Breaking Photography Rules to Level Up Your Skills with Louis Stevenson

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Louis Stevenson (00:00):
You learn not to get precious with your
photos.
You think you can save every oneof them.
It's like, it's not worth savingevery one of them.
You have 4, 000 more photos togo through right now.
You need to get through this.
If you're saving all of them,then you can have too many to
deliver.
And then also people are goingto be seeing subpar work.
So you just want to give thebest you can every time.
Don't waste too much time tryingto save something that's not
worth saving.

Raymond Hatfield (00:21):
Hey, welcome to the beginner photography
podcast.
I'm your host Raymond Hatfield.
Each week I interview one of theworld's most interesting
photographers to learn what itreally takes to capture
beautiful images so that you canstart to do the same.
In today's rewind episode, weare chatting with beginner
photography podcast, communitymember, Louis Stevenson about
overcoming photography struggleswith persistence.

(00:42):
Many photographers hitroadblocks, especially when
shifting into new genres orhandling technical aspects like
the exposure triangle.
But today's guest, beginnerphotography podcast, community
member, Louis Stevenson shareshis journey from just being a
casual shooter to becoming adedicated motor sports
photographer.

(01:04):
He talks about those pivotalmoments that pushed him to take
photography seriously.
The challenges of understandingthe technical settings and how
these hurdles can be overcomewith perseverance and
creativity.
So in today's episode, you willlearn how to embrace the
learning curve rather than giveup.
The autofocus trick that Lewisuses to keep fast moving

(01:24):
motorcycles in focus.
And how to break away fromtraditional photographic quote
unquote rules and createsomething uniquely your own.
And as I said, Lewis is a memberof the beginner photography
podcast community where he hasnot only advanced his own
learning, but where he now helpsout others in the community
because of what he has learned.
You can be like Lewis.
We'd love to have you.

(01:45):
So come join the free andamazing beginner photography
podcast community, which you canjoin right now by heading over
to beginner.
photopod.
com forward slash group.
I hope to see you there.
All right.
With that, let's go ahead andget on into today's interview.
Why don't you just tell me whoyou are, what you do, and where
you're from, obviously.

Louis Stevenson, I'm from Washington
State at the moment.
originally from Oregon.
Moved up here about 10 yearsago, and, my career has taken
kind of all vast directions,but, Yeah, I got me started in
photography when I was probablyabout six, he gave me my first
point and shoot.
And, from there, he gave me aSLR film camera when I was about

(02:26):
10, before digital way beforedigital, you start to feel old
when you look back and like, ohyeah, digital has been around
for a long time now, and then Ididn't do a whole lot with
cameras through school.
I did some teacher's assistancein a photography class for
whatever reason.
I never took it.
And then after school, my dadactually gave me my first

(02:48):
digital camera.
And that's kind of, I've had oneever since I've been using
cameras regularly ever since.
it wasn't until, The solareclipse, what is that about four
years ago now that, we went downto Oregon and I had just my
phone.
I didn't take a digital, youknow, at that point I didn't
have any modern digital camerasof any sign besides my phone.

(03:11):
And I shot the photos.
I sent you two of them.
the frog photo in the pond and,uh, solar eclipse, um, on that,
on that, I'm like, you know, Ireally enjoy this and I think
these turned out pretty well.
I want to get a real camera andsee how I do.
And that's kind of gone fromthere.
So, started, I immediatelyactually, for whatever reason, I

(03:34):
immediately thought aboutgetting a business license and
all that from the start, why,yeah, I just jumped right into
it.
Sometimes I do that sort ofthing.
That's kind of the way I did,uh, The race photography this
year, I saw an opportunity andjust kind of went straight into
it.
Didn't give anybody opportunityto say no, just went straight
in.
So,

yeah, that's funny.
There's a lot of things,obviously we, we jumped a huge
amount there from, you know,film camera there in the
beginning to all the way up torace photography today.
So I know that, it doesn't soundlike you were taking
photography, seriously with anysort of intention when it comes
to composition or technicalsearly on, but, was there

(04:12):
something about photography thatjust really kept you interested
in it long enough until we gotto the solar

eclipse?
It's well, I've always liked todocument, things I want to
remember later type thing.
my dad will take pictures ofjust everything.
I mean, you're like, instead ofwriting a note down, he takes a
photo of

it.
I love it.

Yeah.
So, I'm not quite that way, butI will take photos of quite a
few things like that where Ijust need to remember something
later on.
But, For personal things, Ienjoy saving a moment.
So it's like, it's the wholelike recording your life and
moments, that sort of situation.
So, that's why I've always kindof like, when I was going to

(04:53):
market myself as doing, Ioriginally wanted to go in and
do sort of a.
lifestyle type photographyrevolving around outdoor
activities and basically go onhikes with people and things
like that.
The things where people normallyjust take a point and shoot
camera or put, set up a tripodor something like that and
actually get good photos ofsomebody and, you know, make

(05:15):
friends at the same time.
And that hasn't gone anywhere,but I can see.
where it could eventually, youknow, if I, you know, you just
got to build up, your socialnetwork for something like that
to work.
So, yeah.

So at what point did it was after the solar
eclipse that you decided, youknow what, I'm going to take
photography seriously.
I'm going to shoot more withintention.
Why do you think those photossparked that within you?

I don't know, something about the photos made
me feel that these were prettygood.
And.
I was, I knew what was good andwhat wasn't, I didn't exactly
know why.
And so I thought, you know, if Ican do this without knowing
exactly why, then maybe I can dothis, do better if I actually go
at this with some intent.

(06:00):
So, I don't know.
I had.
wanted to get a good camera fora long time is the, the eclipse
photo was through my telescope.
So I wanted to get a good camerafor a long time that I could
actually hook up with the Tadapter through the eyepiece of
the telescope.
And that was part of theintention.
I still haven't done that, butthat was part of the intention.

(06:21):
And, um, I have the adapters andjust haven't got taken telescope
out to do it.
So I've just been busy doingother stuff, photography wise.
So.

So like, why was, once you started getting
into it, you decided, you knowwhat, I'm really going to pursue
this.
You got yourself a nice DSLR.
Yeah.
What was, obviously it's a bigdifference than, uh, iPhone that
you were shooting with.
What was the hardest part foryou to like fully understand?

is exposure triangle for everybody.
I really think it is.
because you don't realize thatyou can only push the boundary
one way so far before it breaksanother thing.
and for me originally, it wasdefinitely ISO because
everybody's talking about ISOnoise, ISO noise, this and that,
and they're like.
And at some point along the way,you realize that, you know, you
just got to get the photo andyou got to stop putting yourself

(07:09):
in this boundary that'spreventing you from capturing
the moment completely.
If you capture the moment, evenslightly below your normal, 100
percent quality that you want,you know, slightly subpar, it's
still better than not getting itat all.
I think that really was thehardest part.
And, the manual camera thing.

(07:30):
Actually, when I went into it, Iwent into it with.
I always, when I had a pointshoe, I always kind of went
about knowing every part of thepoint shoe.
So I would push, you know, I'dpush every little manual lock I
could so I could get the phototo do what I want elsewhere in
auto, auto.
So when I got the manual camera,I actually started out in manual
only.

(07:50):
and ran manual only for likeover a year before I started
even experimenting withautomatic focus, let alone
anything else.
Oh my gosh.
Um, and that it's hard.
And what really pushed me to gopast that was when I started
doing the youth sports.
And realizing that I got to haveauto focus and I can't, focus

(08:11):
on, I can't concentrate onexposure and all these other
things at the same time.
when I really need to worryabout is shutter speed, because,
each moment is slightlydifferent and I'm just going to
set the shutter speed where Ineed it so that, you know,
always at the minimum that Ineed it so I can get as much
light as possible, but at thesame time, not worry about the

(08:31):
other settings and let them dowhat they need to do so I can
again, capture the moment.
right.

Was there a single photo that, taught you
that ISO, like it almost doesn'tmatter as long as you capture
that moment, or was thissomething that you learned
through a blog?

It was kind of organic.
I used to follow Scott Bourne alot when he was doing podcasts a
lot, and he was really big aboutnot worrying about the ISO also,
and getting the photo, exposingit correctly in camera, so that
if you need to adjust it later,you can do that.
Because otherwise you'reintroducing noise twice because
once, because the camera'sintroducing the noise, because

(09:07):
you've went, you know, becauseyou're going to get noise on a
dark photo, no matter what youdo.
Sure.
And even if the ISO is high orISO is low, you're going to,
might have less noise with thelower ISO.
But then when you go into thecomputer, you have a dark photo
and now you're going to boostthat noise is already there and
introduce more.
So if you start out with theproper exposure in my, you know,

(09:28):
from what he was saying, andThen you have less noise to
start.
So I started experimenting withthat and it seemed to work to
me.
So I don't know if everybody'sprocess is the same, but for me,
I got a lot more photos to keep.
Whereas before I was getting alot of them, I was like, um,
there's nothing here to pullout.
So, right.
Yeah.

Did you feel like a weight was lifted off of
you when, when you decided topursue that instead?

Yeah, when you're not locking yourself into
the boundaries of what you thinkthe camera can do or let it do
what it's gonna do.
and then you can focus on yourcomposition and everything else
so much more.
You're not, you know, lessworried about the technical
details and just getting thephoto.

Right.
Yeah.
Less worried about the technicaldetails.
Just get the photo.
Exactly.
Let me ask you there.
You said in the beginning youwere doing like a youth sports
and whatnot, and you were usingmanual focus.
Why did you choose manual focusover auto focus?

because that's what I was used to at that
point.
and SLRs film cameras.
well, no, I was, I had, when Igot my first camera, I got the
Sony a 6, 000.
And I was shooting with that.
And as I said, when I first got,I just started shooting manual,
everything, um, just to forcemyself to learn it.
And, I hadn't gone, I hadn'teven experimented with automatic

(10:45):
zoom or a focus, I mean, letalone, learn to trust it for
anything.
When I started doing that, I hadto learn to trust it and figure
out what focus modes I needed tobe in and all that.
Because I just hadn't playedwith it at all.
I kind of did the backwardsdirection.
Everybody starts out with auto.
I went full manual and didn'tknow how to use auto.
So

that's funny.
I was the exact same way when Iwas in film school.
So like cinema cameras have noauto focus at all.
And they're very manual, oldlenses.
And somebody's sole job is justto make sure that the image is
in focus.
Yeah.
They're the, uh, the firstassistant cameraman.
So when I was in film school, Ibought a Canon, XT, just so that

(11:28):
I can keep my skills sharp asfar as exposure goes.
And I was the same way.
I was like, full manual,everything.
I even joked.
I was like, I'm just going tobreak the LCD on the back of the
camera.
Like just so that I have totrust my eye.
So I'm right there with you.
And it is, it is challenging.
And it's like that day that youdecide.
Okay, maybe I'll try autofocushere.
And then you realize later,you're like, wow, like so many

(11:49):
more photos were focused today

than they ever were.
And you're worrying less about.
You know that and getting, soyou can focus more on something
else because, yeah, you know,like, and like I said, with the
races now, I just, all I'mworried about most is just
shutter speed.
And, I do review my photos.
between races to see, make sureI'm catching focus, but, for the

(12:13):
most part, I'm not worryingabout that.
right.

So I'm excited to get into that because I as
well love motorcycles, but Iwant to stay on, youth sports
here, uh, for just a momentbecause I'm sure was sports
something that you were Alwaysinto, or was this kind of a
foreign world for you to jumpinto as far as

no, completely foreign is, uh, growing up, my
sports was motorcycles.
Yeah.
So, I did soccer in likeelementary school, but nothing
after that.
And, so my daughter wanted todo, basketball.
And then softball and that'swhat caught me into doing that.
And I'm like, well, there'snobody here with a camera.
Somebody ought to have a cameradocumenting some of this.

(12:53):
And you can't do it with a phonebecause it's too far away.
You're capturing like thesespecs out there.
You're not seeing anything.
So, that's when I startedcarrying the camera out there
and trying to do that.
my biggest problem with that wasreally marketing is I am not an
extrovert at all.
So, I mean, there'd be thesegroups of, mothers mostly,

(13:16):
talking about talking amongstthemselves or about their kids
out in the field, that'sterrifying to go talk to them.
Right.
Yeah, I get that.
I did get to know a few of them,but it's nothing really came of
that.
but I think it's kind of whereI'm at now if you're talking, if
you work top down instead ofbottom up.
So like there, I'm, I'm with theparents directly.

(13:38):
My plan last year before COVIDhit was to go to the Recreation
center and go through them sothat my name is out there
through them.
And I think that works.
I think it should work a lotbetter because they already got
there.
They trust the recreationcenter.
They don't know you.
And especially when, as a olderman.

(14:00):
Shooting new sports, there is astigmatism there.
You know, I can see it, youknow, parents are like, who is
this guy?
And why is he taking photos ofmy child?
There's that too.
Mentally, I didn't want to putmyself out there because that
also That stigma prevents youfrom, it's hard to overcome.
right.

I get that.
I get that.
so then let me ask if yourdaughter wasn't into youth
sports at all, and you're stillshooting motorcycles, would you.
Want to go back to youth sportsor stick with motorcycles where
you're at right now?

I think I'll still try to do that at some
point.
Yeah.
but right now I can see where Ican build a motorcycle thing up
even further, maybe do cars andsome other club activities.
in the area.
So, I'm going to push this asfar as I can.
there's other establishedphotographers I got to work
around at the moment, but youbuild up your reputation and the

(14:48):
boundaries fall down.
Of course.
Yeah.

So when it came to youth sports, this is
kind of my segue question.
When it came to youth sports,what was the most difficult part
in doing that?
Not like, because I would assumehaving my own daughter, Who's
five now at four at the timeplaying, basketball.
It's like, you really only gotlike the one vantage point
unless you're running around theentire place.

(15:13):
was there anything else that wasdifficult or was that, is that
the

main thing right

there?

Lighting light is you're shooting it really,
and especially basketball, youshoot in a really crummy gym.
In softball, I would say it isdefinitely your vantage points.
Because you're trying to stay ina place where you're not going
to get hit by a ball and stayout of the way of the players.
So you're not exactly on thefield.

(15:37):
Whereas with basketball, itdepends on the gym, but you can
go clear around the court.
you could even be underneath thebasket.
if it's far enough back, soyou're not, you know, not
interfering, but.
Yeah.
With softball, you're reallylimited on your location.
You need a good lens to get outto the outfield.
But, I would say that's, youknow, again, for softball, for
basketball, it's alwayslighting.

(15:57):
there's all their softball gamesare during the day.
So,

yeah, would you be running up and down the
court or do you pretty much findone spot

kind of the same way I do the racing in that
I, uh, find a place to startwith them and then, once I kind
of get bored from that location,I moved to a different one.
Once I feel like I got all theshots I can from that one
location, all the players orwhatever it is, the writers and
on the track, I'll move toanother location and then start
over again.
Yeah.
Deciding on the angles I wantand who need, who I, you know,

(16:27):
hit my primary targets first andthen start moving on to the rest
of the writers.

when you say primary targets, you mean
specific writers?

Yeah.
The specific writers that I havealready paid me for the season.
Oh, I see.
So I feel kind of, I should, Ishould definitely focus on them
first.
Make sure I get the shots I wantthere first.
Especially on track where youdon't know if there's an on
track event where they may beable to finish the race even so,
they could shut the race downearly because of an accident or

(16:55):
you're, subject itself might endup having to have motor go out
or something so that he may notbe.
I'll finish the race.
So you get them as soon aspossible and then move on to
everybody else.

What are some of the other similarities?
You know, you mentioned findinga spot, starting with the spot
and then just moving on when yougot bored.
Are there any other similaritieswhen it comes to youth sports
and motorcycle racing?
it's all action

sports.
Um, so you, I mean, your shutterspeeds are all pretty similar,
actually.
the freezes softball, you'reabove 1200.
To freeze a motorcycle.
You're again, you're at 11200 orhigher.
they're all very similar,especially softball because I
mean you're outside outdoorlighting again, depending on
where the sun is, it's going tothat's going to dictate where
you're going to shoot fromfirst.

(17:36):
So with softball, in theevening, you're going to, you
know, again, it's like if thesun's coming down over the back,
you know, out the outfield,you're got problems because
everybody's going to be in theshade.
But, with the motorcycles, I canjust move to a different side of
the track.
and just came from a differentturn.

what has it been like for you to get out on
the track and capture thosephotos?
Like, I guess, I guess what Iwant to know here is, when it
comes to, action sports, onething that I always struggle
with is that like, obviouslybaseball, basketball, you can
get the emotion, you can getthat, the excitement or the
focus that you can get when itcomes to, motorcycle racing,

(18:13):
like what is the shot?

For me, it's one of the shots.
It's probably like the last, oneof the last shots I got that I
sent you a photo of with theyellow motorcycle there in the
front, and you got, you can seetwo other motorcycles behind
him.
It's all in the turn, they'refolding and they're just
battling right there.
The only other place you canshow that sort of action solely

(18:35):
is a panning shot, but it's not,it's still, if you get a pan
with more than one bike in it.
That's where it's really goingto be at, but it's, it's
difficult.
because the angles you'regetting, typically, if you want
to fit more than one bike, yougotta get them towards the, you
gotta be in front of the bike.
So, you're not panting at thatpoint.

why is that the shot?
Like why that one over any othercomposition or,

because I think it shows the action going on,
whereas, everybody else, asingle rider photo.
Especially with a high framerate, high shutter speed, you're
just showing a person on amotorcycle.
They could be anywhere.

Yeah.

Whereas.
if you really want to show themon a track, you've got to show a
mid corner.
And if you really want to showthat they're racing, not just
doing, riding around the track,then you got to get multiple
riders in that same frame and,you can be wide angle and kind
of show the same thing.
But when you're up close, myfavorite is when you got a rider
that have clear visors and youactually connect with their eyes

(19:32):
and it just, You can see theintensity going on there.
Whereas, the reflective visorsare really beautiful.
They can make beautiful shots,but it's not the same as when
you connect with somebody'seyes, you know, just like
wedding photographer, anythingelse you got to connect with the
person.
So

was it the same with, you sports when it
came time to taking that photois the photo quote unquote, one
that has other players in it aswell.

Yeah.
softball and I never could grabone is I just wasn't the right
place, right time.
I think the slide, we getsomeone sliding into home or in
any base and there's somebodytrying to tag out same time as
really a great photo basketball.
I got it.
Couple, jump shots with multiplepeople trying to block again.
It's showing the actual actionof the game.

(20:19):
otherwise again, it could bejust a solo player and it
doesn't really show that you'rein a game otherwise, unless you
have the other people involved.
sure.

So it sounds to me like.
Context here in other players isone of the most important things
that you can capture in, yeah,in some sort of action sports
photograph.

Yeah.
Okay.
it'd be like getting a weddingphoto, but they're not in a
wedding dress and they're bythemselves.
Oh, yeah, right now.
Yeah.

It doesn't really tell the story.
There's no story going on,

or even if they're just in a wedding dress
by themselves.
What's that?
Is it actually at the wedding?
Or is it just somebody in adress?
Right?
Yeah, exactly.

That's funny.
That's perfect to think about.
Let's talk about gear for alittle bit when it comes to
motorcycles, because, you know,you got to have those long
lenses.
But specifically, I also want totalk about autofocus performance
and like what's most importantthere because that's a world I
know nothing about when it comesto high speed tracking and
things like that.
So walk me through what'simportant for you.

Well, lenses, I'm shooting crop sensor, APSC.
So, I honestly think that's anadvantage for action sports.
is that reach?
Yeah, my end.
I'm not packing around a 10pound lens.
So I'm shooting a 7, 300, whichis actually a full, full sensor
lens.
just because that was the optionwhen I bought that lens and I

(21:39):
wanted a ability to upgradelater on, if I do get a full
frame camera, but, you know, I'mshooting 7, 300, that's a 104
50.
Whereas, you know, I'm shootingwith other people that are also
at 7, 300, but I got, 50 percentmore reach, um, with, same
megapixels for the most part.
So most of the people are, youknow, 24 is pretty, is pretty

(22:00):
high for anything.
And the photos you'redelivering, most people don't
care if it's 24 or 10, they justlike the photo.
um, and then the focus, I wentfrom a, that Sony a 6, 000.
My first round this year waswith the 6, 000 and, I was doing
a lot of, I I've always shotthat camera.
And, uh, center focus mode isjust locked in the center and I

(22:24):
would just manually track therider, whoever it is, or try to
capture them as they're cominginto frame.
But it doesn't it's slow.
it's an older camera after thefirst round I saw I was there
was enough income coming at thatpoint I'm like, well, i'm just
going to go ahead and upgradenow and I looked at getting the
a7r4 But I realized that cameracame out two years ago and they

(22:48):
upgrade every two years and i'mI think You know if they come
out the a7r5 i'll be able to getthe four for way cheaper So and
i'd looked at the 6600 For awhile and I liked the camera You
There's a couple of features Iwish it had.
It doesn't have, but it's thesame, body size as what I was
already shooting.
I knew that I'd be comfortablewith this.
So I went in and got that.

(23:09):
And it has similar focusperformance to like the A7R4 and
it's tracking is justphenomenal.
I just, when I see a rider comein, in the frame, I just do a
half press, half shutter pressand, move my camera to where I
want it and wait for him to fillthe frame where it is.
And then click the photo.
Even at a distance, you canblock the frame onto like the

(23:31):
front of the bike.
And it just follows it all overthe place.
Wherever the bike goes, thefocus follows it.
Um, it's really good.
last race.
I was having some issues withheat and I think that was, you
know, at some point you startwondering, is it my camera or
what it is, but then you lookback to the photos and I sent
you, I think that wheelie shot,if you look down at the curbing

(23:53):
next to the bike, you can seeheat waves right there next to
the bike.
So, yeah, so I, the photo was.
some of those were soft and, andthat's, those are the ones I
know.
If you saw, I posted about that,ran those through, the topaz,
AI, Dino, uh, sharp.
Oh yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
But again, I delivered a numberof photos that were just

(24:13):
slightly soft.
Nobody really cares.
They just, it's the moment thatthey're grabbing.
I see them, but again, I'm, mostof these people look at them on
their phones or a small computerscreen.
I'm looking at them on that, youknow, a 27 inch screen.
So it looks soft to me.
So most people aren't going tobe doing that.
Sorry, it's my dog.
No worries.
It might pay off to be a littlecritical.
because you're delivering betterwork, but at the same time, you

(24:35):
can't be overly critical ofsomething that no one's going to
care about.

Ah, that's another one of those.
It's a balance.
It's a fine balance.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So then what's the process of,delivering photos, I guess, for
all sorts of action sports?
Are you calling through theimages and picking out the ones
that you like best, or are youshowing them all and then
letting the writer chairs?
I'm calling them?

this is one of those interesting, organic
stories where.
I originally shot a half day ofa race.
I guess it's been almost threeyears ago now.
The guy at the time of shootingall the club races invited me
out and I shot lunchtime allafternoon.
And at that time, what I endedup doing is just dumping them
all to Flickr.
you know, I had people thank me,but no, you know, I didn't get

(25:17):
me a purchased anything.
And then, the youth sports thingcame up and from, you know,
everybody there's got a numbers.
And so I just immediatelystarted tagging everybody with
numbers and organizing.
And I learned how to do thatover, the three seasons I did,
two basketball seasons and asoftball season.
And I learned how to do that,column and organize them and

(25:40):
sort them into their own foldersand then upload them to smug
mug.
And in that time and over thosethree seasons and got it down
fairly quickly.
At first it was taking me like aweek and I got it down to a few
days.
And then this year I've beendoing the same thing with the
races but now I'm doing a lotmore photos.
So yeah, in a week and now, Ithink I mentioned on there, my,

(26:03):
uh, I Delivery.
I deliver about eight to ninehundred photos a weekend and I'm
shooting about nine thousandeight to nine thousand.
And so I, my initial import, Ibring them, I originally, it's
funny, I've lost a bunch ofimports by, you know, by
accident is originally I wascalling them before I clicked
import, but I, the tilde key andthe escape key right next to

(26:28):
each other.
And tilde is kind of universal.
I like save or don't save thing.
So I use the X to go, no, Idon't want that.
But sometimes like, no, Iactually did want that when I go
back at the tilde.
Well, if you get 400 photos inand it suddenly hit the escape
key, it tells it, oh, you'redone.
And so I did that a few times.
I'm like, no, that's notworking.

(26:48):
So I just start importing all ofthem and going through them.
and I literally just, you know,right arrow key X, right arrow
key X, and just go through allof them.
until I, you know, I get to agroup burst shot.
I'll just, I'll, I'll, uh, if Isee if the first one's the one I
want, then I'll keep that oneand X everything else out.
But sometimes I'll get into aburst and realize I like that
one, keep that one, go back acouple and then change my, you

(27:11):
know, change the tag on it.
But, you literally just gothrough all of them.
and that's the first step.
And that first step's gotten alot simpler, since I'm actually
on the same laptop right now.
My wife bought me a new Macbook.
because my original plan was todo all this on my iPad at the
track until I realized that theiPad.

(27:32):
Flight room, their taggingsystem still sucks, right?
Yes.
I really wish they'd fix that.
It'd be perfect for that becauseyou just sit there, swipe
through them and tag, but youcan't do that.
So, now, Saturday nights is I'musually staying at the track.
I just import everything to mycomputer and start immediately
calling everything.
I'll be done calling that thatevening for the first day.

(27:55):
And then when I get home on,Sunday night, then I just have
to work on Sunday.
And then from there, after acall, that's when I go through
and actually start tagging withriders names.
And, well, I just do the racenumbers.
The first couple of races thisyear took longer because I
didn't have the race numbers.
I didn't have keywords set upfor everybody yet.
But I have keywords for 99percent of the writers.

(28:17):
Every once in a while, a new onewill show up, somebody will
switch numbers, something likethat.
And I have to change numbers inthe, you know, keywords in the
system.
But, I really, it's, you see awriter, I hit a couple of
numbers because everybody's got,you know, at the most three
digit numbers and that pulls itup and you hit enter and just go
on to the next one.
The one thing I added abouthalfway through the season was

(28:37):
the loop deck and the loop deckjust revolutionized everything
for me because I've had thisthing for a couple of years, but
hadn't really used it other thanjust, you know, occasionally,
but it's fun to spin dialsrather than trying to slide
things with the mouse because Ithink the mouse.
Mouse is really crude when itcomes to using sliders because,
you know, you always go too fartoo much and you're trying to do

(28:57):
a little detail and it's greatfor, you know, if you're doing
selective editing, but if you'retrying to do a bunch of photos
quickly, it just, it's rough.
uh, the loop deck, I literallyjust set it in front of my key,
regular keyboard, and while Ican be.
Typing on the number pad on myregular keyboard for the key
wording.

(29:17):
And I can be spinning dials onthe loop deck simultaneously.
Oh, wow.
And, because once you learnwhere each dial is, you normally
use, you don't, don't even lookin that, that you're reaching
down and grabbing a dial, like Ineed a little more brightness on
this one, or bring the shadowsup on this one and then right
arrow to the next photo andyou're done.
And I normally I'll, I'll ratethe photo and tag at the same

(29:38):
time.
and I only rate them becausesometimes I'll get multiple
photos that look similar over aday and I'll just go like, well,
I got three photos the same, butthis one actually, I have a
higher rating for whateverreason.
I don't look at it closely andjust dump the other ones.
So I'm not delivering, 10 photosfrom the same angle, maybe
different corners, but look thesame.

Yeah, I would imagine that in volume shooting
like that where you get a bunchof photos in a row, that is
probably one of the most timeconsuming parts for you on the
back end is just figuring outlike, okay, well, which shot is
actually is actually worth

it.
You learn not to get preciouswith your photos.
You think you can save every oneof them.
It's like, it's not worth savingevery one of them.
You have, you have 4, 000 morephotos to go through right now.
You need to get through this.
So that one's done.
Yeah.
You're just sitting therethinking like, yeah, it's good,
but it's not great.
And you know, it's, you got twodays of photos.
If you don't have one from that,then hopefully you get one next

(30:34):
round.
Is, uh, you just, if you'redelivering.
If you're saving all of them,then you can have too many to
deliver.
And then also people are goingto be seeing subpar work.
So you just want to give thebest you can every time.
Sometimes it doesn't work.
So you just, you know, don'twaste too much time trying to
save something that's not worthsaving.

Yeah.
So, well, keep talking aboutthat as far as saving something.
like how much, what is yourediting process like?
Is it, pretty extensive edits oris it just trying to be as

basic as possible?
No cropping.
The only, actually, I, I starteddoing some cropping this last
time because I, my process gotfast enough that still
delivering them a day earlierthan I used to, but editing
every one of them.
Whereas before, the first fewrounds, all I would do is pretty
much auto everything, auto whitebalance, auto settings.
And if it was something washorrible, I would adjust it.

(31:23):
Uh, other than that, I wouldn'ttouch it now.
I do auto settings, but I'mleaving white balance alone
because I found the auto whitebalance is just awful.
It just, it's your end upchanging it anyways.
And most of the time you don'tneed to tweak it at all because
the in camera white balance isclose enough.
And I'm, shooting in daylight.
So my in camera white balance, Ihave it set at 6k and just leave
it there.

(31:44):
it's usually close enough.
But yeah, I'm going and then Ido some, uh, usually what I'll
do is tweak the first dozenphotos and figure out what I'm
doing on what tweaks I like themost.
So like, if I want some clarityor if I need to bring up
shadows, just because of, youknow, where I was at that point

(32:04):
in the day.
I'll go through that.
And once I figure out thosesettings and I'll copy them
across or sync them across, thegroup of photos are similar.
Some of the settings likeclarity and, some saturation
contrast, those things I'll justdo across the entire day.
once I decide I have something Ilike, so.
it's pretty basic.
Once I get to, you know, thereare the ones detail.

(32:25):
Okay.
So sharpening and denoise, thoseare basic settings too, that I
just do across all of them isonce you realize where the
camera's at, that's where it'sat for the whole day.
Um, and then.
what I'm really tweaking when Igo photo photo is maybe as a
little bit of exposure.
and a little bit of whitebalance and that's mostly what
I'm doing.
Every once in a while, I'll finda photo that I really like.

(32:47):
If I, if I find a photo, I justthink five stars, then I'll sit
there and tweak it.
Like I'll just go through itreally well.
So that when I know somebody isgoing to want this photo, I just
want it to deliver and be right.
So, if I don't have time, someof the people will pay like
PayPal and then I'll go throughbefore they.
download them, they tweak all ofthem.
But, most of the time nowadays,they're buying them off my,

(33:08):
sales site, which is throughSmugBug.
And, sure, I just want them tobe right to start with, and get
them close enough.
like I said, with the photos,the best photos, I tweak those
one by one.
But it's usually out of, the800, 900, I deliver usually
about 30 of those I tweak, oneby one, everything, those are
the five star ones.

(33:28):
Yeah.
and then the only thing I crop,I started cropping this weekend
is the inter race photos whereyou have somebody either holding
up like number one finger or,the waving or something like
that, I'll crop in on them alittle bit.
So you can see their face orsmile or whatever.
And, but that's, again, that'snot very many photos.

(33:48):
You're talking maybe cropping adozen photos.
so yeah, you just don't havetime to do anything else.

yeah, I would imagine.
I couldn't imagine going throughand cropping, you know, I'll
deliver eight, 900 photos, samething, like for a wedding.
I can't imagine going througheach one of those and doing the
exact same thing.
There's no time to crop thatmany photos.
Yeah.
And I think that's kind of hard.
because it's like we get intophotography, I think oftentimes
for the artistic side of it.

(34:14):
And we like the control that wehave over a photo.
And then at some point you getto like where you're at now and
you realize I actually have tolet go of some of this control
in order to still be efficientwith this.
Did you struggle with that atall?

no, I, I've always had this breaking limit
where it's like, when enoughstuff, you know, it was like,
you know, like the garage orsomething, like there's enough
clutter, things just have to goand just start tossing things.
So, so I think it's kind of thesame way with, photography.
I realized that it's like, I gota pile here.
I just got to do it.
And yeah, I, I'm, maybe there'sa photo that I just really,
really will like, so I'll savethat for later.

(34:49):
It didn't come out right, butit's so rare anymore that, Now
that I've figured out the anglesI like.
And where I need to stand to getin close enough and all that
it's, there's just really aren'tthat many photos.
I think I need to go back tolater.

Let's take a step back and kind of look at
photography overall here for amoment when it comes to,
inspiration, where do you drawinspiration from?
Where do you get your ideasfrom?

Other photographers, mostly, like when
I started this year, I was, ifyou look at my first couple,
especially my first round, yousee a lot of them are just very,
horizontal.
Not a lot of really up close.
I was trying to get more groupsof bikes, but I didn't know how
to get it and be up close at thesame time.
So I was, it'd be a wider photowith a lot of bikes, but, it's,

(35:38):
you don't get.
You don't see the individualriders as well.
When you're wider, you're notseeing what they're doing there.
You know, their feet, hands onthe controls or feet,
positioning their body angles,all that stuff.
You don't see as well whenyou're further back, you might
see the little bit of theaction, but when they're spread
out, that's not kind of, it'skind of like more of a train
than it is like showing twobikes next to each other, both

(36:01):
at full lean, that's, Much moreintense and to show that really
well, you're going to be upclose anyways.
So, I lost my train of thought.

So, um, I like to ask very open ended questions
that can kind of go anywhere,especially I think when it comes
to inspiration.

Okay.
So where my inspiration was, sowhy, and after the first race, I
was putting photos up and I wasgetting good results, but at the
same time, I got a couplecomments that made me wonder
what I could be doingdifferently.
And one of them mentioned alocal photographer that was
doing all the track dealers, thedifference between a race and a
track day as a race is anorganized competition, whereas a

(36:40):
track day is just a day you goout on the track and you ride.
By yourself, basically.
Yeah.
There's other bikes on thetrack, but you just do your own
thing.
it's not competition.
If in fact, if you actually getinto competitions, they can take
you off the track.
So it's just out there to learn,get experience and practice.
This local photographer, he'spretty much got all the local

(37:01):
track days tied up and I'm notsure if he's doing cars too, but
after they talked about him, Iwent back and started looking at
his photos and seeing what hedoes.
And that's when I realized, Youcan be turning the camera.
There's no point in not turningthe camera.
And that's when they kind ofclicked on me.
I'm like, Oh yeah.
All those photos I used to loveas a kid in the magazines.

(37:21):
Yeah.
Those cameras, those photosaren't square.
They all have tilts and, they'reat odd angles or in, the colors
are more punchy, there's allkinds of little things that,
it's the things that everybodylikes in social media, put
photos because they'redifferent.
And, it's not the photos thatyou're snapping at the side of
the track with your phone,because that's not what they're

(37:43):
paying you to do.
Even if you look at car racephotos, you'll see that,
especially on the closer photos,you rarely have a square photo.
when they're on track, they'reusually If you're up close and,
you know, filling a frame withany vehicle, there's no frame of
reference for level anyways.

Yeah,

so it's only when you're at a wider angle
when you got trees in thebackground, stuff like that,
where things start to look alittle weird, but you can break
that far enough.
I think, it depends on the angleof the track and where you're
at.
I posted a couple of them whereyou're at the top of a hill and
the track goes off and down at along angle and you can see.

(38:21):
Like a thousand feet of track,but it's around a turn.
And if you turn the camera insuch a way that track will enter
at top one corner of the frameand drop down to the bottom
corner of the same frame.
And the apex of the turn will beall the way over on the opposite
side.
And I really liked that photobecause you can get a bike.
Upright actually coming out offrame over here.

(38:41):
But at the same time, you'regetting bikes at an angle coming
down, from the top of the frame.
And it's, um, at that point, thecamera's turned at, it could be
like a 30 degree angle.
It's way turned out.
If you look at trees in thebackground, they're all crooked
as it can be.
But you're not looking at that.
You're looking at the bikes andthe bikes are already leaning.
So you're making, you might makeone rider upright where

(39:04):
everybody else is leaning evenfurther.

And you just learn to be okay with these
things.

Yeah.
You just gotta be okay with,realizing that your subject is
what you make it.
It's not, these aren't peoplestanding upright.
I think, you know, even if youhad like, I can think about a
softball now, especially ifyou're looking at the diamond,
the angles on the diamond are,you know, when you're looking
from home plate that you've gotangles like that.
Now, if you were to square Nowyou're, you know, you got your

(39:32):
second baseman is going to be anangle, but you're sliding.
Somebody might be sliding intothat.
You could angle the.
The second basement into theslide person slide, and you have
a completely different image,because they're going to be
leaning into it already.
You can lean them further.
Whereas that's what you're doingwith a lot of these motorcycle
photos.
You're actually putting a slightangle on it such a way that the
bike actually looks like it'sleaning further than it normally

(39:54):
is.
It doesn't change the gapbetween the bike and the
pavement, but it gives you theinitial impression that this,
you know, of action, whereasnormally it's just like, oh
yeah, it's somebody going arounda turn and that's something you
see every day.
But, when you're putting yourown sort of impression on it.
It's like, yeah, this, is whatactual reality is.

(40:16):
Now, this is my reality.
This bike is you're showing moreaction than you would normally.
that's not even the right termfor it because it's.
I think the camera is very twodimensional.
So you got this flat image andthen you're, if you keep
everything square, you havejust, you're keeping, it's all
flat.

(40:36):
It's, it's square to the frame.
It's flat up and down.
It's flat left to right.
And you're, no depth to it.
as soon as you, if you can getthe bike, you know, like the
one, those last photos I showedyou, the bikes are coming in at
an angle.
and you're throwing a littletilt on it.
It just, it gives depth to thephoto.
Intensifies the action that'salready going on.

(40:58):
it's not ruining the documentarypart of the photo because you're
not changing what's going on,but you're bringing that to life
where it's not really therenormally in a camera.
It was a camera, just squisheseverything.

So, of course, especially with such
compression, I'm sure that youhave out at 300 millimeters.

Yeah.
that actually brings me assomething else I thought about
when I was first started doingthis is you're, you're doing
documentary photography.
But the moment you shoot theclick the shutter, it's a
different moment than the next.
So you got the first person bikeand frame going out of frame.
So the first one that's about toleave the frame, that's your
leader, no matter when you takethe shutter or click the

(41:39):
shutter.
So you got, it could be the realleader or it could be 10th place
and he's still got bikes behindhim.
He's now the leader of yourphoto.
Every photo documentary or notis still judgment of the
photographer to, place where youwant things placed.
So, right.
Yeah.
So, and that's the same thingwith, you know, the tilting the
cameras, the same difference.

(42:00):
Yeah, the Dutch tilt thingsfunny.
And like I said, you know, it'slike I talked to somebody, you
know, somebody mentioned, youknow, posted up their day about
a building photo and it's likeeither you square the building
or you lean it even more.
Yeah.
And you'd make a differentphoto.
there's an in between pointthough, that looks unnatural
where it's just slightly out ofangle.
And that looks unnatural, but ifyou break it.

(42:22):
If you break the photo, I liketo call it breaking the image
because it's like, it's suddenlyyour body's not looking at it
the same way before you'relooking at it.
Like, oh yeah, it's just not agood photo now.
It's like, oh, this has someintent to, it has to be, or the
person just really bad.

Yeah.
But, uh, fell while they weretaking a

photo.
Yeah.
So, that's what I started doingout there on the track.
I went from taking the squarephoto to leaning it and then
really leaning in the scene.
If I could, you know, what wouldlook like if I stood the bike up
when they're already leaning ata 40 degree angle, if I stand
the camera, tilt the camera,almost 45 degrees, stand the
bike up and have the land at theangle, what would happen?

(43:04):
And I tried that a few times.
It works in certain situations,but most of the time people just
go like, that's weird, but youknow, it just, you have to find
the right angle for it on thetrack, where you're not, don't
have a lot of background.
references for the level of theland and stuff like that.

I really hope that people listen to this and
think to themselves, I'm goingto tilt the heck out of my
camera after this episode andjust try something.
break the boundaries becauseit's like you put yourself in
this box of what is possible anduntil somebody tells you, you
can do something differently.
You don't even ask the question.
You don't know that, you know, Ikind of, we talked about that a
little bit earlier, maybe beforewe started recording that you

(43:44):
don't know what questions to askuntil you get in a situation
where you need to have an answerand you don't know what, you
know, so, you try to, thinkahead, but you can't think ahead
without knowing all the detailsof what's going to come up.
You just break out a test andtest and test and test and break
your boundaries over and overand over again, until you find
out what you like.
So what people like.

(44:05):
It just comes with experience.
Yeah.

Yeah.
and.
this has been a great year forme because again, I'm shooting,
you know, shoot 8, 000 photos.
there's a lot of time toexperiment and I can have a
bunch of bad photos and stilldeliver a lot of good ones.
yeah, you can't, I don't thinkat some point in your life, I
don't think in your photographylife, I don't think you can
shoot too much.
You just sit there and pull thetrigger and see what happens.

(44:28):
Is it's not like film, you know,and you're not throwing away,
you know, and not go in a darkroom and go, oh, well, there was
a bunch of money thrown away.
This is just digital.
Yeah.
I may wear out my shutter, mycamera eventually, but it's
paying for itself at this point.
So I'm not worried about that.
Right.

That's just part of the gig.
But it's funny that you say thatbecause That's exactly how I
feel about weddings is it'slike, even if you shoot
families, you want to shootfamilies, you want to photograph
kids, you want to do all thesethings like that's fine or
whatever.
But how many chances do you getto shoot?
Uninterrupted for like eighthours straight, you know, and

(45:03):
just the amount of practice andexperience that you can get out
of that.
I think is, is invaluable.
So even if, you have no interestshooting weddings, trust me.
I totally get it.
I think that you should at leastgo to a wedding and just shoot
the entire time and just seewhat that's like, because you're
going to come out the other endof it.
More experienced than, than youstarted.
Well, you're going to

see how the lighting changes over the
wedding and all that.
shooting out of the box, are youtalking about being out of the
box a little bit, but you're,you're not risking anything.
If you, again, it's like withthe wedding or the race
photography, you get the keyphotos you need to get upfront,
then play, just do whatever youneed, you know, do whatever
comes to mind.
At that point, it's all yourtime.
for me again, the racing is, Iwould almost be out there for

(45:45):
free, but I'm not going to tellthem that.
So it's so awesome to be outthere.
So yeah, there's a lot of work,but it's fun to be out there and
watch the bikes up close andplaces that nobody else has
access to.

Yeah, no, it's fine.
I also love seeing, your photosin the group because, there's
not many of others in the groupwho are shooting, sports, at
least at the level that you arewith, you know, very fast moving
subjects and very funmotorcycles to watch.
But that brings me to one of mylast questions here, which is,
you know, this communityspotlight series is, is about
you and it's about the group.
So do you remember how, how didyou find the group in the first

(46:20):
place?
How did that get

started?
It would have been.
Right after that solar eclipseagain, I was already listening
to a lot of podcasts.
like Leo, the poorest podcasts,all his stuff.
And, so I started just doingsearches and that's when I got
into like Scott born was doingpodcasts at that point before he
got out of it and Kelby one andall that stuff in your name was
up there too.
I'm a beginner.
I've tried this out and, thepodcast, I've gotten out of

(46:42):
listening to a lot of pockets.
I just hadn't had a whole lot oftime, but the group is still
fantastic.
I just, I really don't thinkthere's a better community on
Facebook anywhere.
Facebook is full of awfulcommunities and this is, this
one breaks the rule by far.
I don't know how it exists,honestly.
But it is definitely worth isthere for a while.
There was, I was, had no reasonto be on Facebook, but it was

(47:04):
the only reason I was onFacebook.
Oh my gosh.

Well, why do you think that is?
Why do you think that out of allthe groups online, because I'm
there with you.
And to be honest, I don't havean answer, which is why I'm so
curious about this.
why do you think it's soenjoyable?

I think typically I maybe just the name
beginner.
It you get a lot less peoplethat you know, I think there's a
lot of people out there I thinkthey aren't beginners but really
are and those are the type ofpeople that really have opinions
that just aren't worth listeningto and but they like to throw
their opinion around a lot And Ithink maybe they just don't

(47:36):
bother to join because it's abeginner group, but it's really,
we got a wide mixture now, youknow?
And so, I mean, we got, peopleshooting for money and we got
people that, you know, you gotpodcasts guests that chime in
once in a while.
And, so it's been, there's awealth of knowledge there.
if you can't find it there, Imean, there's lots of other
places, but it's usually you canfind an answer to a question

(47:58):
there.

What do you think is most valuable?
Is it the ability to ask and getanswers to questions, or is it
just the community seeing whatothers are doing?

It's a little bit of both.
I think, for a beginner, it'snice to have a group of people
that are at a similar level, or,you know, to compare to without,
hurting your own ego or, youknow, maybe occasionally you
pump up your ego or something,but you're not threatened.
I should say by the community,because they're all.
willing to help you.

(48:30):
but without hurting your ego andthat's, it's everything about
art is ego.
Um, and anybody who thinksthey're not artists and shoots
photos, doesn't realize whatphotography is because it's all
art.
So if you're a photographer,you're an artist.
It's just, they're this go handin hand.

That's another thing that's hard to wrap your
head around at the beginning isthat, if you're creating
something, you're creating art,I mean, art is kind of
everything.
So yeah, I love that.

That kind of goes to what I was talking
about, documentary type stylephotography, because it's,
there's no photo you're going totake that's ever gonna show
exactly what was going on thatday.
You're yeah, what you're showingis what you saw.
And by doing that, you'vealready changed the whole
experience for anybody elselooking at that photo.
So you've created that no matterwhat you think.

(49:19):
Even a snapshot is creatingsomething.
It may not have as much intentin it, but it's still creating
something.
yeah,

we got deep there for

a second.
I love that.
philosophy of.
art and photography.

yeah, yeah.
Well, I think I could definitelytell that, with your responses,
oftentimes in the group, I findthat you're one of the most
valued members, I think, in thegroup because of your responses.
always look forward to them.
And even if they go againstpopular opinion, which I think
is really cool, becauseoftentimes, you've said
something and I've had to sitback and think to myself, like,

(49:53):
well, why do I think that or,you know, like, that ability to
comment on something and stillbe challenging, which I find to
be Incredibly helpful, which iswhy, you know, again, I love
having you in the group.
And, uh, today of course, you'rewelcome.
It has been a blast for me tochat with you one on one and not
just over, online avatars.
and I'm sure that the listenersare thinking the exact same

(50:15):
thing as well.
So before I let you go, can youlet us know, aside from the
group where we can find, more ofyour work online?

Well, I'm Stevenson photo everywhere.
well, spelling it is thechallenge.
So, Stevenson S D E V E N S O N.
And then I spell photo theEuropean way F O T O.
and I'm that where I primarilyon Facebook right now.
but I have my websites, the samething.
That's pretty much everythingright now.
I do have a Twitter account.
I haven't been paying attentionto, and I have just every all

(50:43):
the social media.
I got that when I picked out myname, I just got it everywhere.
I just right now, because ofwhere my customers are, I pretty
much on Facebook only and mywebsite.

Thank you again for joining us on today's
episode of the beginnerphotography podcast.
Don't forget to come join us inthe free and amazing community
of photographers, just like youlooking to learn and grow their
photographic skills.
Just head over to beginnerphotopod.
com forward slash group now.
Thanks again for listening.
And remember the more that youshoot today, the better of a

(51:16):
photographer you will betomorrow.
Talk soon.

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