Make Pictures, Don’t Just Take Them

Foreign.

Laugh, learn and take your photography to the next level with your favorite cowgirls with cameras.

Kara, Kim and Phyllis.

Welcome to the Cowgirls with Cameras podcast.

I'm Kim with Kim Beer photography and be more business.

I'm Cara with Fast Horse Photography.

And I'm Phyllis with Phyllis Burchette Photo.

Hello.

Hi.

Hello everybody.

Another afternoon taping of the podcast.

Not my favorites, which is not historically.

Good for us for staying on topic or.

Yeah, we apparently.

Well, Phyllis is the middle of the night.

She did admit that she.

Her.

Her go to time is middle of the night.

Yeah.

And unfortunately I like being up in the middle of the night.

But my creativity, my muse is an early riser.

She wants to be up at 5, so I don't know about you, Kara.

Well, now I want to clarify the middle of the night, I'm talking about like, well, I guess midnight would be the middle of the night, kind of.

It would be like exactly in the middle of the night, I think.

Yeah.

Especially now since it gets dark at 5:30, so.

Oh.

But think about it.

And people on the other side of this who are listening to this, you've already crossed that barrier.

But we're only two days away as we're taping this from the longest night of the year.

And then everything else starts to get brighter.

Yay.

Although I have to say I'd like.

I like this time of year.

And I know that's an unpopular opinion in the horse world.

I don't mind because it means my photo shoot started three and I'm home for in time for dinner.

And I'm not out late even if I have to drive far.

So I'm not complaining.

I'm kind of in the same.

I don't have those issues, Cara.

But I kind of like this time of year too, because it forces me to go inside and eat dinner early and do things and just have a nice evening.

It's cozy.

I mean, it makes.

It makes riding harder.

It makes feeding in the dark more difficult.

But I do remember when I did have horses, I would be riding under lights this time of year, so.

And I did that a lot, but I don't do that anymore.

So.

Yeah, but from a photography perspective, it sure makes for a nice short day.

It does make for a nice short day.

Either way, I like some of our fall workshops like Trap.

I know we're.

But then again, we're back and we're in bed by 8 o' clock o' clock at night, so.

Yeah, yeah, I'm not complaining.

We're only in bed at 8 o' clock because we have no power, because.

We have any lights, and because we have to be up at like 4am you know, it didn't seem like this.

Year was quite as early though, because we didn't have those 10.

We didn't go into town this year, so that was different.

No, it seemed very reasonable.

And we won't be this next year either, so we'll be going straight to shoots.

So not that you're going to get to sleep in if you're coming with us.

To Trappers.

To Trappers.

But only one I really miss is going to Shintala's.

That would be the only one I'd really miss.

But.

Yeah, but all that beautiful fall color up there on that mountain is.

Oh, no, no, no.

I know.

It's.

There's plenty to replace that.

What has everybody been up to?

Kara, what have you been doing?

I have been doing creative consults for the new year session.

So Florida season is still happening, so we shoot a lot in January and February and March.

So I've got a bunch of like, senior sessions coming up and just stuff coming up.

Oh, Betsy and I are working on our second book, so that's happening and we've been actually really meeting a lot on that and doing a lot of co writing, trying to get that pulled together because it's so much writing.

Our new struggle as non.

I'm going to call us non authors because we're not like.

Neither one of us are like big authors.

This is new endeavor for us to do so much writing.

It feels very chaotic in my brain.

So we're working on putting some systems in place to make that help us out a little bit.

So.

But it's a lot of work and it's.

But it's also exciting.

So maybe we'll have a new book out in the next year, year and a half.

You and Betsy are definitely the system gurus, so you should be able to come up with some kind of a system for this.

What about you, Phyllis?

What have you been doing?

Well, we already talked about beforehand before we started the podcast, that you two are the overachievers and I'm the underachie.

But because, yes, I am.

I wouldn't call me in retirement mode, but I am definitely in the mode that I just kind of do what I want to do in the winter.

So, yeah, I've got some mentorships going on that I'm excited about talking with those ladies.

And other than that, that's about all I got.

I do.

I really do enjoy the mentorship.

So anybody out there that wants to sign up for a mentorship?

We're all available.

We are.

We are.

Well, I'm over here building my podcast empire.

Y.

You have been.

And that's what I meant by overachiever.

Yes.

There it is.

I can't even turn on a podcasting platform without four of Kim's episodes, like, taking.

I'm like something else.

Where's the true crime?

I can't.

I hear Kim all the time in my brain and in my ear.

I don't need to also hear her here.

I have become the ear worm in your life.

Yes.

Has the one with you and Betsy started yet?

Have you got it?

It actually the first episode comes out on Tuesdays, so it's going to come out on Tuesday's opposite of Cowgirls with cameras.

So the business animal is back.

Betsy Bird and I are co hosting.

And get prepared for snarky, sage wisdom.

I think that's about what I can say.

It's pretty funny, and you're going to hear a lot of laughter.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

Kara's ready for that ride.

I might not be subscribed to that one.

I'll have to check.

So.

But yes, the business animal is back.

So the episode.

By this time this episode airs, it'll be out, and there will be multiple episodes that are in the new format.

I'm happy that Betsy has joined you on that and that the business animal is continuing.

I feel like it ran its course with me, and I was kind of happy to be done on the other side of it, but I was sad to see it go.

So now I'm really happy that Betsy has, like, picked that up and that you guys are working together that way.

And Betsy is so much fun.

We do have a good time.

My cheeks hurt when I'm done with our calls.

It's hilarious and it's fun.

I'm gonna miss my drive to Florida with Betsy.

My yearly drive to Florida.

Yeah.

This year.

Yeah.

You're not doing the January thing.

It sounds like to me that since you're both working with Betsy, that I need to find a project to do with Betsy, too.

You do.

You need to do a co project with Betsy.

You definitely do.

And I also have two other podcasts that I want to talk about.

Two other.

Oh, I didn't know about this.

Yes.

I actually have three new ones besides the business animals.

So, like, every day a week, pretty much, you can get a podcast episode with me.

However, some of them are very short, so one of the new podcasts is the Be More Business podcast, which is a lot of the mindset stuff I share on here.

That's a lot of what that podcast is about.

And it even has a challenge every month called Make It Happen Monday, which I did for years, years ago.

And that is one thing that you can do this month to improve your business.

And so if you want to join in on that challenge, those UP episodes are available.

And again, it's Be More Business.

It's on Spotify, Audible, all the same places this podcast is on, as well as YouTube.

And then the other one I want to share is the Self Made Happy Air.

And those are really short episodes, usually less than 10 minutes of something about tuning into the frequency of your joy and happiness.

So I hope you guys will tune into that one as well.

And I share horse stories on there.

So there's a great one about my heart, horse, Rainbow and this mule that freaked him out and how tuning into the.

The nervous systems around you, if everyone is calm, can really bring you back.

To who you are.

So I hope you guys in and enjoy that.

What's the name of that one again?

The Self Made Happy Air.

And it's H A P P Y A I R E. You know how they do these books about becoming a self made millionaire?

Why do you want to be a self made millionaire?

Just to be a happy person.

Right.

We think money is going to buy us happiness.

I say skip the millionaire part, do it, whatever, but come on over to the self made Happier because you can choose the frequency of happiness and definitely listen to Rainbow the mule and the frequency of happiness.

All right, so it sounds like our listeners, when they're done here, they have some, some more listening requirements or homework or something like that.

If they want me as their earworm, they certainly can come on over.

If they don't, no, no, no hard feelings.

It's not a bad earworm to have.

It's not terrible.

I try to spread joy and happiness and business wisdom.

So yeah, there you go.

All right, are we ready to move on to our episode for this time?

Let's do it.

Okay, so today we're talking about making pictures.

Don't just take pictures.

And interestingly, this is the tagline for cowgirls with cameras is make your best shot.

And when I originally designed the logo, it said take your best shot.

And Phyllis and I got to talking about it in the car one day and I was like, no, that needs to be make your.

And she said, I 100% agree.

It needs to be make Your best shot.

So that's how we ended up with the tagline that we have.

So today I'm going to be sharing a little bit about investing yourself in the story of the moment, which is more about making photos than taking them.

Phyllis is going talk about being intentional in your photography and Kira is going to talk about not getting lost in your habits.

So I'll kick us off with somewhat of how to get into that mindset of making an image.

And for me, making an image encompasses both things that Phyllis and Kara are talking about.

Not grabbing the old shot list and just shooting down the list and also being intentional.

But how do you really approach that moment?

Because it's really hard to plan.

Horses are unpredictable creatures.

Human beings are equally, if not more unpredictable.

And many times we are there to not only capture that shot list, but.

The moment and somehow make it look magical while everything's happening.

Here's the thing.

I want you to connect with magic and the magic starts in you.

It's not in your camera, it is in you.

And I think many times we talk about photographers having an eye and we sort of give us thoughts or ideas or our creative vision.

But I want you to check in with your body and what are you feeling like when you get to a shoot.

Even before you step out of the vehicle, breathe into what this moment is like.

Get in touch with yourself.

And when you put your feet on the ground to start off with, don't just pop out and grab your camera bag and go running for the barn.

Take a moment and close your eyes, open your eyes, look around you.

And it doesn't take any time at all.

You don't have to make an announcement as what you're doing.

If you are a little bit woo cautious but you want to, you want to just get into what is the feel of this place because that creates creativity.

It doesn't live in your eyeball, it doesn't live necessarily in your brain.

You need those things to see and you need it to execute the settings on the camera.

But the actual story lives in you and the feeling of being of that particular environment and space and the human beings and animals that are taking up residence there.

And pick up on the mood, pick up on the mood of what is around you and the people and the horses and all of the things that you're getting.

Horses all have such unique personalities and usually, I don't know, you guys probably have better prepared clients than I do.

But when I used to do portrait photography, I'd pull up and inevitably somebody.

Was still Brushing a horse.

But it gave me a moment to kind of tune into what was going on in that barn aisle and seeing that horse's personality and how they showed up with their owner and were they really connected to them?

Were they nervous?

Was the owner nervous?

You know, and it gives you an opportunity to kind of get a glimpse at how that partnership or how that relationship is and how you might want to capture it.

And this is very true if you're showing up for a portrait shoot.

It's even more true when you're showing up on a ranch to capture the essence of what is going on on that ranch.

When we show up to our shoots, I do try to look around me at the environment and the feel and the partnership between the horses, the riders, and the dogs and the cattle.

There's a lot there to get into the mood on and the energy on.

The other thing is, stories are about threads.

To me, when you look at a story, to make it cohesive, it needs to carry threads, like woven into a tapestry, right?

So the different threads compile the entire picture.

And.

And so when you go to make photographs versus take photographs and you're interested in storytelling, looking for focal points that will turn into threads is absolutely important.

So let me give you an example of what I mean by that.

So let's say I am going to photograph a ranch family.

I am going to look around me at what are the clothing that they're wearing, what is the brand?

A brand is a thread in most ranch families.

It many times will appear on multiple things.

Having capturing that is part of the story.

Taking a look at their tack and their spurs and their stirrups and how their saddles are used and the different contraptions that ranchers put on their saddle horns.

When they have to rope things, there's always an interesting concoction of things there.

What about their hands?

You know, hands oftentimes tell a lot of the story.

They're a thr.

How everything connects with everything else.

And so there's those small details, and then there's the pull back from those small details into the large vision of the ranch stead how the barn looks or how that particular area is shaped, and then how the animals are moving through it and how the people are moving through it, and the energy in the connection between everybody there.

It's a thread.

And.

And all of those kind of disparate concepts and focal points create a cohesive story that tells the story of that particular photo shoot.

I don't know if that made sense, but look for Focal points and threads.

I like the idea too, of just like, when you pull up to something, like taking a moment to like, just be there for a minute.

Because a lot of times we're coming in with all of our crap that we've been doing.

And the phone call you just got off with, or the True Crime podcast you were just listening to and it's like.

Or the Kim podcast.

Yeah.

And it's.

It's so easy to like, bring all of that into your shoot.

And, you know, like, we set the tone so often.

So I think that's a really good point too.

All right, Phyllis, you're up.

Well, I just wanted to say that back years ago, I actually did a. I have a whole course that I wrote for learntotakephotos.com back in the day that it was called Don't Take Pictures, Learn to Make Pictures.

So I have a whole course about this nice somewhere.

Well, I was under contract to not reuse it for so many years, so.

That's funny that, you know, when I had this.

Cause this is one of my ideas for a. I was actually was going back to that.

Cause I've done a couple of newsletters on it.

But anyway, that said, my whole thing is about being intentional.

And I really hadn't thought about it this way until I got to thinking about my old course and about how I approach and shoot and everything.

But photography isn't about reacting.

It's about responding.

I was really reminded about this earlier this year when I went to do the shoot at Arapahoe Ranch during cabin season.

The moment I arrived on that ranch, I was totally overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of everything that was going on.

The movement, the noise, the number of cattle that were there.

Because everything was up in the.

The cabin pens, the mamas, they weren't out in the pastures, you know, or out in front the.

They were all up there in that cabin pen.

And there was so much activity everywhere I looked.

I did what I do when I seen feels really big.

I just started taking pictures because I raised my camera and tried to document everything I saw because I was scared to death I was going to miss something if I didn't just keep shooting.

After a few minutes, I was like, wait a minute.

I realized that I really wasn't seeing anything.

I was simply reacting to the chaos.

That's all I was doing.

I was reacting to it instead of responding to the story that was going on in front of me.

And I had really not.

Like you said, Kara, I didn't take the time when I got out of that rental car to observe about anything, about how the light was falling, where the quiet moments lived.

I was just so overwhelmed that I just wanted to grab everything I could instead of taking the time just to sit back for a minute like, you're.

Gonna miss it or something.

Yeah, I was.

I was scared I was gonna miss it.

Oh, this ain't gonna happen again.

I gotta.

I gotta do it right now, you know?

Well, little did I know.

It kept happening, but, yeah, it was.

What interactions mattered the most, is what I needed to be looking for.

But once I slowed down and let the scene kind of unfold in front of me without the camera glued to my face, everything changed.

My images became way more intentional.

The moments were more meaningful, and the photograph stopped being about coverage and started being about connection.

That's the big difference is Reacton records what's happening, responding, ask what really matters.

Such a good contrast.

Yeah.

Taking a picture is reactive.

Making a picture is deliberate or what I call intentional.

When you take a picture, you see something and respond quickly.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

We all do it.

And sometimes that's how snapshots are made, which sometimes that's not bad, sometimes it's necessary, but it's driven by the scene and not by you so much.

When you make a picture, you slow down and you take control.

You're not just recording what happened, you're interpreting it.

Intentional photography starts before you ever lift the camera.

You think about the light, the emotion, the timing, and the story matter way more than your settings.

The settings help us tell that story.

Of course, the real challenge in photography today isn't technical.

And I love this.

It's emotional.

And really, I find that myself.

It's not the technical part of it.

It's just the emotional part is more challenging to me than any settings like.

To tap into it.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Holding on to the reason you made the image in the very first place.

A photograph is meant to preserve a feeling, not chase a response, which I think is kind of.

We're kind of doing that a lot with social media too.

But seeing requires a lot of awareness and patience, Training your eye to notice the gestures, the relationships and the emotion and just wait and let the scene tell you what it needs from you.

Ask yourself, why am I making this image?

What do I want the viewer to feel?

What story am I trying to tell?

And also, what can I leave out is important too.

Tools don't make the image, your choices do.

And mastering your art comes from repetition with purpose.

And I Like the part about limitations.

I hadn't thought of it like this, but yes, limitations can improve creativity.

When you go to a shoot and say, I'm only going to use this one lens, maybe it's one you don't use all the time for an entire shoot, it forces you to see things differently.

And try going out on your next shoot with the.

If you can.

If you're shooting for a client, you may not be able to do this, but try going out on your next shoot with a single intention rather than a checklist.

And also to finish it off, edit with intention.

Your post processing should enhance the story you're trying to tell, not distract from it.

Because I was talking about this the other day on my live edit on the Community.

I was doing something from Iceland and I was talking about, to me, Iceland images are dark and moody, kind of, you know, because that tells that story.

So does your edit support the mood that you felt when you were there shooting?

Feel the scene and make choices and make pictures?

Yep.

Awesome.

There was a lot of good little nuggets in there.

That's a lot in there.

Yeah.

But there were some really good nuggets, like mindset things that I think we can take into all different types of sessions that we do and even our events, you know, when talking with the clients at our events.

So I really thought that was really good for my part of the conversation.

I want to talk about what happens when we find ourselves, like, sliding into autopilot when we're shooting.

And I do this.

It's a common, I think, thing for a lot of people.

And I think it's really important that it's to be noted that this can really happen when we shoot professionally for a similar type of client.

So, for example, I do a ton of equestrian portrait clients.

So we do not wake up in the morning and think to ourselves, at some point today I'm going to stop being creative and I'm just going to do the same, like flow forever.

It happens quietly, it sneaks in.

Because for me especially, I think habits feel useful, they feel helpful, they feel responsible, and they make me efficient.

But before you know it, every session starts to feel and look, I'm going to say and look to like the last session.

And that isn't just with equine portrait clients.

I think that could be anything that we're doing.

Your sessions can start to look alike.

You might have some of the exact same, I call them anchor poses.

Like some of the starting poses.

You might find that you're using the exact same Angles, you know, they're flattering, you know they're go to and you know they're doable.

Um, so you might use the same angles all over again.

The same lens, like Phyllis just talked about, get out of that comfort zone with the lens.

So the same lens choice because you know it works.

So it's that mindset that this always works.

So let's just do it again and again and again because it works.

So don't get me wrong, like I said before, habits are comforting.

They help us, especially as professionals, we need to move quickly.

They help us do that.

They help us feel professional and in control, which is something I'm always like.

Like, you know, that's a personal hang up I have.

If there's tools I can put into place to feel professional, to be professional, to be in control of my session, I'm gonna, I'm gonna use them.

But the truth is, the part that we don't always say out loud is that being efficient is not the same as being creative.

And that's the big piece here is like you're gonna get stuck in that rut.

You're gonna get stuck in your habit.

It doesn't mean that what you're creating is bad.

It could start to mean that what you're creating is not creative anymore for you.

All right, so we're going to talk a little bit about being familiar isn't always better.

So we convince ourselves that these processes, these familiar habits that we put into place equal quality over and over again.

It's worked before, it's going to work again.

And most of the time, sometimes that's true.

But I find that sometimes every gallery starts to feel interchangeable.

Like one client gallery to the next client gallery.

There's the same poses, same types of things.

And if you could swap clients names and images, and the images still feel like they can fit, then you might not need to start thinking about spreading some things out a little bit.

Are you taking the pictures?

Are you following that flow, or are you really making art?

And that's the question.

Are we making art anymore or are we just reproducing images over and over and over again per session?

So I think that when you start to notice that, that's the moment to stop and ask yourself, could this be from any session?

Could any other photographer have made this?

And to me, when I start to see everything looking the same, I feel like my work is starting to suffer.

I feel like I'm starting to suffer, that I've lost myself spark.

I've lost the Excitement.

I am no longer saying to myself, I can't wait for the weekend when all my sessions start up.

Because that's what a lot of my sessions are.

That feeling starts to fade, you know, because I'm like, I'm going to go out, I'm going to knock out my post flow, I'm going to knock out my shot list and I'm going to be done.

And there's no level of creativity there.

And I think that's what is missing sometimes when you are taking pictures instead of making them.

So I think it's really important to try to make room, to try something different and take some time to pull ourselves out.

When we get stuck in the habit and we have to think about that like what Kim was talking about and the things that Phyllis was talking about, we have to actually build space for that inside of ourselves to try something different.

And I would say that that doesn't mean going crazy to the other extreme and tossing your whole system out the window.

You can look for small intentional choices in every shoot to change things up a little bit and still keep the comfort and structure of your habits that are your tried and test and things that are going to make sure that you deliver.

But it can allow you to have some creativity in each session.

So maybe taking the time to change your perspective in one of your regular poses.

So I have a same starting pose that I do for every single session that I shoot.

It's a good starting anchor pose.

But instead of shooting it the way that I always do, I'll say to myself, I'm going to shoot it in the tried and trusted way, but then I'm going to move over here and do it a little different or I'm going to get low, or I'm going to get high.

I'm going to move my feet and just try something different.

And then some things that I'll also try to to do is I'll try to tell myself, okay, I'm going to break one rule, one photography rule for myself this time.

Or I'll say to myself, this is the pose I've never tried before and I think this is a good client that I could try it.

So just finding those little ways to add a little spark of something different to each session and then, you know, just give myself permission to play a little bit at the session as opposed to just sticking to that routine that you're used to that happens over and over and over again.

Absolutely.

Those are all great, great things to bring to every single photo shoot that you do.

And I love the idea of doing one slightly different.

It doesn't have to be huge.

And sometimes I'll take a picture or I'll make a note.

I'll set an even.

Set an alarm on my phone.

Phyllis knows I have alarms that are, like, repetitive, weird things.

And I'll have an alarm that I'll schedule to pop up during this shoot that says, do the creative thing.

And it'll be like, oh, crap, I gotta do that.

I haven't done that yet, so how can I fit that in?

So it's like sometimes you get into your flow, but you have to.

To force yourself to do something different.

Yeah.

You have to be prompted.

Some of us do.

I'm the opposite.

I get to the shoot and go, okay, let's do the creative stuff.

And then I forgot about doing the stuff I probably needed to do.

Yeah, that's me too.

I'm like, oh, good grief.

For me, I still have to fill the brief.

You know, like, you still have to meet the needs of your clients, and your shot list has to happen, but it's like, what makes each shoot special?

Like, trying to find some unique way to show that shoot.

I think as photographers, we'll enjoy it more.

We'll feel like we did a better job, like, all of those things if we could find ways to do that.

Yeah, exactly.

Totally agree.

All right, are we wrapping it up?

I think we're wrapping it up.

All right.

Well, we hope you guys have enjoyed our little conversation that we've had today.

Don't forget, you can find out how to join us at a photography event out in the field by heading to calgarswithcameras.com and just heading over to our events page.

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Thanks for listening to this episode of Cowgirls with Cameras.

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Join our community on social media and be sure to visit our website for more opportunities to fulfill your photography goals, head to cowgirlswithcameras.com that's cowgirlswithcameras dot com See you next time.