29:43.983 --> 00:29:49.584
I can't even believe that that was a smorgasbord of candy for me as a photographer to just go.
00:29:50.388 --> 00:29:52.148
Oh my gosh, this all happens.
00:29:52.148 --> 00:29:53.479
I can tell a story.
00:29:53.509 --> 00:29:55.368
All of these moments are happening.
00:29:55.368 --> 00:29:59.908
And if I miss a moment, there's going to be a moment right behind and right behind and right behind.
00:30:00.259 --> 00:30:01.418
So I don't need to worry about that.
00:30:01.418 --> 00:30:19.296
I started showing that wedding only and no set up shots, no portraits, no anything that could be construed as this guy's going to do, even though he's only showing us mainly black and whites or storytelling images, he's still going to shoot, an hour and a half of for me.
00:30:19.549 --> 00:30:22.259
There was just nothing I'm not showing you a single portrait.
00:30:22.509 --> 00:30:39.440
I'm going to show you exactly what I want to shoot and that's, what I ended up getting and it was the best decision I made in my career because I absolutely loved the 90 percent of the weddings that I shot because I got those weddings by showing work that I loved.
00:30:40.194 --> 00:30:40.684
Wow.
00:30:41.204 --> 00:30:43.295
Oh, gosh, that is such a great story.
00:30:43.295 --> 00:30:50.994
So many times I hear from other photographers that, when they get asked to shoot a wedding or something like that, they just go straight to Pinterest and look for inspiration.
00:30:51.199 --> 00:30:59.491
But you went the opposite way, obviously, because there was no Pinterest at the time, but just relying on those skills that you have, to be able to capture it in a way that was unique to you.
00:30:59.491 --> 00:31:03.126
And the story as you saw it and to show it to other people.
00:31:03.226 --> 00:31:07.446
And then obviously you've got clients because that's what you showed because of, what you did.
00:31:07.567 --> 00:31:08.126
That's fantastic.
00:31:08.336 --> 00:31:11.715
So I'm trying to figure out here, where did lens baby come along, right?
00:31:11.715 --> 00:31:20.299
Because to this point, when I think of photojournalism, I think straight photography, purist photography, capture the whole thing, the whole story in an image.
00:31:20.670 --> 00:31:25.519
And when I think of Lensbaby as I said earlier, there's a uniqueness, there's an off the wall feel to it.
00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:26.930
It's very experimental.
00:31:26.940 --> 00:31:29.099
It's let's try something new here.
00:31:29.309 --> 00:31:31.200
So where's that turning point for you?
00:31:31.518 --> 00:31:32.777
I hit the 80 20 rule.
00:31:32.777 --> 00:31:41.657
80 20 rule means, that you put 20 percent of the effort into getting 80 percent efficient or proficient at something.
00:31:41.718 --> 00:31:52.447
And then it takes the other 80 percent to become an expert or to become absolutely unconsciously capable of not having to think about what you're doing to do it well.
00:31:52.697 --> 00:31:59.067
And so, I've heard this said on, a podcast before I want to be consciously proficient at what I'm doing.
00:31:59.288 --> 00:32:08.634
And then I want to move on and become consciously proficient at something else, which means I have to be super disciplined and I have to be, which is not something that I am naturally.
00:32:09.003 --> 00:32:14.163
So that said, I got really good at anticipating and capturing moment.
00:32:14.163 --> 00:32:23.446
And I think I got past that 80 percent toward being an expert at photojournalism, but I saw the people around me.
00:32:23.820 --> 00:32:39.476
I had a studio mate who was doing work with Diana plastic medium format camera cross processing her images, I did not have an art background I took a few photography classes in college but wasn't enough to be a minor in communications.
00:32:39.476 --> 00:32:45.663
It was just like, Hey, this is, more of the same of what I was, doing for the newspapers and that kind of thing.
00:32:45.663 --> 00:33:00.017
So, I wasn't really challenged to look out outside of what was right in front of me in terms of what was artistic until I was sharing a studio with about a dozen other photographers, huge studios, really an amazing space.
00:33:00.247 --> 00:33:03.247
We had four or five, large, enlargers.
00:33:03.277 --> 00:33:07.626
We had these 20 by 30, trays full of chemicals.
00:33:07.626 --> 00:33:09.666
So we could go in and print anything that we wanted.
00:33:09.666 --> 00:33:10.226
It was amazing.
00:33:10.497 --> 00:33:20.203
But Krista was shooting with this Diana camera cross processing, which I had no idea what that was and putting up these images that technically were garbage.
00:33:20.283 --> 00:33:25.070
There was nothing about them other than composition that, worked.
00:33:25.090 --> 00:33:26.790
I mean, and the subject matter.
00:33:26.790 --> 00:33:35.201
She was skilled at photographing, important subject matter, capturing moments, but then you get into the technical aspects.
00:33:35.211 --> 00:33:36.151
It's not in focus.
00:33:36.171 --> 00:33:38.921
The cross processing screwed up all the colors.
00:33:39.310 --> 00:33:55.743
It was technically very imperfect and yet I would stand in front of them and have this emotional visceral response to what was going on in this scene, partly because I had this conflict of how can I love this image so much?
00:33:55.753 --> 00:33:58.713
How can I be impacted by this image so much?
00:33:58.874 --> 00:34:02.104
And it is so exactly the opposite of what I was doing.
00:34:02.104 --> 00:34:05.604
And so that really planted the seed for me to say, Okay.
00:34:05.653 --> 00:34:24.077
I've got some things to learn about visual expression and how to match a subject matter because that's the other thing these, images were more powerful because of the way they were shot, than had they been shot with a straight lens and had they been shot with corner to corner sharpness.
00:34:24.108 --> 00:34:36.427
And so that was the beginning for me of exploring, okay, what's next for me if I have that opportunity to explore a more artistic approach than just a fly on the wall approach.
00:34:36.789 --> 00:34:37.369
So what was it?
00:34:37.380 --> 00:34:38.210
What was next for you?
00:34:38.250 --> 00:34:40.190
What got you to dip your toes into that?
00:34:40.614 --> 00:34:46.525
Well, it was a couple years later that I bought my first digital camera and that was in 2000.
00:34:46.644 --> 00:35:04.695
End of 2000, I got a Canon D30 and two days later I was in New York City meeting with my agency and showing my portfolio around and I only took that digital camera and I took a 28 millimeter, 1.
00:35:04.695 --> 00:35:06.206
8 Canon lens.
00:35:06.286 --> 00:35:09.715
And all of a sudden that was now a 45 millimeter lens because of the 1.
00:35:09.715 --> 00:35:11.135
6 X crop.
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:14.469
And I was like, well, I didn't count on that.
00:35:14.568 --> 00:35:16.168
I did not read that memo.
00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:21.558
And, um, I was like, okay, I've been thinking about doing something a little different.
00:35:21.849 --> 00:35:23.068
Maybe I can just.
00:35:23.219 --> 00:35:35.068
the trip, I think we pricelined it for 125 bucks a ticket or something for round trip tickets back when priceline was just starting out and things could be, you know, you can put a bid in and super, super cheap.
00:35:35.079 --> 00:35:49.342
So, off we went to New York, my wife and I, and I ended up on Times Square outside at the time there were these camera stores, there's still a few of them, that were just, massive and they had, all the normal stuff, usually way overpriced.
00:35:49.561 --> 00:35:51.802
I just went straight to the video converters.
00:35:51.811 --> 00:35:54.652
So I went and I found this 0.
00:35:54.652 --> 00:35:57.708
42x converter, put it on the front of my, 28 millimeter lens.
00:35:57.958 --> 00:36:10.655
it turned it into probably the equivalent of a 15, 16 millimeter fisheye corner to corner As far as the field of view goes, and it had bent lines and I had played with fisheye in college.
00:36:10.655 --> 00:36:12.536
So I was like, Oh, that's kind of cool.
00:36:12.826 --> 00:36:15.096
But they wanted like 400 for it.
00:36:15.146 --> 00:36:16.615
And I was like, well, I'm not paying that.
00:36:16.635 --> 00:36:21.175
So I found myself at another camera store and I walked in and they had, 200 on it.
00:36:21.175 --> 00:36:23.666
I said, I'll give you 90 bucks and I don't want to pay tax.
00:36:23.896 --> 00:36:24.576
And they're like, okay.
00:36:24.936 --> 00:36:27.025
Um, so they, they jumped at it.
00:36:27.295 --> 00:36:32.905
And then I screwed that on the front of my 28 millimeter lens and just started playing.
00:36:32.916 --> 00:36:35.635
And the aspects of that were at the 1.
00:36:36.025 --> 00:36:39.855
8 wide open, the center was sharp, had shallow depth of field.
00:36:39.885 --> 00:36:41.775
Cause of the native lenses at 1.
00:36:41.775 --> 00:36:45.695
8, but I could focus literally inside of that converter.
00:36:45.695 --> 00:36:49.516
So something touching the front of the lens I could focus on.
00:36:49.615 --> 00:36:59.206
All of a sudden I had, a brush in my hand that allowed me to paint a different palette, to paint different strokes on my canvas.
00:36:59.436 --> 00:37:00.962
And it was just fun.
00:37:00.972 --> 00:37:02.532
I didn't spend any money on the trip.
00:37:02.652 --> 00:37:05.922
we pricelined the tickets, we pricelined the hotel.
00:37:06.317 --> 00:37:07.898
We're like, Hey, we got money to spend.
00:37:07.907 --> 00:37:09.067
I've got an extra 90 bucks.
00:37:09.067 --> 00:37:09.538
Here we go.
00:37:09.538 --> 00:37:20.648
And so that was really the start for me of, Hey, here's something that has a completely different way of seeing the world and what can I see through it?
00:37:21.257 --> 00:37:21.788
Yeah.
00:37:21.936 --> 00:37:25.306
Obviously today, lens baby makes a whole assortment of lenses.
00:37:25.346 --> 00:37:30.673
So I'm assuming that this was the catalyst for you to figure out how can I do more with this?
00:37:30.704 --> 00:37:31.163
What can I do?
00:37:31.163 --> 00:37:32.003
What can I change?
00:37:32.594 --> 00:37:37.594
And I know that there's a long history of lens baby, as you said, you picked up that lens there in the year 2000.
00:37:38.043 --> 00:37:52.800
Can you give me like a, 30, 000 foot overview of how you got from that 90 lens there to where your business is at today with an assortment of lenses and people who are just creating really incredible, incredible pieces of art, really?
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:53.242
Absolutely.
00:37:53.242 --> 00:37:53.686
Yeah.
00:37:53.686 --> 00:37:54.572
So in.
00:37:54.771 --> 00:37:58.425
2002, I took a workshop from Kevin Kubota.
00:37:58.425 --> 00:38:03.576
So I'd been shooting with this lens for a year and I'd shot far, far too much.
00:38:03.896 --> 00:38:08.286
If I look back and I tend to do that, I'll get a new piece of equipment and I'll just obsess about it.
00:38:08.286 --> 00:38:12.221
And I'll, I'll shoot way, way more than I would end up.
00:38:12.380 --> 00:38:16.813
Over the long run, seeing a place for it, my photography, but I just started shooting everything.
00:38:16.813 --> 00:38:19.393
I'd go on fishing trips, fly fishing trips, and I'd take it.
00:38:19.393 --> 00:38:23.534
And I'd shoot, the scene that I've got this photo of this huge beetle.
00:38:23.534 --> 00:38:36.458
I don't know how big it was, cause it's touching the front element, climbing over these pieces of straw and, and a friend's puppy dog, real close up you've got the center in focus and it's all bent and the colors are going crazy.
00:38:36.458 --> 00:38:48.052
And a year and a half or a little more than a year later after getting that, camera, I end up in a workshop with Kevin Kubota, his very first digital bootcamp in Bend, Oregon.
00:38:48.632 --> 00:38:55.096
And I had the background of my computer, the desktop was one of these images.
00:38:55.195 --> 00:38:59.295
And then Kevin came over and asked, and I showed him a few others.
00:38:59.326 --> 00:39:05.005
And next thing I know, a couple months later, I've pretty much filled up his second workshop.
00:39:05.005 --> 00:39:08.085
Cause I told all my friends that this changed my life.
00:39:08.125 --> 00:39:13.536
And if you're considering digital or you got your first digital camera and don't know what to do with it, you gotta go to Kevin's workshop.
00:39:13.846 --> 00:39:15.425
So I filled up his second workshop.
00:39:15.695 --> 00:39:23.152
And then after the second workshop, Kevin called me and said, Hey, would you teach with me at the third workshop and be a guest speaker?
00:39:23.472 --> 00:39:26.233
and I want you to teach about all this lens stuff you're doing.
00:39:26.333 --> 00:39:29.827
And I thought, I don't even know how to get another one of these.
00:39:29.827 --> 00:39:36.407
I'd gone on eBay and I'd bought, a bunch thinking that, Oh, there's gotta be a better, wide angle converter.
00:39:36.407 --> 00:39:39.067
That's going to do something even more amazing.
00:39:39.324 --> 00:39:42.067
And, apparently I got the best one on that first trip.
00:39:42.067 --> 00:39:46.038
And still, I didn't know even how to buy that one again.
00:39:46.157 --> 00:39:48.087
So what did I have to teach?
00:39:48.378 --> 00:39:49.907
I had in my mind as.
00:39:50.378 --> 00:39:59.217
With all of my, over the years, and we haven't really covered this over the years, I would make myself things that I either didn't want to pay for, or weren't available.
00:39:59.217 --> 00:40:01.260
I made a 200 foot long.
00:40:01.655 --> 00:40:20.045
it was actually 50 feet, 25 feet, 100 feet, and, probably a couple 25 footers of these cables that I would make and splice them into the Canon off camera shoe cord distributors that would allow me to have multiple flashes on.
00:40:20.697 --> 00:40:24.322
TTL because there was no wireless TTL at the time.
00:40:24.402 --> 00:40:26.083
And so I was doing that.
00:40:26.112 --> 00:40:48.483
I was going to Goodwill and I would find these huge Tupperware tops and I would cut various shapes out of them and, I would double them over on my flash and I'd, let them go floppy on top or I'd, have, it was basically the Gary Fong type experimentation that I was doing, but I was just doing them for myself and I was able to get amazing light out of these things, but I wasn't thinking, Hey, this is a product.
00:40:48.972 --> 00:40:49.313
Um,
00:40:49.652 --> 00:41:00.353
and so for me to go from this one lens to having something to teach, I had to pull on a lot of the ideas that I had.
00:41:00.873 --> 00:41:10.815
I had had, one of them being modifying my Mamiya or no, it was Bronica lenses to work as tilt shift lenses on my SLRs.
00:41:10.815 --> 00:41:25.233
There was only about maybe not even a half inch, probably closer to a quarter of an inch distance between the back of the lens, the front of the flange on my Canon SLRs, and then thinking about making a mechanism that would work there.
00:41:25.233 --> 00:41:29.523
But I had talked with an engineer about that and he basically said, can't do it.
00:41:29.643 --> 00:41:35.472
And like, okay, well, I guess those lenses, 364 days a year, just sit in the case.
00:41:35.813 --> 00:41:39.952
and then once a year or so, I would, pull them out and use them for a particular client.
00:41:40.242 --> 00:41:41.452
And it's kind of wasted.
00:41:41.452 --> 00:41:43.853
And then I would go rent these tilt shift lenses.
00:41:44.012 --> 00:41:46.483
But all of these ideas were just sitting there.
00:41:46.483 --> 00:42:03.958
And when I got asked to teach the workshop, I looked at a speed graphic lens that was sitting Or a camera that my sister had given me for graduation from high school that I think I shot one roll through and it was full of light leaks and had all sorts of problems and I was a photojournalist.
00:42:04.007 --> 00:42:05.538
I wasn't experimenting at that point.
00:42:05.538 --> 00:42:10.567
I wasn't even willing to go get a Diana camera and shoot a roll through that because that's what Krista did.
00:42:10.567 --> 00:42:18.150
And I don't want to open that Pandora's box, but I took those ideas that I had for modifying those medium format lenses.
00:42:18.610 --> 00:42:28.201
And this lens that instead of, an eighth of an inch or a quarter of an inch, between the front of the mount and the back of the lens, we now had like two and a half inches.
00:42:28.460 --> 00:42:32.911
And I thought, well, now I just have to, block out the light to see.
00:42:32.940 --> 00:42:37.420
So there's not stray light coming in to see what the image is going to look like.
00:42:37.420 --> 00:42:41.070
Is it going to look like a tilt shift lens or a, view camera when it's tilted?
00:42:41.371 --> 00:42:52.590
And so that was the very first prototype of the lenses that I was working on or that I ended up bringing to the workshop and I just brought a big thing.
00:42:52.590 --> 00:42:53.860
I brought a Dremel tool.
00:42:53.871 --> 00:42:54.980
I brought a drill.
00:42:55.230 --> 00:43:03.771
I brought a bunch of shop vac hose because I had found that shop vac hose blocked out the light and was cutting it to length.
00:43:04.001 --> 00:43:07.481
in my, room at the resort that we were at in central Oregon.
00:43:07.902 --> 00:43:12.081
And cause I had to come up with enough for people to be able to beta test these things.
00:43:12.351 --> 00:43:14.501
And there were like 25 people at the workshop.
00:43:14.802 --> 00:43:15.751
So that's where it started.
00:43:15.802 --> 00:43:20.672
That's the 20, 000 feet of the beginning of something that was totally unique.
00:43:20.971 --> 00:43:29.891
But even then it was based on lenses that I was getting off of eBay or on Holga lenses because Holga mods was making pinholes out of Holga cameras.
00:43:29.891 --> 00:43:32.041
And so I would buy the lenses off the Holga mods guy.
00:43:32.601 --> 00:43:40.632
So yeah, It just kind of all, came together, through Kevin's invitation and honestly, there was some anxiety.
00:43:40.632 --> 00:43:42.181
Like, I don't really have anything to teach.
00:43:42.192 --> 00:43:43.661
I better come up with something brilliant.
00:43:44.291 --> 00:43:45.831
It ended up being Lensbaby.
00:43:46.478 --> 00:43:55.355
So tell me today, if you could use three words to describe what it is that you want Lensbaby to provide to photographers, what would that be?
00:43:55.454 --> 00:44:00.201
I don't know about three words, but I would say if I were to get it down to three words.
00:44:00.512 --> 00:44:02.282
I'd say it's a reason to grow.
00:44:03.202 --> 00:44:03.273
A
00:44:03.273 --> 00:44:03.692
reason to
00:44:03.692 --> 00:44:04.393
grow.
00:44:04.550 --> 00:44:14.559
Because anytime we pick up something new that is fascinating to us, I think there's anxiety around that because we're not good at it yet.
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:20.009
We're just now exposed to something that's like, oh, this is different.
00:44:20.259 --> 00:44:23.367
You know, Lensbaby's different than what my friends are doing.
00:44:23.367 --> 00:44:28.567
This is not, largely accepted, people may look at this and be critical.
00:44:29.067 --> 00:44:39.947
but if I want to get from that initial point of, I don't know this, this is a new way of doing things to the point where I'm like, Hey, I'm kind of proud of that image I made.
00:44:40.206 --> 00:44:43.407
There's a learning curve in there and there's growth involved in that.
00:44:44.146 --> 00:44:51.657
And Lensbaby's mission statement is we empower artists to move through fear, to discover extraordinary freedom.
00:44:52.072 --> 00:45:03.090
And that fear I think is present, has been present for me, and anything that is worth doing, that I didn't know how to do.
00:45:03.469 --> 00:45:08.900
And so that anxiety of looking at Krista's images and going, I can't do that.
00:45:08.940 --> 00:45:10.159
I want to do that.
00:45:10.489 --> 00:45:14.831
But, there's this hurdle of it involves a lot of learning.
00:45:14.961 --> 00:45:19.172
It involves a you know, feeling stupid.
00:45:19.391 --> 00:45:25.512
And so I held off until I had a digital camera before I really started embarking on that process.
00:45:25.541 --> 00:45:33.295
But, I think blends baby giving people a reason to grow and learn is how I would distill what our purpose is.
00:45:33.791 --> 00:45:43.632
I love that idea of pushing through the fear to, kind of get to this point to where you're able to create something that, not only you're happy with, but also fulfills you.
00:45:43.632 --> 00:45:46.947
I think creatively is a very cool idea.
00:45:47.447 --> 00:45:50.722
Well, Craig, I gotta say, man, thank you so much for coming on today.
00:45:51.003 --> 00:45:52.942
I've taken up far too much of your time here.
00:45:52.942 --> 00:45:55.202
I know that we are well at the end of this.
00:45:55.552 --> 00:46:00.913
But before I let you go, I gotta ask, I know that people are wondering right now, where can we find out more about Lensbaby?
00:46:00.922 --> 00:46:02.632
Where can we find out more about Craig?
00:46:02.913 --> 00:46:05.735
So where's the best place for listeners to do that?
00:46:06.195 --> 00:46:13.199
So you can go to our online community on Instagram and go to at LensbabyUSA.
00:46:13.389 --> 00:46:20.855
And there's some really great communities on Facebook that you can, learn and plug into.
00:46:21.125 --> 00:46:24.905
One of them is Lensbaby Unplugged and I'm there, most days.
00:46:25.115 --> 00:46:29.326
Well, there's a whole bunch of others that are not, things that lens baby manages.
00:46:29.556 --> 00:46:31.766
Although I'm a part of some of those communities as well.
00:46:32.115 --> 00:46:48.396
So that's probably the best place because I sense that you've got a following that really, would resonate with plugging into a community and plugging into a place where it's not just a company saying, Hey, this is what we do and come by this thing.
00:46:48.655 --> 00:46:57.452
It's like, no, this is about people coming alongside each other and being excited for the learning process that, can be, more rewarding in community.
00:46:57.512 --> 00:46:58.583
So that's the biggest thing.
00:46:58.583 --> 00:47:03.733
for me, my presence really these days is, primarily through Lensbaby.
00:47:03.762 --> 00:47:05.373
So those are the places you can find me.
00:47:06.202 --> 00:47:08.942
Alright, let's recap what we learned today.
00:47:09.302 --> 00:47:12.603
First, you gotta embrace unstaged storytelling.
00:47:12.842 --> 00:47:18.262
Learn to capture the flow of the moment in whatever you're shooting without relying on stage shots.
00:47:18.552 --> 00:47:25.172
So focus on the candid and genuine interactions between your subjects to tell a more compelling and authentic story.
00:47:25.393 --> 00:47:34.882
So practice just walking around events and observing emotions and connections before taking photos so that you can start to build in your brain what the story is.
00:47:35.077 --> 00:47:37.288
So that then you can capture it with your camera.
00:47:37.858 --> 00:47:39.907
Next is to experiment with your gear.
00:47:40.188 --> 00:47:51.458
Pushing through that fear of, keeping all your gear in perfect condition and trying new ways to use your equipment can really open up a whole new, visual palette, honestly.
00:47:51.498 --> 00:47:57.054
Start with simple modifications, like using lens converters or experimenting with fisheye lenses.
00:47:57.639 --> 00:48:03.550
After each shoot, then reflect on how these new tools and techniques can actually help you to achieve.
00:48:03.648 --> 00:48:05.047
your artistic vision.
00:48:05.427 --> 00:48:08.967
And lastly, learn from your missed moments.
00:48:09.054 --> 00:48:09.804
We're all going to have them.
00:48:09.875 --> 00:48:10.465
I've had them.
00:48:10.505 --> 00:48:11.925
I've missed first kisses before.
00:48:12.094 --> 00:48:12.684
It's no good.
00:48:12.914 --> 00:48:20.034
But after each session, you got to review your work critically to understand what it is that you missed and why you missed it.
00:48:20.414 --> 00:48:26.034
Then before your next shoot, you're practice and honestly mentally prepare for being in a similar situation.
00:48:26.313 --> 00:48:31.398
That alone is going to really improve your ability to capture those key moments and not miss them.
00:48:31.807 --> 00:48:32.418
So there you go.
00:48:32.938 --> 00:48:33.837
That is it for today.
00:48:33.858 --> 00:48:39.237
Until next week, remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow.
00:48:39.898 --> 00:48:40.378
Talk soon.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.919
that's what's required as photographers.
00:00:01.957 --> 00:00:07.277
You've got to be able to tell the future or at least predict that something's important is going to happen in the future.
00:00:07.277 --> 00:00:12.897
In my career, the most important thing was seeing moments that I had missed.
00:00:13.037 --> 00:00:17.036
It wasn't capturing the moments, although that was the end goal.
00:00:17.493 --> 00:00:24.384
Because when I started as a photographer, I just would walk out of a assignment going I didn't really see anything in there.
00:00:24.637 --> 00:00:32.216
Then after I'd missed them over and over and over and over again, then I started to say, okay, now at least I saw them in retrospect.
00:00:32.576 --> 00:00:35.271
And then I started to anticipate
00:00:37.271 --> 00:00:40.106
Hey, welcome to the beginner photography podcast.
00:00:40.136 --> 00:00:50.418
I'm your host Raymond Hatfield and each week I interview one of the world's most interesting photographers to learn what does it really take to capture beautiful images so that you can start to do the same?
00:00:50.969 --> 00:01:01.808
In today's Rewind episode, we are chatting with Craig Strong about the creative impact of storytelling in photography, as well as the journey from photojournalism to weddings to innovating with Lensbaby.
00:01:02.406 --> 00:01:06.316
But first, the Beginner Photography Podcast is brought to you by Cloudspot.
00:01:06.667 --> 00:01:12.465
Impress your clients with a beautiful gallery that is easy to view, share, and of course download on any device.
00:01:12.679 --> 00:01:16.808
You can control your image size, add a watermark, and of course, set download limits.
00:01:17.039 --> 00:01:20.108
So you can grab your free forever account over at deliverphotos.
00:01:20.138 --> 00:01:23.388
com and only upgrade when you are ready.
00:01:24.135 --> 00:01:26.536
Craig Strong is the founder of Lensbaby.
00:01:26.665 --> 00:01:31.835
Lensbaby makes these camera lenses that are designed for, creative visual effects.
00:01:31.835 --> 00:01:32.536
They're super fun.
00:01:32.835 --> 00:01:38.923
So today Craig talks about the challenges that many photographers face when trying to tell a story through their lens.
00:01:39.242 --> 00:01:51.813
He shares a ton of his experience from his transition from more traditional photojournalism to creating, these unique photographic tools that pushed his creative boundaries and then making them available for you as well.
00:01:52.143 --> 00:02:01.962
He talks about mastering the art of timing, embracing experimentation, and how to move beyond the fear to discover creative freedom in your own photography.
00:02:02.302 --> 00:02:02.763
Tons here.
00:02:02.772 --> 00:02:06.143
So with that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with Craig Strong.
00:02:07.284 --> 00:02:10.750
Craig, I know that, when I think of Lensbaby, I think kind of off the wall.
00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:12.319
I think unique.
00:02:12.590 --> 00:02:13.810
I think innovative.
00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:16.419
I also think maybe a little experimental.
00:02:16.710 --> 00:02:20.270
Are those the same words that you would use to describe your earliest days in photography?
00:02:20.796 --> 00:02:22.056
That's a great question, Raymond.
00:02:22.157 --> 00:02:29.813
I would say that my early days in photography were all about the learning of the technical.
00:02:29.873 --> 00:02:36.348
It wasn't artistic, it was just purely I was fascinated with what this gear could do.
00:02:36.429 --> 00:02:42.649
A friend of mine in seventh grade, Holly, Holly love had a project.
00:02:42.748 --> 00:02:47.169
Her project was on SLR cameras and I was just fascinated by how things worked.
00:02:47.199 --> 00:03:03.329
My dad was a mechanical engineer and the fact that we have this mirror that apparently is instantly getting out of the way of the film and then different kinds of shutters that move out of the way of the, you know, to change the shutter speed or doing things at different speeds.
00:03:03.389 --> 00:03:05.128
That was just super fascinating.
00:03:05.389 --> 00:03:09.688
Another friend of mine brought a little view, like a type camera.
00:03:09.688 --> 00:03:16.049
I think it was an AGFA, little range finder camera, and it had the split image that went through.
00:03:16.049 --> 00:03:17.739
And I was super fascinated with that.
00:03:17.778 --> 00:03:24.074
And so for me, it was really on the end of the gear and experimental?
00:03:24.114 --> 00:03:25.783
Absolutely not.
00:03:25.834 --> 00:03:32.024
I was just like, from the get go saying, Hey, I want to know how this works.
00:03:32.223 --> 00:03:39.556
And then it wasn't until I learned the way the gear worked that I started saying, well, I kind of want to be a photographer now, cause this is so neat.
00:03:39.947 --> 00:03:41.836
My dad was a mechanical engineer.
00:03:42.157 --> 00:03:49.191
And so I think that kind of, DNA for me was where the photography bug started.
00:03:49.241 --> 00:04:03.091
And, I think of all these, you know, 60 some year old men who are buying gear and they've never really become photographers and they're super proud of all these amazing pieces of gear they have.
00:04:03.121 --> 00:04:09.131
But for me, I got over that real early and, you know, but that was the initial thing that invited me in.
00:04:09.161 --> 00:04:09.320
Yeah.
00:04:09.320 --> 00:04:10.281
It wasn't years later.
00:04:10.281 --> 00:04:14.621
It wasn't until years later that I would say there was experimental would be a descriptor.
00:04:15.346 --> 00:04:17.946
So, the technical side is what drew you in.
00:04:17.975 --> 00:04:31.230
How long was it that you studied those cameras and got used to those before the idea of photography, as maybe a profession or the art of image making, became as important to you?
00:04:31.629 --> 00:04:36.189
Yeah, I would say that that happened pretty much the moment I stepped into a dark room.
00:04:36.529 --> 00:04:46.879
And that wasn't until college, my freshman year in college, I was going to school in Los Angeles and I went out for the track team and it was so hot.
00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:55.536
And like it was, I remember there was a day, I think it was 105 degrees and we had to run sprints around the track and six minute miles.
00:04:55.536 --> 00:04:55.689
I don't know.
00:04:55.689 --> 00:04:56.115
I don't know where it is.
00:04:56.526 --> 00:04:58.355
two, six minute miles.
00:04:58.805 --> 00:05:02.875
And I saw my dorm and I just kept running straight.
00:05:02.956 --> 00:05:04.175
I was just like, I'm done.
00:05:04.415 --> 00:05:06.045
And I never went back to track again.
00:05:06.045 --> 00:05:08.865
I'm like, okay, well, well, what do I do now?
00:05:09.065 --> 00:05:11.375
I don't want to just be here for academics.
00:05:11.375 --> 00:05:12.245
Let's figure this out.
00:05:12.245 --> 00:05:13.396
I love photography.
00:05:13.425 --> 00:05:18.353
I went to the student union building and there was a need for a photographer or staff photographer.
00:05:18.362 --> 00:05:21.543
And, uh, I had never stepped foot in a dark room.
00:05:21.992 --> 00:05:26.565
And once I did, I was like, Oh, this is magic.
00:05:26.605 --> 00:05:44.096
And that magic of watching the images come up into the, developer and all of this, it was just like, it was something so amazing for me that again, like we're back on the technical side, but at this point I was a good photographer.
00:05:44.115 --> 00:05:44.406
Right.
00:05:44.930 --> 00:05:53.461
They gave me a roll of 10, a bulk loaded roll of 10 frames of triacs to go shoot as my interview.
00:05:53.781 --> 00:05:56.076
And I went, I spent like, every minute.
00:05:56.076 --> 00:05:59.915
They said, have it to us by, I don't know, eight o'clock tonight or five o'clock tonight.
00:06:00.315 --> 00:06:05.490
And, I spent every minute going and framing and doing all these images.
00:06:05.790 --> 00:06:11.065
And, I think that might've been the best 10 images I shot during college, at least certainly my freshman year.
00:06:11.346 --> 00:06:20.300
And so I was an accomplished photographer at this point, but it really hadn't become part of like, a real sense of compelling identity.
00:06:20.300 --> 00:06:23.110
This is what I have to do until that moment.
00:06:23.170 --> 00:06:27.975
And then there was just no choice once I'd seen what was possible in the dark room.
00:06:28.153 --> 00:06:29.403
But this was my path.
00:06:29.737 --> 00:06:32.127
Why do you think those 10 frames were your best?
00:06:33.509 --> 00:06:44.867
I think they were my best because I spent time really deciding what is it that I see here and went seeking things that were important to me.
00:06:45.156 --> 00:06:46.817
And, I was brand new on campus.
00:06:46.817 --> 00:06:47.966
I didn't know this place.
00:06:47.966 --> 00:06:49.317
I didn't know the people that much.
00:06:49.317 --> 00:06:53.197
There was a friend of mine from high school who'd gone down to LA, the year before.
00:06:53.197 --> 00:07:03.553
So I sought out her, that was the one people shot, like posed portrait that I did of her and her roommates and, there was this incredibly ugly fountain.
00:07:03.673 --> 00:07:07.704
It literally looked like, and people would refer to it as elephant poop.
00:07:07.824 --> 00:07:12.363
And, um, and, uh, there's a huge story behind it too.
00:07:12.384 --> 00:07:17.423
Super controversial because the art department was never, consulted in the construction of this.
00:07:17.423 --> 00:07:21.603
They just handed over to the physical plant and said, here's a bunch of lava stones, make a fountain.
00:07:22.343 --> 00:07:27.324
And, uh, and so but apparently I made the best photo of that fountain that had ever been made.
00:07:27.324 --> 00:07:28.934
I didn't know that it was supposed to be ugly.
00:07:29.223 --> 00:07:34.896
So I think both having that new perspective and saying, okay, what is it, what is it that I see?
00:07:34.916 --> 00:07:38.713
And really pondering, something that is part of my vision.
00:07:38.723 --> 00:07:45.524
And that may be one of the first times that I was super purposeful rather than just going out and seeing, what do I find?
00:07:45.524 --> 00:07:46.524
What do I see?
00:07:46.574 --> 00:07:47.684
What's going on here?
00:07:47.857 --> 00:07:48.137
Yeah.
00:07:49.466 --> 00:07:56.182
So before we get into, your college career as working for that, was it the paper or the Yeah, it
00:07:56.182 --> 00:07:58.382
was for, student publications.
00:07:58.391 --> 00:07:59.851
So the newspaper and the yearbook.
00:08:00.442 --> 00:08:00.862
Gotcha.
00:08:00.872 --> 00:08:15.435
So before we get into that, I want to know a little bit more about the learning process for you in photography, because I think it's probably easier than ever to learn photography today just because you do get that instant feedback, but I'm always interested in those earliest days for all photographers.
00:08:15.675 --> 00:08:23.442
So when it came time for you to actually learn photography, what was the hardest part for you to grasp for you to understand from a technical standpoint?
00:08:57.081 --> 00:09:06.151
Well, I'm going to go back to the gear because that initial fascination, was followed by gear that failed me or that I just didn't know how to use.
00:09:06.182 --> 00:09:12.320
And so my vision was never that great, but I could squint and get 20, 20, without my glasses.
00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:15.831
And so, I never knew I needed glasses.
00:09:15.831 --> 00:09:26.400
And shooting through, I think I had a, you know, early seventies, late sixties, Mamiya TL or 500 TL, SLR with a 50 millimeter 1.
00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:28.360
7 lens on it or maybe it was a 2.
00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:35.320
0 lens, but I would rely on the little diamond pattern thing and the split image.
00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:39.721
And sometimes like my eyes just didn't pick up what was going on fast enough.
00:09:39.721 --> 00:09:41.221
So they were way out of focus.
00:09:41.270 --> 00:09:44.081
That was a problem because everything obviously was manual focus.
00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:58.747
And then I was so fascinated with the gear and thought it was so neat that I went after that camera died in a rainstorm because it was at the bottom of my tent and all the water just ended up in my bag with my camera.
00:09:59.025 --> 00:10:10.355
I went and got a, an old Nikon F with what is purported to be to this day the worst zoom lens ever made 43 to 86 millimeter.
00:10:10.635 --> 00:10:12.855
I think it was a three five to five six.
00:10:13.235 --> 00:10:15.265
you just couldn't focus that period.
00:10:15.545 --> 00:10:19.245
And it had a shutter that was slow or a mirror that was slow getting up.
00:10:19.505 --> 00:10:26.346
So I could only photograph at shutter speeds of, I think a 10th of a second and longer.
00:10:26.706 --> 00:10:36.565
Um, so, which I got around, I actually started making some really cool images with it because I found myself on a trip right.
00:10:36.675 --> 00:10:43.685
After I discovered that, oh, wow, I've got this diagonal vignette going through one corner of my image.
00:10:44.035 --> 00:10:48.956
And so, but it only happens on stuff or it didn't happen on this one long exposure.
00:10:48.956 --> 00:10:50.903
So maybe I can, take long exposure.
00:10:50.903 --> 00:11:07.120
So I ended up on this trip to Canada with a bunch of friends and I remember being on a ferry and taking this long exposure of a friend pretending he's hanging on to a post, pretending like he's being blown by the wind and I'm shooting a half second exposure and it turned out great.
00:11:07.380 --> 00:11:16.894
And so for me, like, it was kind of a circuitous route to go, Hey, I can, I don't have to do this, with a 60th of a second or faster.
00:11:16.894 --> 00:11:19.844
I can do different things and they come out kind of cool.
00:11:20.740 --> 00:11:22.990
Wow, that's funny to think about.
00:11:23.990 --> 00:11:25.179
This is going to sound ridiculous.
00:11:25.219 --> 00:11:33.352
I had a friend who, um, growing up who had a broken arm and, he would pitch in baseball and he had to learn how to pitch.
00:11:33.596 --> 00:11:35.206
it didn't heal back correctly.
00:11:35.206 --> 00:11:36.165
Like it wasn't straight.
00:11:36.175 --> 00:11:46.545
So he kind of had a bend to his arm and he had to learn with essentially broken equipment and the way that he works like I think still to this day is now entirely different than anybody else.
00:11:46.555 --> 00:11:56.692
So do you think that you working with a broken camera there essentially in the beginning, still changes how you shoot or affects how you shoot today?
00:11:57.822 --> 00:12:04.579
I think it opened my mind up to the fact that there's solutions to problems that you didn't expect.
00:12:04.659 --> 00:12:15.319
And so when I experience a problem in the field, I'm immediately thinking, or about Lensbaby products or whatever, I'm immediately thinking, what's the fastest way to fix this?
00:12:15.319 --> 00:12:25.092
Because as a photojournalist, I worked as a full time photojournalist from the time I, well, left college for sure, but clear through college, I worked as a photojournalist.
00:12:25.432 --> 00:12:29.202
And then for 10 years after, continued that full time.
00:12:29.552 --> 00:12:36.750
And if I'm in a situation where my gear breaks, I still have to come back to the newspaper with a shot.
00:12:37.115 --> 00:12:38.775
There's just no other option.
00:12:39.005 --> 00:12:43.525
And I can only think of one situation where I wasn't able to do that.
00:12:43.555 --> 00:12:53.072
And that was the film, the back of my camera, the little latch broke on, an F 100 Nikon body, and I didn't have a backup body.
00:12:53.092 --> 00:12:56.772
And so I've never gone to a shoot since without a backup body.
00:12:57.102 --> 00:13:06.783
And so I do think it, made me more of a problem solver to say, oh, there's another way to do this that may not be obvious now that the regular way is taken away.
00:13:07.367 --> 00:13:07.977
Of course.
00:13:08.077 --> 00:13:14.197
Yeah, I think that it's a very important skill set to have, especially in a fast paced environment, such as photojournalism.
00:13:14.617 --> 00:13:18.687
So, you went out, you did your interview, so to say, of the, your 10 frames.
00:13:18.687 --> 00:13:23.300
You come back, you show the images, you get the job, obviously.
00:13:23.737 --> 00:13:24.867
What do you have to learn at this point?
00:13:24.867 --> 00:13:32.677
Because now you are being thrown into a world of being able to, having to tell stories with a camera rather than just taking snapshots.
00:13:32.677 --> 00:13:33.017
Is that right?
00:13:33.017 --> 00:13:33.232
I think so.
00:13:33.482 --> 00:13:33.732
Right.
00:13:33.903 --> 00:13:36.052
And it's a pretty forgiving environment.
00:13:36.052 --> 00:13:40.312
I think a student newspaper, you're not expected to, uh, you're not going to get fired.
00:13:40.372 --> 00:13:49.222
I think I was making less than 6 every two weeks like that was, you know, there wasn't much of a budget and I was on the bottom of the totem pole.
00:13:49.522 --> 00:14:01.949
And so for me, what I needed to learn was to be proactive in getting names from people that I photographed and yeah, I'm new on campus.
00:14:01.949 --> 00:14:15.159
I don't know these people and most of them are upper class people and they know the place and are intimidating and I was fairly introverted and not super secure about myself as a person or as a photographer.
00:14:15.289 --> 00:14:24.409
So I think getting over those hurdles of doing people photography and then needing to get the names for the captions, that was a huge one for me.
00:14:24.829 --> 00:14:32.349
I know that street photographers have to get over that they just have to be so incognito that nobody ever notices it.
00:14:32.730 --> 00:14:34.809
But for me, that wasn't really an option.
00:14:34.809 --> 00:14:46.072
As a photojournalist later, I had to come to grips with the fact that I'm on scenes that people don't want me there, it could be an accident could be a fire could be robbery, who knows what it is.
00:14:46.072 --> 00:14:53.403
And so I've got to deal with police, I've got to deal with a situation that may be in crisis while I'm photographing it.
00:14:53.992 --> 00:15:03.423
And those were important skills to take baby steps toward when I was in college to just go, Hey, you know, we all go to the same school.
00:15:03.423 --> 00:15:05.302
This person's not going to punch me in the face.
00:15:05.599 --> 00:15:10.490
But I still have to get over this barrier that I had of talking to a stranger.
00:15:11.134 --> 00:15:21.147
Yeah, obviously I was never in a situation of crisis, I guess, but, I think some of my first weddings, it was like that, like I was scared to, say, talk to the parents or ask them a question and now thinking back.
00:15:21.147 --> 00:15:22.877
It's like, how would I be scared?
00:15:22.877 --> 00:15:23.767
What are they going to do?
00:15:23.778 --> 00:15:25.617
You know, and like, they want better photos.
00:15:25.627 --> 00:15:36.589
So, as far as from an image perspective side right now, What became most important to you because before if you if we're just taking snapshots, friends, family, just things around the house.
00:15:36.969 --> 00:15:42.102
Now being put in a situation where like a photo has to tell, exactly what's going on.
00:15:42.392 --> 00:15:44.283
Was there a steep learning curve there for you?
00:15:44.283 --> 00:15:45.663
Or did that come pretty naturally?
00:15:47.142 --> 00:15:53.802
I would say that sports photography was probably the best teacher for me because I had played sports.
00:15:53.802 --> 00:15:56.052
I played baseball and basketball.
00:15:56.072 --> 00:15:59.202
And I was playing volleyball at the time, intramural.
00:15:59.202 --> 00:16:03.122
And so for me, there was a certain understanding that I went in with.
00:16:03.182 --> 00:16:07.403
And yet at the same time as a photographer, I'd never photographed these moments.
00:16:07.403 --> 00:16:10.112
Like I, knew after the fact that, Oh, this happened.
00:16:10.677 --> 00:16:26.227
But what was the still image that would have summed that up that somebody could look at after the fact and say, Oh, this is an accurate representation or this is the key moment in that buzzer beater shot, or, does it happen before the shot?
00:16:26.237 --> 00:16:28.927
Does it happen during the action of the shot?
00:16:28.937 --> 00:16:31.067
Does it happen when it's going into the basket?
00:16:31.087 --> 00:16:33.467
Is it the reaction of everybody afterwards?
00:16:33.567 --> 00:16:46.717
I would say sports is very similar to weddings where there are so many important moments that are happening throughout that day and throughout that game that you know there's something right behind it.
00:16:46.987 --> 00:16:49.257
If I go out and I walk around my neighborhood.
00:16:49.660 --> 00:16:50.880
I might see a beautiful scene.
00:16:50.880 --> 00:16:51.471
I might not.
00:16:51.471 --> 00:16:57.400
I might see a moment happen between a couple of dogs or owners or people walking on the sidewalk.
00:16:57.400 --> 00:16:57.990
I might not.
00:16:57.990 --> 00:17:00.250
I might, you know, it's a crap shoot.
00:17:00.350 --> 00:17:00.620
Right.
00:17:00.660 --> 00:17:13.317
I mean, you think about the emotions that go into sports, like there are moments that take on monumental weight and importance to the people that are a part of this and the people that are watching.
00:17:13.508 --> 00:17:14.877
And so these are important moments.
00:17:14.887 --> 00:17:18.607
And I think that was really good for me to hone those skills.
00:17:18.817 --> 00:17:30.360
One, to be able to say, okay, I know this, like I had some point of reference and two, to be able to go in game after game after games say, I am coming away with nothing.
00:17:30.809 --> 00:17:36.569
And even though this is something I'm familiar with, these images don't tell the story.
00:17:36.569 --> 00:17:38.759
And so that frustration was a big part of it.
00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:41.250
And eventually I started capturing those moments.
00:17:41.289 --> 00:17:48.940
Eventually I started realizing that, okay, there's something that I can anticipate here that I know is about to happen and be ready for that.
00:17:49.700 --> 00:17:58.860
So did that just come through just you being at more games or does that come from you looking at your images and reflecting and auditing your work after every assignment?
00:17:59.560 --> 00:18:09.661
Well, I think the nature of, working in newspapers, working at a school paper, working, in the student publications is that you've just got, you've got to document everything.
00:18:09.671 --> 00:18:16.471
And I do think that putting yourself in any situation, whether it's photography or work or.
00:18:16.745 --> 00:18:28.086
Like community that you want to build having those regular accountabilities to say, Oh, I've committed to this because I've got this role or this job, or, I'm meeting with this community.
00:18:28.086 --> 00:18:39.346
Cause I've, named myself as a member or whatever it is that you start that ball rolling and you make that commitment, especially to other people.
00:18:39.395 --> 00:18:42.615
if I don't shoot those games, then I don't keep my job.
00:18:43.016 --> 00:18:44.725
Then that just.
00:18:45.441 --> 00:18:49.701
continues the, the cycle to say, okay, well, I'm going to the soccer games.
00:18:49.721 --> 00:18:51.391
Now I'm going to the baseball games now.
00:18:51.441 --> 00:18:55.100
and now we've got water polo season and we've got this and we've got that and the other thing.
00:18:55.520 --> 00:19:05.556
And so all of this, those deadlines ended up, creating the need, creating the, Hey, my name's going to be under this picture.
00:19:05.945 --> 00:19:11.925
and so as I went to more and more games and I started to connect with, Hey, these moments are unfolding.
00:19:11.955 --> 00:19:14.505
I actually have seen them happen a thousand times.
00:19:14.505 --> 00:19:16.685
Now I might actually capture one.
00:19:17.076 --> 00:19:19.076
that would be the other thing that I'd say is that.
00:19:19.895 --> 00:19:25.516
In my career, the most important thing was seeing moments that I had missed.
00:19:25.655 --> 00:19:29.965
It wasn't capturing the moments, although that was the end goal.
00:19:30.955 --> 00:19:38.155
Because when I started as a photographer, I just would walk out and of a assignment going, I didn't really see anything there.
00:19:38.645 --> 00:19:46.945
Um, but then after I'd missed them over and over and over and over again, then I started to say, okay, I, now at least I saw them in retrospect.
00:19:47.296 --> 00:19:52.181
And then I started to anticipate because that's what's required as photographers.
00:19:52.230 --> 00:19:57.500
You've got to be able to tell the future or at least predict that something's important is going to happen in the future.
00:19:57.784 --> 00:19:58.055
Yeah.
00:19:58.095 --> 00:20:07.159
I can't imagine having that skill or seeing that in yourself develop, is probably something that is, I don't know what the word is here, but like it really feels good, right?
00:20:07.159 --> 00:20:09.539
It feels like you're making progress in this field here.
00:20:10.139 --> 00:20:15.404
So at what point because you didn't take this job until you already in college.
00:20:15.404 --> 00:20:17.625
And then when you graduated, you continued with photojournalism.
00:20:18.014 --> 00:20:30.734
At what point did photography for you become so important that you thought to yourself, whatever reason I came to college, I don't know what your major was before, but like, I'm going to abandon that and I'm just going to go full steam, into photography.
00:20:30.784 --> 00:20:32.154
Was it a certain assignment?
00:20:32.164 --> 00:20:33.565
Was it a certain photo that you took?
00:20:33.575 --> 00:20:34.944
What was the catalyst for you?
00:20:36.264 --> 00:20:42.569
I had worked at daily newspapers as an intern in the LA area.
00:20:42.569 --> 00:20:44.359
I'd worked at the Whittier Daily News.
00:20:44.700 --> 00:20:49.509
I guess the La Mirada paper was a weekly, but I was published there as well.
00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:56.680
I'd gotten published in the LA Times and Associated Press and I don't know where those initial images ended up.
00:20:56.680 --> 00:20:58.500
I didn't even know to ask at the time.
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:05.599
And so for me, I had gained this passion and this love for photography and I, tend to obsess about things.
00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:15.052
Like when I was on the gear kick in late junior high and high school, I would get a Shutterbug Magazine.
00:21:15.093 --> 00:21:17.452
I would get an Outdoor Photographer Magazine.
00:21:17.452 --> 00:21:21.863
I would get a Popular Photography Magazine.
00:21:22.181 --> 00:21:44.426
Seems like there was one other one and every single one I would read word for word beginning to end all the ads, all of the classifieds in the back because there'd be little ads for like stove and omni bounce and I wouldn't have any idea what most of these words meant it was for me I was just laying the puzzle out on the table to go, okay, this is all part of photography.
00:21:44.476 --> 00:21:46.567
I don't understand how it all fits together.
00:21:46.866 --> 00:21:57.796
But that obsession, then went by the time I got to college then went to how do I become a great photographer how do I walk into a scene and be confident that I'm going to see a moment.
00:21:57.846 --> 00:22:04.316
I'm going to anticipate moments, not just miss them all and walk away with something that's important to me.
00:22:04.875 --> 00:22:28.993
And having done that for four and a half years, when my job fell through, cause I had studied anthropology, I'd planned on going into overseas, nonprofit work, and it was not until 1991 when there was no money in the organization that had offered me a job and they said, you should probably look for another job.
00:22:29.124 --> 00:22:29.384
Yeah.
00:22:29.384 --> 00:22:30.953
Cause we can't hire you for six months.
00:22:30.953 --> 00:22:33.733
And I said, so I've got a job in six months.
00:22:33.733 --> 00:22:34.943
They're like, no.
00:22:36.063 --> 00:22:48.267
And at that point, but like the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders because I had planned on going in this field for pretty much my entire college career, most of it.
00:22:48.817 --> 00:22:52.376
And I went, Oh, I can be a photographer.
00:22:52.376 --> 00:23:04.510
And that was really the first time that I considered, and this is two months before graduating from college and it was the first time that I considered, Hey, this could be something that I could make a lifetime out of.
00:23:05.431 --> 00:23:05.901
Wow.
00:23:06.141 --> 00:23:10.100
So at that point, you start putting the resumes, you're like, this is where I want to work.
00:23:10.120 --> 00:23:11.340
And this is what I want to do.
00:23:11.721 --> 00:23:18.124
So you shot you were photojournalist for how many years, because I know you transitioned into weddings at one point as well later on.
00:23:18.604 --> 00:23:28.997
So I spent two and a half years in a weekly newspaper here in Portland, I had interviewed with the photographer, and there's only one photographer for four or five newspapers, five newspapers, I guess.
00:23:29.176 --> 00:23:33.517
And, so obviously he wasn't going to give me his job, but they let him go.
00:23:33.626 --> 00:23:41.594
I don't know, a month later and came across my resume in his top drawer and brought me in as a lab tech.
00:23:41.673 --> 00:23:48.263
So I'm only 20 hours a week getting 6 an hour as a lab tech.
00:23:48.364 --> 00:23:49.523
I've got college debt.
00:23:49.574 --> 00:23:50.884
I've got to pay my rent.
00:23:51.213 --> 00:24:02.719
And I negotiated a situation where I got 5 per photo, if I took photos for as assignments, because I knew that was going to happen because Vern was gone and he was shooting everything for 5.
00:24:03.019 --> 00:24:12.798
Five newspapers, and now I'm a lab tech and all the, non photographer writers, which there were about eight of, they're the photographer.
00:24:12.798 --> 00:24:17.731
So I kind of saw the writing on the wall that this is going to turn into a, full time gig for me.
00:24:17.751 --> 00:24:26.341
And so that, five dollars per photo ended up being probably taking me up to eight or 10 an hour, which was enough for me to live on, which was great.
00:24:26.561 --> 00:24:30.182
So for two and a half years, I was there at that group of weekly papers.
00:24:30.422 --> 00:24:42.431
Through kind of a humorous now a set of circumstances where they had cut my pay, taking the 5 per photo away and told me, this is an opportunity for you to go do freelance.
00:24:42.461 --> 00:24:44.230
And so, I'm in Portland.
00:24:44.230 --> 00:24:50.966
I start freelancing for the Oregonian two days a week, making more than I was making five days a week for them.
00:24:51.385 --> 00:25:00.576
And pretty soon I overlap into one of those five newspapers regions and they say, well, you can't shoot for the Oregonian in our area.
00:25:00.586 --> 00:25:02.026
I'm like, this is a small town.
00:25:02.046 --> 00:25:02.846
Are you kidding me?
00:25:03.076 --> 00:25:08.056
What kind of opportunity were you offering me when you cut my pay and, took away the stipend.
00:25:08.326 --> 00:25:20.945
After that two and a half years, because at that point I gave my notice and immediately took one of the most powerful images, like two days later after I gave notice, probably the most powerful image I've ever taken in my life.
00:25:21.235 --> 00:25:25.836
And, on a shoot that I never would have taken had I not just given notice.
00:25:25.935 --> 00:25:43.576
So that, that led to working freelance for newspapers Tanya Harding within a couple months did her thing at the Olympics, or, the prep up to the Olympics and all of a sudden Portland was just inundated with photojournalists and all these agencies were needing.
00:25:44.311 --> 00:25:46.091
journalist to follow her around.
00:25:46.101 --> 00:25:50.811
So I staked out Tanya Harding for a couple of months, and which was just abhorrent.
00:25:50.821 --> 00:25:51.481
It was horrible.
00:25:51.769 --> 00:25:55.379
She lived a couple of, like three miles, two miles from my apartment.
00:25:55.389 --> 00:25:59.119
She lived in, nearly as dilapidated apartment as I did.
00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:05.619
So I would go sit out there and shoot the breeze with all these photographers from all over the U S.
00:26:05.619 --> 00:26:20.072
And so I got connected with all of these agencies that, over the course of the next couple of years, those photos that I took of Tanya, really paved the way for me to be able to pay my bills while I went full time freelance.
00:26:20.082 --> 00:26:21.712
I also had to take a night job.
00:26:21.712 --> 00:26:37.522
I was working at a grocery store that I'd worked at in high school, from 11 at night until 7 in the morning, stocking shelves and then doing freelance work during the day for magazines and my, and the agencies that I'd gotten connected with through Tanya.
00:26:37.623 --> 00:26:51.829
So that was how it all started, but, I am super grateful for my editors and other photographers at the Oregonian, because they ended up funneling a ton of work my way for Sports Illustrated, for all these agencies, for New York Times.
00:26:52.170 --> 00:26:57.490
And without their mentorship and without their help, I would not have been able to have a career.
00:26:58.379 --> 00:26:59.339
That's fascinating.
00:26:59.399 --> 00:27:03.633
So then at what point, because it sounds like things are starting to pick up for you, starting to go pretty good.
00:27:04.002 --> 00:27:06.778
At what point do you transition into weddings?
00:27:07.427 --> 00:27:11.387
So I was talked into my first wedding in We
00:27:11.387 --> 00:27:11.758
all are.
00:27:11.768 --> 00:27:12.298
We all were.
00:27:12.637 --> 00:27:19.397
Yeah, in, I think, the end of 93, because I'd gone freelance October of 93.
00:27:19.800 --> 00:27:28.661
Leslie, who had been a writer at the newspaper and had gone freelance just a couple months before I left, she called me and asked me to shoot her wedding.
00:27:28.661 --> 00:27:30.560
And I said, yeah, I don't shoot weddings.
00:27:30.630 --> 00:27:34.570
I shot a wedding for a professor in college and it was just an absolute nightmare.
00:27:35.030 --> 00:27:38.750
Um, and, you know, she was pleased, but it's just too much pressure.
00:27:38.750 --> 00:27:47.728
And, I'm sure that was one of my, most nightmarish prep times because the first dozen weddings that I shot, I did not sleep through the night.
00:27:48.077 --> 00:27:57.113
I still, when, when the occasional wedding that I've, shoot, which is generally shotgun weddings for family, I've got a very large family.
00:27:57.582 --> 00:28:13.319
Um, but, those weddings that I'm shooting now, or, it's been three or four years, I will have dreams the night before where, I forgot my pants or, you know, there's no film in the camera or, something horrible goes wrong.
00:28:13.319 --> 00:28:14.619
So they're quite stressful.
00:28:14.889 --> 00:28:18.029
But regardless, Leslie asked me to shoot her wedding.
00:28:18.029 --> 00:28:18.700
I told her no.
00:28:18.700 --> 00:28:19.700
She called me back again.
00:28:19.700 --> 00:28:20.964
She said, Please.
00:28:21.284 --> 00:28:23.565
I said, no, I don't shoot weddings.
00:28:23.605 --> 00:28:25.605
And the third time she didn't even let me talk.
00:28:25.605 --> 00:28:27.875
She just said, Craig, we're not going to tell you what film to shoot.
00:28:27.875 --> 00:28:29.704
We're not going to tell you what pictures to take.
00:28:29.944 --> 00:28:32.855
We just want you to shoot the way you shoot for the newspaper.
00:28:32.865 --> 00:28:38.384
And that was one of the most flattering things a photojournalist could hear and so how do I say no to that?
00:28:38.424 --> 00:28:40.284
And, and Leslie was a friend of mine.
00:28:40.284 --> 00:28:42.355
So I said, okay, I'll shoot your wedding.
00:28:42.664 --> 00:28:43.654
And I didn't believe her.
00:28:43.654 --> 00:28:55.914
I believed that there was going to be a mother in law that would come take me by the elbow and, tell me to do this and shoot that and don't do this and don't eat that and don't touch this and go stand in the corner but none of that happened.
00:28:55.954 --> 00:28:59.085
Apparently she had a stern talking to her,
00:28:59.085 --> 00:29:00.335
her parents and her in
00:29:00.335 --> 00:29:00.714
laws.
00:29:01.224 --> 00:29:02.548
And, so that's where it went.
00:29:02.548 --> 00:29:09.268
And that was one of the best photo essays I'd ever shot, because here I am working for a newspaper where I might have a half hour.
00:29:09.298 --> 00:29:21.512
I might be able to come back three times over the course of a month and shoot the same thing and do it a little bit better or fill in the story before, my editor says, we have to publish this.
00:29:21.512 --> 00:29:24.962
You know, it was always me holding back on, I, I'm not quite ready with this.
00:29:25.113 --> 00:29:28.802
If it was a multi-day shoot, which very rarely happened.
00:29:28.952 --> 00:29:37.292
Mm-Hmm, Um, but, that was part of the problem was they never had a beginning, a middle, and an end that could be defined except for we had to go to press with this.
00:29:37.453 --> 00:29:43.903
I would say that wedding for me was like, Oh, this is a full story and it all happened in like four hours.
00:29:43.983 --> 00:29:49.584
I can't even believe that that was a smorgasbord of candy for me as a photographer to just go.
00:29:50.388 --> 00:29:52.148
Oh my gosh, this all happens.
00:29:52.148 --> 00:29:53.479
I can tell a story.
00:29:53.509 --> 00:29:55.368
All of these moments are happening.
00:29:55.368 --> 00:29:59.908
And if I miss a moment, there's going to be a moment right behind and right behind and right behind.
00:30:00.259 --> 00:30:01.418
So I don't need to worry about that.
00:30:01.418 --> 00:30:19.296
I started showing that wedding only and no set up shots, no portraits, no anything that could be construed as this guy's going to do, even though he's only showing us mainly black and whites or storytelling images, he's still going to shoot, an hour and a half of for me.
00:30:19.549 --> 00:30:22.259
There was just nothing I'm not showing you a single portrait.
00:30:22.509 --> 00:30:39.440
I'm going to show you exactly what I want to shoot and that's, what I ended up getting and it was the best decision I made in my career because I absolutely loved the 90 percent of the weddings that I shot because I got those weddings by showing work that I loved.
00:30:40.194 --> 00:30:40.684
Wow.
00:30:41.204 --> 00:30:43.295
Oh, gosh, that is such a great story.
00:30:43.295 --> 00:30:50.994
So many times I hear from other photographers that, when they get asked to shoot a wedding or something like that, they just go straight to Pinterest and look for inspiration.
00:30:51.199 --> 00:30:59.491
But you went the opposite way, obviously, because there was no Pinterest at the time, but just relying on those skills that you have, to be able to capture it in a way that was unique to you.
00:30:59.491 --> 00:31:03.126
And the story as you saw it and to show it to other people.
00:31:03.226 --> 00:31:07.446
And then obviously you've got clients because that's what you showed because of, what you did.
00:31:07.567 --> 00:31:08.126
That's fantastic.
00:31:08.336 --> 00:31:11.715
So I'm trying to figure out here, where did lens baby come along, right?
00:31:11.715 --> 00:31:20.299
Because to this point, when I think of photojournalism, I think straight photography, purist photography, capture the whole thing, the whole story in an image.
00:31:20.670 --> 00:31:25.519
And when I think of Lensbaby as I said earlier, there's a uniqueness, there's an off the wall feel to it.
00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:26.930
It's very experimental.
00:31:26.940 --> 00:31:29.099
It's let's try something new here.
00:31:29.309 --> 00:31:31.200
So where's that turning point for you?
00:31:31.518 --> 00:31:32.777
I hit the 80 20 rule.
00:31:32.777 --> 00:31:41.657
80 20 rule means, that you put 20 percent of the effort into getting 80 percent efficient or proficient at something.
00:31:41.718 --> 00:31:52.447
And then it takes the other 80 percent to become an expert or to become absolutely unconsciously capable of not having to think about what you're doing to do it well.
00:31:52.697 --> 00:31:59.067
And so, I've heard this said on, a podcast before I want to be consciously proficient at what I'm doing.
00:31:59.288 --> 00:32:08.634
And then I want to move on and become consciously proficient at something else, which means I have to be super disciplined and I have to be, which is not something that I am naturally.
00:32:09.003 --> 00:32:14.163
So that said, I got really good at anticipating and capturing moment.
00:32:14.163 --> 00:32:23.446
And I think I got past that 80 percent toward being an expert at photojournalism, but I saw the people around me.
00:32:23.820 --> 00:32:39.476
I had a studio mate who was doing work with Diana plastic medium format camera cross processing her images, I did not have an art background I took a few photography classes in college but wasn't enough to be a minor in communications.
00:32:39.476 --> 00:32:45.663
It was just like, Hey, this is, more of the same of what I was, doing for the newspapers and that kind of thing.
00:32:45.663 --> 00:33:00.017
So, I wasn't really challenged to look out outside of what was right in front of me in terms of what was artistic until I was sharing a studio with about a dozen other photographers, huge studios, really an amazing space.
00:33:00.247 --> 00:33:03.247
We had four or five, large, enlargers.
00:33:03.277 --> 00:33:07.626
We had these 20 by 30, trays full of chemicals.
00:33:07.626 --> 00:33:09.666
So we could go in and print anything that we wanted.
00:33:09.666 --> 00:33:10.226
It was amazing.
00:33:10.497 --> 00:33:20.203
But Krista was shooting with this Diana camera cross processing, which I had no idea what that was and putting up these images that technically were garbage.
00:33:20.283 --> 00:33:25.070
There was nothing about them other than composition that, worked.
00:33:25.090 --> 00:33:26.790
I mean, and the subject matter.
00:33:26.790 --> 00:33:35.201
She was skilled at photographing, important subject matter, capturing moments, but then you get into the technical aspects.
00:33:35.211 --> 00:33:36.151
It's not in focus.
00:33:36.171 --> 00:33:38.921
The cross processing screwed up all the colors.
00:33:39.310 --> 00:33:55.743
It was technically very imperfect and yet I would stand in front of them and have this emotional visceral response to what was going on in this scene, partly because I had this conflict of how can I love this image so much?
00:33:55.753 --> 00:33:58.713
How can I be impacted by this image so much?
00:33:58.874 --> 00:34:02.104
And it is so exactly the opposite of what I was doing.
00:34:02.104 --> 00:34:05.604
And so that really planted the seed for me to say, Okay.
00:34:05.653 --> 00:34:24.077
I've got some things to learn about visual expression and how to match a subject matter because that's the other thing these, images were more powerful because of the way they were shot, than had they been shot with a straight lens and had they been shot with corner to corner sharpness.
00:34:24.108 --> 00:34:36.427
And so that was the beginning for me of exploring, okay, what's next for me if I have that opportunity to explore a more artistic approach than just a fly on the wall approach.
00:34:36.789 --> 00:34:37.369
So what was it?
00:34:37.380 --> 00:34:38.210
What was next for you?
00:34:38.250 --> 00:34:40.190
What got you to dip your toes into that?
00:34:40.614 --> 00:34:46.525
Well, it was a couple years later that I bought my first digital camera and that was in 2000.
00:34:46.644 --> 00:35:04.695
End of 2000, I got a Canon D30 and two days later I was in New York City meeting with my agency and showing my portfolio around and I only took that digital camera and I took a 28 millimeter, 1.
00:35:04.695 --> 00:35:06.206
8 Canon lens.
00:35:06.286 --> 00:35:09.715
And all of a sudden that was now a 45 millimeter lens because of the 1.
00:35:09.715 --> 00:35:11.135
6 X crop.
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:14.469
And I was like, well, I didn't count on that.
00:35:14.568 --> 00:35:16.168
I did not read that memo.
00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:21.558
And, um, I was like, okay, I've been thinking about doing something a little different.
00:35:21.849 --> 00:35:23.068
Maybe I can just.
00:35:23.219 --> 00:35:35.068
the trip, I think we pricelined it for 125 bucks a ticket or something for round trip tickets back when priceline was just starting out and things could be, you know, you can put a bid in and super, super cheap.
00:35:35.079 --> 00:35:49.342
So, off we went to New York, my wife and I, and I ended up on Times Square outside at the time there were these camera stores, there's still a few of them, that were just, massive and they had, all the normal stuff, usually way overpriced.
00:35:49.561 --> 00:35:51.802
I just went straight to the video converters.
00:35:51.811 --> 00:35:54.652
So I went and I found this 0.
00:35:54.652 --> 00:35:57.708
42x converter, put it on the front of my, 28 millimeter lens.
00:35:57.958 --> 00:36:10.655
it turned it into probably the equivalent of a 15, 16 millimeter fisheye corner to corner As far as the field of view goes, and it had bent lines and I had played with fisheye in college.
00:36:10.655 --> 00:36:12.536
So I was like, Oh, that's kind of cool.
00:36:12.826 --> 00:36:15.096
But they wanted like 400 for it.
00:36:15.146 --> 00:36:16.615
And I was like, well, I'm not paying that.
00:36:16.635 --> 00:36:21.175
So I found myself at another camera store and I walked in and they had, 200 on it.
00:36:21.175 --> 00:36:23.666
I said, I'll give you 90 bucks and I don't want to pay tax.
00:36:23.896 --> 00:36:24.576
And they're like, okay.
00:36:24.936 --> 00:36:27.025
Um, so they, they jumped at it.
00:36:27.295 --> 00:36:32.905
And then I screwed that on the front of my 28 millimeter lens and just started playing.
00:36:32.916 --> 00:36:35.635
And the aspects of that were at the 1.
00:36:36.025 --> 00:36:39.855
8 wide open, the center was sharp, had shallow depth of field.
00:36:39.885 --> 00:36:41.775
Cause of the native lenses at 1.
00:36:41.775 --> 00:36:45.695
8, but I could focus literally inside of that converter.
00:36:45.695 --> 00:36:49.516
So something touching the front of the lens I could focus on.
00:36:49.615 --> 00:36:59.206
All of a sudden I had, a brush in my hand that allowed me to paint a different palette, to paint different strokes on my canvas.
00:36:59.436 --> 00:37:00.962
And it was just fun.
00:37:00.972 --> 00:37:02.532
I didn't spend any money on the trip.
00:37:02.652 --> 00:37:05.922
we pricelined the tickets, we pricelined the hotel.
00:37:06.317 --> 00:37:07.898
We're like, Hey, we got money to spend.
00:37:07.907 --> 00:37:09.067
I've got an extra 90 bucks.
00:37:09.067 --> 00:37:09.538
Here we go.
00:37:09.538 --> 00:37:20.648
And so that was really the start for me of, Hey, here's something that has a completely different way of seeing the world and what can I see through it?
00:37:21.257 --> 00:37:21.788
Yeah.
00:37:21.936 --> 00:37:25.306
Obviously today, lens baby makes a whole assortment of lenses.
00:37:25.346 --> 00:37:30.673
So I'm assuming that this was the catalyst for you to figure out how can I do more with this?
00:37:30.704 --> 00:37:31.163
What can I do?
00:37:31.163 --> 00:37:32.003
What can I change?
00:37:32.594 --> 00:37:37.594
And I know that there's a long history of lens baby, as you said, you picked up that lens there in the year 2000.
00:37:38.043 --> 00:37:52.800
Can you give me like a, 30, 000 foot overview of how you got from that 90 lens there to where your business is at today with an assortment of lenses and people who are just creating really incredible, incredible pieces of art, really?
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:53.242
Absolutely.
00:37:53.242 --> 00:37:53.686
Yeah.
00:37:53.686 --> 00:37:54.572
So in.
00:37:54.771 --> 00:37:58.425
2002, I took a workshop from Kevin Kubota.
00:37:58.425 --> 00:38:03.576
So I'd been shooting with this lens for a year and I'd shot far, far too much.
00:38:03.896 --> 00:38:08.286
If I look back and I tend to do that, I'll get a new piece of equipment and I'll just obsess about it.
00:38:08.286 --> 00:38:12.221
And I'll, I'll shoot way, way more than I would end up.
00:38:12.380 --> 00:38:16.813
Over the long run, seeing a place for it, my photography, but I just started shooting everything.
00:38:16.813 --> 00:38:19.393
I'd go on fishing trips, fly fishing trips, and I'd take it.
00:38:19.393 --> 00:38:23.534
And I'd shoot, the scene that I've got this photo of this huge beetle.
00:38:23.534 --> 00:38:36.458
I don't know how big it was, cause it's touching the front element, climbing over these pieces of straw and, and a friend's puppy dog, real close up you've got the center in focus and it's all bent and the colors are going crazy.
00:38:36.458 --> 00:38:48.052
And a year and a half or a little more than a year later after getting that, camera, I end up in a workshop with Kevin Kubota, his very first digital bootcamp in Bend, Oregon.
00:38:48.632 --> 00:38:55.096
And I had the background of my computer, the desktop was one of these images.
00:38:55.195 --> 00:38:59.295
And then Kevin came over and asked, and I showed him a few others.
00:38:59.326 --> 00:39:05.005
And next thing I know, a couple months later, I've pretty much filled up his second workshop.
00:39:05.005 --> 00:39:08.085
Cause I told all my friends that this changed my life.
00:39:08.125 --> 00:39:13.536
And if you're considering digital or you got your first digital camera and don't know what to do with it, you gotta go to Kevin's workshop.
00:39:13.846 --> 00:39:15.425
So I filled up his second workshop.
00:39:15.695 --> 00:39:23.152
And then after the second workshop, Kevin called me and said, Hey, would you teach with me at the third workshop and be a guest speaker?
00:39:23.472 --> 00:39:26.233
and I want you to teach about all this lens stuff you're doing.
00:39:26.333 --> 00:39:29.827
And I thought, I don't even know how to get another one of these.
00:39:29.827 --> 00:39:36.407
I'd gone on eBay and I'd bought, a bunch thinking that, Oh, there's gotta be a better, wide angle converter.
00:39:36.407 --> 00:39:39.067
That's going to do something even more amazing.
00:39:39.324 --> 00:39:42.067
And, apparently I got the best one on that first trip.
00:39:42.067 --> 00:39:46.038
And still, I didn't know even how to buy that one again.
00:39:46.157 --> 00:39:48.087
So what did I have to teach?
00:39:48.378 --> 00:39:49.907
I had in my mind as.
00:39:50.378 --> 00:39:59.217
With all of my, over the years, and we haven't really covered this over the years, I would make myself things that I either didn't want to pay for, or weren't available.
00:39:59.217 --> 00:40:01.260
I made a 200 foot long.
00:40:01.655 --> 00:40:20.045
it was actually 50 feet, 25 feet, 100 feet, and, probably a couple 25 footers of these cables that I would make and splice them into the Canon off camera shoe cord distributors that would allow me to have multiple flashes on.
00:40:20.697 --> 00:40:24.322
TTL because there was no wireless TTL at the time.
00:40:24.402 --> 00:40:26.083
And so I was doing that.
00:40:26.112 --> 00:40:48.483
I was going to Goodwill and I would find these huge Tupperware tops and I would cut various shapes out of them and, I would double them over on my flash and I'd, let them go floppy on top or I'd, have, it was basically the Gary Fong type experimentation that I was doing, but I was just doing them for myself and I was able to get amazing light out of these things, but I wasn't thinking, Hey, this is a product.
00:40:48.972 --> 00:40:49.313
Um,
00:40:49.652 --> 00:41:00.353
and so for me to go from this one lens to having something to teach, I had to pull on a lot of the ideas that I had.
00:41:00.873 --> 00:41:10.815
I had had, one of them being modifying my Mamiya or no, it was Bronica lenses to work as tilt shift lenses on my SLRs.
00:41:10.815 --> 00:41:25.233
There was only about maybe not even a half inch, probably closer to a quarter of an inch distance between the back of the lens, the front of the flange on my Canon SLRs, and then thinking about making a mechanism that would work there.
00:41:25.233 --> 00:41:29.523
But I had talked with an engineer about that and he basically said, can't do it.
00:41:29.643 --> 00:41:35.472
And like, okay, well, I guess those lenses, 364 days a year, just sit in the case.
00:41:35.813 --> 00:41:39.952
and then once a year or so, I would, pull them out and use them for a particular client.
00:41:40.242 --> 00:41:41.452
And it's kind of wasted.
00:41:41.452 --> 00:41:43.853
And then I would go rent these tilt shift lenses.
00:41:44.012 --> 00:41:46.483
But all of these ideas were just sitting there.
00:41:46.483 --> 00:42:03.958
And when I got asked to teach the workshop, I looked at a speed graphic lens that was sitting Or a camera that my sister had given me for graduation from high school that I think I shot one roll through and it was full of light leaks and had all sorts of problems and I was a photojournalist.
00:42:04.007 --> 00:42:05.538
I wasn't experimenting at that point.
00:42:05.538 --> 00:42:10.567
I wasn't even willing to go get a Diana camera and shoot a roll through that because that's what Krista did.
00:42:10.567 --> 00:42:18.150
And I don't want to open that Pandora's box, but I took those ideas that I had for modifying those medium format lenses.
00:42:18.610 --> 00:42:28.201
And this lens that instead of, an eighth of an inch or a quarter of an inch, between the front of the mount and the back of the lens, we now had like two and a half inches.
00:42:28.460 --> 00:42:32.911
And I thought, well, now I just have to, block out the light to see.
00:42:32.940 --> 00:42:37.420
So there's not stray light coming in to see what the image is going to look like.
00:42:37.420 --> 00:42:41.070
Is it going to look like a tilt shift lens or a, view camera when it's tilted?
00:42:41.371 --> 00:42:52.590
And so that was the very first prototype of the lenses that I was working on or that I ended up bringing to the workshop and I just brought a big thing.
00:42:52.590 --> 00:42:53.860
I brought a Dremel tool.
00:42:53.871 --> 00:42:54.980
I brought a drill.
00:42:55.230 --> 00:43:03.771
I brought a bunch of shop vac hose because I had found that shop vac hose blocked out the light and was cutting it to length.
00:43:04.001 --> 00:43:07.481
in my, room at the resort that we were at in central Oregon.
00:43:07.902 --> 00:43:12.081
And cause I had to come up with enough for people to be able to beta test these things.
00:43:12.351 --> 00:43:14.501
And there were like 25 people at the workshop.
00:43:14.802 --> 00:43:15.751
So that's where it started.
00:43:15.802 --> 00:43:20.672
That's the 20, 000 feet of the beginning of something that was totally unique.
00:43:20.971 --> 00:43:29.891
But even then it was based on lenses that I was getting off of eBay or on Holga lenses because Holga mods was making pinholes out of Holga cameras.
00:43:29.891 --> 00:43:32.041
And so I would buy the lenses off the Holga mods guy.
00:43:32.601 --> 00:43:40.632
So yeah, It just kind of all, came together, through Kevin's invitation and honestly, there was some anxiety.
00:43:40.632 --> 00:43:42.181
Like, I don't really have anything to teach.
00:43:42.192 --> 00:43:43.661
I better come up with something brilliant.
00:43:44.291 --> 00:43:45.831
It ended up being Lensbaby.
00:43:46.478 --> 00:43:55.355
So tell me today, if you could use three words to describe what it is that you want Lensbaby to provide to photographers, what would that be?
00:43:55.454 --> 00:44:00.201
I don't know about three words, but I would say if I were to get it down to three words.
00:44:00.512 --> 00:44:02.282
I'd say it's a reason to grow.
00:44:03.202 --> 00:44:03.273
A
00:44:03.273 --> 00:44:03.692
reason to
00:44:03.692 --> 00:44:04.393
grow.
00:44:04.550 --> 00:44:14.559
Because anytime we pick up something new that is fascinating to us, I think there's anxiety around that because we're not good at it yet.
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:20.009
We're just now exposed to something that's like, oh, this is different.
00:44:20.259 --> 00:44:23.367
You know, Lensbaby's different than what my friends are doing.
00:44:23.367 --> 00:44:28.567
This is not, largely accepted, people may look at this and be critical.
00:44:29.067 --> 00:44:39.947
but if I want to get from that initial point of, I don't know this, this is a new way of doing things to the point where I'm like, Hey, I'm kind of proud of that image I made.
00:44:40.206 --> 00:44:43.407
There's a learning curve in there and there's growth involved in that.
00:44:44.146 --> 00:44:51.657
And Lensbaby's mission statement is we empower artists to move through fear, to discover extraordinary freedom.
00:44:52.072 --> 00:45:03.090
And that fear I think is present, has been present for me, and anything that is worth doing, that I didn't know how to do.
00:45:03.469 --> 00:45:08.900
And so that anxiety of looking at Krista's images and going, I can't do that.
00:45:08.940 --> 00:45:10.159
I want to do that.
00:45:10.489 --> 00:45:14.831
But, there's this hurdle of it involves a lot of learning.
00:45:14.961 --> 00:45:19.172
It involves a you know, feeling stupid.
00:45:19.391 --> 00:45:25.512
And so I held off until I had a digital camera before I really started embarking on that process.
00:45:25.541 --> 00:45:33.295
But, I think blends baby giving people a reason to grow and learn is how I would distill what our purpose is.
00:45:33.791 --> 00:45:43.632
I love that idea of pushing through the fear to, kind of get to this point to where you're able to create something that, not only you're happy with, but also fulfills you.
00:45:43.632 --> 00:45:46.947
I think creatively is a very cool idea.
00:45:47.447 --> 00:45:50.722
Well, Craig, I gotta say, man, thank you so much for coming on today.
00:45:51.003 --> 00:45:52.942
I've taken up far too much of your time here.
00:45:52.942 --> 00:45:55.202
I know that we are well at the end of this.
00:45:55.552 --> 00:46:00.913
But before I let you go, I gotta ask, I know that people are wondering right now, where can we find out more about Lensbaby?
00:46:00.922 --> 00:46:02.632
Where can we find out more about Craig?
00:46:02.913 --> 00:46:05.735
So where's the best place for listeners to do that?
00:46:06.195 --> 00:46:13.199
So you can go to our online community on Instagram and go to at LensbabyUSA.
00:46:13.389 --> 00:46:20.855
And there's some really great communities on Facebook that you can, learn and plug into.
00:46:21.125 --> 00:46:24.905
One of them is Lensbaby Unplugged and I'm there, most days.
00:46:25.115 --> 00:46:29.326
Well, there's a whole bunch of others that are not, things that lens baby manages.
00:46:29.556 --> 00:46:31.766
Although I'm a part of some of those communities as well.
00:46:32.115 --> 00:46:48.396
So that's probably the best place because I sense that you've got a following that really, would resonate with plugging into a community and plugging into a place where it's not just a company saying, Hey, this is what we do and come by this thing.
00:46:48.655 --> 00:46:57.452
It's like, no, this is about people coming alongside each other and being excited for the learning process that, can be, more rewarding in community.
00:46:57.512 --> 00:46:58.583
So that's the biggest thing.
00:46:58.583 --> 00:47:03.733
for me, my presence really these days is, primarily through Lensbaby.
00:47:03.762 --> 00:47:05.373
So those are the places you can find me.
00:47:06.202 --> 00:47:08.942
Alright, let's recap what we learned today.
00:47:09.302 --> 00:47:12.603
First, you gotta embrace unstaged storytelling.
00:47:12.842 --> 00:47:18.262
Learn to capture the flow of the moment in whatever you're shooting without relying on stage shots.
00:47:18.552 --> 00:47:25.172
So focus on the candid and genuine interactions between your subjects to tell a more compelling and authentic story.
00:47:25.393 --> 00:47:34.882
So practice just walking around events and observing emotions and connections before taking photos so that you can start to build in your brain what the story is.
00:47:35.077 --> 00:47:37.288
So that then you can capture it with your camera.
00:47:37.858 --> 00:47:39.907
Next is to experiment with your gear.
00:47:40.188 --> 00:47:51.458
Pushing through that fear of, keeping all your gear in perfect condition and trying new ways to use your equipment can really open up a whole new, visual palette, honestly.
00:47:51.498 --> 00:47:57.054
Start with simple modifications, like using lens converters or experimenting with fisheye lenses.
00:47:57.639 --> 00:48:03.550
After each shoot, then reflect on how these new tools and techniques can actually help you to achieve.
00:48:03.648 --> 00:48:05.047
your artistic vision.
00:48:05.427 --> 00:48:08.967
And lastly, learn from your missed moments.
00:48:09.054 --> 00:48:09.804
We're all going to have them.
00:48:09.875 --> 00:48:10.465
I've had them.
00:48:10.505 --> 00:48:11.925
I've missed first kisses before.
00:48:12.094 --> 00:48:12.684
It's no good.
00:48:12.914 --> 00:48:20.034
But after each session, you got to review your work critically to understand what it is that you missed and why you missed it.
00:48:20.414 --> 00:48:26.034
Then before your next shoot, you're practice and honestly mentally prepare for being in a similar situation.
00:48:26.313 --> 00:48:31.398
That alone is going to really improve your ability to capture those key moments and not miss them.
00:48:31.807 --> 00:48:32.418
So there you go.
00:48:32.938 --> 00:48:33.837
That is it for today.
00:48:33.858 --> 00:48:39.237
Until next week, remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow.
00:48:39.898 --> 00:48:40.378
Talk soon.
