If there's been a theme to Sue Bryce's career, it might be one of evolution. She started making portraits when she was 18 with a Hasselblad film camera, and with grit and sheer determination she built and marketed her own business. Classifying her work as contemporary fashion portrait photography, she's evolved through decades in a shifting industry, and in addition to running her highly successful studio now offers online workshops for newcomers. We sat down with her recently to learn more about her work, vision and history with photography.
That's one hell of a lady. She has done an unbelievable amount of work to get where and what she is. I could not bellieve my eyes when she did the metamorphosis...
What he heck have they done to DPReview? Using my iPad 2 every time I click on a link on this page Safari quits and I'm dumped back to the desktop. Worked fine just a few days ago...
I live in NY and know quite a few high end photographers ..I feel realy bad for people who spend their money on these workshop tutorials when the best way to get in the high end portrait business is to work for an established photographer. Their is so much more to photography business than just posing and creating photos, which is only 20% of an established studios work ....This business takes true grit to make it . I've seen many extremely talented photographers work day in and out and barely get bye. . Only the ones that truly love it and have a strong work ethic and business mind get past the hurdles ... I have seen countless tutorials for free on CreativeLive which I love and learned alot but I often ask myself if this photographer is so successfull in their trade why are they spending their time teaching and asking us for money..
I know what you are saying here; but how else would they teach if they didn't charge for it? Some photographers are good at both photography business and teaching; you wouldn't expect someone good in business to not charge, right? And the more attendees you draw and the more classes you hold, you would expect more money right? To keep you from doing your photography business? Teaching, certifications, etc. is good money....but does that mean they don't know the photography business well enough to make money?
The issue isn't about photographers charging for workshops. The issue is that most of these photographers that provide workshops are not that great to begin with, HENCE they have to provide workshops in order to make money. Most of the good photographers don't need to rely on workshops in order to make a living. I agree with what the OP said, if you're a beginner, you are best off trying to find an internship for an established photographer rather than pay money for workshops for photographers who aren't even the best in their field.
I think teaching and giving classes is not for straightforward profit, but more a marketing strategy, to increase visibility, strengthen trademark, etc. so subsequently you can charge more...
I think us baby boomers are fueling the workshops with our now retired hard earned money- fulfilling a dream we had long ago to make it in photography. We took the easy way and made money in the corporate world. We now pay for these workshops and subsidize the income of the working photographers that have no other way to make an income.
The notion that there are "purchasable" shortcuts to becoming a skilled photographer while certainly appealing is of course absurd. And attempting to copy a successful photographer's style via taking a workshop with her/him while a great way to spend money while helping support someone who perhaps has real talent probably won't result in much more than diluting your own style. Dedication, the willingness to master basic skills (like spelling?) and thousands of hours of producing images are the real route to success. Cheaper too!
If you think she is selling photography, you completely misunderstand her. She is selling fantasy. Photography is just tool to record the fantasy. That's why she can charge more money.
Having checked out her web-site, you can clearly see that this lady has real talent. But I have to say some of the portraits, for the want of a better description, look awkward. Maybe this was intentional?
Well, a lot of fashion photographers these days just seem to want to make the models look as freaky as possible! Sue's look nice enough, maybe a bit 'by the numbers' but honest and clearly the work of a pro. I dunno. It's not my kind of photography to be honest.
A real enjoyable interview, thanks DPR. I found it interesting when Sue said that her first digital camera, the Canon 10D, didn't have RAW. Of course it has RAW but maybe she just didn't understand the camera completely at that time.
The interview was well done, and Sue was very candid about her experience both as a photographer, but how she transformed herself into a successful business person. She learned the basics of marketing and creating the perception of value for her clients. She also shared the basics of what she did to create the types of photographs that her clients valued.
I'm not a professional photographer, but I've been running a small but successful electronics company the last 23 years. From this experience, I know exactly where she's coming from. It's tough work dealing with customers and handling the financial side. But in the end, if you don't get paid you don't eat. It's as simple as that...
On a technical point of view, I feel she's framed too close in portrait, I think we should see her shoulders. Also it's unconventional to have her face in the left part of the frame while she's speaking to someone on the left of the frame. There's a cable visible in the top right corner of the dual view. The shadows behind the interviewer are somewhat distracting too. It's great to have interviews like this one, and the way they are shot could easily match the quality of their content.
Always informative, the DPR videos contribute well to the tools of us working pros. Why then, are they so poorly executed? I'd be happy to come to Seattle from Portland and produce the kind of production worthy of DPReview. C'mon guys. I know you know how to do this. Sorry to grouse! But C'mon!
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