Freelance Photography

Michael Roberto  robertostudio.com

February 12th 2015

Lens Compression: a type of distortion that makes background objects appear larger and closer to a subject in the mid or foreground.  Incident angle: the relationship between the camera, object, and light source that allows you to see the source reflecting in the object.  Inverse Square Law:  If the distance between the light source and subject is doubled, the subject receives only 1/4 of the light's output, not 1/2.  Flash duration: the length of time that a strobe fires.  Just some of the terms you'll need to know and know well if you want to evolve past the basics of amateur photography and master the arts of challenging visual perceptions. 

In Junior High, I got my hands on a 35mm film camera.  My mom also happened to come upon a darkroom set at a garage sale that allowed me to print black and white. Towards the end of high school, I lent the camera to my little brother and it got stolen, abruptly ending my young photo-hobby.  I went off to college for Political Science, where academic and (mostly) social distractions took over my life.  Pictures weren’t a part of it.  

Once I graduated, I picked up a camera at a flea market in Oakland, similar to the one I had in youth.  From then on I started shooting steadily. 

As it turned out, I got what I'd paid for with that cheap camera, and the film didn't advance properly.  This consistently created randomly overlapping double exposures.  My friend Pete and I dubbed it the “art cam” and we used it often to go out and catch the ILD (interplay of light and darkness).  It was a time of discovery just being silly with it while roaming around Oakland and shooting when the light was low and crisp, or we had nice cloud cover.

I began working in sales in my mid-twenties, which I realized quickly wasn’t for me and drove me to take photography more seriously.  So, I took a risk and ventured out to New York with a friend to give it a shot.  I didn’t stick with the “art cam” for very long and didn’t head into fine art.  But, I think that period of accidental abstraction got me interested in photography in a new way.  I learned how to manipulate the photograph to make a picture, far beyond what I did in a B&W darkroom.

For the first four years of my freelance career, I assisted photographers and shot tiny stuff here and there.  For the last seven years, my projects have evolved to shooting consumer and fashion products, architecture, and outdoor lifestyle scenes. 


Being a freelance photographer has plenty of challenges.  It takes different skill sets along with learning how to blend them.  On a still life set or directed location shoot, you generally want the styling and emotions to be as documentary as possible, in the sense that they look genuine. Uncontrived.  Being given total control makes a lot of options possible.  But, all of that control can also stifle the task at hand.

Shooting nature, happenings, and events requires deft technical ability and the agency to predict how a scene might unfold.  For documentary work, seeing the opportunities to direct a little here and there to get a better shot, without killing the scene, is that hybrid skill that develops as you do more of both.


A recent project I completed for the artist Liu Bolin (aka "the invisible man") was tough.  It was a giant, five-day hurricane of art swirling around Klein Sun Gallery in Chelsea.  Painting, sketching, photography, video, all rushing around and being part of an overall creative plan.  With the photo crew, many painters and models and major media getting their shots, it took critical waiting and watching and then manic shooting to keep up.  I was working two cameras with a glide cam, shoulder rig, and monopod for support.  Thankfully, they gave me a little office to work out of which made it all possible and a little less insane.


Another challenge as a freelance photographer is to be able to shine through the noise of digital amateur photography that is everywhere now.  Modern technology allows you to take pictures at times and with ease that haven't been possible before.  It can also compensate for much of the required equipment and techniques that were once out of reach for most casual SLR film shooters.

Across the board, image quality is obviously way up.  Social photos are generally nice and certainly rampant now.  You can take nice, clean looking, handheld photos in a mood-lit restaurant on your phone.  With no flash.  You can also buy the same camera that most pro's use now for about three grand.  However, most advertising and high end catalog photography, especially in the studio, is shot on medium format camera systems.  They can cost three times what your average person's car is worth and require expensive hardware and technical support.  So, the tools used by top pro’s are still way out of reach for your avid amateur and I'm not very threatened as a commercial photographer.  But, the stock photo industry that once served to support many professionals has changed in ways that hurt a lot of photographers.

The real photography wizards who have inspired me throughout my career had learned a lot behind that curtain before it was lifted.  The ease of technology can deemphasize fundamental skills.  Good lighting, scene composition, blocking, mood, timing, flexibility, problem-solving, direction, positive creative interaction, and professionalism can’t be bought and have nothing to do with camera technology.

As a professional photographer, f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO are, for the most part, the last things on your mind on a commercial shoot with proper production.  Those aspects are usually nailed down or well under control, which allows everyone to focus on making the picture happen.  I think the critical difference is in the experience needed to pull that all off.  There's much more involved in being commissioned for your photography than the camera in your hands.

A good reputation of professionalism and consistent, solid work goes much further than promoting yourself online or in social media; although that's certianly important these days.  Most jobs come from referrals from previous work.  Still, there's always room to network more and try to stay top of mind with clients who have new projects. 

Getting connected with a good stock agency is helpful between jobs.  My stock agency has annual contests to acquire new contributors.  They take a heavy percentage but get the best placements.  Although it was a bit before my time, I understand that many photographers lived well off of that stock Golden Age.  I think its purely supplemental for the vast majority of professional photographers now.


Thankfully, in between jobs and stock I can pursue what I love the most: photography and fly fishing.  Marrying them together was not an easy task.  The first step was exerting the discipline to shoot and NOT fish.  This took many years.  I finally got a waterproof housing for my point and shoot (the Sony RX100… going on the tattoo list- I love it so much).  This housing allowed me to always have a high quality camera on me and capture some nice landscape scenes.  The underwater fish portraits are what pushed me to start really shooting on my trips. 

It finally all clicked together at the end of last season.  Breaking out the diving housing for the 5D MKIII and coordinating with a fishing buddy one afternoon led to my first underwater video test.  Up to that point, I’d done a lot of underwater still photography in rivers, but not much video.  We were able to capture what the flys looked like drifting in the current and got great footage of fish being hooked, caught, wrestled, and released.

I was able to make a little promotional video for my friend's local shop: Dette Trout Flies.  
This was one of those great little projects that, while not very lucrative, depended on support and otherwise costly resouces like guide time and access to private water.  Sometimes this type of work depends on a small business owner seeing that good marketing material is worth some of their precious in-season time and guile.