My rear lawn
Starting from one’s own garage has somehow been the preferred method for several entrepreneurs who are now billionaires. The sad part is that no photographer became a billionaire this way, sadder is the fact that no billionaire ever had the time to become a great photographer.
This method has its drawbacks if the space is limited and if one is to refrain from creating nuisance for immediate neighbours in a residential area.
Renting expensive properties for commercial use is getting out of reach for most businesses considering the rising utility rates, inflated bills, the cost of hiring good help and deadly taxes.
I resolved to avoid the monotony of wedding shoots and fashion photography and instead focused on family, friends and acquaintances.
By the way, it was in spring of 2005 that I had my photographs displayed for the first time at a solo exhibition.
Read more here:
The videos of my interviews were aired repeatedly by television channels. What I was asked by the interviewers and what I replied is a topic for another article.
Briefly, the exhibition enabled me to sell a few framed prints but then I just rested on my laurels and did not prepare for another show despite getting a sponsorship.
What woke up this sleeping giant was a family reunion lunch. With several faces available, I lined them up to say cheese.
As a backdrop, a large piece of painted muslin (backdrop) was suspended from a support system designed for photographers.
The difficult part was arranging restless relatives in a tight group, having them look at the camera with genuine Mona Lisa smiles, and ensuring that they did not blink just when I pressed the camera’s shutter button.
The equipment
I used a Nikon D-800 high-resolution camera with a Nikkor 24-70 f2/8E ED VR lens on it.
The light sources were two Elinchrom strobes (studio flash units) fitted inside 120cm wide parabolic soft-boxes to soften the lighting.
Another Elinchrom strobe acted as a hair-light to give some definition to the hair. Finally, a speedlight (flash) was placed right behind the subjects’ heads to create a halo effect much like that seen in the paintings of Christian saints’ of the classical period.
Other details
With no two faces being the same, several details needed to considered, such as: how lights cast shadows on the faces, highlights, lighting ratios, posing and facial expressions.
My camera was tethered to a laptop with appropriate software installed. This enabled me to autofocus the lens and operate both the camera and its menus with clicks of a mouse—the preferred method for professional shoots. For greater stability, I mounted the camera on a sturdy tripod.
While several parameters (aperture, shutter speed, white balance etc.) of the shoots were being digitally recorded by the software, I noted other details on paper to make repeatability easier later—note-taking being an old habit
Although the light intensities of the strobes were controlled via a camera-mounted remote, I still ended up running around to make other adjustments. Within ninety minutes I shot over six small groups; in fifteen days I photographed sixteen people.
With the relatives and friends awe-struck by the superb results, the Apollo-13 of my passion for photography was headed for a moon-landing.
Prints anyone?
For each person or group, I shot twenty to forty images at the highest possible resolution in lossless RAW format instead of the inferior JPEG which people generally use just to save storage space on their computer hard disks.
After rejecting technically imperfect shots, I selected the ones whose enlargements were to be ordered at a professional photo lab.
It was the mistake of my life to expect that relatives would want to pay for the prints. They all assumed, just as they feasted on free food, that the enlargements would be home-delivered for free. Considering that the entire nation continued to survive on IMF loans, I was not in a charitable mood.
A few seemed uninterested in enlargements and which made me feel as if I had wasted my precious time. Included in this unresponsive group were cousins whom I had photographed over forty years ago when they were very young ladies. My intention was to let them have that old group-photo along with the new one but the whole idea came crashing down. The rest of the appreciative souls were informed about the printing cost which they readily paid in advance.
I did a few headshots of some schoolmates but unfortunately could not gather all under one roof for a memorable group photo. There was not much I could do for people glued to their cell phones.
To the photo-lab
I did toy with the idea of finding someone with a large printer which many professional photographers use for printing. These printers cost a small fortune but their prints’ archival quality remains questionable while the running cost makes printing costly. The safest thing to do was to head for my favourite photo lab, located at the far end of the town.
Things had changed since I last had any prints made, which was many moons ago. Essentially, the colour paper and the chemicals used by these large machines were not from Fuji but rather Chinese sources. The latter produced results less pleasing to the eye than those obtained with the former.
The very first enlargement that emerged from the machine strengthened my resolve to look for a lab that could produce better results.
Editing
Not being able to use Adobe Photoshop editing software proved to be a setback as I ended up relying on outside help for editing of digital images. Around fifteen minutes were spent on each image by the lab assistant to edit to my satisfaction. In that much time he normally edited five images for others. On top of the printing cost, I paid extra for editing.
Market survey
Earlier, I had conducted a market-survey to check what other photographers were charging. To work out the total cost and my profit, I added:
- The fuel cost to and from the lab
- My studio’s electricity cost per shoot
- Equipment usage and depreciation costs
- And a nominal amount as the price of my own experience and time
I kept my prices slightly lower than others while giving a much better product, hoping that people would appreciate both aspects.
Deliveries
The enlargements once printed were signed and dated both on the reverse side and on the bottom right hand side of each print—something that the old masters once routinely did.
All the information for re-orders was also included with the print.
The name game
An amazing idea appeared in a dream as I hunted for a nice name for my studio. I saw included in the alphabets of the word PHOTOGRAPHY, my name’s initials in perfect sequence. Was that message from God? Was my destiny hidden in plain sight?
Note how the capitals show TGH (Tahir Gul Hasan) in the word phoToGrapHy.
Why ‘since 1969’?
There is no substitute for experience. Lies and Photoshop trickery cannot ever replace good taste and maturity of style.
During research on studios in Lahore, I saw a website mention the year of establishment as 1937. I could not recall their name because all the old masters were known to me.
Further research indicated that the studio-owner expected the clients to be impressed without checking the claim.
I sat down to design a visiting card on which I mentioned ‘since 1969’. The year meant something to me because I had black-and-white photos taken with a toy camera. Man landed on the moon in the same year—or so NASA insisted.
My hobbies from childhood are still with me; these have a calming effect on the nerves. I started as an amateur photographer as far back as 1969, did a few wedding shoots during college days with simple equipment and proudly earned some money.
The masses today prefer owning expensive cell phones and whiling away time talking or texting. Photographically, they shoot themselves in the feet by taking selfies. In extending their selfie-sticks, they have stopped reaching out to other humans to shoot photos. People have also injured themselves or died taking dangerous selfies.
In this atmosphere of gloom, I knew I could return to my roots, maybe not turn the tide but create a niche for styles and techniques I loved.
What now?
I only intend to do selective work. To get an appointment for a studio or on-location shoot, email me first at: writersblocktgh@gmail.com
Thanks for reading. Stay healthy and prosper.
Tahir Gul Hasan
©Tahir Gul Hasan, 2024
