Duncan Philpott
Duncan Philpott is a sports photographer who is based in Sheffield.
Duncan specifies different types of photography. For example:
·
Photojournalism –Mainly biking. Where you
document what is actually happening. Capturing the moment
·
Editorial – Coming up with ideas. With this you
have more creative control and less time constraint.
·
Commercial –Work for clients, this tends to be
advertising. For example billboards and websites.
Despite the appealing aspects of the job there is plenty of
paperwork, business & financial parts to the job. It can also be in all
weathers, be sunny or raining and plenty of the time is spent on the roads.
A brief he receives that cover sports, and wants few amazing
shots per sport. He can end up shooting up to 4000 photo’s in a weekend. After planning
every photograph to get the correct one. This involves use google street maps
to help scout locations before going in person to help sell the place as an
attractive destination. You don’t want go somewhere for a sunrise to be greeted
with a house in the way. If there’s a subject need to get someone who can do
the talent/sport and arrange a plan to shoot with that person. You can hire if
need to but can firstly use friends to help out (save money) and you have to
get correct weather on specific day.
He uses software to go through every photo and give a star
rating to photos to create a portfolio for that task. E.g. 300 photos and only
10% will be 4 star and a further narrowing down to only a few photos. On the
day something may leap out to you or the client and may blow the plan out of
the window. Shoot something dissimilar to the brief and hand it to them to give
a different perspective, rather than the same thing constantly.
Using a zoom lens you can create a good effect and pull the
background closer to the subject.
He has produced content for Nike Instagram.
Duncan gets a PDF brief as part of a 15 man team who go out and take the photo
involving people doing interesting things wearing Nike kits. This is then
licenced by Nike and put onto Instagram. Sold to Nike for a one time use, need
to relicense it to use it again.
Shooting cover for DvD. Agency
gives a mood-board of images to give idea of what the image should look like. Don’t
be afraid to put own personal angle on it. Sometimes works.
What’s it like to be a photographer?
He has been to 3
continents and 3 countries in the past year. Philpott is constantly on the move,
according to the brief. You have to enjoy being outside being a photographer.
He pays mostly for own travel. There are 4-5 brands buying the photos so cant each
can’t pay for the travel, otherwise others would profit. Networks with the
right people so people know who you are. See three times either heard or seen
on social media people then people may contact you. Constantly talking to
companies and build a face to face relationship with the organisations. One
company may pass on detail. Managed to break ribs, fingers and dislocate
shoulder while on shoots. Sometimes rides on bike to destinations raising the
risk of injury. Freelance however the work needs to be done so long social
hours are common. Sit down and process the photos on the same day to sell to
next day magazines. Chase people for money using invoices. Can write proposals
to companies (create ideas) so jobs never dry up. Shooting own personal
projects help develop skills
How to get out there?
“It’s not what you know but
who you know”. Talking to people face to face, meet with brands. Blogging,
networking, social media, self-promoting. Blogging, can give you creative
control as it’s your own page. This helps show your talent and help other
photographers. Social media, many companies use this, and buy images to put on their
pages. Collaboration helps as it shares the exposure between the pair of
photographers. Joey L, Camp4 collective, Chris Burkard, Lara Jade.
No comments:
Post a Comment