Working on assignments is a wonderful thing!  Besides receiving additional exposure, as well as valuable experience, we humanitarian photographers get to help make a difference in the world.  As most of my more noteworthy projects have been self-assigned (and self-financed) I sometimes forget just how vital a photographer’s flexibility is.

No, I’m not speaking of flexibility in terms of being able to do Jean Claude Van Damme full splits (although that skill would come in handy for getting those low-to-the-ground shots!).  I’m speaking of flexibility in terms of being able to bend and stretch your mind, creative energies and raw determination around the ideas, visions and desires of the person or organization with whom you are working.

It’s a no-brainer to say we have to understand what clients want us to photograph, then go photography it.  It is not a no-brainer as to how much effort and negotiating skill goes into this endeavor.  The expertise and experience of the persons or organization representatives you work with may vary: some of the people we work with will be confused as to what they want; some will be decidedly certain what they want.  So far, my work approach has been relatively the same regardless who I work with; only the amount of effort required may vary.

My experience, to date, has been with clients who know in general what they want, but their expectation may or may not be realistic.  Unrealistic visions are OK!  They are fun, and they show the person wants something amazing!  If things are unrealistic, just stay positive and tactfully explain what is possible within the realm of the medium (in my case, the medium is still-photography, as opposed to video photography).  Capturing a nightclub’s strobe lights blinking on and off may be a nearly impossible task in still-photography, while being quite easy in video photography.

We must be as mentally flexible as a method actor, and put ourselves in the client’s position of wanting, only without acting. We should strive to make their vision our own adopted vision.  In doing so, we give that adopted vision the same passion and determination as our own biologically birthed projects.  When we can show clients our sincere raw passion for their vision, we satisfied them on an entirely new level.  Clients will feel you share their passion for their vision, not merely accept their vision.  You will be giving the client much more than the images they require: you will be giving them an ally and kindred spirit with whom they will desire to work with in the future.  And this will surely put a smile on the client’s face, as well as on yours.

I’m currently in Singapore obtaining my Social Visit Visa for Indonesia.  I’m spending the free time studying compelling images of great photographers, examining my own work on how to improve it (more on this next time), reading and mentally preparing for my next adventure in Ubud, Bali.

Having lived in Jakarta for 2 1/2 years, I’m quite excited to see a more relaxed, traditional side of Indonesia, and Ubud is the cultural capital of Bali. I’m also looking forward to the milder temperatures of in-the-mountains Ubud; Jakarta’s steel and concrete jungle is HOT!

David duChemin, an excellent photographer whose blog I follow (and recommend you too follow!), recently wrote about how some photographers look for shortcuts: forgoing the path less traveled, and sometimes lacking a certain work ethic at the expense of their own photographic and professional growth.  The blog post was food for thought.  I think the avoidance shortcuts should go beyond the practice and study of capturing light.  We must focus on avoiding shortcuts after pulling the memory card or film cartridges out of the cameras as well; we must have a disciplined workflow.  The undisciplined workflow is as dangerous as the other already-mentioned shortcuts.

Every professional realizes there’s a basic need to put what is most important at the top of the list of things to do. I must wonder how many of us actually practice this? Most certainly, procrastination is arguably the greatest enemy of the professional photographer.  I am a good example: I knew I should make 2 backups of my RAW files before editing and processing images, but rarely did so.  Of course I did not properly apply keywords on a detailed scale.  I relied heavily on my noggin to remember what images I had available, and where they were stored, instead of using the power of my image processor and database (Adobe’s Lightroom, in my case).  I’m only now, after about 4 years of photographic self-study, beginning to get assignments.  Only as my work began to come into demand, have I been forced to take a more disciplined approach.  I had to get a grip on my workflow, or be swamped under!  I already have 9000+ images.  No shaking your head or laughing at me: I’m sensitive!

Seriously, how many of us were in this same situation when starting out?  And how many up-and-coming photographers are in this state of chaos now?  We know we should have 2, or at the very least one, backup of our files, before formatting memory cards and editing images, yet how many of us say “I’ll make the backup later”?  How many projects have been completed, without having backups at all?  Sure, maybe we are lucky there was no hard drive crash or loss of data.  Still…

As we grow in skill we learn and improve our craft through the discipline of the frame.  We also must remember to grow in the discipline of workflow as well.  If you work for an organization that handles back-office digital darkroom stuff for you, God bless you: for the rest of us, we’re on our own to get street smart!

I’m still not the most disciplined: I’m still mortal, and so are my digital assets.  Every recently, I had a hard drive crash (yet another LaCie crash).  I had to fight hard to retrieve those files.  3000 selects and derivative files by copying them 10 at a time before the faulty disk’s controller took a smoke break every 10 minutes!  It took me over a week to move the files to a new drive.  I now have every file backed up in two separate locations.  I learned fast that discipline of outside the frame is as valuable as discipline within the frame.  Spending many quality hours trekking to less charted locations, studying the works of the masters as well as our own work, and perfecting our images in the digital darkroom only to lose and misplace those images due to an undisciplined workflow is a sad thing.

Yes, a truly disciplined workflow has several costs: time and money for examples.  I know there is a certain cost involved for things like extra hard drives.  Unless we have a significant amount of capital, we have to improvise.  Also, make sure the workflow is one that is efficient for you.  Maybe Art Wolfe’s workflow is one that won’t meet your needs, or maybe it will (Art’s pretty smart).  Having a workflow you instinctively know you won’t follow is like having a massive tripod, pro camera body and beefy lenses that you leave home or in the hotel: what’s the point?  Start small if you must, but at least “start.” Believe me: the cost of that seemingly expensive hard drive is going to seem like a small amount when your entire collection is facing oblivion.  I’ve been to the edge of oblivion twice: there won’t be a third time.

We lesser mortals often wonder and research what the great ones do in their approach in the field and in their workflow.  It must be more than a dozen times I’ve seen “first thing I do is make 2 backups before erasing the memory cards…” It’s time we stop merely reading about proper workflow, and start exercising proper workflow.  We have to make it a priority:  That’s the key.