Hi, everybody, welcome to Episode 41 of the photography explained podcast. In this episode, what about the other types of photography?
I'm your host Rick and each week I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant details. My aim is to explain things in just enough detail to help you and I with our photography are no more.
I tried and closed my eyes that time to make it sound a bit more natural rather than reading off the screen. First sentence worked but second sentence I forgot my lines.
41 episodes in and I still can't do it! Next time.
I'm a professionally qualified photographer based in England with a lifetime of photographic experience which I share with you on my podcast.
And as you will be aware by now, I am not a skilled broadcaster. Far from it. It is just me sat in my office at home talking to myself.
What about the other types of photography? Hmm.
Well, I listed the 20 main types of photography in Episode 32. I have spoken about some of them, but not all of them. So, what I wanted to do was wrap this up. I'm going to go through the 20 quick, then I'm going to explain (or justify) why I haven't covered them all.
It's not that I can't be bothered - I'll explain.
1 Architectural photography I covered in Episode 33.
This is what I do.
2 Documentary photography (these are alphabetical order by the way)
Now I didn't cover this. I think I described it in episode 32 as, this is people who are going to like, war, photographers who are going to places of danger and conflict. I'm not really going to look into that because I'm not going to say hey, get into this area of photography if you want to that's absolutely fine, as it sounds a little bit dangerous to me.
3 Event photography.
This could be any kind of social or corporate event. It's not an area I've ever worked in, or one that I fancy working in to be honest with you. I have done some headshot photos in the past but, yeah, if you're going to go down that road, that's absolutely fine.
4 Fashion.
Now if you knew me, you'd know that this is not my thing. I'm a jeans and T Shirt guy.
5 Food photography.
A specialist area that involves detailed planning, setting up, mist sprays and all sorts of other stuff and complicated lighting - not my thing. Really not what I'm good at.
6 Industrial photography
Covered in Episode 35 - that's my thing, and I love it.
7 Landscape photography
Covered in Episode 37. Love it too.
8 Macro photography.
Yeah, it's like food photography but it's a wider range of subjects. It's close ups - macro is when you're getting close to something and are photographing it at a ridiculous scale like 1:1.
“Or very close up and large which is a better way of saying it than I did on the podcast.”
I did actually buy a Canon macro lens. Not too expensive. I do believe it's 100mm F2.8. I bought it thinking I needed it, but I never really used it.
I've got the lens I excitedly unwrapped it, (it unwrapped it?), took it out of the box, put it on my camera, found some stuff to photograph in my house, then I put it back in my camera bag.
I carried it around for about five years and then sold it – it just didn't appeal to me. Nothing wrong with it though - macro photography just doesn't appeal to me.
9 New-born photography, 10 portrait photography, 11 People photography.
Obviously, these are all about photographing people, which is not my chosen specialism. Again, nothing wrong with photographing people. There will always be a demand for it. (And I like people!)
I think it's a good area to look into.
And if you can do portraits, you can photograph people, and you can do new-borns, I believe. I think photographing people is very much a specialism. And I'm confident that I'm possibly the worst person on the planet to advise you on that.
That's one of the reasons I'm not covering some of these things. It’s just not me. And I don't know enough about them to be able to help you.
So I do not talk about irrelevant detail. Anything I say on new-born photography therefore is irrelevant detail because I've never done it!
12 Photojournalism.
Yeah, there's still a demand for this, but nowhere near as much as there used to be, which I believe to be the case, which is a shame.
13 Product photography
I covered this in the last episode. And the plan was I was just gonna mention a couple of things that I've done. And it's one of those things that the more I thought about it, the more potential there is in that area. So yeah, product photography is worth a look. It's easy to get set up and started in it. And once you get going, you got momentum.
14 Sports photography
I have had a go at this as a spectator (the transcript thought I said terrorist) at the football and from the stands at the cricket.
I loved it.
It was really enjoyable. But it looks like an extremely competitive market to make money in. And when I go to football, I look at the photographers and I don't really sit there and think, well I wish that was me. Apart from the fact that they're there, but they're probably not enjoying the experience.
I'm there as a spectator, but they get to a lot more matches, which must be great. But I do sit and look at them and think hmm, that looks like hard work.
And then again, there’s taking photos at a cricket match.
Some years ago, I went to (digression time) the Cricket World Cup, erm no what was it (post podcast note the ICC 50 over tournament), anyway it was in England. My father and I went to Edgbaston, The Oval and Lords to watch international games, England games at that. I had a Canon 5D at the time, and my Canon 100- 400mm monster lens and I've got some amazing photos.
The problem was I’d had a few drinks, and I think because the lens is so big, and the lens cap is so long on it, I ended up knocking this woman in the face who sat in front of us a little bit too often which must have spoiled her experience.
I still look at those photos and think yep, they look like they were taken by a pro - imposter syndrome is still there.
15 Still life photography
Like food photography, same technical discipline, different subject matters. Not really sure what they are, but not something I'm going to get into
16 Stock photography.
Now, people will tell you that you can make a particularly good living from stock photography. I'd like to meet them.
I've tried. I didn't try hard granted, I had a quick dabble. But when you get your 23p commission from Adobe for being on Adobe Stock, you think to yourself, really is that all I'm worth?
I took all my stuff off Adobe Stock in disgust.
I'd rather have my photos on my own website and for people to look at them for nothing than be paid a paltry sum like that.
I also have some stuff with a stock agency in the UK but yeah, not really going anywhere.
17 Street Photography
Okay, street photography. Rather surprised that I covered this one because I knew nothing about it, and have no interest in it. And I'm not at all intending on doing it.
But I found it was quite interesting what I learnt about it. And yes, it is a completely valid type of photography – if it’s your thing absolutely fine.
18 Weather photography
I photograph the weather as part of other things. So yeah, we live in England, you don't go and photograph the weather that often because it's rubbish.
19 Wedding photography.
Yes, I covered this in Episode 36. And that was a shock to the system. Let me tell you, the only thing that could be more of a shock would be me actually photographing a wedding, which won't be happening anytime soon.
I wouldn't imagine (never say never).
20 Wildlife photography.
Now this one really does appeal, sounds like a fascinating area of photography. But I just keep on having the stereotype “I need to be on a safari somewhere in Africa, watching elephants and all that wonderful stuff roaming freely” thoughts.
I'm sure there's more to wildlife photography than that. But yeah, that's it.
Construction Photography
I also covered in Episode 34 construction photography, which was not on the list. But this is what I do. And this there will be a point to this. Please believe me.
This is it.
As you'll see I've covered some areas in detail and some not at all.
There are areas photography I have absolutely no interest in and I've no doubt that you feel the same.
And that's fine.
There's nothing wrong with it. Don't worry about it. And if you want me to explain a genre of photography that I missed, then let me know and I'll gladly do so.
But this is the point.
There are many different areas of photography, try as many as you want to, then choose one, or two, or three, whatever, choose something and become excellent at it, or, as I say, niche down.
If you want to be a successful photographer, I suggest that you pick an area and excel in that area.
Do not try to be the photographer who does all things for all people, because it's the road to failure. I spent 10 years doing that. A lot longer than that actually but a long time getting nowhere having no focus.
Now I photograph buildings. That is all I do. Well, buildings, nice places, and buildings in nice places. But you get the point.
I photograph similar things, landscapes, buildings, I don't know why I counted them on my hand here because you can't see and it's not really helpful is it? So I photograph buildings, construction sites, landscapes, industrial facilities, locations.
It's all similar stuff, requiring the same skill sets, specialisms, techniques, gear, processing. They all fit together.
If I chuck in weddings as well that would just throw everything out. So um, that's my advice at the end of this and this is the point of this episode.
Be excellent at one thing.
Okay, what I want you to do now?
1 Do this one thing.
Tell me which is your one favourite type of photography.
2 Which is number one as well to be honest with ourselves.
Let me know on Twitter, @rickphoto.
3 Subscribe to my podcast.
if you enjoyed this episode. This helps me.
4 Rate and review this episode.
Rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcast from if you enjoyed this episode, of course, this also helps me.
5 Tell someone you know about my podcast.
This also helps me as well. And help is appreciated from anybody in growing my podcast.
Okay, next episode. Ha-ha, typo. Next episode, I will wrap up what the other types of photography as I mentioned back in Episode 32. No, I won't.
The next episode is going to be something completely different called “what are the steps in photography?” Now this is a great Google question.
Sorry, I'm getting going all over the place there. Yeah, I'm fine there. Sorry.
So what are the steps in photography? A Google question, which I'm looking forward to.
Blimey, I'm way over time.
Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast which is getting a bit longer each episode which is a bit of a concern.
Check out my website, Rick McEvoy Photography where you can find out all about me and my architectural and construction photography work, as well as my blog where there is lots more about photography.
Photography Explained Podcast Website
Check out my Photography Explained Podcast website where you can find out how to ask me a question, find a list of episodes and also things I'm going to explain in future episodes.
This episode was brought to you very much by the power of optimism. I'm getting ahead of the game here and I've nearly finished my website.
I've been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to me, and for giving me 13 and a half minutes of your valuable time. I will see you on the next episode. Cheers from me, Rick.
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