Doorstep Portraits

We were about 4 weeks into Lockdown when I first heard about a photographer somewhere in America doing Doorstep Portraits.

For a brief moment I got excited – social distancing had caused my income to dry up overnight and I was struggling with thinking of ways I might still be able to make any money from my photography. Was this the answer?

I followed the links, read the article, looked at the photos and all the excitement vanished.

To begin with, everyone she was photographing seemed to live in those picturesque clapboard houses with large porches and verandas, with plenty of room to stage the families and a large variety of compositional options.

Very different to the house fronts in most small Scottish towns.

However, some pretty serious photographic limitations were also immediately apparent. Quite apart from the fact the photographer was restricted to only one setting, one angle, and one distance, they were also completely stuck with whatever lighting/weather conditions were available.

The photos were never going to be up to the same standard of a proper professional portrait shoot.

So the photographer offset this by charging an incredibly low price and only spent 15 minutes or less with the clients.

A few weeks later, a couple of people sent me links to someone doing something similar in Glasgow, and then I started noticing it cropping up in other towns around Scotland and the UK.

The motivations of the various photographers were mostly about either documenting these exceptional times we live in, or were an excuse to combat their own cabin fever and at least play with their camera again, in however limited a fashion.

I could understand that, but the insecurity many seemed to feel in what they could offer was reflected in the fact they would do it for a tiny fee.

Some were doing it purely for a charitable donation. And if I had the time and energy, and wasn't worrying about money, then I may well have gone down that route.

One or two were clearly trying to make a business model out of fast and cheap – if you're only spending 10 minutes with someone, you can do a lot in a day. Multiply that by £30 a pop and you've actually got not too bad an income.

I also noticed the reactions on the social media channels was huge. Just the fact someone was doing something, and the photos could be shared with their friends and family, seemed to be good enough.

And I could understand that too. Some of our favourite photos are far worse - wonky and half blurred - but they capture a moment that becomes a gateway to the memories of the time.

Could this be something I could actually make money doing?

But no – not if it compromised my principles. I can't do quick and cheap.

If I'm going to take a photo of someone, I want to take the best photos I can. Even if I can't control the lighting and the background, I still want to be as creative as I can and use all my understanding of photography and composition - and that takes time.

And I want time to chat – get people relaxed and you get much better photos. 10 minutes is too short a time to overcome most people's intense self-consciousness in front of the camera.

And I would want to spend time editing the photos afterwards, to enhance and reflect the character of the people and the shoot.

And because of the ME/CFS, I would only be able to do a limited number of them.

So no, there is no business model there that would allow me to make a reasonable income during Lockdown doing this.

But does that mean I shouldn't bother at all?

What if I offered a limited number of shoots, and used it as a promotional opportunity to bring in more business once this is over?

If I charged something like £150 for a shoot – which is still much cheaper than a usual Kim Ayres Photography Shoot – it would allow me to ensure the quality would be as high as possible within the limitations.

And if I included a £100 voucher to put towards a proper Kim Ayres Photography Shoot once this is all over, then for anyone who cashes that in, these Doorstep Portraits become more of a sample session.

And what if I give 10% to the local Castle Douglas Development Forum, which has been incredible at organising a food bank and helping those who are shielded and most vulnerable in our region.

And now I suddenly had a vision of doing something that would:

a) give me an excuse to use my camera
b) enable people to have a few wonderful photos capturing memories in these extraordinary times
c) lay the foundations for future business without compromising my integrity
d) contribute to a local charity
e) make me feel I was doing something positive

Friends of ours recently bought a small painting from Maggie, so as I was going to deliver it to them I thought it might give me a chance to try out a bit of Doorstep Photography. They were happy to be my guinea pigs, so as well as having a bit of a chat and catch up outside the front of their house – at least 3m apart at all times – I took a few photos of them.



It was fun, it was enjoyable, and I was pleased with how the photos turned out.

It showed me I could do this, even within the multiple limitations, and create photos worth keeping.

So now I've set up a page on my website, offering Doorstep Portraits
https://www.kimayres.co.uk/doorstep-portraits/
on terms which I feel don't compromise my integrity, and give the people something really worthwhile at what is still an incredibly low price, especially if they decide to use the voucher at a later date.

Unfortunately, unless you live within a few miles of Castle Douglas, you won't be able to take me up on this offer.

But if you know anyone who does, be sure to let them know :)

Post Podcast Munchies, and Episode 8 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

A few years ago, I was finishing up on a photo shoot and one of the models started talking about "post shoot munchies".

In essence, the intensity of the concentration during the photo shoot, means that as soon as you stop, your body starts craving the calories – ideally at high-fat-high-sugar levels.

It was one of those little revelation moments where something you've been experiencing, but hadn't realised, is pointed out and suddenly it makes complete sense.

By giving it a word, or phrase, it validates the experience. It stops it being something you were only half aware of, or might have thought only happened to you alone, and moves it into the realm of something that is a wider spread phenomenon that is experienced by many people – it's just you hadn't realised it.

Douglas Adams and John Lloyd created a whole book (and sequels) to creating words for common experiences we all thought only happened to us alone, called "The Meaning Of Liff".

One of my favourite is this set of words:

CORRIEARKLET (n.)The moment at which two people approaching from opposite ends of a long passageway, recognise each other and immediately pretend they haven't. This is to avoid the ghastly embarrassment of having to continue recognising each other the whole length of the corridor.

CORRIECRAVIE (n.)To avert the horrors of corrievorrie (q.v.) corriecravie is usually employed. This is the cowardly but highly skilled process by which both protagonists continue to approach while keeping up the pretence that they haven't noticed each other - by staring furiously at their feet, grimacing into a notebook, or studying the walls closely as if in a mood of deep irritation.

CORRIEDOO (n.)The crucial moment of false recognition in a long passageway encounter. Though both people are perfectly well aware that the other is approaching, they must eventually pretend sudden recognition. They now look up with a glassy smile, as if having spotted each other for the first time, (and are particularly delighted to have done so) shouting out 'Haaaaaallllloooo!' as if to say 'Good grief!! You!! Here!! Of all people! Will I never. Coo. Stap me vitals, etc.'

CORRIEMOILLIE (n.)The dreadful sinking sensation in a long passageway encounter when both protagonists immediately realise they have plumped for the corriedoo (q.v.) much too early as they are still a good thirty yards apart. They were embarrassed by the pretence of corriecravie (q.v.) and decided to make use of the corriedoo because they felt silly. This was a mistake as corrievorrie (q.v.) will make them seem far sillier.

CORRIEVORRIE (n.)Corridor etiquette demands that once a corriedoo (q.v.) has been declared, corrievorrie must be employed. Both protagonists must now embellish their approach with an embarrassing combination of waving, grinning, making idiot faces, doing pirate impressions, and waggling the head from side to side while holding the other person's eyes as the smile drips off their face, until with great relief, they pass each other.

CORRIEMUCHLOCH (n.)Word describing the kind of person who can make a complete mess of a simple job like walking down a corridor.

Now while "post-shoot munchies" is nothing like as clever or amusing as this, it has become a recognisable experience: every time I do a photo shoot – particularly if it goes on for more than an hour (which mine usually do), I start craving sweet/fatty things – chocolate/cookies/cake etc.

I wasn't entirely sure why the cravings were so strong, until I read somewhere about how Grand Master Chess Players can burn up to 6,000 calories, and lose up to a kilogram in weight a day, during a tournament.

How can this be? All they are doing is sitting in front of a board, and periodically reaching out to move a chess piece! Surely that small arm movement cannot be burning up all those calories?

According to an article in GQ magazine,

In competition, grandmasters are subjected to constant mental stress which can lead to elevated heart rates and, by extension, the production of more energy in the body in an effort to produce more oxygen.

With increased stress, sleep is also compromised which can lead to more weight loss. A brain operating on less sleep, even by just one hour, requires more energy to stay away during the chess game and for many elite players, hours spent in bed are spent restless, going over every move they could have made and how things could have played out differently.

Now I don't sleep brilliantly at the best of times – even before the days of CFS/ME I never really understood what people meant when they talked of a “refreshing night's sleep”.

But the night before a photo shoot, and very often the night after (when I'm going over it in my head and thinking of all the things I wish I'd done but didn't think of at the time), my sleep is even worse.

So that combination of increased brain activity, increased stress levels, and poorer quality sleep is something I feel completely familiar with.

I had long noticed that if I had an intense photo shoot or two in a week, I could easily lose a couple of pounds in weight. Particularly if there wasn't an option to indulge the sugar-fat cravings.

Of course if there was, like the shoot I did for In House Chocolates, I can go so crazy with it I end up with a sugar hangover – (see – The 7 Deadly Sins of Chocolate).

In these days of Lockdown, other than the shoot I did of Meg in the garden for Dumfries & Galloway Life Magazine, I've not been doing a great deal of photography.

But I have been losing weight.

In fact, I've lost over 8lbs in the last couple of months.

And I've realised a major contributing factor to this is because of the live video podcasts I'm now doing.

The build up, the podcast, the editing immediately afterwards, and the disturbed sleep either side, all have exactly the same effect. Only this time, we deliberately didn't stock our cupboards with "treats" before we went into isolation, in order to help us to try and stay healthy for the duration.

None of this has anything to do with the content of this week's episode, but last night I was incredibly aware that if there had been anything to start munching on as soon as the podcast was over, it would have been carnage.

Meanwhile here is Episode 8 where I talk about...

0:00 - Introduction - what's coming up
1:08 - Background to the photo shoot at The Yellow Door in Dumfries, for textile designer, Morag Macpherson
13:35 - 4 different ways to convert images to Black and White
37:45 - Introduction to Critique of submitted photos
39:28 - Critiquing images



If you've not done so already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres – Episode 7 – A recent assignment

Unlike the previous 6 episodes, and the ones for the foreseeable future, the photo shoot I based my weekly Facebook Live video podcast around this time was done during Lockdown.

The first section of each episode gives the story behind one of the more interesting photo shoots I've done over the past several years. For anyone interested in photography, knowing the story behind the image is nearly always a bit of a treat.

It is for me, anyway. One of my favourite books is 50 Portraits by Gregory Heisler, which is all about the stories behind some of his most famous photos. Admittedly his sessions were with world leaders and famous film and rock stars, but that's less important than the exploration of his thoughts, fears, and attitudes on each assignment.

Almost all my favourite personal and business shoots I have blogged about to some degree, and told the stories to other people countless times. So when I'm talking into the webcam about them, I don't have to refer to notes or read a script – the stories are just there.

This one, however, was the first time I'd really got a chance to talk about it. We did the shoot about 6 weeks ago, and then couldn't say anything about it until it was published in Dumfries & Galloway Life Magazine.

Still, I think it worked out OK.

However, I think the most fun part of Episode 7 was doing the thumbnail sketch. I did rehearse it the day before, just to see if it would work.

It was based on the actual sketch I did when Maggie, Meg and I were sitting at the kitchen table, discussing what the shoot might look like in the garden, and I grabbed a pen and did a rough sketch in my Sudoku book to try and explain my thoughts.

The resulting illegible scribble provoked a few chuckles around the table.

Here's the snippet from that bit, if you don't want to watch the whole episode:



Meanwhile, here's the full recording of Episode 7

0:00 - Introduction - what's coming up
1:20 - Background to the photo shoot for the June 2020 edition of Dumfries & Galloway Life
2:02 - A background to Megalicious
7:38 - Deciding to create a cover photo
8:40 - Creating a thumbnail sketch of the shoot
25:30 - Response to FB comments
26:35 - Introduction to Critique of submitted photos
53:40 - The Lomo Effect
1:08:30 - Coming up next week



If you've not done so already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

Megalicious - the garden photo shoot

March 21st 2020 was supposed to be the launch of Megalicious – my daughter Meg's gluten free home baking and pop-up cafe business.

It was cancelled one week before because of the corona virus, Covid 19 – see But Out Of The Window Everything Looks Normal

Following the launch, Dumfries & Galloway Life magazine had intended to do an article on Meg, but we assumed that would just be shelved.

However, they got in touch to say they'd still like to do a piece on Meg's baking, if she could supply a recipe for one of bakes, and I could do some photos of her making it.



While it was relatively straightforward to take some shots of Meg pouring and mixing ingredients, my real love is creating narrative, storytelling images, so Maggie, Meg and I started discussing if we could do something special to accompany the article. And if it wasn't suitable for D&G Life at that time, we could still use it for publicity for Megalicious at a later date.

Ideas started bouncing back and forth, and soon the notion came together of Meg sitting in an armchair in the garden, with a cake stand of gluten-free brownies, flapjack and cake, a high stack of cookery book, and a mass of baking trays and cake tins piled up on another chair.

The article would be in the June issue, but at the time we decided to set up the photos, it was early April and there still weren't any leaves on the trees. So we decided to do the shoot by the garden shed instead so it wouldn't be immediately connected with a particular time of the year.

Chairs, table, books, pans, baking, teapot and a Megalicious mug were all shipped into the garden and set up, but it took me quite a while to work out the lighting.

The bright sunshine was continually being obscured by passing clouds, which changed the lighting conditions. And by the time I'd adjusted for it the sun would reappear.

In the end I created a set up based around the sun being out and we just waited each time it disappeared behind the clouds.

Fortunately Meg is a very patient model and is completely unselfconscious in front of the camera. I guess it helps she'd been used to me photographing her since she was a baby.

This was the final result



and to our great delight, they decided to use it for the cover of the June 2020 issue



And to give you a behind-the-scenes insight, Maggie did a bit of filming using my old camera



I'll be talking about this shoot in my Facebook Live podcast on Tuesday evening. If you miss it, go to my YouTube channel - youtube.com/kimayres - and look for episode 7.
Or check the next blog post...

Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres – Episode 6 – Tiredness Dominates

It's very difficult to know how I come across from the outside.

It's perfectly possible no one else noticed anything amiss, but from the inside last night's video podcast was slower. I waffled a bit more, lost my train of thought more often, and was tripped up by the technology to a greater degree than in the past couple of weeks.

I also missed out an entire chunk I intended to talk about, where the original version of photo I was discussing – The Undefended Hour – actually had a bottle of Irn Bru in front of the mirror.

For those not in Scotland, Irn Bru is a bright orange, fizzy pop drink with a distinct love-or-hate flavour, and is famously known as a hangover cure.

There was a reason it was included in the original set up, and then another reason why I removed it in Photoshop afterwards. And both these reasons were very relevant to the section where I was talking about how each element in a photograph is either contributing to, or detracting from, the narrative you are trying to convey.

It was one of the key reasons I chose to use that particular photo for that episode.

And I totally forgot about it until 2 hours after I'd thanked everyone for watching and switched off the live stream.

Tiredness: it stops the brain functioning properly.

And I am so tired. Deep bone-weary tired.

This week is also ME/CFS Awareness Week, and each day on Facebook I'm sticking up something about what it is, and what it's like to live with the condition.

But the main thing to know is you have so much less energy than you used to. You are tired much of the time, and that tiredness effects your ability to think clearly (brain fog), and makes you more emotionally vulnerable.

Quite simply you do not have the physical, mental or emotional reserves, so the moment you overdo something, however slight, you become exhausted.

I've lived with this for at least 14 years and found/created all sorts of coping strategies, but there are never enough productive hours in the day.

Many people feel like that anyway. They really need 12 hours to do all the things they are expected to do in 8. But for me, it's more like only having 2 hours (carefully spread over 3 or 4 smaller sessions). On a good day that might be 3, but on a bad day it might be none at all.

And if I have an important thing to do that is going to really require me to push through, I will fuel up with more coffee, get it done, and then be wiped out for the following day or two.

Now somehow, with all this, I still have to make a living.

My strategy has been to become a high-end photographer so I can charge a higher rate for my skills and services. The idea is so I don't have to work more hours than I can in order to scrape a living. In essence I need to be able to make enough money in 2 hours that most people would make in one or two days.

The flaw in this plan is where do I find the time and energy to market myself and build up a reputation and client base?

But bit by bit I've been heading in the right direction.

And then Covid-19 hit, and my limited income disappeared overnight.

And somehow, as self employed creatives, we seem to have slipped through all the nets for financial assistance.

So I have to find another way to use my skills to try an generate an income.

I can't do photography, but I can explain it. I can teach it.

So, let's create a weekly video podcast and start building a reputation and a following, and then look to figure out a way how to monetise it.

Far from being a bit of time off work, or an extended holiday, or even business as usual, since Lockdown I've been much more in a business start-up mode, which requires huge amounts of mental energy.

And that's all on top of the fears, worries and concerns for our health, for people we know, for our communities, our country and humanity.

I've had to stop watching the Government daily updates on TV as I've now become someone who shouts at the telly in outrage at their imcomptence, spin and outright lies, which are literally killing more people (currently 2nd highest death rate in the world). And that seriously drains my energy.

Every day I have times of fatigue and exhaustion. It's part of the daily routine.

But now I feel an even deeper level of bone weariness.

Even within my limited capacity, I've been overdoing it again for too long, and it's catching up with me.

I still have 10,000 things I need to do, but even if I strictly prioritise them, it only reduces them to about 2,000 things...

And I felt it last night as I was doing the video podcast.

And I really felt it last night after the video podcast.

And I completely feel it this morning, while knowing I don't have that much time I can take off.

So I'm going to stop now and sit quietly.

And then I'll have a coffee and be raring to go for an hour... hopefully.



Episode 6 is now edited, uploaded and embedded onto this blog.

Can you tell the difference, or did I conceal it well enough?



0:00 - Introduction - what's coming up
1:05 - Photo of my daughter appearing on the cover of the latest D&G Life Magazine
2:18 - The story behind the image, The Undefended Hour
21:00 - When excitement turns to fear
24:05 - Do all the elements of the photo contribute to the story, or detract from them?
36:30 - Response to FB comments
39:53 - Critiques of submitted photos
1:16:25 - Coming up next week


If you've not done so already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres - Episode 5 – Getting easier, but where are the submissions?

There is no doubt that Episode 5 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres felt smoother and less impeded by my technical limitations.

Sometimes it's felt more like an article of faith rather than having any direct evidence, that it would get easier, and I'd spend less time getting caught up with not knowing which button to press next, or remember where I'd put the file I now wanted to display on screen.

But it was noticeable when I came to edit it afterwards for YouTube, all I had to do was trim the start and the finish (the recording starts a minute or two before the live stream does), without having to crop out long sections of me staring off-screen going, "Errrrrrrr......"

Another step forward was a little more interaction with the people watching live and putting messages in the comments. This time I checked in twice as I was going, and once at the end, and was pleased to see some encouraging words.

My biggest concern, however, was I only had one submission for the Critique section.

I shot off a message to a friend of mine who sent me a couple of his images to give him feedback on, but it felt like cheating.

It's something I don't quite understand.

Any photographer who is trying to genuinely improve their photography, needs proper feedback from someone who can help them past their own blind spots.

It is almost impossible to look at our own photos objectively – they are gateways to our memories.

When we look at a photo we took, we remember the situation we were in, the people who were out of shot, the sounds, the smells, the way we were feeling. So even an out of focus, badly composed photo can make us feel good.

But when we show it to someone else, they have no access to those feelings and sensations. It is only if the photo triggers something in their own memories or imagination that they might be able to connect with it.

So if we are wanting to advance our photography past the point of a memory jogger to our own experiences, and on to creating images that other people can enjoy too, we have be able to try and be objective, which is extraordinarily difficult.

This is where feedback from someone else becomes invaluable.

But it has to be the right feedback, from someone who knows what their talking about.

The big problem we continually have when we post our photos on Facebook and other social media, is people will "like" it, even if the standards and quality are pretty low.

Either they are not skilled enough to be able to tell the difference, are unable to communicate in a meaningful way about it, or just want to be encouraging and tell us nice things so we'll feel better about ourselves.

And because those who don't like the image don't leave any feedback, we end up with a very lopsided sense of our own ability, which of course impedes our progress.

There was a point several years ago where I belonged to an online forum that gave really good critique. However, sometimes it could be brutal, as there were some members who were on massive power-trips. But if you could get past that, often there were brilliant insights to be had, and I learned a massive amount. Over the course of a couple of years, my skills and understanding of photography leapt up several levels, and I learned how to constructively critique other photos too.

Unfortunately due to various conflicts, it stopped being the incredible resource it once was and became more or less useless.

I've been looking for something to replace it ever since.

So when I decided to do the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres sessions, I knew I wanted to offer this powerful tool to others who were looking to improve their skills – but without the brutality I'd sometimes been on the receiving end of.

Certainly a couple of people I know who run camera clubs seemed delighted with the idea and said they would be promoting it to all their members.

And yet, take up has been very slight. Each week I've averagely had between four and six submissions, and this week it was only one I didn't have to ask for.

So is it:
a) it's not really something anyone is particularly interested in?
b) the way I deliver it is off-putting and not appealing enough?
c) people are too terrified of putting their images in a public place to be criticised, not matter how compassionately it's done?
d) there are vast numbers of people out there who would chew their arm off for this, but don't know about it – in which case I need to stick with it until I have built more of a following and some of them have found me?

The truth is, at this point I really don't know the answer to that, but I probably will keep going for the moment, just in case there are people who genuinely want my help in this.

So here is Episode 5 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres. In this episode I talk about the shoot I did with Sparo and The Yahs for their album cover, the compositional technique of leading lines, as well as the Critique section.



0:00 - Introduction - what's coming up
0:59 - Story behind the photo shoot for Sparo and The yahs
4:15 - How the photo developed - 17 images in the set before we got to the one that worked
19:45 - Leading Lines as a compositional tool
32:49 - The difficulty in getting useful critique on your images
35:30 - Critiques of submitted photos


If you've not done so already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/