In our last post, “Following Inspiration“, I remembered Rumi, and some quotes I have always loved. This quote should be law.
A comment was recently left on our Instagram feed regarding one of our images. “Are you the photographer? Or the athlete?”
It’s a fair question about how we’ve worked for the last 16 years. Janine and I appear in many of our own images, we’re certainly our own best models. But, truth be told… we are anything but models. But why not shoot ourselves? We’re out almost every day doing something, we may as well shoot it. The process is self motivating, both passions support the other, and what it all adds up to is constant preparation for when we shoot assigned work. Physical training, full understanding of the sports we photograph, and continual visual inspiration make us what we are – athletes and photographers.
We get a lot of new photographers trying to break into the business asking us to critique their work. One glaring issue I often see is the failure to understand the subjects they’re shooting. And this likely includes a misunderstanding of what a client for that subject may also want. Our own subject matter is fairly limited to the sports we do and the passion we have for travel.
Each of these clips include images from very real days out. Above, Dan on the cover of the May issue of Runner’s World Holland, made during a run from our home in Interlaken, Switzerland.
Dan on the cover of Switzerland’s Fit for Life Velo issue, from a morning ride on the Klausenpass. What’s with that “So Sexy” headline? That’s gotta be for something else!
Janine on the Hardergrat, a run we started from home – on the cover of the Transa 4 Seasons Magazine, Switzerland
Trail Runner Magazine June 2015 cover image of Dan running trails near Interlaken, Switzerland
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Great post, Dan. As someone who works with content, I feel like authenticity is everything. That’s the foundation on which all great content is built… writing, music, photos, you name it. I bet there are things you guys are doing when taking photos, even after all these years, that you can’t quite pinpoint. But, for some reason, something doesn’t resonate as being right. Taking part in those sports, and not just as a casual participant, is key. Maybe that’s what ends up getting called gut instinct. I don’t know. But we all know it when we see, hear or read it– and it’s painful when it’s absent. One of my favorite jokes is from Car Talk’s Ray Magliozzi, who said, “Once we can figure out how to fake authenticity, we’ve got it made.” 🙂