A DPChallenge Interview with Skip Rowland

In your profile you describe yourself as a "Freelance Action Photographer," and anybody who reads the forums has seen some of your many posts - stories actually - of your exploits and experiences shooting and selling shots. Was this always your occupation or is your entry into professional photography a recent occurrence?

It has always been a passion, but a profession for just over the past two years. When I was 11, I took a paper route and my dad took my allowance away from me, so, in a sense, I learned to pull my own wagon pretty early on. I have been self-employed one way or another since 1987 (except for one interesting 9 months misadventure that confirmed I wasn't suited for a traditional job). Immediately prior to developing the photography business I was a full time database consultant, developing mission critical business applications. Fortunately, my business got killed by the outsourcing bug, and that left me wondering what to do next.

It was about that time I found DPC and threw myself into the site, and really started learning what I was doing. One thing led to another, then, with John Setzler's Human Scavenger Hunt Challenge, my wife just told me to go for it, to see what would happen if I made a full time commitment to photography. Two years later, I can't believe how lucky I am. What an unbelievable trip.

Off and on, my whole life. I was born here and spent my early years in the nearby suburbs. About the time I was 10 or 11, my parents decided they wanted my younger sisters and I to experience the same rural upbringing that they had and they moved us to the absolute middle of nowhere. It really was an experience.

In all honesty, I can now see both the advantages and disadvantages of growing up in a rural area. On the plus side, I was able to do things that I would never dream of letting my kids do. Ride my bike all over town, go off on my own in the woods, talk to strangers. In that town, there weren't any strangers - just people whose names you hadn't learned, yet.

On the down side, you miss out on a lot of the cultural experiences that you have in cities. You only saw things in very specific shades of black and white. You also risk developing a serious case of big-fish-small-pond syndrome, because you just don't have the same concentration of competition that you have in cities. It doesn't matter if you're talking about sports, academics, art - whatever. Believe me, when I got to college, I got a helluva wake up as to what kids my age were capable of.

When I was about 22, some friends from Williamsburg took me to Richmond to celebrate my birthday. I remember lying in a gutter in Shockhoe Slip, looking up and thinking this would be a pretty cool place to live and work. It took me about 13 years, with stints in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, to make it happen, but we finally moved back in '94 and have been living the area ever since. It's really a great place, far from perfect, but I can't think of any place I'd rather live and raise a family.

Undoubtedly, my immediate family is the center of my universe. Nina and I have been together for over 15 years, and I couldn't imagine life without her. We've taken turns helping each other get where we need to be, and I'm really looking forward to paying her back for this turn she's given me. We have two really cool kids (known to most of DPC as my favorite models), and I've really enjoyed being able to be the one that gets them off the bus the past couple years.

My extended family is just like a favorite old coat. Sometimes it fits a little too tight, but all the same, it's always there, and it's just what you need when your world gets a little chilly. Mom and Dad are still going strong, and I'll never be able to repay them for letting me live through my youth. Thanks to my mom's always believing in me and never telling me "Oh, you can't do that," I grew up believing I could do whatever I wanted to do.

And my dad. From him I learned all the things you wish everyone would learn. Work ethic. Honesty. Integrity. Accountability. That just because life's not fair is no excuse for not treating others fairly. That if I ever had to go to jail, he'd still love me and come visit me, but he wouldn't stand in the way of me getting punished. I know I've given them all some moments over the years, but I'm really glad that they've had a chance to see me realize my dreams, that all the angst I gave them was worth it.

I only have a handful of close friends, just because my life basically revolves around my family and photography. However, that being said, I have the great fortune to have great working relationships with so many interesting and wonderful people, people that almost become extended family because we spend so much time working together.

Beyond that, my DPC family is just over the top! I've made some incredible friends through the siteI've made some incredible friends through this site, and have really enjoyed getting to meet so many of them in real life. My list isn't as long as Manic's or Terry's (who are both on my list), but it's getting up there. One of my closest friends is Linda Hall (LindaLee); hardly a week goes by that we don't talk a couple times. I just love being able to make these relationships real, as opposed to leaving them simply virtual. I mean, think about this. I flew to London a couple years ago, just for a G2G. I stayed at Ed's (e301) one night, flew to Dublin the next day to spend an incredible couple days with Aznym (xion), and went back to London and stayed at Kavey and Pete's (ganders) the balance of the week. Talk about enjoying the kindness of strangers. Simply incredible. And all because of DPC. What a trip. To think I would have been a third wheel on June's and Manic's Stonehenge trip if I hadn't decided to go to Dublin...Or, to be standing by a wall on the South Bank of the River Thames to hear Jon Lucas (imagineer) excitedly whisper, "Quick, while they're not looking, mate!" and then to see him disappear over the wall to head down to the riverside...If it weren't for DPC, I doubt if something like that ever would have happened to me.

And now, this DPL thing has really put a cool twist on things. I've met and shot with everyone on our team (Team F/ATE) except for Debi and Julia, and I've actually talked to Debi on the phone. Considering we're an international team with only a couple people in the same time zone, that's pretty damn amazing.

The first time I held an SLR was in the 10th grade and I was hooked for life. It was a Pentax and we had 70-300mm telephoto zoom for it. My best friend was on the yearbook staff and he got me started. The school had a darkroom in the gym and he had keys, so we would bulk load film, shoot, develop, and print. Damn, if I hadn't been so naive, I could have probably either made a lot of money, or gotten into a lot of trouble.

There were a handful of significant events that made photography happen for me. The summer between my junior and senior years of high school, I was allowed to keep the camera at home. Only a handful of slides have survived, but some of them are really indicative of the way things would end up going for me. I mean really, 17 years old and riding around at night to take pictures of tractor trailers in parking lots, just because the light looked cool...

My senior year in high school I was both yearbook editor and head photographer. I still get a trip out of flipping through that book. Some of those photos are just HORRIBLE, and some of them are pretty decent. That's where I got my foundation in shooting candids and shooting sports. After graduation, I had to give the camera back to the school, so I pretty much gave up photography.

Almost five years later, out of the blue, my parents surprised me with a Minolta SLR for my birthday. I couldn't ever remember them giving me anything that expensive or so special. I mean, you know how you always hint around Christmas and birthdays about what people want. Well that was just so totally out there. All my Mom said was that Dad had just wanted to do something special and he had remembered how much I'd enjoyed photography when I was in high school.

Those were the days. I got hooked up with Seattle Filmworks, and that was just a blast! The film was free, and processing was dirt cheap, AND - you could elect to get BOTH slides and prints from the same roll. And just like a lotta people at DPC, I skirted around the edges of making money with my camera. I had a sales job and worked out a deal where I could shoot the monthly sales leaders for the home office and get paid $15 each for 10 8x10s. That $150/month paid for me to shoot about 20 rolls a month! Can you imagine that...I was able to take about 600 photos a month!

That lasted until I met my future wife who lived in downtown Philadelphia. Went up to visit her one weekend and some crackhead broke into my car and stole my camera. I probably could have filed an insurance claim, but since this happened pre-DPC, I had no one to give me that kind of advice. I ended up picking up a Nikon One-touch and that lasted a good while (even though it wasn't quite the same).

What got me to the here and now? Well, since my daughter was born just about the time camcorders were becoming small and affordable, we went the video route, and I didn't really think much about photography until one fateful day back in May, 2001 (I only know that because I just ran across a particular receipt.). I had taken Lexa and Beau to the Virginia State Capitol where they could spend a couple hours running up and rolling down these beautiful, green grassy hills. It was a beautiful day. They decided to run up to the Capitol Building and there they were, running around the huge white columns. It was one of the sky-blue cloudless days, just begging for a picture. I ran to the car and the only thing in it was a Barbie Instamatic 110... I used up the film, went home, and told Nina I had to have a camera. We packed up and went out to Best Buy and I got a Canon Rebel 2000 and a 75-300mm F/4-5.6 telephoto zoom.

After spending a few years shooting about 15 rolls a month and paying about $15 a roll (just couldn't wait for the mail, just had to have that one-hour processing with the images also on a CD), I finally found myself at that point where I had to go digital. Having had enough of letting the lab screw up my prints, I broke down and got my 300D.

That question gives me a grin, and not just because the short answer is 'yes'...I actually discovered DPC by googling "photography contest"! I've been lucky enough to have four Kodak POTDs. In the past two years, I've won a handful of awards in the Virginia Press Association, and they've been very meaningful to me, given that I'm a freelancer and not a staff photographer. This past year my "Speedo" shot was named 'Best in Show - Non-Daily Publications' by the Virginia Press Association.

Almost anything with Russell Crowe. Gladiator is tops. Nina can't stand how tragic it is at the end, so I have to wait until she goes out of town to watch it. It's also my dog Krukker's favorite; he loves watching the opening battle scene, with the German Shepherd. I'm also a big fan of Braveheart.

As much as I love music, I just never got around to putting much money into it. I bought a whole bunch of greatest hits CDs from Columbia House and that pretty much gets me by ;-)

I could probably make it on a handful of CDs...Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites and Hard Candy, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Allman Brothers - Decade of Hits, Skynyrd - One More For/From the Road, Neil Young - Decade and Weld Disc 2, Aerosmith, Johnny Cash, BB King, Cream, Layla, Dire Straits (especially Making Movies), Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm, Tom Petty, old R.E.M. Boz Scaggs. I guess my musical taste never really 'matured' that much.

Oh, I could listen to Kate Bush or Celtic Woman. All the same, I'd rather be shooting it live than having it playing in the background.

I don't know, I guess I'm really just an old fart. But, you know, I grew up on vinyl, and then, even though the radio played the top-100, the albums were complete packages. If you had any kind of attention deficit disorder, you were busted if you put on a record - because you had to listen to the whole thing! You couldn't be dropping the needle in a groove for 5-10 seconds then jumping to the next track. And, think about it - everyone listening to the album listened to the songs in the same order, the order that was set by the artist. If doubt if the likes of Dark Side of the Moon or the Wall would ever come to be in today's world. I guess being a fogey is the price I pay for growing up in a pre-soundbite world.

Most definitely. The buying market wants to get hooked in instaneously. They don't have time to absorb the subtleties. This is true in movies, in books, and, most ostensibly, here at DPC. In a challenge, you've got maybe 3 seconds to register your image with a viewer; otherwise, forget it. That's why this DPL team of ours has breathed life back into the challenges for us: we just don't care. We're submitting images that speak to us, knowing full well they probably won't register with the masses.

That was a fluke. Kidding aside, looking at Julia's and Ed's and Az's entries, they are just remarkable in their subtleties. Even though Debi and Brad and I pulled some higher numbers, our images were still images we shot for us, first.

This will get us all out of sequence in the usual interview flow, but what the heck. Pick a few of those "subtle" images by your DPL partners and give us a mini-critique.

This shot of Julia's was a mind-blow right out of the gate. It grabbed my attention on so many levels. The graphic nature of the image, the voyeuristic sense, the composition - everything. There are just so many layers to that image. And the way she desatted it turned my whole perception of desaturization on its head, at once making me keenly aware of the possibilities as to how things looked outside the box. Truly, this was one of the most inspired and inspirational images I've come across. I was just bummed that I wasn't able to chase down a couple of images that I envisioned after seeing hers.

This is a perfect example of what our group is about - capturing the images that move us as we see them, as opposed to setting them up. That is the one thing that leaves me shaking my head at DPC is how the scales are constantly tipped in favor of creating an image vs capturing an image. Photography, especially good photography, is not automatic, but it requires infinitely more work to go out and capture an image when you have no control over anything except your vision and your ability to handle your camera. When we're out, we can't control the weather, the subjects, the lighting, the environment. Even if we have some slight control over our subjects, it still comes down to just us and our cameras.

Really quickly, let's consider a couple of Az's. Oscillation is amazing.You just can't plan stuff like that. You're out there with your camera and all you can do is respond to what moves you. Then you throw it into the DPC hopper to find out whether or not it connects.

Or water meets land. Talk about simple eloquence...there is so much to this image, but if you don't stop to take it in, you completely miss it. 3 seconds just isn't long enough. There is the clash of elements, one attacking the other, etching its damage on the surface - but, it's not a permanent damage. Although the image has the feeling of sand-blasted glass, we know the land will self-heal its abrasions. I could go on, but I think you get the point. This image is fairly typical of our group, and, seeing where it placed, it's obvious that it's not your typical DPC frontpage eye candy ;-)

Anything cooked! I once ordered steak tartar medium rare - that really impressed my future wife. Honestly, though, I love it all, especially real authentic cultural stuff. I had never eaten Indian until Kavey and Pete ordered out the most over-the-top feast. Over the top, that was! I prefer Eastern NC barbecue over Western NC, just because the sauce is vinegar based. Then there's this little bar & grill in Manayunk, just out from Philly, called the US Hotel, and they have this unbelievable crab corn chowder. A big bowl of that and a pint of Bass - nothing like it. Well, nothing except my mom's homemade spaghetti. Obviously, I love food...I could go on and on...

In Williamsburg, NOTHING beats a hot Holly from Paul's Deli. In Colorado, the best ribs in the world are at the Glory Hole, up in Central City (at least they were the last time I was there). In Philly, it Pat's, NOT Geno's, unless you're at Reading Terminal, then it's Rick's. The view from Jake's Steaks in St Louis is spectacular and the food is awesome. But, if I could have just one last thing before I go, it would be one of Nina's homemade pies, either pecan or apple, with two scoops of Breyers Original Vanilla.

With a passion! I'm not a chef, but I love cooking for large groups. I'd love to have a business catering chili parties.

Do you have a main source of caffeine? If so, is it Tea, Coffee. Chocolate or Other?

Coffee, now. In college, it was Hershey's Kisses, Coca Cola, and Marlboro Regulars. Yeah, didn't you know smokes were a source of caffeine?

Coke, it's the real thing, baby! Nothing like an ice cold caffeine free diet Coke first thing in the morning. That other stuff is just too damn sweet.

I'm not a bigot. I've had to use PCs for almost 20 years; but, there's probably a Mac in my future.

Ugh. Both. Ever since that paper route, I've been getting up between 4 and 5 am. And I'm up now. (We're way past the midnight hour, here...) Luckily, I can sleep anywhere, anytime, if need be. I've been able to sleep at car races...

I could say, "It all depends on who I'm with and what we're doing.", but if I had a preference, it would be a small group of friends, hanging out on the dock, watching the kids do flips and chase fish. Years ago, some buddies of mine and I carried a case of beer into the New Years' Eve crowd at the old Post Office in DC and we made a lot of friends. And, on the other hand, if I'm shooting, I LOVE crowds - the more, the merrier.

If I could, I'd easily be a bum. When I can get away with it, I only shave on Sunday mornings. Aside from that, I don't believe in perfectionism. I believe in going further than expected, but knowing when enough is enough. When you hit the point of diminishing returns, it's time to knock off.

Use whatever's in your wallet ;-) To me it's not as much a matter of how you pay as it is what you pay for. If you can't control your spending and manage your impulses, you'll wind up hosed, posting a thread begging for a free DPC membership.

You spoke above about your history of film cameras before getting your digital Rebel. Pick up the story in digital-land now.

My poor, sweet little 300D. Talk about pushing something beyond its intended use. I got 70,691 clicks out of it before the shutter finally locked up. It really was a perfect body for me to make the transition from film to digital. It supported all the glass I bought for film and it had just enough features for me to begin learning what I was doing. It allowed me to build a good enough portfolio to start picking up freelance work, and then…it died. The timing was perfect, because I was starting to get assignments that were beyond its reach, but well within reach of the 20D.

So, in one fell swoop, I went from consumer to high-end prosumer, grabbing a 20D body and 16-35, 24-70, and a 70-200 L lenses.

The 20D was a huge step up, and fit in very nicely with my professional progression. 5-ish frames per second, larger files, a few more focus points, better autofocus - all in all, not a bad camera. I know quite a few pros who carry them as 2nd bodies.

It also kept pace with my expanding business. I went from shooting about 1500 frames per week to over 2500 frames per week.

[laughs]. It's like this: if you want to do something, you can't just want to do it - you have actually to do it. Photography is not automatic. It takes work. It's extremely competitive. And, like anything else, it takes practice.

You are not going to get good at it shooting 100 frames a week. Sorry. It's just is not going to happen.You have got to shoot until you are at one with that camera, until your images become an extension of your vision and intuition.

Look at it like this. It's not enough to just hold your camera up to your eye and click the shutter in Automatic mode. If you want to be a photographer, you have to explore everything that your camera is capable of. You have to know what it can do so that when you have an opportunity, you can make the most of it. Otherwise, you wind up with a bunch of eye-level snapshots that document where your camera went.

So, you take some shots, then you say, "I wonder what will happen if I turn this dial?" And you adjust the aperture a stop or two and take a few more shots. Then you push it a little more. Then you go back the other way. And you play with other dials. You say, "I wonder what this will look like if I take this picture while I'm running?"

Well, it's different, it's something to try. The point is, you don't just keep doing the same thing over and over. You're constantly pushing yourself to learn what your camera can do and what you have to do to control it. And, if you're serious, sooner or later, that frame-count is going to elevate.

Well, it just depends on where you want to go and how fast you want to get there, and how good of a student you are. A friend of mine had to cover her first car race at a small track. She came back with 150 photos, some pretty good. I asked her how long she had was there - 20 minutes? She knew immediately that she had wasted an incredible opportunity. She could have shot her way through the garage, practicing shooting working candids and gathering feature shots. She could have practiced panning. She could have been looking for images that told the untold story of Friday nights under the hood. But no, she shot a handful of racing shots. Good enough for the paper, but not good enough to move her development along.

I have friends that have gotten to the point that they don't need to shoot as much any more. They know what they're after and they can pretty much go get it. There are times when I can do that, but, all the same, if I have the opportunity to practice, I take it.

That's partially true. It is, was, probably still is, a great body. It served me well, but one night last year, I was at my fourth of four assignments, all sports events, and the shutter plunger got stuck. Turn the camera off, turn it back on, and it just starts firing...click-click-click-click-click-click - until you turn it off.

I went home and told Nina I had a problem; all she said was, "Deal with it." So I ordered a Mark IIn and had that a couple days later.

Don't you know it! The thing is, Nina is just as committed to my success as I am, and she's not one for cutting corners. If something needs to be done in order to get the job done, she'd rather just get it done, then worry about the fallout later.

It is the most unbelievable piece of equipment I've ever touched (Even though I've probably said that about every camera, it's true!). Holy smokes! 8 to 9 frames per second! Incredible autofocus. It is an action shooter's dream. I don't believe I've ever failed to get a shot because of my equipment.

And, it is a tank! I literally, just this past Memorial Day, as I slipped and fell face first in some boulders, had to let it go in order to break my fall. It hit the ground full force and bounced into a boulder hard enough to eject the battery. Thankfully, the 70-200 stayed attached. I put the battery back in, and it kept shooting. The 70-200 required a trip to Canon, but the Mark is fine.

I was fine, just banged up a bit. My daughter was a bit perturbed that I was more concerned about my camera than my own conditionMy daughter was a bit perturbed that I was more concerned about my camera than my own condition, but I guess that just goes with the territory. Now I have a much better sense of how Langdon felt when he watched a lens of his roll over the edge and into the reflecting pool.

Tell us a little about your lens collection: favorites, most and least often used, etc.

It doesn't help that I'm a packrat, with deep-seated fears that I'm going to immediately need something within moments of getting rid of it. That probably explains why I have an '88 Camry out in my yard with 200,000 miles on it - even though it hasn't been driven in over 10 years...

My camera bag is almost the same. I guess I still have my 55mm just because it has no value. I have a 100mm F/2.8 USM Macro lens that I've loved sense I bought it, but it hardly ever gets used. And I don't use my 50mm F/1.8 as much as I'd like. I have a real piece of crap 15mm fisheye I use a lot. It has a horrible blemish up in the top-left corner, and it's a real bear having to shoot around it. It's the only lens I've ever bought used, and probably the last one, at that. If something's not going to work right, I want it to be my own doing, rather than having to put up with something someone else did. I love the effect and the possibilities it's given me, and am really looking forward to getting a new one.

Even though it primarily depends on what I'm shooting. I probably shoot more with my 70-200 than anything else. It absolutely creams the backgrounds, it's fast as lightning, it's tack-sharp; easily one of the best, most durable lenses Canon has ever made. I'm able to use it for just about everything, especially action and portraits. After that, it would be my 16-35. Excellent PJ lens. Really lets you get the whole picture. And, when I'm in a pinch to shoot a group shot or a portrait where I don't want any distortion at all, I go for my 24-70. It consistently delivers razor-sharp images. I recently shot a group of 95 people that were in the shade, 9 rows deep on stairs and up under a walkway, with the back row at least nearly 70 feet away...and you can clearly identify every individual in an 8x10!

I mainly carry 1 and 2 GB cards, both SanDisk and Kingston. Altogether, I carry about 9 GB when I leave the house.

Only JPG. RAW just doesn't fit my work or my style. The Mark is fast and has a nice buffer, but I can't risk filling it. As to the 9 GB, well, it doesn't happen every day, but there have been times where that was just enough to get me through a day and a night.

Once. I did something stupid and forgot where I was with my workflow and formatted a card with images that I thought I had transferred to my harddrive. But, thanks to DPC and some great advice, PC Inspector Smart Media Recovery saved my butt! Thread with discussion is here.

Nah, the world is my studio ;-) I have some nice monolights that are a real pain to haul around, so I guess I'll have to build a studio for them.

You're kidding?! You're taking close to 150,000 images a year and you aren't using any organizing software?

Believe me, I've thrown a ton of time and a fair amount of money at this problem and haven't found anything that I consider acceptable. I've tried ACDSee, iView, Picasa, and a bunch more. They just don't cut it. Instead, I have a very, very simple manual process and an Excel spreadsheet. It works like this. After making backups, I put all my originals in one place. I have a folder for each year, and in that folder I have a folder for each month, and in each month I have a folder for each roll I shoot (a "roll" being a recognized collection of images produced roughly at the same time and/or event). The roll is named yymmdd-Descriptive-name-of-roll and the images are renamed from the in-camera name to the roll-name-xxxx where the xxxx is a sequence number. I use the yymmdd prefix because computers have a funny way of sorting things alphabetically and I really like being able to date-sort my folders by title. Each "roll" is logged in my assignment spreadsheet, along with basic information as to who the assignment was for, the type of assignment, and stuff like that. If I'm just shooting for me, that gets logged as an internal job. In the end, it might take a few clicks, but I can pretty quickly get my hands on anything I've shot, just by having an idea as to what it was or who it was for or when I shot it.

Back up a minute, if you don't mind. You say "they just don't cut it." Could you expand on that?

First, let me qualify that statement. They just don't cut it for me. For my situation. They all have their strengths and good points, but they all have inherent weaknesses and design flaws that keep me from committing to them. I'd say the biggest problem is that none of them use an industrial-strength database on the back end. iView is close, but it has horrible inefficiencies and limitations. Of everything I've seen, Extensis Portfolio seems to be the one, but holy smokes, the price on that!

So, I'll keep on doing it manually until I find something that gets the whole job done affordably. Or until I have time to create my own ;-)

At the moment I'm still using CS. I didn't think CS2 had that much more for me, and I haven't looked at CS3 at all.

I know this makes me sound like a Luddite, but it really is more a factor of the type of work I do. When shooting for newspapers, especially those with deadlines, you just don't have time to do much post-processing. When you do, you have to be very careful as to just how much you do, unless your goal is to make headlines like the guy from Reuters or the guy from the LA Times or the guy in Charlotte or or or...it's a sad list of people who just went too far, and I just don't want to join them.

The image comes in at 72dpi, I size it to 200dpi and 12" on its longest side. I hit it with USM, usually 300% at .3 or .4 pixels and 0 threshold. I'll take a quick look at levels and curves, add my captioning through File Info, and then save as a jpg 10. I never use layers or mask edits for newspaper stuff and very rarely will I dodge and burn anything. On those rare occasions, it's just midtones with an exposure less than 10%. That simple.

Yep. It really is more important to get it right in cameraIt really is more important to get it right in camera, because you never know how much time you're going to have. It is so different, shooting on demand as opposed to shooting for a challenge or shooting for fine art.

I just did a job for a corporate client where I was documenting one of their traveling productions. I shot for about four and a half hours, took over 1800 frames, and delivered just over 1600. Yes, I had to go through all 1800, but there was no way I could hand-edit the 1600 I delivered. I used a Photoshop batch action to do the base edits, then I reviewed the results and tweaked a handful.

More than anything, it comes down to time. I can go shoot a baseball game for a school's athletic department. Same situation: go out for 2-3 hours and come back with about 1000+ frames. I'll go through all of them to find the 700-800 I'm going to deliver, and I'll pick 5-10 out to hand-edit for immediate delivery, but the rest of them get batch processed.

Another thing about this type of work, though, is that the clients for this type of work don't want any more editing than what I've described. They need maximum flexibility to use the images in any number of ways, and my minimal edits gets them exactly what they need.

That's a whole nuther story. Portraits? I tend to shoot the same way, but then I have to spend a fair amount of time weeding the images down. You would blow a poor mother's mind, asking her to pick her favorites from the 250 images you take in the 20 minutes of chasing her kids around the backyard. No, you have to get it down to the best 15-20. Even then, I don't believe in processing them to the nth - I save that for after the commitment to buy.

You've been talking primarily about workflow as a part of post-processing. Are there any other particular Photoshop skills do you consider to be essential to digital photography?

It's hard to say, because there are so many aspects to photography. I guess if I had to pick one, it would be to learn as many methods as possible to do black and white conversions. There are so many ways to do that, each with its own merits. You have to use a method that fits your vision - and that might be different from image to image.

My favorite, and the one that seems to suite me most, is one I learned from zeuszen: the gradient map conversion. Open your image, make sure black is your foreground color (press the D key to make it so), and from the menu select Image -> Adjustments -> Gradient Map. Then you can tweak your levels and curves as necessary. Very clean.

That's tough...now I'm going to have to go hunting. I just don't edit them that much, just don't have that much time.

Ok, I'm back. I would have to say it was Lucy in the Sky for the Beatles challenge. From my notes, "post: made a layer for the sky and a layer for emma. multiplied the sky and adjusted it's hue/sat. adjusted curves for emma. burned her hair a bit to bring it in line with the sky layer, dodged her face to lighten it a tad. cropped and sized for web." If I knew what I was doing, I probably could have done a better job eliminating the haloing, and maybe that would have gotten me a better score. ;-)

That's very tame by DPC standards. Do you use any other software editing software?

On very, very rare occasions, I use Neat Image, but I've come to love the grain. My Mark does a great job of managing the in-camera noise and I tend to feel that noise is there for a reason. If it really detracts from an image, I'll clean it up, but, for the most part, I look at it like this: if the situation I'm shooting in is such that the best equipment for the job produces the images I'm capturing, then that's what people need to see. I want them to know there's a difference between my camera and their camera. It's not a matter of being a snob, but if someone wants to take a 300D or something similar or lesser out to do what I do, then I want them to see how much work they've got in front of them in post-processing in order to get their image up to what my camera does in the capture.

On the whole, do you prefer a minimalist approach to post editing, a no rules approach, or somewhere in between?

Personally, I prefer the no-edit, minimalist, and basic challenges, just because I think I think the playing field is a little more level. I still have to deal with the fact I don't have hours to spend developing a shot and then processing the image, but at least I know the tools being used are somewhat limited.

All the same, I love the results of the expert challenges. I'll never enter one of those, but I sure enjoy seeing those that can do that stuff have the opportunity to stretch themselves.

I'd like to ask you about a few of your DPC challenge entries. A self-described action photographer, you shoot events; you tell the stories in pictures. You do lots of sports, but there are lots of other events that you do as well, even business events. You always seem to find a great angle or a wonderful "out of the box" approach to a situation others might miss.

Thanks, John. I have to attribute a lot of what I shoot as an extension of my "always be shooting" credo. First, you get the job done; then you go to work and have some fun.

"approaching h y p e r s p a c e "	This is one of my favorites from your portfolio. It captures that frenetic motion to which good motion pans aspire, but it also has a sense of isolation. There are no other cars visible and no people that I can see. If there's one thing I love trying to do, it is capturing energy and motion. This image was the result of all the necessaries coming together at the same time: a dynamic challenge topic and me being in a great place to shoot and me having time to shoot. I was in NYC for a long weekend with a client, and had some time to kill on Sunday morning. I spent maybe an hour walking up and down Broadway between Penn Station and Times Square, shooting taxis; they are such a blast and they provide such a great dynamic. You get that great NY-neon backdrop and bingo - a fun image that also connects with the voters! I had actually shot something similar to this a few years ago, and was glad to have the opportunity to revisit it for a challenge. I hated that it was under Basic rules, as I really wanted to take out that driver's window. (Also, here's something I think most people have missed: you can't see the real title unless you mouse over the image!)
"sunshine on a cloudy day"	This is just an amazing shot in every way, and again, an example of you getting well outside of the box. The girls must have loved this shoot. I hope they all got a copy of this one. Here again, this image as a challenge entry came down to having something I shot for a client fitting DPC. I shoot all of Randolph-Macon College's sports, and that provides its own set of challenges. One of the challenges was to break out from taking ALL the team shots on the steps in front of Alumni Gym. Another was getting the coaches to work with us creatively. This image resulted from working with a coach and a team who made some time and wanted to have some fun. I really wanted to find something that caught the team's spirit and personality. I had tried shooting them in a circle from above, but it seemed too distant. This perspective, though, made for a much more engaging image. (More shots from that shoot are here.)
"stand on it"	I think your photographer's comment says it all on this one (but I'll ask you to say more anyway); You shoot for yourself - not for the DPC voters. What is your motivation when you're pressing the shutter button? It's about capturing a moment. Life is not static. It's fluid. It's dynamic. It's not always about motion, but it is about life. That's why I "struggle" with DPC - the voters like the setup eye-candy and I typically don't have the time or inclination to do that. My kids "model" for me in the sense that I try to capture them having fun, doing the things kids like to do - jumping, spinning, running, playing, goofing around. It's still about capturing a moment. This particular shot was a real trip. I was in NYC just to shoot for fun, and managed to get Shannon (scalvert) and Nick (Nikolai1024) and Steve (pawdrix) to come out for GTG. We were in Central Park and came across these guys doing jumps off a stage. I got a handful of typical shots, but thought it would be more fun to try to grab one actually coming off the stage right over me. I had to pre-focus, and I chose a pretty high aperture because I had no control over where they were going to come off the stage. That left me with a relatively slow shutter for this type of action, meaning I was going to have just a split second to pick up the boarder and grab the shot. What a rush! Given all the "flaws," I'm surprised it finished as well as it did. And, along those lines, this image really highlights the enigma of DPC: the challenge is to connect with a diverse group of viewers and voters, many of whom are just starting to learn about photography. A lot of stuff gets overlooked because it's not readily apparent how much work it takes to nail a shot, especially a real life action shot where you don't have any control over anything but the camera and your vision.
"scratchin & pickin"	And I can't resist asking you about this one. Again, I encourage readers to check out your photographer's comment and the dialog that followed in the comments. This is a technically excellent shot, an unusual viewpoint, and a success from publication standpoint, yet it was bombing with the voters when you pulled it. What did this experience tell you about the DPC-world vs. the real world?? Yeah, you would pull this one out, wouldn't you..."HEY, MOMMY, DID YOU SEE THAT MAN'S SCAR?!?!" We can skip it, if you want. No, it's ok, it's out there, let's talk about it. First, no one ever would have known that this image was entered in a challenge, except that the flag to hide the image didn't get set after I requested the image pulled. It was only after it started getting post-challenge comments that we [me & DPC] realized that it was still there, and by then, it was too late. I could have chosen to have it hidden, but, by that point, I figured I'd go on and live with it It made for a pretty good discussion, as well, as to the nature of DPC, challenges, the community, etc., and it was somewhat cathartic to let it all air out. How so? Well, maybe I probably should have just let it ride, at least a little longer. I think the thing that happened was that I was getting pretty frustrated with not entering challenges, because I was shooting so much, but rarely finding an overlap between work and challenge topics. Here, I thought I had one, but the voting just tanked. In a ridiculous display of righteous indignation, I requested it pulled. I mean, how dare they, the voters of DPC vote my image that low! The thing is, DPC is what it is, and I chose to leave that image as it is to remind me. DPC is NOT the real world. I'm doing just fine in the real world, and I love having DPC as an outlet. It is a place to play, share, help, support, learn. The challenges are fun, but they are no measure of one's photography. They are only a measure of how well you play the game of shooting for DPC challenges.
"Absolute Still"	And finally, this shot takes its place as one of the top 6 all-time high scorers of DPC (and only one of two that was shot in the last three years). This image seems to be a big departure from your usual. Other than the fact that the challenge forced you to go shoot pre-dawn, what was the motivation for this shot? I like to take pretty pictures. [A very long pause] Care to add to that? I'm thinking... [Another very long pause] Ok, I love this image. It's very special to me in so many, many different ways. I think that it's one of those moments to simply enjoy the experience of it all, where even whispers are almost too loud. I'll say this, then let's move on. When I had my paper route, when I was 11 years old, my mom would sometimes get up with me and drive me. When we were done, we'd go out to the edge of the farm where my dad was going to build our home, and we'd sit out there in the dark, looking for the comet Kohoutek, just me and my mom and the stars. Enough said.

We've talked about equipment and processing and some of your photos; what do you consider to be the central, crucial aspects of photography?

It all depends on what you want out of it. If it's just a hobby and you like to take pretty pictures, the only thing that matters is having a tripod and knowing when to use it. On the other hand, if photography consumes you, then there are some other things you need.

Passion. Pure and simple: passion for photography. It doesn't matter how long or how short you've been doing it, if you don't have a passion for it, it shows in your work. Maybe not in every image, but in your body of work. Some situations leave you with nothing but a standard shot. Fine. Take it. But don't stop there. You owe it to yourself to try something else. Don't stop shooting until you run out of time, memory, or subject.

Let's say you get whacked by a Mack truck tomorrow...what will they make of your life as a photographer when they start going through the images you leave behind? Will they simply toss your life aside as nothing but a collection of snapshots? Or will they stop and look for awhile? If you don't have a passion for what you're doing, you risk winding up with nothing more than a bunch of snapshots. That passion is what gives your images a spark, it's what gives them soul. It's what puts people in your moments.

Along with passion goes practice. If you don't practice, you're never going to reach your full potential. Sometimes, you have no choice but to take the shot and go with it. But, if you have any opportunity whatsoever, you need to take advantage of it. You need to be constantly pushing yourself to try different things, otherwise, all your images are going to end up looking the same. Without practice, you run a very real risk of blowing it when there's no do-over.

Keep an open mind. Learn the rules, then learn how to break them. Learn to appreciate what others do, how they do it, and why they do it. There are so many ways to approach photography - can you imagine how deadly dull it would be to only follow one path? To let your imagination stagnate just because you see things only one way? You don't have to go off the deep end, but you really need to get across the county line every now and then.

The last crucial aspect to photography is developing a willingness to share. Share what you learn. Share your work. Work with others. Just as there are those who help you along, you need to try to help others along. If you develop a mindset of sharing and being there for others, they'll be there for you when you need them.

It seems that most of your forum posts are related to the Business of Photography and freelancing. What do you say to someone who's looking to make some money with their camera?

Go for it! But don't bite off more than you can chew. Learn the mechanics of producing the images that move you, first. Then learn the business end. Know what you want to do. Do you want to be hired by someone as a photographer, or do you want to freelance? Big difference. And don't just start throwing money into equipment and stuff before you really know how to do what it is you want to do.

The biggest thing, though, is to realize you're not going to get all your answers in the forums. You can get some good tips, but you really need to hit the books, go to Barnes and Noble, go to the library, and really dig into the subject. Then put together your own plan, the one that makes sense for your situation.

And, if you're interested in getting into freelancing, you gotta subscribe to a large daily paper, at least for a while. You gotta turn your critical DPC eye onto the images that make it in a big paper, and you have to do that relentlessly for a few months. You really have to study the images that make it past the editor and into the paper.

Lastly, realize that it's not going to happen over night. Yeah, I've made some unbelievable strides in the two years I've been doing this, but it took over 25 years to lay the foundation for what I've accomplished so far. Others might do it more quickly, but, all the same, it's not automatic--it takes work and commitment. If you're willing to make the sacrifices, though, anything is possible!

Not to be blasphemous, but don't limit yourself to DPC. There really is a deep, deep pool of talent here, and a lot of serious resources, but, at the same time, a large part of it is geared towards the challenges. And you can't let the challenges rule your life or govern your photography. Take what you learn here, apply it elsewhere, and you'll find a happy medium.

Well, I'm really lucky to live where I do. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has got some of the most awesome talent. Every day, I learn something, see something new, just by looking through the paper. The stuff they put out is unreal. To be able to contribute to that is so motivating, because they really set the bar.

And I just love Thomas Marshall's threads! He's always digging up new portfolio's to explore.

Beyond that, I think Jack Leigh is the photographer I'm most inspired to follow.

As a matter of taste, I prefer photography over digital art. I can appreciate digital art, but I'm more drawn to a killer photo on the sports page than I am to a 87-layered rendering on a website.

Aside from that, the thing I don't like the most is seeing the same stuff all the time. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it's the double-edge sword of the DPC challenges. People get their blinders on, thinking they have to enter a specific type of shot to score high. And some people get hooked on scoring high and end up getting sucked into producing those great ribboning shots - at the expense of pushing their creativity. I don't mean to sound like I'm knocking those that ribbon, because I'm not - I know it takes effort to produce those shots. I'm just saying that when it starts to look like the same shot over and over again, I question how much personal growth is going on there. There's a fine line between developing a style and being in a rut.

Who among DPCers have you found inspiring - or at least drawing inspiration. Put another way, who would you most like to spend a day shooting with?

I'm afraid if I got started this would end up looking more like a DPC directory than an interview. Honestly, this site is the single greatest source of inspiration for me, photographically. I have seen more and learned more here than any place else I've visited, and I attribute that to the community and the people who contribute to it.

After getting my 300D I started looking for things to do with it. I googled "photography contest" and DPC was the first hit. I remember seeing Jodie Coston's Kintla Lake photo on the front page, taking the blue in the Deep Depth of Field challenge and thinking, "Wow! What a killer shot! Hey, this looks like fun..." [As an aside, check out Shannon's comment on Jodie's image, the last one made during the challenge. At that point, he'd only managed a couple top 10s.]

So I kept checking it out and finally decided to jump in with the Words challenge. What a trip. My first challenge and I broke a 6 and scored a top 10. And it immediately went down hill from there. However, Debi faved me as a photographer that week and we've been friends ever since.

After struggling along for about three months, I reached out to a handful of DPCers that I respected for some feedback and the responses to that were incredible, not in terms of raising my challenge scores, but in starting to critically look at my photography. I realized early on the difference between DPC and the real world, and as much as I'd like to be successful at DPC, it was far more important to me to be heading towards producing strong imagery than it was to win ribbons.

Ha! Of course, you want the approval of your peers, but you have to be careful as to how you define "your peers."

As I mentioned, getting some serious feedback on my portfolio really cemented how I felt about the site. It is a photography site. Yeah, it's a multi-faceted site, but it still revolves around photography. And it is a community of people primarily interested in photography. And there are a lot of extremely talented individuals ready and willing to share their time and talents in moving the community and the art forward. Once you figure out how to manage the signal-to-noise ratio in the forums, you can find a comfortable spot.

If I started naming names, I'll surely leave someone off. I've had the pleasure of meeting and shooting with a lot of people, and it never is enough time. As I mentioned earlier, I've shot with everyone on Team F/ATE except for Debi and Julia, and I'd love to shoot with them. But, today, if I had to pick just one person to shoot with that I hadn't shot with before, it would by Lesley Hogue. Sorry, I meant Sher Bailey. Whoops. I meant Julia Goodman. Damn. Guess I can't just pick one...
Coley.... Terje.... dsidwell... Cristi Matei (frumoaznicul)... JJ... ZZ.... Bear.... Gordon Whyte (geewhy)... Kelly Munce (roadrunner)... Alecia.... Neil (nshapiro)...

See? I could go on and on and on. I really just love getting out there and shooting, and it's a blast when you have like-minded people out there with you. I mean, if anyone ever has a chance to shoot with Cindi (idnic - get it?), they should jump all over it! She's just as wide-open in real life as she is at DPC. Or to be walking down a street with Shannon and then see him tear off at a full-speed sprint to chase down a shot. Or to just wander around with Az or Jimmy (SJCarter). Photography is just such a mindblow...especially when it's what you do.

Looking at it another way, who would you say at DPC has had the most impact on you, and could you give us some examples of their work and its relevance to you.

Let me answer it another way. What grabs me most is an ideal, a body of work, and being able to watch it as it develops and flows. It's not a matter of saying this or that single image, because through DPC, its challenges, its galleries, its forums - we're all weaving together this awesome tapestry of life in images. And through participation and interaction, you start to gravitate towards those you feel you have something in common with. For me, there are many, many people at DPC whose work and talents I respect, and I have a lot of friends here. But, there are a handful of people have really grabbed a hold of me. When you look at their body of work, you see where they've been and how they've been developing and you get a sense of anticipation and wonder as to what they're going to do next. For me, it's the stuff you see in their portfolios more so than the stuff you see them turn in for challenges. These are people that, oddly enough, don't seem to consider themselves photographers, especially in the sense that it's not their full time profession. All the same, when you look at what they produce, well, I just am blown away. It is so incredibly inspiring to see their dedication to this art.

Can you give us your short list, pick an image of theirs, and tell us what you see?

I can pick an image, but I'd also suggest visiting their portfolios and following the amazing journeys they can take you on.

I realize this is probably asking the impossible, but name your top 5 favorite DPC images (shot by others, that is) and why they speak to you.

Some critics still don't think photography is a form of art. What is your response to this?

Pompous fools! Those are the same critics that don't consider BBQ cuisine or NASCAR a sport. Blind and out-of-touch. Missing out on so much just because they can't see down their noses.

Including anything that we've already talked about, what are your absolute favorite two or three shots that you have taken, and why?

Yikes! Two or three...out of the 200,000 I've kept in the past 3 years ;-) Alright, I'm gonna have to take the easy way out on this.

For the most part, as challenge entries go, they've all pretty much landed where they should have. Of course I wish they had scored higher, and most definitely there are some that have left me shaking my head when I look at the ones that finished ahead of mine. But, that's the random nature of the voting. It is what it is.

There is one image, though, that gives me a grin: Patience is a Virtue. At the time, I was pretty much ready to chuck the challenges because I just felt like I really wasn't connecting with anyone. This particular image got 4 comments and scored below a 5. Ed's comment was the tipping point for me. That was when I realized I'd rather be shooting for myself and hoping to connect with the likes of Ed rather than futilely trying to follow Shannon's formula. I mean, Shannon's a monster, a freak. How can anyone have that much creativity and talent? To be able to conceive and execute as he does, consistently? That is so beyond me. So I shoot what I see, what attracts me, and just go with it when I can.

Are you working on any special projects now that we'll be hearing about in the forums soon?

It's a little too premature to discuss some things that are in the works, but we've got some really killer, exciting things on the horizon. One thing I can say that is about to happen is that I'm getting ready for a significant foray into the world of stock photography. This is one area where I've pretty much been watching from the sidelines, feeling things out. I completely understand the microstock model and the market it serves, and personally have no problems with those who chose to go that route. Personally, though, for me, that's just not the market I want to serve. I've been doing pretty decently licensing directly to some local ad agencies, but it's been passive income--not something that I've been out pushing. As is, I've got close to 150,000 images in the can that have a fair amount of shelf-life, some more than others, but, all the same, somewhat marketable. One of my goals all along was to be developing a real world inventory, and it's just about where I want it to be.

I'm also looking to start producing more publishable photo essays. I've done a few for Virginia Business Magazine, and at the moment, I have a standing arrangement to produce 4-6 a year for them. It's a lot of fun and definitely something I want to do more of.

What about your writing? Your forum posts over the past few years might lead one to wonder if that's something you might pursue as well.

You mean out of all the unimplimented suggestions I've made over the years?! Just kidding...I know just how hard it is for Lang and Drew to keep all the balls in the air, and I truly, truly appreciate what they've done. I don't know if I could have stayed on this bucking rhino as long as they have. Some days, I have no idea why they keep it going. Maybe it's the fear that they'll get trampled if they let go of the rope. All the same, this site has got to have given them some insanely wild intertainment over the years.

But, I digress. Change? Well, to me, there are two types of change: function and character. The functional changes come, as with the introduction of DPL, and with the DPC mods. There are a whole list of things to change or improve, some relevant, some not, and sooner or later, the better ones tend to get implemented.

As to changing character, well, that's another story. I think the community is rather self-policing. I do wish more people would use the Report Post button, rather than flaming back in the forums. I think the SC does an unbelievable job of trying to maintain a modicom of control over this global, 24/7 community.

And that brings me to the one thing I would like to propose: an Official Greeters Club. Somewhat like the SC, but with some specific tasks and some commitment that goes a little more than what's required of something like the Critique Club. I see this as an extension of the FAQ's page and some of the forum stickies, taking things like that and putting a 'virtual' face on the site. Almost like a 'site mentor'. I think it's really easy for someone to come to DPC, jump in, full of gusto, and very quickly get banged up for not knowing all the written and unwritten rules of the site. With just a little guidance, they could be getting the most out of the site, contributing, participating, and not feeling like a lepper.

Along these lines, I think there should be an orientation process for voting and for submitting. I just wonder, how many people who could have made positive contributions to the site silently ran away after their first entry got absolutely hammered with "DNMC" and "too small" and "that's just a snapshot" comments? Maybe something like DPC-Trial, with challenges only open (or even visible) to users with less than 5 challenges? The Greeters Club would monitor these challenges from mentoring standpoint.

Yeah, I know it sounds like a lot, but it fits in the the founding principle of the site, to help friends learn about photography, digital photography. As the site has evolved, it's very easy for that to get lost, and, consequently for potential members to get lost.

You talked above about your first experiences with the site, how you searched for contests, etc. What made you decide to join?

The whole concept was so novel. I mean, anonymously submitting a photo to be judged anonymously by a group of people that represent the entire demographic makeup of the virtual world, as well as every strata of camera type and photographic skill level? And to get so twisted over it as to track hundredths and thousandths of points?

If you could offer some advice to somebody who is new to DPC and submitting to DPC challenges, what would it be?

Please, please, please: read the tutorials on preparing an image for submission, especially the sizing.

Please, please, please: before entering, check the date of the image. Before shooting, check your camera's date.

We lose people at the bottom and the top. We lose them at the bottom because they get so hammered they figure, "why bother, that wasn't much fun." And we lose them at the top because they win ribbons and then get DQ'd, just by not following the rules...

And you know, I know this is off on a tangent, but I still think it's valid: I think that images that get DQ'd and images for banished accounts should have ALL of their stats hidden. Yeah, you should be able to fave any image you like, but I don't think an image that got DQ'd for EXIF tampering should show up as one of the most faved images on the site. I just don't think there should be any rewards for those in the hall of shame.

Getting back to advice for newbies, though, I'd say the most important thing is not to expect to get comments that are going to move your photography forward. It's just not going to happen. If you want to improve, you have to do it yourself. Rather than waiting for comments, more importantly is to give comments. Just type in your reaction to the image in front of you. Do you like it? What do you like? What don't you like? Does it move you? If you were trying to take that photo, what would you do differently? The more you do that, the more you learn how to see through the viewfinder when you are composing your own images. And, after commenting, move on. Don't worry about whether the comment is helpful or if it evokes a PM or anything else. Just push yourself to really look at the images, to see what's really there. If everyone complaining of low scores did that, they would find the quality of their images coming up immensely.

Oh, don't-get-me-started.....Yeah, I really don't like bad forum behaviour or endlessly recycled tail-chasing. I guess that's why I have two-thirds of the forum sections turned off...

If anything, though, I don't like score complaint threads from people who've entered a significant number of challenges, who score in the top 25%, who score above a 6, and then wonder what they could have done to have gotten a higher score. Oh, puhleeze, get over it! Stop whining. You've been around long enough to know how it works. Just move on to the next challenge.

Since challenge entries are pretty much a part of your "permanent record," in retrospect, are there any pictures you wish you hadn't submitted to a challenge?

Yes and no. Of course, I'd love to be able to whitewash my history, but I prefer to have them all there, warts and all, as reminders of where I really missed the boat.

How do you decide which challenges you are going to enter and which ones you'll skip?

Ha! That was a lot easier before DPL. Since heading up a team, I felt compelled to enter every challenge possible, and only missed one. Even though we missed the playoffs, I'll still try to enter as much as possible. Before, I was concerned about meeting the challenge and having a somewhat competitive entry. Now, I just want to produce interesting photography.

Do you ever seek assistance outside of the DPC community in trying to determine which of your photos you should submit?

Outside of DPC? Hahahhha, that's a riot. Trying to explain this place to someone outside of DPC in terms of getting entry feedback? That would be like trying to explain the US Congress to anyone living outside the US.

I've seen the photos from the latest DC G2G, and after reading through the thread, I just have to ask, what is it about you and G2G's?

As I mentioned earlier, G2G's make it all real. They break down the barriers. They let you find out first hand if my online self is the real me.

I look at it like this. DPC is a far and vast community, with tons of interesting people participating at many various levels. Some live only in the forums, some do nothing but enter challenges, some spend unbelievable amounts of time making comments. A G2G is not much different. Some people come to socialize, some use it as a motivator to get out and shoot, some come to learn, some just come for the beer.

To me, I just love being out with a camera, sharing the experience. Granted, not everyone likes having a camera right up in the face, but, after a while, they get used to it...or I get their drift. I don't always succeed, but I really try to get at least one good shot of everyone, unless they stick their tongue out--then it's fair game!

No, not to shoot, but I wish I did. I would like to start a DPC-Richmond group, like a camera club, but maybe a little more DPC-centric in focus. Meet once a month for a few hours, maybe have a speaker, but to mainly spend time shooting. More like a monthly workshop.

I hope so. I think it has its place. When you think about it, what are the alternatives? Stodgy old camera clubs where most of the members are still shooting film and presenting prints? I'd love to build on the dynamics offered by DPC. We'll see. [By the way, anybody interested, please PM me!]

If you could personally ask Drew & Langdon for one new site feature or enhancement, what would it be?

First, but before I start asking for anything, I just gotta say it again...Drew, Langdon: Thanks!!! From the bottom of my heart. I'd probably get where I'm going sooner or later, but, thanks to this awesome place you created, I know I've gotten there a lot sooner!

1. It would be nice if you could select a bunch of photos in your portfolio, then assign galleries and camera and shot info to that group, rather than having to open each one up and edit them individually. This is a real pain, especially when you upload a zip file :(

2. A USEFUL improvement that could help people get a handle on strong challenge entries, I maintain that the count of comments during the challenge would really be a good idea--and really shouldn't take as much effort to code or require any more overhead than some of the other statistics, especially since it's already being down for views...

3. It would be nice to be able to filter comments received by user, so that I could a list of all the images of mine that a user has commented on without having to open up every one of my images. The same would be nice for faves.

4a. Add a Preview button to the PM composition window so we don't see the typo for the first time in our email ...

6. Add a forum section for job postings and positions sought--just like the buy-sell section.

7. A notification that your email was sent and received by Site Council, CC, and Admin...

10. To have a description for a gallery, and then to be able to receive comments on the gallery as a whole.

11. Leave the DPL threads open until the start of the next season, then lock them (rather than hide them).

While I've got you, would you care to weigh in on DPL? You've touched on it here and there--anything to add?

I think it's phenomenal! One of the best things to happen to DPC!! It's amazing, how this thing Scott and Clint came up with took a life of its own and matured to the point that Drew & Langdon were able to bring it in-house.

I know there is still some tweaking to do, and I know there are some detractors, but, all the same, the benefits to the participants AND to DPC are just huge. Especially given the coding that prevents team members from 'friend voting' and the analytics that keep it clean on non-DPL challenges. And, if you really don't like it, you can just turn it off. All the other complaints are not much different that other topics that have been circulating the past 5 years, like low-voting, too many entries, etc. It's a shame if it makes some people left out, but, all the same, nothing is ever safe from change. If the site stagnated, what would be the point of hanging around?

Like I said, there are some things that need tweaking, but, if you're referring to the Ribbon Hogs, well, that's just part of life. Most of the people that watch the Yankees are there hoping they'll lose. People don't turn off Notre Dame football when they're losing 44-10 with 5 minutes to go--they want to see it go to 64-10! The hogs took a risk, setting themselves up like that, and I gotta believe it pushed a lot of people to work quite a bit harder than usual. No matter where you go, you're always going to have something like the Ribbon Hogs.

And I sure wouldn't want it set up with a draft-only means for establishing teams. Our team was founded with a 'photography first' philosophy, and that worked well. And I'm not sure how many of us would have done the DPL thing at all if we hadn't come together for team F/ATE. Maybe we could have done better, but all the same, I'm absolutely thrilled with the photography we produced.

On a different note, you've recently started watermarking all the images in your portfolio. Wanna comment on that?

It really sucks to have to digitally deface your art, but in this day and age, you really have no choice. I think most 'incidents of borrowing' that we come across are mainly due to people being on the net that have never been exposed to or informed about intellectual property rights. Most of those situations are quickly remedied. On the other hand, there are some serious thieves out there, and you owe it to yourself to protect your works. No different than locking your doors before you go to bed at night--it's not a guaranty, but it's common sense.

I know that's something that has bugged Drew & Lang for a number of years. I wish I knew the answer. Maybe they should watermark the images after voting, then charge an annual fee to be able to view them without the watermarks. Or to make watermarking optional to the photographer? I hated having to do it, and it won't stop someone who's really intent on having an image, but it's the only thing I could see that made sense.

The only other thing I wish would be that the site had less hysterical response to seeing a DPC'er's image somewhere else. Yes, infringements need to be dealt with, but not necessarily with torches and clubs. Art's busy enough, as it is ;-)

It's hard to explain just how lucky and blessed I am. Every night, I go to bed, and I thank God for all the things He has put in my life. And, when I wake up, it doesn't matter if it's 2am, 4, 5, 6, whenever, I wake up knowing that I'm doing something I love and that I'm making the most of what I've been given to work with. When I was in software fulltime, I was successful, but I worked in a very, very narrow market. At the most, I may have had 200 users of my systems...and I can guarantee you that NONE of them woke up in the morning and thought, "Damn, I can't wait to get to work this morning and to use Skip Rowland's software!" On the other hand, through my photography, through DPC, through the internet, through my client's publications, I can reach out to 100's and 1000's of people--every day!! I can't really describe how it feels to have a photo on the front page of a paper with a circulation of over 150,000 except to say that it does rock! Not every image is a prize-winner or a picture of the day, but, if I can capture those moments that make life real, that tell stories that need to be told and shared, then I'm doing a lot more now than I've ever done before. I mean, to have clients who have portraits of their children in their bedrooms, where it's the last thing they see before they go to sleep, to give them that last peaceful smile before they fall asleep--how cool is that? Just to be able to touch lives, to hopefully make a difference. To be free to express myself. Even as a photojournalist, how I capture an image is an opportunity for self-expression. It's an outlet, a challenge, a way of life. I understand where some people are coming from when they say, "Oh, if I did it for money, that would take the fun out of it..." For me, though, I'm just thrilled that I can making a living at something I absolutely love.

Thanks for sitting down with me Skip. It's been incredibly fascinating to hear your very personal perspective on shooting. I think this one will really be a hit with the DPC crowd!

No, thank you, John! This gave me the opportunity to go back and revisit alot of the things that made and makes DPC such a special place to me.

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