TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to Tyler’s Tips. Today, I’m going to talk about why it’s so important to ask for help.

Photography can be a very solitary path, existence, way to interact with the world. As a result of that, often we get in a mindset where we have to figure this stuff out on our own. We have to make our own way.

I disagree with that. I’ve done that a lot and I don’t think it’s served me very well. I’ve also asked for help a lot, and boy, that has helped me out so much, so much. Not only that, it’s led to some incredible friendships, and it’s given me opportunities to work with other photographers in a mentorship, mentee situation. I’ve been asked by many other photographers for help with whatever it is they’re working on, and it’s given me great joy to share my knowledge.

So, simple little tip for today, I highly encourage you, when you’re up against a challenge with photography and you can’t figure it out, ask for help. That can be as simple as just sending an email to a photographer whose work you admire. I think you’d be surprised how enthusiastic they’d be to share some of their knowledge and help you out, and if you get lucky, you might even wind up with a mentor.

So, there you are, Tyler’s tip for today. Ask for help when you need it.

As always, thank you for your time, and if you have any ideas or questions that you’d like me to discuss in a future episode, drop me a line and I’ll work it in. Until next time.

The other thing, the second thing, that vulnerability does, bringing a deep, emotional vulnerability to a photo shoot, is that it creates human connections. You can’t fake this stuff. We spend our lives talking with other people and communicating, and if you are truly vulnerable with another person, most people, in my experience … Almost everybody, I’m trying even right now to think of an example where I’ve had this go badly for me, and I can’t right now.

In my experience, it’s really almost universal that, when you give somebody that gift, it creates a human connection, and they will return vulnerability to you. And very quickly what happens is you develop a true connection with whoever it is you’re talking to. And if you’re shooting a portrait of somebody, you’re working with people, this is one of the most important components of creating a good portrait.

Because if you can establish a true human connection between you as the photographer and the human as your subject, it goes a long way to helping them just be themselves, even though we have lights or whatever, or we’re sticking this big camera in their face, all these things that make it really hard to just relax and be yourself. But that true moment of being yourself is what makes a great portrait, it’s what makes a good photo of a person, it makes an interesting photo, and it’s really hard to do for people. But that vulnerability as a photographer, if you bring that to it, to your shoot, you’re gonna get better results.

So there you go. A couple of different ways that vulnerability can be really helpful to making better photos. So, as always, I’m grateful for your time, thank you for staying with me for that one, and if you have any other ideas or thoughts that you’d like me to discuss in a future episode, just drop me a line and I’ll work it in. Until next time.