2024 05 31
Recently, I was in Atlanta working on a big, challenging commercial photography project. The shoot was only one day, however, there was quite a lot of prep work involved, as we only had a limited amount of time to execute the creative ask and it was in the complicated environment of shooting on an actual airplane, on the tarmac of one of the worldās busiest airports, for a beverage company that demands its beverages look beautiful. Run-on-sentences aside, the challenge of photographing talent in the tight environment of an actual airplane, then lighting it to make it look both authentic and beautiful, is a real one!
In the nights leading up to the production, I would venture up to the rooftop bar and restaurant of my hotel, which had an amazing vantage point of the airport below, and I would watch a steady stream of planes for hours without getting bored. You check an app on your phone to see a line of planes and where they are arriving from; then, sure enough, they appear in front of you in real life and casually touch down and taxi to their gate. Itās a never ending flow of people, coming and going, on complicated machines our airline producer told us cost $800 million each.
In this moment it hit me: photographers are going the way of the airline pilot. My mind juxtaposed that scene in Catch Me If You Can, where DiCaprio is posing as a pilot during the glory days of commercial air travel with the image of a massively successful commercial photographer in the not-too-long-ago days when they owned buildings, had staffs, and pulled in millions of dollars a year in commissions. These days, both professions are vastly different, however, I fear the commercial photographer is still on a steady and unavoidable decent path towards total commodification. Itās business, afterall.
The camera we used on this project (Fuji GFX100ii) is a marvel of technology, and I canāt help but to compare it to the tool of the modern commercial airline pilot. Sure, some skill is involved in its usage, but really this $10,000 camera is doing heavy lifting in this work relationship.
I think this is partly why Iām finding myself turning more towards the artistic side of photography these days. I donāt want to find myself in a uniform, holding a McDonalds sack and a rolling camera bag, waiting at the gate for the studio doors to open and let out the previous commercial photography shoot so that I can enter the building and calmly and mechanically execute my task of pushing the button and ensuring the files are flowing to the computer. Iām an artsit, dammit! I have opinions! I have ideas! I have vision!
I refuse be commoditized.
-Clayton
On the move, somewhere in rural Illinois or Indiana. April, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Recently, I was in Atlanta working on a big, challenging commercial photography project. The shoot was only one day, however, there was quite a lot of prep work involved, as we only had a limited amount of time to execute the creative ask and it was in the complicated environment of shooting on an actual airplane, on the tarmac of one of the worldās busiest airports, for a beverage company that demands its beverages look beautiful. Run-on-sentences aside, the challenge of photographing talent in the tight environment of an actual airplane, then lighting it to make it look both authentic and beautiful, is a real one!
In the nights leading up to the production, I would venture up to the rooftop bar and restaurant of my hotel, which had an amazing vantage point of the airport below, and I would watch a steady stream of planes for hours without getting bored. You check an app on your phone to see a line of planes and where they are arriving from; then, sure enough, they appear in front of you in real life and casually touch down and taxi to their gate. Itās a never ending flow of people, coming and going, on complicated machines our airline producer told us cost $800 million each.
In this moment it hit me: photographers are going the way of the airline pilot. My mind juxtaposed that scene in Catch Me If You Can, where DiCaprio is posing as a pilot during the glory days of commercial air travel with the image of a massively successful commercial photographer in the not-too-long-ago days when they owned buildings, had staffs, and pulled in millions of dollars a year in commissions. These days, both professions are vastly different, however, I fear the commercial photographer is still on a steady and unavoidable decent path towards total commodification. Itās business, afterall.
The camera we used on this project (Fuji GFX100ii) is a marvel of technology, and I canāt help but to compare it to the tool of the modern commercial airline pilot. Sure, some skill is involved in its usage, but really this $10,000 camera is doing heavy lifting in this work relationship.
I think this is partly why Iām finding myself turning more towards the artistic side of photography these days. I donāt want to find myself in a uniform, holding a McDonalds sack and a rolling camera bag, waiting at the gate for the studio doors to open and let out the previous commercial photography shoot so that I can enter the building and calmly and mechanically execute my task of pushing the button and ensuring the files are flowing to the computer. Iām an artsit, dammit! I have opinions! I have ideas! I have vision!
I refuse be commoditized.
-Clayton
2024 05 30
While on a long jog this morning (brag) I was reminded of something that reeeeally annoyed me before I started driving an electric car (brag) and no longer had to think about it.
Running past the abandoned former emissions testing facility in Bucktown where I used to take my Ford Focus, the frustration came back to me and reminded me about why sometimes government logic can be super annoying. Not wanting this to be a political rant, Iāll keep it brief, as Iām likely getting some details wrong anyway since Iām going off years-old memories at this point.
During the previous Illinois (Republican) governorās term, the state outsourced the operation of all its car emissions testing facilities, likely arguing small government efficiencies or whatever. Surely, some loyal big shot operator who just so happens to spend big come political donation season got awarded the contract to take over operations of the entire stateās facilities.
One day, I opened my mail to discover it was time to take my trusty Focus in for its test. Unbeknownst to me, the conveniently located facility located roughly one mile from my house and central to the homes of some 3 million other fellow Chicagoans was no longer an option. Instead, the closest facility to me was now inconveniently located over 10 miles away in suburban Skokie. Confused as to why Chicago (far and away the largest city in the state) no longer had a single facility, I did some digging to figure out what was going on. Sure enough, the state outsourced the service, as mentioned, and the new operator was following the state-mandated requirements as efficiently as they could to maximize their profits.
Facilities need to be within x miles of x people, yada yada, plug all the data into the computer and Skokie is now where every Chicagoan needs to drive their car to get an efficiency test to, you know, make sure they arenāt polluting the environment. When you consider the added miles 3 million Chicagoans now need to drive, whatever benefits you are getting from taking a few dirty cars off the road are now likely a net negative anyway. Then, when you consider how much money the state is āsavingā by outsourcing this service, you need to consider all this extra wear and tear on the roads, additional accidents, wasted hours, etc, from people driving more trips and all those savings likely go out the window as well. Sure, my math is full of guesstimating here, but maybe you see my point.
Itās like government whack-a-mole: solve one problem and create a new, different problem. As long as your doner pals are getting a piece of the public pie, nobody is none the wiser!
-Clayton
Cars on highway driving into the sunset. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
While on a long jog this morning (brag) I was reminded of something that reeeeally annoyed me before I started driving an electric car (brag).
Running past the abandoned former emissions testing facility in Bucktown where I used to take my Ford Focus, the frustration came back to me and reminded me about why sometimes government logic can be super annoying. Not wanting this to be a political rant, Iāll keep it brief, as Iām likely getting some details wrong anyway since Iām going off years-old memories at this point.
During the previous Illinois (Republican) governorās term, the state outsourced the operation of all its car emissions testing facilities, likely arguing small-government efficiencies or whatever. Surely, some loyal big shot operator who just so happens to spend big come political donation season got awarded the contract to take over operations of the entire stateās facilities.
One day, I opened my mail to discover it was time to take my trusty Focus in for its test. Unbeknownst to me, the conveniently located facility that was roughly one mile from my house and central to the homes of some 3 million other fellow Chicagoans was no longer an option. Instead, the closest facility to me was now inconveniently located over 10 miles away in suburban Skokie. Confused as to why Chicago (far and away the largest city in the state) no longer had a single facility available to its residents, I did some digging to figure out what was going on. Sure enough, the state outsourced the service, as mentioned, and the new operator was following the state-mandated requirements as efficiently as they could to maximize their profits.
Facilities need to be within x miles of x people, yada yada, plug all the data into the computer and Skokie is now where every Chicagoan needs to drive their car to get an efficiency test to, you know, make sure they arenāt polluting the environment. When you consider the added miles 3 million Chicagoans now need to drive, whatever benefits we are getting from taking a few dirty cars off the road are now likely a net negative because of all the extra driving. Then, when you consider how much money the state is āsavingā by outsourcing this service, you need to consider all this extra wear and tear on the roads, additional accidents, wasted hours, etc, from people driving more trips and all those savings likely go out the window as well. Sure, my math is full of guesstimating here, but maybe you see my point.
Itās like government whack-a-mole: solve one problem and create a new, different problem. As long as your doner pals are getting a piece of the public pie, nobody is none the wiser!
-Clayton
2024 02 10
In my early photographer days, Iād spend 20% of my time making photos and 80% of my time editing (fixing) them.
These days, I spend 25% of my time finding clients to pay me to make photos, 25% of my time making photos, 25% of my time editing, organizing and backing up photos and 25% of my time contemplating my decisions.
-Clayton
Somewhere in rural Pennsylvania. Or maybe it was Ohio? November, 2023. Ā© Clayton Hauck
In my early photographer days, Iād spend 20% of my time making photos and 80% of my time editing (fixing) them.
These days, I spend 25% of my time finding clients to pay me to make photos, 15% of my time making photos, 15% of my time editing, organizing and backing up photos, 15% of my time contemplating my decisions, 10% of my time cleaning the studio, 5% of my time doing accounting and legal, 5% of my time watching youtube tutorials, 5% of my time updating firmware, and 5% of my time on a daily blog post.
-Clayton