In this episode we mix it up and Brent interviews Johny...

Share - The happiness of fatherhood.
Inspire - Looking back to push yourself forward.
Create - Keeping it organised the importance of a solid file structure.

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Johny & Brent

I want to
make
money from
my
photography

I want to
learn to take
stunning
Portrait
image

I want to
learn to take
amazing
Landscape
pictures

In this episode:

(01:00) Happiness
(01:30) Unconditional love and happiness
(03:32) Inspired by old images
(04:15) Compare new images
(04:46) Inspire you to remember the journey
(09:52) Photo structure
(10:44) Key point - one folder
(12:12) Folder names (countries/locations/photography type)
(16:55) Stick with it
(17:08) Key wording

Episode Highlights:

happiness - new 4 months baby boy
creating energy - being happy
unconditional love and happiness - pet or your grandchildren or your children
looking at old images - inspire yourself
looking at new images - compare
inspire you to remember the journey & will push you forward
leave that image out there
never get rid of old images

post processing workflow:

1. photo structure
backing up original images
one folder
sub-folders

  • countries
  • locations
  • type of photography - macro shots, seascapes, mountains, lakes
  • years

ideas to define your photo structure
stick with it
keeping things in order

2. key wording

find a structure, keep it sorted, stick with it

Introduction

Brent: Hey guys what’s up? Its Brent here and welcome to another episode of the SIC show. And how are you feeling buddy today?

Johny: Man I’m feeling like I’m being interviewed.

Brent: And this week we got a very special show. As you can see I’m on the wrong side. This week we’re interviewing Johny and he’s gonna tell us how he stays happy.

Johny: And I’m also gonna tell you guys how looking at your old images can improve your photography. And show you how to keep things sorted with your files structure; ready man?

Brent: Let’s get into it.

Johny: Let’s get into it.
Sharing Happiness in the Family

Brent: Alright Johny share us something that many people don’t know about you.

Johny: Okay well actually a lot of people do actually know this story and if you really fall to anything I do I’ve got a new baby boy who is now 4 months old. Actually the story is more about happiness. And it just occur to me the other day I’ve had a dog, my German shepherd for a while and you know every time you come home your dog, your cat, your pet is just happy to see you. Doesn’t matter what happen to them. They could be running over by a car.

Brent: Doesn’t matter if you forgotten to feed them.

Johny: It doesn’t matter how they feel but when you come home they’re absolutely happy. You know what? I’m getting that same exact happiness, unconditional love and happiness from my young boy. You know he hasn’t seen you all day and you come home first thing big smile. That’s amazing. So I got to day something life changing for me and a big deal of my life as of the moment is the kids you know. I love the 2 kids that I acquire through my partner which I absolutely love and adore. I have a new baby in the family too. It changed my world. You know what I mean? And it also brought us together like you know happiness outside of your photography means that when you get your hands on that camera man it’s like nothing is gonna stop you from learning and creating. And it all taught us together man. It’s amazing because I think last show man we’ve talked about creating energy and part of that is being happy for the rest of your life. To make the long story short man unconditional love and happiness you can get from a pet or your grandchildren or your children. If you can just use that and put that back out to the world it’s gonna be a better price.

Brent: Totally, actually happiness comes from within you right. No one can make you happy or sad. They can get you to think happiness and made you feel happy but actually it’s your decision to be happy.

Johny: It is. There’s no doubt about it. But I tell you what after a long day at work, coming home and seeing my young boy’s face and my dog jumped up and give me a kiss there’s nothing better. It’s the ultimate thing. It’s not really something you don’t know about me but it’s just one part of the whole journey in my life and I’m just absolutely enjoying. I wouldn’t change a thing man.

Brent: Thanks for sharing Johny.
Getting Inspiration from Old and New images

Brent: Okay buddy inspire us something inspirational from Johny’s archive.

Johny: You know what? I went back. Well I’m just looking at the images the other day for something or for blog posts or writing and I went back right on Facebook to back in the day you know. We’ve all tried it man. The only thing is missing is the pixies and the fairies. It was some sort of magical fairy land. Check out this image man. It’s just like hyper colored. It’s not a bad composition. It’s a big tree and it’s the right time of the day. But man the processing it’s just look like some magical lollipop land. This is what I got when I beat everything coz it looks like candy. Anyway, this is such a powerful tool in such a way to inspire yourself is have a look at some of your really early work even if it’s 6 months ago. Even if it’s 12 months ago it doesn’t matter. Whenever you picked up your camera go back, look at some of that early work and get your most favorite image now and put them side by side

Brent: And compare.

Johny: And compare and just see where you’ve come from to where you are now and it is so inspiring. This image I’m gonna show you guys now is a Wanaka Tree from New Zealand. And I’ve always wanted to photograph that tree. And the day we went there we were filming with Jeremy last year and I just got this shot. Every time I see it I put the biggest smile on my face coz I just remember that time being man. But the point being is get one of your first image that you may have thought “wow man this is just awesome” just like my magical fairy land image with the tree.

Brent: HDR edited to the max.

Johny: HDR to the max. But anyway get the 2 images put them beside each other and have a look where you’ve come from to where you are now with your favorite image man. It’s so inspiring coz you just remember the way you felt when you took that image. I mean I remember taking that image man. Put it on Facebook and people are like “dude that’s epic man, more like this” then you’re just thinking “yes” and it’s like wow.

Brent: And that’s the thing with Facebook. I’ve notice that a lot of photographers or wanna be photographers well I guess photographers if you can take a picture of a photographer right, put the image onto Facebook and get all these great feedback like “great love it” but it actually gives them constructive feedback on how they can actually improve that image. I saw one yesterday actually by a very well-known photographer and I’ve tried to interview her and hopefully we’ll have her on the show one day and I noticed something straight away from the thumbnail of the image that could’ve been improved. So I looked through the comments to see if anyone actually said it. No one said it.

Johny: And that’s it. I mean I know what you got in this buddy but I totally agree. But do that thing I said, get the old image, get the new image put them together and that’ll inspire you to just remember the journey you’ve come from and to push it forward. I recommend every 12 months doing exactly the same thing. And just do it.

Brent: I think also like on that same topic sometimes we are critical about ourselves. So you might be editing images, shooting images and it feels like to you that actually you’re not improving. You know the steady gradual thing and that’s a really good tip you know you go back to years and years or even 6 months and then compare them and you’ll notice there’s definitely a transition in your photography.

Johny: And the other thing is I like to leave that image out there because it’s just like “man that’s my journey” “that was part of me that at that time you know, man I’ve got no kwams and no kwams”, is that a word man?

Brent: I don’t know. It’s a new word.

Johny: Anyway, I got no dramas leaving that image out there in the web and people to find it coz it’s part of where I was.

Brent: I’ve done the same thing.

Johny: It’s all good. I mean I would never get rid of my old images. I don’t mind man. That’s where I was and this is where I am now. That’s part of the journey.
Brent: I’ve done the same thing with my video work. So I left my very first video work and we’re talking to the camera like we are now. And I was so scared. It took me about 16 tries to get it right. I left it in YouTube, it’s really old. You have to search for it but I left it there just to remind me how I sucked when I first started. I mean I did. I’ve got the biggest fear about speaking in front of people.

Johny: That’s amazing.

Brent: Speaking to a camera for me that was the biggest fear and all these coaching and get over it.

Johny: That’s good man.

Brent: And you leave it out there, so leave your old stuff, the bad stuff out there guys because when you have the good stuff and you compare it you will feel good about your improvement.

Johny: And your journey and it’ll push you to go even further and try new techniques and really master your photography man. Let’s get back to the critique thing. I believe in it. This is one thing we do in the Share Inspire Create lounge and you guys probably heard about this already. If you’re not in there, why not? Get in there man. We’re in there every day. But look the power of critiquing especially from people like mind of people that you can trust I mean it’s great to put an image up on Facebook and your brother goes “man great image” “love them”.

Brent: So what are you learning?

Johny: You don’t learn anything.

Brent: And that’s not gonna improve your photography.

Johny: So when you put your image into a safe control environment like the Share Inspire Create lounge and you have other photographers and professional photographers giving you feedback on your image. I mean telling you the things that you’re doing really well and telling you a few tips and things that you could try and maybe improve that image. Man there is nothing more powerful out there than having other people looked at your photography who really knows what they’re talking about. So that’s the Share Inspire Create lounge man and I love reading a critique. Sometimes you know people post an image in the media gallery and they’ll get feedback on the image without even asking for it. That’s what I love man. The community is just behind everyone. They just want everyone to improve their photographer together.

Brent: And we just actually receive a message from Keith. And he was talking about how we encouraged him to print an image large. Really large and he’s never done it like I think it was something like 20 yards of photography or something and the biggest he’s ever printed was an 8 x 12. He printed something large, go back and he was so impressed by what it looked like and then sent me and Johny a private message to say thanks for encouraging him. So that’s part of putting your images into place where people can give you positive constructive feedback and encouragement that’s very important.

Johny: Cool man. Good tips bro. So grab an old image. Grab a new image. Put them beside each other and stick around at the end of the show coz we’ll have something special for you.
Keeping Things in Order with Photo Structure

Brent: Alright Johny.

Johny: Alright, I wanted to give you guys and Brent coz I know I’ve seen these share your story system and the hard drives.

Brent: You don’t want to see what’s under this desk guys.

Johny: Actually I need to go and wash my hands. But guys I wanted to talk to you quickly about photo structure. I’ve got a screen cast running here. We’ll jump over in the laptop in a minute. But photo structure is the first place. The very first top along your post processing workflow where you keep things sorted. This is the absolutely essential first thing you need to get righto make sure your images are backed up and safe. And that’s the first step along the journey of your post processing workflow or image processing workflow. So let’s jump over the screen cast. I’ll give you a quick example of what I do. Look there’s many variants on this and people have their own ideas. You got to do something that’s work for you but the main thing is you got to stick to it. Okay so the photo structure you choose, have a good think about it. Have a look around the web coz there are other thoughts on this. But this is how I do it. So the key thin or the number one first thing is to have absolutely one folder that everything sits under. And why you have one folder? Coz if I wanna back up my whole original images, I’ve got to move one folder. So every time I moved that folder I know that everything below where all the rest of my images sitting, however I nest those folders or whatever order I have them that one single image or one single folder if I move that I know I’ve got absolutely everything backed up. So that’s the first step. That’s the most crucial thing you can do right now is create one folder and move all the rest of your files into it so that you know when you backed your images up, you’re getting absolutely everything. You’re not gonna lose anything.

Brent: And that’s called original images right?

Johny: Mine I call it my original images. You can call it whatever you want. Master images, this is the images I don’t wanna lose, whatever you wanna call them mate.

Brent: The most important folder ever.

Johny: The most important folder in my life is this one. Okay so let’s jump by the screen cast. So you can see I’m in my Finder. If you’re on a Windows don’t stress. The finder is the same thing. Basically the browser folder.

Brent: File manager.

Johny: I use Windows so the same as that.

Brent: The Windows explorer.

Johny: No the Windows is File Explorer. Anyway it’s the same as that. So you got the original images folder here and underneath that because I do a lot of landscapes you know, I nest mine in countries. So countries I’ve traveled to and shot at. That’s basically how I like to nest my folders. I mean if you’re say a wedding photographer or whatever you might list it like a client name or whatever you wanna do. Anyway for me this is how I do mine coz I’m a landscape photographer and this is what makes sense to me.

Brent: So for portrait like me, portrait photographers I would probably go original images portraits, weddings, commercials, events so everything’s under the sub-genre or where you wanna go. So all my portraits on one thing. I know if I wanna back up portraits I just drag that portrait folder across.

Johny: Okay, there you go. B is the man. That’s why he’s here. So as you can see guys I’ve got countries and this is what I do at this level. I have countries. Now certain countries will be slightly different. Obviously I lived in Australia so in Australia I have another level. I’ll have a state. And that just means because I get on to different parts of Australia more often that’s why I’ve got that extra level. You can see in Hawaii I’ve just got 3 folders here. I will just have the master images Hawaii and one other photo structure from locations around Hawaii that I’ve visited then I just put my images straight in there. So that’s how I do like a country that I traveled to every now and then.

Brent: So where’s the turtle island in Hawaii?

Johny: I don’t know man, turtles. But this is actually why I put turtles is because it may not be the location that you’d be interested in. It might be the subject so at this location I was actually in Kona. The turtles were the very important part I remembered of that place. It’s a very important part of trip; these turtles that I photographed. So I may have a sub folder just called turtles coz I know sometimes I’m just gonna jump back to the turtles I wanna know or I might forget what location they’re in but I know the turtles they’re in Hawaii. That makes sense to me. Another thing you can do to and think about this is you can even label it for the type of photography. What I mean by that is so you’ve taken macro shots on a trip, you could have at this level macro images. So it’s up to you what you do. This is just a bit of example of what I do.

Brent: Or you could go seascapes, landscapes, mountains.

Johny: Mountains, lakes, there’s so many ways to do this. But this is just to give you an idea of what I do okay. So I wanna go to the Australia folder coz obviously I go here for a bit. And you can see under the Australia folder I’ve broken it down into 3 other folders. I’ve broken it down into 3 states that I’ve visited. So I’m gonna go inside New South Wales. Inside New South Wales I’ve got 2 locations that I’ve been to in New South Wales. I’ve got Newcastle and Port Stephens. So I can now choose at this level either Newcastle or Port Stephens. I can even have another level you know my hometown is Port Stephens; and in my Port Stephens folder because I shoot here often. I actually have beach snaps coz obviously I’m shooting at the beach or shoot at Shoal Bay or Anna Bay. I could even break that down again if I wanted to. So that’s totally up to you on what you do at this point. But you know 4 is a good way to keep things in order.

Brent: 4 deep?

Johny: 4 nested folders deep is probably the maximum that you wanna go you know. If you need to go one more like I have in Port Stephens coz I shoot there so often, so regular I wanted a bit more kind of control on how I kept things sorted. I will add another level there. That could be by suburb you know in Port Stephens or it could be by beaches or national parks. Anyway that’s how I do it. Now I know some people at this level of these original images are here actually will give that a year. So some people might call that 2015 in there. And when 2016 comes you’ll start another photo structure. And that’s totally fine too. The reason why I don’t use dates in my file names is because in Lightroom is easy for me to filter out date ranges. So I can go to Port Stephens folder and say in the Port Stephens folder is showing everything from 2015. So I don’t if I got 5 years of images in there coz I can easily sort through those you know. So putting date names into the photo structure is something some people like to do or they like to have a master image folder from a date of from a year but I don’t do that. I have them all in one and that’s how I roll man.

Brent: Awesome man.

Johny: So this is just an example guys of how I do it. But it will give you some ideas of starting places that you can start to define your photo structure and what I say is stick with it. Whatever you choose stick with it because if you start to change halfway through then you can run into issues. So the other big thing about keeping things in order and I’ll mention this now man. I won’t show it through the screen cast but is key wording man. The 2 key things that you can do to keep your images sorted man; one is your photo structure and second is key wording man. Both are really important.

Brent: Don’t be lazy when you’re importing. Putting those keywords makes a difference on the road when you look for your images.

Johny: Man I’ll tell you what. I’ve done it before when I first started. It might be a couple of years or the beginning road I didn’t do key wording in finding those images. It’s tough man. So that’s it brother.

Brent: Thank you man. That’s a really good tip there Johny. And just so you guys know when I do my portraits and I’ve actually got it in one of my courses. My kid’s course I believe where I actually put the dates at the front of the folder name. I do 2015 so I’ve got 15/06/20. The year, the month and the day so that it sorts alphabetically. So the old stuffs are at the top and the new at the bottom.

Johny: It sort of makes sense you know if you’re doing client work you’re gonna be producing you know you might shoot 4 or 5 clients a week.

Brent: We’ve done it in a day. We shoot 4 or 5 family portraits in one day. And sorting stuffs out it becomes a nightmare.

Johny: It might be a great place where you would start up with a 2015 folder and the next everything with 2015. If you got a busy studio you got lots of clients. For me who might shoot once or twice a week you know this type of folder structure is fine for a landscape photographer coz often you know I might take ten images. I’m sure you’ve gone shoot to a client.

Brent: Well 360 images.

Johny: There you. And you do wedding.

Brent: But then we got 360 images then we got the tagged images then we got the processed images and then we got all the other files that go with it. It can be quite complex.

Johny: It can but having a solid file structure is just the core to everything. And you know what? It makes so much easy to back things up when you got that solid file structure. Whether you got automated back-up or manual back up its just so much easy to check that everything is still there it’s all under one folder.

Brent: So just so you know Johny is the expert when it comes to that like when we are traveling to New Zealand in a camper van and we are shooting a lot of videos, a lot of stills every single day. I mean courses with Jay and Varina. And Johny was with his head down, sorting through stuff as I was driving and he was sorting and dragging videos in different folders. Man he’s got it. I tried to do it initially, I got fired.

Johny: That’s important man. You can have it in one folder with all your videos and images. And that comes back to my travel course. You know I talked about this is such an important part when you’re traveling and keeping things sorted. And you can come home and make the process of migrating you know your Lightroom that you use in the road back into your master folder. It makes it so much simple. So find a structure, keep it sorted, stick with it and you guys will be sweep man and that’s the first step.

Brent: Take me back to that story that Johny was talking about with the Wanaka tree. So we get down to these park in New Zealand. And Johny with his head down sorting out files right. And I jumped out and talked to Jay and Varina and we’re looking at the Wanaka tree over there and Johny put his head up and goes “that’s my tree!” And he just drops everything and leaves his iPad, laptop and everything on the car and grabs his camera bag and he runs off with the doors open. And I’m like “Johny where are you going?” “My tree, my tree.”

Johny: I was pretty pumped. Good man.

Brent: Awesome.

Johny: It’s been a great show brother. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And as always we love to hear your feedback. It’s an essential part of the show is here and know what you guys are thinking. And check out this little special we mention before about the Share Inspire Create lounge and we have a little special for you. Check out the show notes below. Click somewhere it’ll be there. No below this video there will be some show notes. Check out the special we have for you. We love to see you guys in the lounge. We’re super passionate about this place. You know these photographers were just like you. Mastering their photography in there every day. We’re on the journey with them. I’m so passionate about it.

Brent: We’re there every day guys. So basically you got free access to all photographers.

Johny: It’s like living next door to a pro. Awesome guys and I hope you enjoyed the show and we’ll see you next week.

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