The famous Japanese Maple in Portland's International Japanese Gardens.

As I have mentioned to some of you, I have decided to organize a small, benefit auction in support of disaster relief for Japan. I don’t like being in a position where I know I could do something if I was motivated enough, and don’t, so I figured I would see just what I could do, and started organizing an auction.

I think as a population, we are not limited by our abilities or inabilities but rather by our motivation and desire to see something done. It is pretty amazing what a small group of motivated individuals can do once they set their collective minds to a task. And that is one reason I wanted to do this. The photographers of Portland are all a capable lot, capable of quite a bit, and I wanted to tap into that a bit and turn our talents with cameras into a result greater than the occasional images we make.

So quickly, here is the time and location:

Fresh Pot
724 SW Washington
Portland, Oregon

One night only
First Thursday
May 5th, 6-9 pm

So, what I need in terms of help, because I can do this on my own, but the result and the effects will be much greater the more help I can get. At this point, I need donations of artwork.

In terms of the art, I am looking for smallish pieces, say 8×10. Larger or smaller pieces than that are certainly welcome though. The work can be bare prints, it can be matted, it can even be framed. I want to stress though that these pieces are going to sell inexpensively. Do not donate something valuable with the expectation of it meeting that price.

Ideally, I want to put up a number of pieces with very low, buy-it-now prices of around $25-50. Other pieces, particularly framed ones, can go through a silent auction process, but I want firm prices on many of the pieces so as to be able to tap into the walk-through crowd that would not hang around until a bid was finished. I will also tell you, based on a heck of a lot of experience, that in order to sell work in Portland, it needs to be inexpensive. Portlanders, especially after the recession, do not spend a lot of money on art. Hence why I want to put low price tags on the work, and I want anyone donating to be aware of that upfront. I have not settled on a price structure just yet, but I will be in touch with everyone who donates when I do. The cutoff for donating pieces is the last Thursday in April, so one week before the opening. Of course I will still take donations after that, but if they can be in before that, it will make my job of organizing all this easier.

Donations can be dropped off at Blue Moon Camera in St. Johns where I work. Please include your name, phone number or e-mail with your pieces. Alternately you can e-mail me to make other arrangements for getting your work to me. If you are out of town, state or country, you are still more than invited to donate work, just mail it to Blue Moon Camera. If you need that address, e-mail me at zeb@zebandrews.com.

An alternate idea for getting prints to me for those of you far away, is through Quick Stop Photo, which is Blue Moon’s outlab for digital printing. You can upload, order and pay for prints through their website which is www.picturepreview.com. I think an 8×10 costs all of $1.99. Then in the final instructions for your order, just instruct them to send the finished print to Blue Moon and to my attention. Make sure you leave your name in the order comments as well, and contact info too please.

The second group of people I need help from are those willing to show up the night of, bring friends, hang out, and buy work. I don’t expect to have a problem with people willing to donate, I don’t even expect to have a problem with getting people to show up, but folks, this will not be an art show, but an art sale, so it is important to get people willing to contribute small amounts and get to go home with a print under their arm.

100% of the bids will go to charity, at this point, it appears Mercy Corp. I plan on having a laptop right there so that winning bidders can make their donation on the spot and no paper money has to trade hands or even be involved. Alternately, and I still need to confirm this, people could make donations before coming to the show, and bring a printout of the receipt for their donation and use that as a voucher for bidding. I will accept that too. The important thing is to just make sure the money gets to Mercy Corp some way or another.

Alright, there are still other details to iron out, but this gives you all enough concrete information to start making your own arrangements. I don’t need to tell you this is for a good cause, you already know that. Nor do I need to remind you what a disaster Japan is at the moment, our media barrage, as clumsy as it is, has made that point too. What I will remind you of is that we are all capable of making a difference here, it may be small, but it will matter. And the more motivated we become, the more intent on our purpose, the greater the effect we will have. So don’t write yourself off as being insignificant, don’t use that as an excuse to do nothing at all. I know you all have prints just laying around out there, and you all have abilities with a camera, lets translate that into something, that on a certain scale will be a big thing.

Thank you.

Or something like that.

This coming from the guy who over the past two winters has taught a “Winter landscape” class through Newspace expressly geared toward getting the rainiest, worst weather possible.  The first year I did that, my good luck almost was my undoing and the class was graced with a rare gorge snow, making things unarguably beautiful.

I did much better this past winter at Cape Kiwanda getting some of the wettest and most blustery conditions I have ever experienced out there while trying to take pictures.  We got shellacked by the weather.

And you know what?  Out of all the classes I have taught, that one probably produced the best pictures.

I like tell people several things when it comes to weather.  The first is that good and bad really have no relation to the weather.  Weather is like light, it is just is.  There is no good or bad weather, it is all in your approach to it, how much you are chained down by your own perceptions and expectations.  As photographers we like to blame light and weather for a lot of our own shortcomings.  “ah, the light was horrible” or “the weather sucked”.  But you know what, if you didn’t get any shots it is your own fault, not that of the weather.

Second, and following the first then, when my friends now joke with me about my good luck with good weather I tend to joke back that for me all weather is good, be it rain, ice, sun, etc.  I am sort of like how the post office used to be.  Yes, neither sleet nor dark of night slow me down as well.

Third, I prefer the so-called “bad” weather because all the places I like to go such as downtown, the Gorge, or the beach are all much less crowded on those days.

Fourth, as a photographer who photographs in “bad” weather you tend to get all the pictures the fair weather photographers miss.  In a time where some of us hoard locations like precious minerals, it is amazing the change in the quality of your images you can bring about simply by going out in crummy weather to the usual spots.

Fifth, you never know.  You just don’t.  “Bad” weather tends to be more dynamic and more prone to rapid change.  It can pour one moment but the next those storm clouds may ease aside for a brilliant sunset.  This is less likely to happen on sunny days it seems.  I tend to go out with as few expectations as possible and see what I can find.

Sixth, I just love rain and wind.  They make me feel alive.  I was out in the Gorge this weekend in the rain.  My coat still smelled like wet moss today.  It was great.

Anyway, so if you know a fair-weather photographer, the next time the skies gray up, kick them in the rump and drag them out with you.  You’ll be amazed at how differently beautiful the world is in the rain, or sleet, or dark of night… 

A nightbound train passing by the St. Johns Bridge

I am going to risk putting myself out on a limb here (oh god, not even beyond the first sentence without a pun, bodes ill this does), but I want to discuss a bit about what makes photography…worthwhile, at least on a personal level.  It is often a bit awkward for me to tackle such subjects in a forum such as Flickr, much easier to discuss things like this in a more personal nature, I often worry that tone or intent will be misconstrued.  A small worry, but a bit of one nonetheless.  Mainly because I don’t want to sound like a know-it-all.  I don’t, in case you wondered.  And as I often say, I don’t even necessarily believe much of what I write to be true.  I am perfectly capable of being wrong as well.  But it is not really the being wrong or right, for which I write, it is the attempt to make myself more aware of how I think and act in regards to photography that is a valuable exercise in and of itself.  Hence these “essays”.

But moving on now.  I get a fair number of e-mails, of which I try to answer most every one.  My photography does a fair amount of inspiring ( a good thing, which always flatters me) but it also does a fair amount of impressing ( less of a good thing).  I get a lot of e-mails asking for advice, which I happily give even if I never really feel like I know exactly what to say.  Seems like such a simple question, but each time I wonder if I managed to say just the right thing to fan the flame of their creative spark, or if I missed the target altogether.

Anyway, I was laying on the couch the other evening, trying to drift off and take a nap and my brain had other ideas, some of them good enough that I decided to get up and make a post of them regarding the value we assign our photography, because this is an important concept when it comes to becoming a better photographer, in my opinion.

First off: Your photography is not limited by your camera, nor your lens.  It is not limited by shutter speeds, aperture, film, focus, flash, white balance, color, black and white, grain, noise, etc.  It is not limited by your budget nor your education.  It is not, and I repeat, not, limited by light.  It is certainly not limited by where you live or where you go.  Your photography is limited simply and quite importantly, only by your own imagination and vision.  All those factors I mentioned (and more) can certainly affect your photography, but ultimately you make of it what you will.  Photography begins and ends with the photographer, the best light in the world, or most advanced metering system will not change that.

Second:  Getting published is great.  So is selling photographs.  Making explorer can be flattering.  So is getting hundreds of comments and favorites.  Being profiled with a book or on TV is impressive.  A long resume of accomplishments always looks nice.  So does a polished portfolio of stunning images that draws oohs and aahs.  But when it comes down to it, all this stuff is icing on the cake.  Sweet but not too fulfilling.  Whether you are just starting out in photography or not, but particularly if you are, don’t approach it thinking one or more of things these have to be accomplished before you become a worthwhile photographer.  As I said above, all your photography begins and ends with you, not with Popular Photography Magazine or MOMA or contest prizes or Explorer hits.

Your photography will never be more valuable than the value you place in it that split second before

you hit the shutter button.

What matters most happens before the picture is even taken, not after.  The worth of your photography is in what gets you up at 4 am in the morning to brave freezing conditions in hopes of a sunrise.  It is what makes you follow your children around all day long patiently snapping frame after frame.  It is what causes you to drive for miles, or walk them, in search of that moment, be it in the middle of a sprawling urban landscape or a natural one.  It is significantly in what keeps you picking up that camera as the fractions of seconds become days, the days months, the months pool into years, and beyond.  It is in this desire to see, to experience, to feel, to celebrate, to remember, to be a part of, to be amazed or amused, that you will find what makes your photography worthwhile.  Everything that comes after the snap of the shutter is merely added drama, and it is never as important as you think it is.

If you can take this to heart, and mind, to shoot more freely from so many of these false limitations that we impose on ourselves way too often, the most common of which is to model your photography off of other people’s expectations of it.  Then you will also discover that the most important thing is to pursue your photography in a way that is your own.  Make your photography yours, it will show.

And I will be honest, regardless of how lucid I described what I am hoping I described, or how easy I made it sound, the process is neither to go through, at least for me it wasn’t.  It does not happen overnight.  Sometimes the proverbial lightbulb will switch on, but count yourself lucky if you experience this.  I think most people reach that point by stumbling through murky gray areas feeling out their own creative nature.  And this is something important to remember too.  All those really good photographers you look up to and wish to emulate?  They were all awkward novices at one point too.  Stumbling along lost at times themselves.  If a photographer tries to tell you otherwise, he is either full of himself (or herself) or has an awful memory.  Really, one of the most important traits to adopt in your photography is not actually creativity, but dedication.  You know, long term patience.  Passion helps too.  Passion is fuel for dedication.

Hmm, this is about the part where I finally decided to get up and start typing, so this is kind of the end of this train of thought (sorry another bad pun to close this out).  I do hope some of this helps.  I sometimes think photography is all about vision, but not always in terms of how well we see what is in front of us, quite often it involves how we see ourselves too.  We each come with all the truly essential tools we need to be good photographers, but make no mistake, we can still do quite a bit to sabotage our own abilities if we aren’t aware of the subversive ways in which we do it.

In terms of this photo, I took this one night a month or so ago out shooting the St. Johns Bridge with Aaron.  In fact you can see his shot taken right beside me . I figured the bridge would make a good subject to accompany what I wanted (to try) to say today.

Thanks again for reading along this far.

Q and A

Let me start off by first saying, thank you for stopping by my little corner of the internet, and secondly for pulling up a chair long enough to read what I have written here.  If any of you are familiar with my Flickr stream, then I am sure you are aware of the fact that I am about as prolific a writer as a photographer.  This tendency of mine is sometimes a good thing I think, and sometimes not.  Let us hope for the former because I have a lot that I would like to be able to say.  But for today I figured, as way of an introduction, I would tell you a few important things about me and my beliefs in photography.

I have been seriously dedicated to photography since 2002 when a Pentax K1000 made its way into my hands and almost did not escape again.  Not long after that I bought my first “real” camera, a Nikon FM2.  My family of cameras has grown much since that first Nikon over the years, but that FM2 is still going strong.

Even though my current range of cameras are all film, and I have never actually owned a digital camera, I put very little stock into the film vs. digital argument, a debate that has quickly wound down over the years.  Suffice it to say, that a camera is a camera.  The most important parts of photography happen behind the camera, not in it.  Those who remember this become better photographers than those who place more faith in the equipment they are holding than in themselves.

I would not mind carrying that belief a step further too, and say that what happens behind the camera is even more important than what is going on in front of the camera.  I say this to remind people that pictures are everywhere.  They are on exotic beaches in foreign countries certainly, but they are also in the bus stop just down the street.  They exist at high noon on sunny days as well as during those amazing sunsets and sunrises.  Magic hours occupy two to three hours of each day, this still leaves over 20 hours of perfectly good shooting.

Many of us realize that light is an essential part of photography.  Without it, we cannot make photographs.  There is another important ingredient though, and that is vision.  I am not talking strictly about eyesight, as it is possible even for the blind to make photographs.  What I am referring to is that magical combination imagination and willingness to really look at the world around us.  Combine that with the technical prowess to operate the camera and you have a potent formula that will produce {insert appropriate adjective here} photographs regardless of setting, weather, light, time of day, and so on.

Which brings me to talent.  I do not put much stock in talent.  I realize that some are naturally more adept at certain activities than others, they grasp concepts quicker and learn faster.  But talent is no replacement for dedication, persistence and passion.  Those three traits will trump talent any day of the year.  What is more, none of us picked up a camera for the first time and immediately started making world famous images.  We all started out stumbling and feeling our way in the dark.  Some of us are humble enough to admit to this, some of us are not, but we were all there at one point.  Those that have succeeded at this art have done so because they had the passion to invest themselves in it and the dedication and persistence to do so for very long spans of times, often a lifetime.

I will most likely expand on some of these threads in later posts, at least I hope to be able to do so.  For today though I had better wrap this up, and I would like to do so by answering a few of the recent questions I have fielded in the past week.

What advice do you have for a beginning photographer to get better?

Carry your camera with you everywhere.  Never leave it at home, it ought to always be on your shoulder, for a number of reasons.  Mainly, if you do not have your camera, then you cannot take pictures, and if you are not taking pictures then you are not practicing, and it is difficult to get better at something without practicing it.  Besides, the best way to guarantee that you will see amazing pictures to be taken is to go somewhere without a camera.

Do you think digital cameras have taken the art out of photography?

No.  Photographers make the decisions on how to use their equipment, not the equipment itself. A camera is merely a tool: a lifeless and soulless box of plastic, metal and glass.  Never mind that defining how a camera can be used in a less artistic fashion is a tricky endeavor, but assuming that we did, I think we would find that those photographers who did so with digital cameras would be just as likely to do so with practically any other camera.

Is Zeb your real name?

Yes.  Maybe if you get to know me well enough one day I will tell you the rest of the story behind it…maybe.

Who designed this awesome site for you?

That would be a couple of friends of mine by the names of Stacey and Ben, or at least those are the names they have always told me.  If you are impressed by the design of this site, you can find a link to Stacey’s page at the bottom of this page.