Week 3 Position and Practice

My experiences and insights and solutions for operating effectively in this challenging profession.

How we address the issues above will determine the development of our own practices. It is continuous work. Photographer ….. suggest that we need to be like a shark and always move forward or die from from suffocation.

My experience in the highly competitive IT environment and process modeling has provided me with a model that I can share. Any process is initiated by an activity, be it a annual strategy session or a declining income stream. these triggers to the process requires of continuous monitoring of your situation. The change process is the evaluation of the circumstances and identifying those things you need to stop doing , those things you need to keep doing and identifying the changes you need implement. Changes are achieved by challenging yourself, research, education and re-education, finding the resources required for the change (people, money and tools/technology) and finally empowering yourself to accomplishing the change. Don’t blame your circumstances or be incapacitated by the “realities”.

I believe in my an inherent power to achieve my goals. Empowerment only means that use and release that power once I am enabled by information and clear vision.

I have split my photographic practice in the three distinct niches that I run independently from each other. My Wedding and portraiture photography business, My photographic education, my Art photography Development. While these niches operate independently, they do add value to each other.

In all of these niches. I constantly effectiveness and efficiency of:

• my marketing ( the worst part of my armour),
• the effectiveness of my business processes, and the resources for it
• and the effectiveness of my practice as a photographer.
• These compete for my time, but I find that the one practice encourages and inform the other.
• In terms of motivation I use both a Industry mentor and business coach to assist my Wedding and portraiture photography business. (www.ludre.co.za)

For education take on-line courses on Creative live and Udemy, attend seminars and short courses provided by the photographic vendors, and I make it a target to attend a workshop at least once a year, and do a lot of on-line reading. The wedding business is becoming my primary source of income that needs to provide for my other two en devours. There is definitely activities and opportunities being provided by practitioners to improve the businesses and a great willingness to share experience and knowledge to improve these practices. Yervant, Marcus Bell, Rocco Ancora and Jerry Gionness are Australian based master wedding photographers that not only train wedding photographers but have been able to re-educate their customers to value the printed form and eclectic photography. Their initiative has now started to take hold in the United states (Joe Buisink ) and South Africa. (Brett Florrens- My industry mentor). These Master photographers is providing an un-measurable service to the Wedding and portrait practitioner. They all encourage closer collaboration between photography practitioners. I presume that similar initiatives are a foot in other photographic genres.

My art photography and education (andrenagel.photography and ANCRJ.Blog) was initiated by Britian’s Tom Ang who encouraged me to look more deeply at pictures, study Photography history and contemporary masters. This en-devours are the prime drivers why I have started to study at Falmouth. This initiatives was generated by my need to provide an proper education to my students and was further reinforced by non- accredited courses by MOMA and the university of Michigan on on Coursera. Bret Florrens. I truly appreciate the initiative by Falmouth to have a Photography specific education program that can and will address the need for developing the practice of photography at Tertiary level. Here I want to learn how to engage with the education and art communities, provide progress to become a master photographer and educator.

” I don’t have competition, I am unique. I just need to find my customer” Bret Florence – Five day wedding workshop 2018