Editing and Critiquing for Photography? (Part 1)

Last week I had a surprise--I linked-up (through Linked-In and through FaceBook) with one of my first "most influential" bosses when I was just starting in the work-world. Brought back fond memories.

It was my second "real" job. I was a senior in high school. (My first job started when I was a junior in high school as a National Rent-a-Car agent at the Guam Hilton Hotel and the Guam International Airport--I lost that job when I broke my arm and couldn't drive the stick-shift cars with one available arm.)

I had the cast off my arm ... and was looking in the classified ads of the local paper to see what jobs I might be able to snag. And there it was. An ad. It read: "Wanted: Photographer. No experience necessary. Will train. Must speak Japanese." Cool.

I had been fooling around with photography since the 9th grade ... when a friendly neighbor (and English teacher at our junior high school) showed me how to develop film and prints and how to use a bellows camera. During that summer, I mowed lawns and finally had enough money to buy a "real camera"--a Nikonos II (waterproof, viewfinder, all-manual, 35mm camera). In my sophomore and junior years in high school, I was on the school newspaper and yearbook staff--and got really good at getting candid shots and developing film and processing prints. Also while in high school, I had taken 2-1/2 years of Japanese (this was on the island of Guam--and Japanese tourists were a major part of the economy) .

So, I called the phone number on the ad and set an appointment to go see them.

I drove halfway down the island to sort of an industrial complex, walked up the stairs of a dilapidated former apartment complex turned office building, and stepped into the office of "Walsh Photographic". Sitting behind a desk piled high with papers was a huge, burly man with mutton-chop sideburns and a thinning afro hair-style. He was wearing a wildly colored island shirt, shorts, and had his feet (and flip-flops) propped up on the desk. He lowered the newspaper he was reading and raised an eyebrow when I walked in and asked "Can I help you?"

I told him I was there to apply for the job. (I was sort of dressed up --Island style-- with an island shirt, dress slacks, and formal flip-flops.)

He told me he was sort of expecting an "Island Girl" but he'd be willing to give me a try. He asked if I spoke Japanese. I replied that I did. He said "Tell me... Would you like a souvenir photo, one-hour developing, $10"... So, I responded, "Kinnen shashin torimasu ka. Ichi-jiken de genzo shimasu. Jyu dora desu."

He said, "Wow. That sounded pretty good. You're hired." ... I asked if he spoke Japanese, too. He said, "No, but that sounded pretty good. Be at the Hilton Hotel lobby tonight at 6pm."

So, I was happy. I had a new job. Had no clue what I'd be doing, but it seemed like it would be fun.

That night I showed up at the hotel. Tom Walsh was waiting for me. He took me through a tour of all the restaurants and around the swimming pool and said that those were the locations where I'd be asking tourists if they'd like a souvenir picture. Then he took me through the main kitchen--introduced me to the chefs and kitchen assistants--and then down into the hotel basement, where the laundry and boilers and air-conditioning units were. We went to an unmarked door--to what seemed to have been a large janitorial storage room. The room had been converted into photolab. The front area was for finishing (drying and mounting prints) and the deeper area in a wall-off curtained area was for developing film and prints.

Tom showed me how to load 120mm rolls of film into a twin-lens Yashica box camera. I hadn't told him how much photography experience I had, so he was surprised at how fast I could load the rolls into the camera and how I knew how to focus the thing. He also showed me how to use the flash unit. He then told me "Go up to the restaurants and finish that roll--let's see how you do."

I went up to the Tahitian Dinner room and while the tourists were eating before the show, I went from table to table asking if they'd like a souvinir picture. Many said "No."--but I was pleasantly surprised at how many said "Yes" and stuffed money into my hands. I finished all 12 shots on the roll and scurried back down to the basement darkroom. This took all of about maybe an hour. Tom was pleasantly surprised when I handed him the roll of film from the camera and a handful of bills. $120 worth. He pulled out a $5 and handed it to me for my night's "pay". (In those days, the minimum wage was $1.50/hour) I stayed at the darkroom and watched and visited (well, actually, in the dark, you can't watch much) as a photolab tech processed the film and then turned on the "safelight" to process the prints. When the prints had gone through the print dryer and we had mounted them in their folders, my boss handed the prints to me and told me to run up to the hotel lobby and ask the front desk to put the photos in the guest's boxes.

I came back down to the photolab to see if there was anything else they needed. He said "No" ... but then showed me a "contact sheet" -- an 8"X10" sheet on which all the negatives have been laid and exposed through to produce positive prints. From this contact sheet, he discussed the photos I had taken... gave me some tips to get better shots. It seems I would be learning a lot from this professional photographer. I didn't realize you could critique and improve photos with an editorial eye--much in the same manner you could edit and improve writing in a manuscript.

He talked about different angles--that the folks were usually sitting down and if I were standing, the angle of the picture might be weird--twin-lens cameras were helpful in solving this problem because you shot from an already low-angle. He talked about not shooting straight into a shiny or mirrored surface. The flash would wipe out the picture--always shoot at an angle to a mirrored or glazed surface so that the reflection goes somewhere other than back into the camera. Try to have the people posed with a contrasting or bland surface behind them so as to not distract from the subjects of the photo. Don't have a distracting arrangement of tableware in front of your subjects--these also detract from the photo. Some of these suggestions seemed like "minor nits"... sort of nitpicky... but each could add improvement to an image. And I appreciated the time Tom took to help me improve my photography.

This was the beginning of my education on the finer points of photography. I hope this story and the tips at the bottom will help you with your photography.