Interview with Brad Mangas
My last post was my first ‘interview’ post with photographer Jim Griggs. I’m really excited to be making my second post in the ‘interview’ series this time with photographer Brad Mangas. The focus of these posts is to showcase some of the great talent we have in Kansas and also to highlight work of other photographers that has inspired me in some way. I think I first ran across Brad’s work on the Nature Photographers Network and since then I’ve been following his work on his blog, Facebook, and Google+.
(C) Brad Mangas
One of Brad’s photos that really immediately grabbed my attention is the photo above. When I first saw this photo it seemed to glow from within and I was really captivated by it. This photo really inspired me to find more ways to work with light in my own photography and led me to experiment with a new processing technique, the “Orton” effect. There is something about this photo that I find very calming too, like I might feel if I was out on a walk. For some more info on this photograph I wanted to start the interview with some specific questions regarding it.
Scott: What was it about this scene that caught your eye…What made you stop and make this particular photo? Where were you when you made this photo? How did you go about making this photo?
Brad: First off thank you Scott for allowing me to be part of your efforts to help expose some of the wonderful work that is produced by fellow Kansas photographers. Whether images of Kansas or other beautiful places in our world there truly are some very talented people right here in our home state. My thoughts are set firm that there really is “No Place Like Home.”
The main thing that caught my attention to this was the color, I seem to be drawn to color it excites me when looking at things. I do produce black and white images from some of my work when the scene seems to make me lean that way but typically if something is colorful I explore it. This is nice example you picked out that illustrates the need for constant practice if you what to get better with your photography. In 2010 I gave myself a project for my blog and photography in general, The “Daily Photograph”. I challenged myself to take a picture everyday for a year. I fell just a little short of 365 straight photos but I believe I did end up posting over 300 for the year. Not all were typical nature type of shots, some were just things I would find lying on the ground or anything the would catch my attention and many were taken during my morning walk with our beloved Lhasa Apso, Lexi. I am lucky to live across from a very nice part of Shunga Park here in Topeka and needless to say we spend many of our mornings walking there. My plan for this project was to mostly use my point and shoot camera and just have it handy when out and about. Th image above was taken with the Canon G11 during one of those walks in the park. I saw this colorful vine which I believe to be Virgina Creeper and not poison ivy because most of the stems had 5 leaves instead of 3. The making of this photo is really nothing special, I simply composed it in a way that was pleasing for me but I did do some work on it to give it this finished look, kind of a glowing look. One thing that is imperative if you are serious about photography is learning to use the tools available in processing namely Photoshop, that is where ones artistic vision can meet with their photographic endeavors.
Scott: You mentioned in the blog post that accompanied this photo that you used a Orton effect to this photo, what led you to use that particular technique with this photo? Did you have a final look in mind before you started? Did you make the photo with this processing in mind? What led you to try the Orton effect on your photos?
Brad: This image does have an Orton effect applied to it I really love the look it gives a photo but it doesn’t work with everything. I won’t go into the technical part of the Orton effect but there are many articles out in the photography circles that explains this very well. It is a fun way to give a unique look to a photograph. When I took the picture I don’t think I had any specific type of processing in mind that usually comes when I’m back at the computer and I begin to look more closely at an image. Maybe it has come with experience maybe it is just a mood I’m in but when looking at an image without any other distractions I get more of a feel for what can be done with it. It might be to bring out the sharp contrast in textures or to help lead ones eye to a specific subject or in this case to blend the colorful foliage into more of a painterly look. The Orton effect works great with colorful foliage if that is the look one is after. When I am processing an image I have no problem trying many different looks so I will work it up 3 or 4 different ways many times one just ends up jumping out at me and I have that Oh Yeah moment.
(Scott: I like Brad’s thoughts here on being open to trying different things with a photograph and looking for that “Oh Yeah” moment, sometimes I get a pre-conceived vision of something I want in my head and it is hard to let go of that, which sometimes causes me to miss other options.)
Scott: Now for some general questions…how did you get started in photography?
Brad: This is always an interesting question and many people say they have always had a camera and were always taking pictures of things whether it was their kids or events or flowers in their garden, I think that is a given for most folks these days including myself so I won’t go back that far. Specifically my deep interest in photography started in the first part of 2006 when I was trying sell some things on ebay! Yep, ebay of all things to be linked to getting started in photography. I had just gotten remarried and together we had lots of items that we wanted to get rid of and ebay was the perfect way to do that and hopefully get a few bucks in the process. The first thing was to get good pictures of all the items. What I found out was that I was very particular when it came to taking a picture of something I mean I wanted it perfect. I had a small simple point and shoot camera and like most everyone else would just set it on automatic and take a picture, well those pictures were horrible and I just could not except them. I knew I needed to learn more about how to take a good picture so I got the camera manual out and started reading about what the other settings were, like aperture and shutter mode. I spent hours trying to get an exceptable picture of things and soon found the limitations of this camera and it frustrated me. I got the pictures as good as I could put the stuff on ebay sold them and moved on but, during this brief time of a month or so something hit me like a ton of bricks, and that was taking a good picture is very challenging and technical and one has to know how a camera works how light plays a role, composition, exposure and so on in order to even begin taking good pictures, at that moment the learning process began.
Scott: How did you learn photography?
Brad: To answer that simply it was; read, learn, practice then repeat just like it still is today. I know for a fact that I will forever be learning photography, and that is the draw.
I would say I’m a technical guy by nature kind of a geek when it comes to stuff, if I don’t know how something works it bugs me and I have to find out. Over the following months from my initial draw I wasn’t just “interested” in photography but it became an obsession I couldn’t get enough, the more I learned the more I realized how much I didn’t know. As I learned things I would practice them but I no longer had a desire to take pictures of nicknacks or things around the house I was drawn to the outdoors and taking pictures of trees, birds the sky and clouds. I remember trying to take pictures of ants as they hurried across the back deck and thinking, how do people do this and getting right! Something else hit me very strong along with learning all the technical parts of photography and that was this could be a never-ending journey and I liked that, a never-ending challenge of doing something creative, I had never been exposed to something like that. At some moment during this time it turned from a challenge to a passion. With my continual reading of everything I could find on photography I began to understand things like exposure and why somethings in a photograph were totally white and some totally black and everything in between was considered proper exposure. Along with all this technical stuff and passion for making a good picture I realized something else, this creative thing of making a picture filled a part of my life that I never knew existed and it literally made me feel like a different person. Maybe that is a slight stretch, the different person thing but I looked at things in a way I never looked at them before. I had a sense of wonder about the world around me and began to notice just how amazing things like trees and leaves and the big open lands around me really were. It literally opened my eyes to life. For ones photography to be more than just taking pictures there must be a personal connection to the subject and the camera led me straight to the natural world around me which is very personal.
Scott: What photographers have influenced/inspired you?
Brad: When a family member who is a professional portrait photographer found out I was really getting into photography she gave me a book, it was “The Nature Photographer’s Complete Guide To Professional Field Techniques” by John Shaw. I must have read through that book 10 times before I could put it down and to this day it is my favorite book on photography. It is an older book so there was nothing on digital photography in it but the way John wrote and explained things made perfect since to me. In my opinion John Shaw’s work is among the best in the world and just reading about how he goes about things had a big influence on me from the beginning, that is what I wanted to do. Jim Zuckerman who does amazing things with images in Photoshop also inspired me tremendously from the start. Then I ran across the work of Darwin Wiggett a photographer from Alberta Canada and was amazed at the beauty he captures of everything he shoots. Then I took a trip to Arkansas with the Central States Nature Photographers group in the spring of 2008 and was turned on to Tim Ernst work that I very much am inspired by. So those are 4 big name long time professional’s that really got my juices flowing and to this day inspire me. And for goodness sakes the work of Charles Cramer that I discovered not long ago blows me away it’s amazing! But the list of other mostly unknown photographers whose work I find inspirational could go on and on. I am constantly amazed and inspired by the works of Mark Graf, Judd Patterson, Stephen Weaver. I know it’s not right that I only mention a few but I better stop before I get carried away. I have to mention one more name in this group of inspiring photographers and that is Michael Forsberg. Not only are his images inspirational to me but his passion and desire when it comes to conservation specifically of the great plains is as inspiring to me as anything I have come across.
(Scott: Interestingly John Shaw’s book Brad mentions had a huge influence on me as well, one of the first books on nature photography I read and I bet have read through it 10 times as well, excellent book!)
Scott: What piece of advice would you give photographers just starting out today? What is one of the most important things they need to remember?
Brad: The single most important thing one can do to improve their photography is to take pictures, lots and lots of pictures and when you think your done take some more. It is with this constant process that one discovers what they know and what they need to learn. Over the last 6 years I have taken approximately 40,000 pictures and to me it should have been 100,000. That may sound like a lot but it really isn’t compared to the highly successful photographers today. You need to make the camera part of your everyday life, what this does is forces you to look at everything as a potential photograph and in turn it begins to develop your eye to what could make a good photograph. Of course this can take years if not a lifetime so just doing it once in a while will get you no where it has to be done consistently as in everyday.
(Scott: This is excellent advice, for some reason a lot of people seem to discount the idea of ‘practice’ when it comes to learning photography).
Scott: So why do you make photographs?
Brad: I make photographs because I love what I’m taking photographs of. I grew up in the small town of Onaga, Kansas. Born in 1960 when there were no gaming consoles or computers in the home, no cell phones and 3 channels on the television. So if I wanted to past time and have fun I had one choice, go outside and play. The outdoors held more adventure and possibilities for enjoyment than anything else I could think of so that’s where I spent all my free time. This amazement with the outdoors has somehow been reborn with photography. The camera gives me a reason to explore, enjoy be curious and inspired by nature. Probably more importantly making photographs forces me to slow down and really look at things not just glance at them as I’m driving by but to stop and really think about the world I live in and how precious things in nature are.
Scott: Photographers have an amazing array of tools at their disposal today to help achieve their creative expression…entire ranges of cameras from very small to large DSLR’s and digital medium format, ability to control all aspects of image processing, and to the ability to control the printing of their photos. What do you think about the possibilities for photographers today? How have all these options influenced your ability to fully express yourself and your vision in your photographs?
Brad: As far as the ability to express myself all these things help tremendously but they have to be kept in perspective. Your absolutely right, photographers have a mind-boggling amount of choices today and I think that is wonderful as long as you don’t get lost in the confusion. It’s very hard to not get caught up in all the new things that are constantly coming out. Here’s what I think about all this; if you can afford to get all the cool new stuff great, do it, play with everything you can get your hands on, but at some point a person needs to ask themselves what is it they really want to do? Then you have to honestly answer that question and then focus on that goal and work hard. But if your like myself I can’t afford to own all the latest cameras, lenses, bells and whistles instead I got what I could afford and learned to use it to the best of my ability. Don’t become a jack of all trades and master of none. Focus on your goal and work hard, then when you can get the things (camera, lens, software etc..) that will help you make progress towards your goal go for it.
As far as the ability to fully express myself and my vision in my photographs, I’m not sure that will every happen. That’s not meant as a negative but I have come to realize that equipment or software or any device has nothing to do with vision or expression that must come from within. Does it really matter what kind of brush a painter uses to express themselves, if they have passion they will find a way with whatever brush they can get their hands on. My photography is personal to me and I really only do it to please myself. For the last few months I have been having great fun taking pictures with my iPhone. It allows me to express something that a big camera can’t it is very spontaneous and has proven to me expression is not about what equipment one has but what feelings and emotions one has.
Scott: You’ve done a lot of photography in the Flint Hills, what drives/inspires you to shoot there?
Brad: Oh boy my favorite subject, the Flint Hills! I say that somewhat jokingly but very serious at the same time. As I mentioned I grew up in Onaga on the very eastern edge of the Flint Hills. I remember vividly driving to Wamego or Manhattan and the big hills we would go by and remembering how cool it would be to climb one of those. As a kid they were like mountains to me and represented the true nature of wild beauty, but at the time didn’t know just how much. OK, now flash forward to 2007-2008. My photography is now a big part of my life and looking at pictures of those who inspire me made it a no brainer that the Flint Hills is where I want to go take pictures but I really didn’t know where or how to get up close and personal in that landscape. This is when I discovered Konza Prairie and off I went. I hiked it regularly in the fall and winter of 2007 and started learning everything I could about it. I found out you could sign up and go out with a docent in the springtime and view prairie chickens which of course I had to do and did in March of 2008. The docent that morning was Chod Hedinger who is a friend of many that may read this including you Scott, how cool. Chod is a wealth of knowledge and not only did I get to watch what is truly a magical display of wildlife but Chod done something else to me that he may not have realized at the time. He shared not only his knowledge about prairie chickens but he shared his passion of nature. Which honestly meant more to me than viewing the wildlife. I knew after that morning the Flint Hills had a much deeper meaning to me than I ever imagined. I spent the next year again obsessed with learning about this unique landscape and in 2009 went through the docent training program myself. What a remarkable eye-opening it was and it captivated not only my mind but my soul for how precious this area of the world really is. And it is right here in Kansas and so very few people know much about it at all other than it is a bunch of hills, rocks and grass and that’s a shame. Thanks to Chod, Konza Prairie and the wonderful teachers who have been part of the docent training program namely Dr. Valarie Wright, the Flint Hills are and will forever be my favorite place on earth, hands down no question. I feel as if life starts again each time I venture into that land.
Scott: What is your favorite time of year to photograph the Flint Hills?
Brad: That would be spring, summer, fall and winter. That was easy! Now to be more specific I would say; April for the burns and the lush new growth of tallgrass as it blankets the land. May and June for the vast array of wildflowers. October and November for the beautiful changing of colors of the tallgrasses from their summer greens to autumn golds and bronze. And anytime in winter when snow blankets the rolling hills.
Scott: What special challenges does shooting in the Flint Hills present? What about shooting in Kansas in general?
Brad: I find more challenges every time I go out to shoot the Flint Hills. One thing that I have come to realize after thousands of pictures is the challenge of making an intimate photograph. The landscape is so vast with views from horizon to horizon that it’s hard to get something that isn’t just the big wide open spaces. I love the wide open landscape but many times in a photograph it all gets lost and you end up with just land and sky. That can be said for shooting in Kansas in general. It’s frustrating to hear when people think Kansas is just a big flat area of the U.S. but the truth is much of it is flat but flat doesn’t mean boring. Compared to mountains, oceans, canyons or forests most may think of Kansas landscape as boring but there is a much deeper, slower beauty here. It’s not the “in your face” kind like the well known hot spots. You can’t just point your camera anywhere and capture it you have to give yourself time to feel it. That is very challenging to produce in a photograph.
(Scott: This is a great statement about photographing Kansas!)
Scott: What do you hope your photographs say about the Flint Hills?
Brad: I hope they say if you want to find beauty in nature I am here waiting patiently. I want my photographs of the Flint Hills to bring a sense of wonder and enlightenment to this unique landscape. If I could make just one photograph in my life that conveyed my emotions to one single viewer I will have been successful.
Scott: You recently mentioned starting a book project on the Flint Hills, have you found that has inspired you to get out and shoot more? Have you found having a specific project has helped your creativity or changed the way you work/shoot?
Brad: I hope to have my first ebook out by the end of April or middle of May at the latest (but don’t hold me to that). It will focus on the Flint Hills. It does inspire me to get out more and to produce more imagery of the Flint Hills. Giving myself a project helps me stay focused on improvement. I purposely mentioned this project a month or so ago knowing that if I tell others I then have to deliver. It’s a way of forcing myself to set a goal and then take action to work towards it rather than just talking about it. I find it helps tremendously with the creative process, it’s easy just to set back and dream about doing something but nothing changes until you take action. It doesn’t really change the way I will shoot when out in the Flint Hills but it will make me focus more on producing what I consider meaningful photographs.
Scott: You’ve written a few times about the importance of getting out in nature, do you feel photography has enhanced your experience of being outside, of connecting to the landscapes you are photographing?
Brad: Photography has been a catapult when it comes to getting out in nature it’s really all I want to do. It enhances it in so many ways. I no longer just look at something and say “oh that’s nice” I try to find out just what it is that makes it nice then I have to find out exactly what it is and where it came from. It’s a vicious circle that I have grown to love. I feel I am but a very small part of this world and here for such a very short time but I have a choice, I can just get through life doing the best I can, or I can allow myself to become part of the bigger picture. To experience as much of the world as possible and learn to appreciate it for what it is. One doesn’t have to travel the world to do this it can be done right where you live. I no longer look at a blade of grass and think of it as just another plant. I think how beautiful it is when the light hits it just right.
Scott: Anything else you would like to add?
Brad: Every one seems to have a digital camera these days and if they don’t they have a phone that will take pictures so the world is literally becoming saturated with photos. This presents a new challenge to anyone wanting to be taken serious in their photography and the only way I see to meet that challenge is to produce photographs that go beyond the image itself. It’s one thing to take a picture of the Flint Hills it’s a completely different thing to take a picture of a unique and threatened part of the earth. It is in the way we translate a photograph from an image to a thought or emotion that will separate a true photographer from just someone who has a camera and takes pictures.
It has taken me 6 years to get to this point and the only regret I have is that I didn’t discover photography 30 years ago. I have so much to learn and look forward to every moment of it.
To finish things off you can see some more of Brad’s photographs below. I’d like to thank Brad for taking the time to complete this interview, I know it takes a lot of time and effort to put together answers to questions like these and I really appreciate that!
You can view more of Brad’s work on his website: Brad Mangas Photography and on his blog. Thank You Brad!
(C) Brad Mangas
(C) Brad Mangas
(C) Brad Mangas
(C) Brad Mangas
(C) Brad Mangas
(C) Brad Mangas
(C) Brad Mangas
In: interviews · Tagged with: Brad Mangas
Interview with Jim Griggs
One thing I’ve been wanting to start for awhile now with my blog is a series of interviews of photographers who have inspired me in some way. When I first got really serious about photography one thing I did that really helped me become a better photographer was to study the work of other nature photographers. I did this by collecting as many landscape and nature photography books that I could. Often I would wish that I could ask a photographer about a certain photo I had seen in a book.
With the explosion of websites such as Flickr, Facebook, and Google+ it is easy to find work by other photographers to learn from and be inspired by. And thanks to the ability to communicate easily over the internet it is now possible for me to not only find photos that inspire me, but to actually ask the photographers about them!
I’ve also discovered that there are a tremendous amount of talented photographers working in (or that have worked in) Kansas. I’m constantly delighted by the great landscape and nature photography I see being produced from Kansas photographers. So I hope these interviews will help provide some educational material and also to showcase the artistic talent we have in the state. With that I’ll get started with the first interview…
My first ‘victim’ is Jim Griggs. Jim has produced some amazing work not only in Kansas but all over the world. One of Jim’s recent photographs that really caught my attention was a shot from a trip to Tanzania.
© Jim Griggs
(click on any photo in this post to enlarge it)
There is a mystical quality to this photo that I just love. One thing I really like about a photograph is when it makes me want to be there. This is one of those photos. It seems like it would be great to spend some time walking through the trees in this photo. For some more info on this photograph, I ask Jim some specific questions about it:
Scott: What was the situation when this photo was made?
Jim: Just departing the lodge and 2000 feet below me was this amazing scene, almost like a Japanese screen print.
Scott: Where were you when you made it?
Jim: The trees are in what is called the Lerai Forest in Ngrongoro Crater, part of the Serengeti Ecosystem but a very special part I might add.
Scott: What caught your eye about this particular scene?
Jim: The light was so ethereal and the fog was hugging the ground and there were shadows from the yellow-bark acacia trees softly cast onto the fog.
Scott: What do you hope the viewer gets from this photo?
Jim: I think most of the comments I have received about the image basically can be summed up by “Is this real?”
Scott: How did you go about making this particular photo?
Jim: I used my old Canon 20D and 100-400L IS lens for this image.
Scott: Any unusual challenges in getting this shot?
Jim: The Canon 20D was not very good with noise so I limited myself to ISO 400. As you know, we rarely carry tripods in Tanzania as they would never work in the vehicles and fully 99% of what we shoot is from the vehicles with bean bags. I had to brace on the railing along the walkway and try to steady the shot at 400mm. I know I was turning blue holding my breath. Interestingly, several people from our group walked by and asked what I saw; “An elephant? A lion? A rhino?” I kept saying no just the scenery. LOOK! Most just glanced and walked on. People on their first trip to Africa are so fixed on the wildlife they stop seeing the beauty around them. On our trips we have to keep reminding the first-timers to shoot scenics as well as wildlife.
Jim brings up a good point about taking the time to really look at a scene and to “see” it for what it is. I know often I get preconceived ideas of what I want to photograph that I miss other opportunities or get upset when mother nature doesn’t provide what I wanted (how dare the world not cater to my every whim!).
I also wanted to get Jim’s thoughts on some more general photography questions:
Scott: How did you get started in photography?
Jim: My senior year in high school I bought the most basic of 35mm cameras from a sailor at the Houston Bus Terminal. I gave him $7 for it. I needed to get a handheld meter as well but it cost more than the camera! I shot over 200 slides on a trip to Colorado with the thing and was amazed at the quality. In college, I needed money so I worked for the University newspaper in the darkroom developing film and making prints which we then drum scanned to plastic for the printing presses. Once you work in a darkroom it is all over! I was hooked. After graduation I scrimped and saved and bought my first SLR and a 28mm lens. In a few months I bought a 200mm lens. That was all I had, two lenses, at opposite ends of the focal range. We, my wife and I, went to a regional go kart race and shot B&W. Went back to our apartment, developed the film and made 8 x 10 prints. I think we were up until about 4 AM making those prints. That was a Saturday night. Went back to the track on Sunday for the finals. It was a rain out so we sold images at $8 each. I think we made $300! I was making $830 a month as an Engineer at Texas Instruments. That put the hooks in deep.
Scott: So why do you make photographs?
Jim: I used to try and make images that I thought would sell. That lasted about 10 years, shooting the iconic images, wagon wheels and flowers, the stuff I don’t really care for now. For many years now I just shoot what I like and what inspires me. If it sells, great! If not, well, at least I am happy with it. Turns out there are a few people who like the stuff I like and I sell a few things now and then. (Laughing).
Scott: What drives you to press the shutter button on a camera at particular moment?
Jim: One thing that really gets me going is great composition. I spent about a year reading and studying the masters of art, but mainly the photographers. I saw what works and I analyzed the heck out of it, where is the light coming from? How much DOF is there? Did they use a telephoto lens? Wide angle? Arrangement of items in the structure of the image is so important. I drew lines on the pages I would tear out of magazines to see the spatial locations of key elements. Knowing how things are arranged in a photo is a BIG deal to making it happen.
Scott: What do you hope people take from your photography in general?
Jim: In general, I hope they get the burn and desire to save some of what’s left of this beautiful planet for future generations. Since about 1975 I have been using my photographs to promote conservation. The Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club have used my images as have other conservation organizations. I try to do a little educating on issues and problems when I talk to groups about my photos. I also like to take people out on trips, workshops. It is easier to get excited about saving something if you have experienced it first hand.
Scott: How did you learn photography?
Jim: I am still learning actually. I had a few rudimentary classes way back and working under pressure for a deadline for the school newspaper put me at the forefront of learning! I studied under a magazine photographer named Bob Smith, not kidding, who was an excellent instructor. I use some of his techniques today when teaching. I also took a class from a guy named Ron Bruner who influenced me a lot as well. In 1978 I bought a book titled, “Wilderness Photography” by Boyd Norton. We were living in New Jersey at the time. Boyd lived in Colorado somewhere but I told my wife I had a goal of meeting Boyd someday. A year later we were transferred to Denver. Amazingly Boyd’s wife worked in the research library across the hall from my office. I made it a point to meet her and then Boyd. I went to one of his workshops in the early 80’s. It was expensive! I remember wondering if I could save up enough to go to another of his workshops. About three weeks after the workshop, Boyd called me and wanted to hire me to be an instructor at his workshops! I spent eleven years as one of his instructors with clients such as Smithsonian Tours out of Washington, DC. After moving around a bit and ending up in Kansas, I met Jim Richardson. He asked me to assist him on his tall grass prairie story for National Geographic. Working with Jim was another step for me in seeing how the major pros work.
Scott: What do you think were the key points when you first got started that helped you learn?
Jim: Learning the difference between a well exposed negative and a poorly exposed negative was a key for me. Working in the darkroom and seeing how easy it was to print with good exposure versus struggling with crappy negatives taught me the importance of understanding what light meters are telling us as photographers. Of course I have some extremely well exposed images of crappy subjects so you know there is more to it than exposure! Learning to see and simplify the image was tough at first. Now it is second nature. Boyd loved having me at his workshops because that is what I taught. I would take over a participants camera and tripod, set up a shot and let them look thru the viewfinder of their own equipment at my composition. It is the best way to learn to see photographically. Experimentation helps as well. I tried all kinds of things with film and kept good notes. There are always happy accidents. Back with film we always wondered what we did if we didn’t have notes to tell us. Today with digital, you can look at the EXIF data and see the settings and learn from that.
Scott: What piece of advice would you give the photographers getting started today?
Jim: Learn the basics like the back of your hand! Know what is important in a shot, DOF or what shutter speed you want and WHY! Understand what your meter is saying. Don’t just blindly let it do what it wants. I would bet that fully 90% of the images taken today by photographers are done in some simplified automatic setting. My feeling is that the automatic modes will work about 95% of the time and the other 5% are what you see in magazines. Boyd stopped doing domestic workshops primarily because people would show up and say they didn’t need to learn about f/stops and shutter speeds because they had automatic cameras.
Scott: What is the one critical thing new photographers should try to remember?
Jim: Would I hang this on my wall? Don’t ask for a critic from your mom. In her eyes, you never did anything wrong. Ask your peers or better yet, get a working professional to critique your photos. Avoid contests. These are usually some company trying to build up some stock to sell or use your images for free. I also avoided club competitions. Not that they are bad but the tendency is to have a few people who dominate winning the ribbons and that drives off the newbies who are the lifeblood of any organization. For composition improvement, do what I did. If you like a photo you see in a magazine, analyze the heck out of it. Try to put yourself in the photographers shoes. What lens was he using? What settings were on the camera/lens? Light direction? Intensity? These are the major concerns. There are some tricks that the great artists use or have used to make their paintings or drawings great. Study those. I love to darken the edges slightly and keep the viewers eyes within the bounds of the image. Oh wait! You asked for one thing. Well there I go preaching again.
Scott: What photographers have influenced your work and inspired you?
Jim: That is a big list! Ansel Adams was very influential for me in understanding exposure. I never met him sadly but read his series of books. He was too much of a technician for me. I never did like shooting with 4 X 5. Just too cumbersome and slow but… …looking at images upside down on the ground glass lets you see composition without the clutter of looking at the subjects. Besides Bob Smith and Ron Bruner, obviously Boyd Norton was a huge influence on my photography. As President of the Great Plains Nature Photographers I have met many great people, Art Wolfe, George Lepp, Mike Forsberg, Joel Sartore, the late Bill Silliker, Jr. who stayed at my house for several days and went shooting with us for a couple of days. Jim Richardson changed a lot of my thinking. I could probably go on for a long time. Of course there are guys I have never formally met on Flickr and Facebook who influence what I like to shoot and have offered loads of inspiration.
Scott: What do you enjoy about photographing Kansas?
Jim: At the workshop I attended with Boyd Norton, he had as an assistant, Les Line, Editor of Audubon Magazine at the time. I was living in Colorado and not anxious to move. After the week with Les, he flat out told me that if I didn’t live in Colorado he would give me an assignment. Les kept saying he is inundated with images from Colorado, Yosemite, the iconic places in North America. He said, “If you lived in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, out in the plains, I would give you an assignment today! There is so much going on out there and no photographers.” I made it a point to not get too excited about the iconic places anymore. Sure they are beautiful but I no longer need “slap you in the face scenery” to enjoy shooting. Additionally, I sat next to a young National Geographic photographer once flying from Jacksonville to Denver with a stop in Oklahoma City. He told, “The big difference between those of us shooting for National Geographic and a really good amateur like yourself is that you can and do take great photos in Colorado. I am getting off this flight in Oklahoma City and in two months I am going to make it look great.” Unfortunately I can’t remember his name but that changed me as well.
Scott: What is the biggest challenge in photographing Kansas?
Jim: Expectations! Once you have been to the majestic locations in the west, Kansas seems to have been left out. Once you throw off those expectations and dig down deep, there is plenty here. It just takes more work and better eyes. Jim Brandenberg, Joel Sartore, Mike Forsberg and Jim Richardson all shoot for National Geographic and all live in the central plains. Joel summed it very well when he told me that Nat Geo figures if you can shoot great images here, you can shoot anywhere. Turn that around. People who can shoot great images in Colorado or the Oregon Coast are usually screwed when they come here to shoot. Most of them are lost. I was in a vehicle in Serengeti with a Colorado professional photographer once, shooting zebra. I turned the camera vertical and included a big vista of the sky and clouds above the zebra. She looked at my LCD and said, “Wow! How did you know to do that?” I answered, “You don’t live in Kansas, do you?” Of course, I wish we had more public lands in Kansas. We are woefully short on accessible land here.
Scott: You’ve photographed at the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge numerous times and helped arrange tours that provide great opportunities for photographers and at the same time help provide exposure and donations for the refuge. Tell us about how that relationship got started.
Jim: 18 years ago I moved to Kansas. I was here about three weeks when I learned about the refuge. I went out there and shot some decent elk photos from the road where the public is allowed. I made some prints of the elk and took them out to the visitor center and gave them to the people who run the center. They sold them and raised several hundred dollars in the process. Next time I was out there, Owen who does most of the leg work, saw me and asked if I had my cameras with me which I did. He said, “Grab them and hop in the truck with me, I will get you up close to the elk”. I keep donating stuff to them. They sell postcards in the gift shop. Most of them I took and had printed at Vistaprint fairly cheaply, just donated them to them as a tax write-off.
Scott: You have done some recent trips to Tanzania, what were some of the challenges of photographing there? The rewards?
Jim: Boyd started going to East Africa in the early 80’s. He tried to get me to go along several times. I really wasn’t interested and didn’t have the money anyway. In 1998 he came to Kansas for the first time. He lives in the mountains in Colorado. I took him to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to show him the place I helped get started. I had donated images to the National Parks Conservation Association who pushed for the place to become a National Park. I was proud of my involvement. Boyd and I walked a trail. Somewhere out in the middle of the prairie he asked, “Do you like this place?” I answered, “Well, I am sure you don’t understand being from Colorado, but yes, I love it.” He said, “You would love Serengeti. It looks just like this.” The next year we were getting ready for our first trip to Tanzania. The challenges of shooting in Tanzania? Getting enough sleep! We leave the lodge or camp about 5:45 every morning. We are out all day shooting, usually 30-40 gigs of images, back about 6:30 in the evening. Sometime in between 6:30pm and 5:00am the next morning we have to eat, shower, download and back up all the images and charge any batteries that are low and get a little sleep. Not sure why but I sleep better there than anyplace I have been. The vehicles have 12v outlets all over the place and I carry a small inverter just in case but… …you get the picture. The rewards? Lets put it this way, every year we say this is our last trip there, too expensive, but when it comes down to it, there is NO PLACE on earth I have seen or read about to compare with Serengeti, no place. The money? We can’t eat it and it is not going to do us any good when we are dead so we go again, LOL. I own a farm in Oklahoma where I could live really cheaply so if the money gets tight which I don’t think it will, we can always move there and live.
Scott: You will be leading a photo tour back to Tanzania in the near future, can you tell us about the details?
Jim: The trip is about 10 days on the ground in Tanzania with visits to Tarangire National Park for a couple of days then on to Ngorongoro Crater, a magical place if there is such a thing. Then we move on to Serengeti National Park for the remainder of the time. We use a tour company that is locally owned and is staffed by the most amazing driver/guides. These guys are all highly educated, know the wildlife, the fauna, the dirt even. They are used to driving and guiding for professional photographers and they put us in the right places with the best backgrounds, the best positions. It is nothing short of amazing. Tanzania is also a life changing event, at least it was for my wife and I. The people there are so happy and love having you visit their country. They have nothing, no real possessions. Every trip we have left most of our clothes there as well as any unused batteries, shoes, anything of value that we can easily replace. On the first trip, we actually left so much in tips, we only had $12 between us to get home. We had left the car away from the airport and were going to need a cab to go get our car! I borrowed $20 from one of our friends on the trip while we were in Amsterdam headed back! The first month back in Kansas we hauled three pick up loads of stuff to Goodwill. Things are of little significance to us anymore. I want my camera gear, my computers (where do you draw the line between cameras and computers these days?) and my photos to remind me of the trips. Just so you know I am also setting up a trip to the Galapagos Islands. It is usually about 60% the cost of a trip to Tanzania and very exciting to visit. Nothing is close to finalized on the Galapagos trip so no details. For information on the Tanzania trip go to www.mondove.com and SIGN UP! My big fear is that the Chinese influence in Tanzania and Kenya will destroy the Serengeti ecosystem. Right now there are plans for a road and railroad across the middle of Serengeti NP. The Chinese need some raw materials on the other side of the park. A road and or railroad would totally disrupt the wildebeest migration and we would likely lose a few hundred thousand wildebeest. The other hazard is that with paved roads, good roads, poaching goes up. A good escape road allows poachers to strike and get out. the game parks in South Africa have excellent roads and they lost about 1.3 rhinos a day last year. The orientals want the rhino horn as an aphrodisiac. Such waste. Ivory is also a huge collectors item in China right now, a way for the rich Chinese to show off their wealth. In parks where there are roads, good roads, the elephants are being killed just for the ivory. I am a contributor to Serengeti Watch, an organization fighting the roads in the ecosystem legally through the East African court system.
Scott: What role do you feel that there is for photography to help with conservation efforts and bring exposure to causes important to a photographer?
Jim: As I mentioned earlier, without conservation there will not be anything to photograph in the future unless you want to shoot street scenes or industrial farms. We all need to be doing our part to make locals aware of situations that threaten our wild and semi-wild places.
Scott: Anything else you would like to add?
Jim: I can say this, there is a lot of noise going on about adding video to still cameras. I am all for it. I really wanted to be a film maker. Back when I was getting started 16mm film cost about $100 a minute to shoot. That I could not afford so I stayed with still images. Now with DV it is a whole new game. I am shooting more video now than ever. I see the future being dominated by video. I envision the day when magazines and newspapers will be delivered to a device (not your mailbox or porch) and still photos may still be alive but a video clip seems much more appropriate. Most of my pro friends are shooting video clips as they feel this will be the next “stock” business.
I’m going to wrap up this interview by including some more of Jim’s photos below. I’d like to thank Jim for agreeing to do this interview. I hope everyone gets as much from this as I did. I’ve had the pleasure of shooting with Jim a few times now and it is always a good time.
You can view more of Jim’s work on his website: Selective Focus Photography and you can learn more details about the next trip to Tanzania at Mondoverde Expeditions.
© Jim Griggs
© Jim Griggs
© Jim Griggs
© Jim Griggs
© Jim Griggs
© Jim Griggs
Thank You Jim!
Upcoming workshop “Basic Camera Controls”
I have a photography workshop along with Wayne Rhodus coming up March 24th at the Columbian Theater in Wamego, Kansas. This is a “Basic Camera Controls” workshop and is geared toward helping you take control of your camera and getting familiar with setting it. The workshop will also cover the basics of photography. You can find out more about the workshop at this link: Basic Camera Controls.
