There is a story of a great leader long ago, his riches were vast. He was known for his diligence and attention to detail. Business called him away for a period of time. To make the most of his financial assets he spoke to three of his employees to keep things in order.
Knowing he would be away and unable to contact them he gave them instruction on how to look after his money. He encouraged them to invest in the markets so that there would be increase on his return. To one he gave five measures of gold, to another two and to the final he gave one measure. He gave according to what he thought they could manage. He went off and it was now up his trusted staff to look after his assets.
The first two employees went off into the markets buying and selling. At first they struggled to make anything, but eventually they began to make a return on their investments. The last employee was annoyed. Not only had he been given the least, but he thought it was unfair that he would put his efforts in making his boss rich. He said to him self "Screw that, I will just put it away and he can get what he had on his return"
When the boss came back, he caught up with his staff. Having had a successful trip he was eager to see what had been done with the measures of gold he gave them. The first had doubled his investment from five to ten measures. The second had gone from two to four measures. The bosses eyes glowed with happiness he was pleased to see that they had made something from what they were given.
However, not so happy was the last member of staff. He knew that the boss was not going to be happy, but he didn't care. So when the boss came, he gave back the measure of gold. "There it is, what you gave me, none of it is lost" the third told his boss. This did not go down well with the boss, he was furious. He asked him, "what did you do with what I trusted you with?"
The boss responded "The least you could have done is invest in the stocks and made an increase from the interest. If you did not want to work with what was given". He went on to address all his staff encouraging them to use what they are given and make the most of it in the time they have. He fired the third staff member and took back his investment.
The moral of the story is to invest in what you are given. If you have talent, responsibility make the most of it, invest in yourself so that you develop and grow.
Photography is an area I must invest and develop in. There are many things to learn, it can be very daunting. However it is essential that I learn, grow and develop. Peer support is great, but sometimes you have to put your hand on your contactless card and release funds in order to learn. That is exactly what I did.
I invested in a "Sin City" themed shoot, which was a low key themed shoot. This was to get more studio experience with props and gear I don't always get to use. I also wanted to learn things I did not know. One of the main things I learned was about light metering (something I don't use due to lack of gear). Another thing I learned was to use shadow and light to create a mood.
I met some great people that I had not met before. As a team we set about each task with eagerness to learn. That made the day enjoyable as we were able to have fun as we learned. We all had set times with the model and set, but eventually we took out our gear and made the most of each other modelling and testing out techniques during the waiting periods.
This shot was done only with natural light. I love it, so simple but so effective. One source of light, a reflector and a camera is all you need for a shot like this.
Unfortunately our model had to go through a whole pack of cigarettes to do our shoot (He wanted to). Hopefully he'll never want to smoke again after this day lol. Fortunately I was able to get a good couple of shots I was happy to share.
I was able to gain some much needed experience at MAAN studios in Streatham. I was able to get shots that really assured me that the research and development was working. At no point did I feel out of my depth, this gave me new confidence in the craft. It was a pleasure to work with Robert the model. He really worked with professionalism.
I hope you have been inspired to grow and develop in your given talents. Growth is something we all need, it stimulates us and keeps our brains healthy. I started off the blog by telling a story about development, I am pleased to say I am developing. I can honestly look back weeks, months and years and see that there is progress.
I will be posting bi-weekly to take off some pressure and give me time to get better content out.
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