Losi
12-23-2008, 3:51 AM
I recently interviewed Punam Bean for my website, I dont want to appear to be promoting my site on the forum and so here is the transcript;
1. Can you please tell me a bit about yourself and your photography?
My name is Punam Bean, and I run my photography business out of my home, in Long Island City, NY. I’ve been shooting weddings for about a year and a half, and before that time, I didn’t know how to use a camera or what an aperture was. I learned by shooting, and poking around the internet and finding inspiration on sites like Flickr, or other photography (wedding or no) blogs.
2. How did you get into photography?
I used to be an actress charging 100 bucks to do head shots for classmates and friends, it was a good way not to have to get a waitressing job. I wasn’t very good when I started, but slowly I learned what I was doing. I didn’t really enjoy doing head shots. You can’t really be creative and if things aren’t always changing and developing, I start to get really ancy. I thought at first that weddings might be a cool way to see the world, and after I did my first one I was so moved by the optimism and the love filled happiness of that day that as I drove home I knew I had found out that this was what I was supposed to do with my life.
3. If you had to describe your photography in 3 words what would they be?
enchanting, whimsical, intimate
4. What camera/s do you currently use and why?
I love my 5d. I had a Nikon D200 when I started out but I wasn’t happy with the color and the noise and so I switched over to Canon after someone took a picture of me with their 5D. The resulting image was so true in color and buttery and creamy that I cancelled my reserved Nikon D3, sold my D200 and all my lenses and started over with the Canon.
5. Where is the most inspirational place you have ever visited?
The Lost Coast in Northern California. I went there on a road trip with some other photographers last March, and all of us being wedding photographers we kept unravelling these unbelievable landscapes as we drove from Portland to Santa Rosa, ca on the 101 Highway. Regretting that we hadn’t a bride and groom, or at least a bride, to set against the amazing landscape. So I went back this October with some people in love to shoot as I would have liked, and it was amazing!
6. Do you have an all time favourite photo that you have taken?
Not possible. Being rather new to this vocation, and without any prior training I find that my photos are constantly getting better. I find that every time I do a shoot it becomes easier and easier to see what I want to make, and make it. So my favorite picture is always my most favorite among the last batch I put up on my blog.
7. What is in your camera bag?
50mm 1.2 (my favorite lens!!)
135m 2.0
45mm t/s 2.8
24mm 1.4
Two 5D bodies
2 Pocket Wizards
Sunpak 380 flash (off camera light)
580 EX II flash
8. Do you ever have the time to take photos just for fun? If so what do you like to take photos of?
For fun I’ll often grab a couple of friends, some great vintage items and do a shoot! It’s wonderful practice and all my actor friends are always thrilled to have a lot of pictures of themselves so it works out nicely. I’m also on the road with my husbands band a lot and I so I take pictures on our road travels together and pictures of other bands they might be traveling with and their performances. I really love shooting live music shows in black and white, I feel it helps me to hone my composition skills when I’m just looking at shadows and light in high contrast.
9. Do you have a favourite photographer?
Henri Cartier Bresson.
10. Other than your camera, what is the most important item in your camera bag?
my 50mm 1.2
11. Do you find that most of your photography bookings come through your website or word of mouth?
Almost everything comes through word of mouth, one or two have come through my membership in the WPJA.
12. Is there anywhere in the world that you would love to photograph?
I want to take some pictures of people in love in Cambodia where those temples are in Argwat. Where the giant tree roots over take the ancient ornately carved stone structures….. Soon.
13. What are the main challenges you face regarding your portrait/wedding photography?
At the moment being my only employee. I do everything right now but hopefully as things progress over the next year I can hire someone to carry some of the work load. It’s hard not to get so bogged down with the administrative aspects of runing a business, trying to make the right choices and trying to keep up with the workload. There is also this psychological barrier too because I started my business to support myself and I never really envisioned in the beginning that I’d need an employee. I feel like there’s never room in the budget. But there is, and I just have to get around to it. For this reason I am thankful that the slow season is upon us.
14. Do you ever get nervous when showing your clients the photos you have taken of them?
No. I’m pretty confident in my shooting style and that my clients hired me for the style that is apparent in my work. So I make sure that my work is consistent, while still taking some time during the session to try some things that may or may not work. With as much fun as I often have with my clients on shoots, I feel that their impression of me is also impressed upon my work. If they really like me and they already liked my work, then they’ll really love their pictures.
15. If you could give someone starting out in photography 3 tips, what would they be?
1) Find support and ask your “how do I…?” questions on forums like Open Source Photo, Flickr, and Digital Wedding Forum. I love the wedding photography industry because everyone is just so helpful and supportive.
2) Get a great contract right off the bat - you have to remember that your client turnover is very long. It’s often over a year that you are corresponding with a client. If you have a bad contract with which you can be taken advantage of, you are stuck with that contract and that client for a while before you can move on.
3) When you meet with a client - don’t sell your service! Sell yourself, think of it as a first date. Don’t talk about wedding photos, talk about them, ask them lots of questions, be actively engaged with them and let them know you are interested in them as people. People are interested and like people who are interested in them. Be genuine, and don’t think about the paycheck!
16. You have a great Website, did you design it yourself?
Bigfolio! It’s just one of their templates, but I’m currently working with getparade.com on a custom site.
17. I notice that your photos are always refreshing and ‘not the norm’ (such as the one of the man jumping out of shot), are these spontaneous or do you have these shots in mind before the shoot?
I look at a couple, how the move, how they touch each other. Every couple has their own dynamic. This one couple, the guy was a bit shorter than the girl but they totally embraced this fact. This understanding is wonderful inspiration. I never can plan a shot for a couple. There’s a different mood every time we meet. Sometimes where they might have felt a bit awkward for the engagement session, they are totally footloose and fancy free on their wedding day. So I just go with the flow and keep an open mind.
18. Do you ever have inspiration ‘blocks’ and how do you get over these?
I feel as though inspiration blocks come from over thinking. I don’t think about it if I don’t have a camera in my hand. If I do think about a shot I’d like to take someday with a couple whose right for it, I’m not trying to think of it. It usually just comes to me. Photography occupies my mind so much of the time that I find myself inspired often.
19. I notice from a lot of Wedding blog sites etc that people always comment on how nice you are and how relaxed they felt whilst you photographed them, do you have any techniques to put your clients at ease?
Treat them like friends, and they’ll be your friends. I like to tell funny stories about my husband and about my wedding, there are certain tales that garner certain responses which I save for particular times in a shoot. We also do lots of breathing slowly ad consciously. It’s something we used to do in acting school because often, when all eyes are on you, you stop breathing, you become tense and can’t relax. So before they get all clogged up the first thing we do is breathe. And when you breathe deeply so near the one you love, you can smell their smell. There is also a lot of sniffing involved. I find that comforts a lot of people.
Have a search on Google for her, inspirational!
1. Can you please tell me a bit about yourself and your photography?
My name is Punam Bean, and I run my photography business out of my home, in Long Island City, NY. I’ve been shooting weddings for about a year and a half, and before that time, I didn’t know how to use a camera or what an aperture was. I learned by shooting, and poking around the internet and finding inspiration on sites like Flickr, or other photography (wedding or no) blogs.
2. How did you get into photography?
I used to be an actress charging 100 bucks to do head shots for classmates and friends, it was a good way not to have to get a waitressing job. I wasn’t very good when I started, but slowly I learned what I was doing. I didn’t really enjoy doing head shots. You can’t really be creative and if things aren’t always changing and developing, I start to get really ancy. I thought at first that weddings might be a cool way to see the world, and after I did my first one I was so moved by the optimism and the love filled happiness of that day that as I drove home I knew I had found out that this was what I was supposed to do with my life.
3. If you had to describe your photography in 3 words what would they be?
enchanting, whimsical, intimate
4. What camera/s do you currently use and why?
I love my 5d. I had a Nikon D200 when I started out but I wasn’t happy with the color and the noise and so I switched over to Canon after someone took a picture of me with their 5D. The resulting image was so true in color and buttery and creamy that I cancelled my reserved Nikon D3, sold my D200 and all my lenses and started over with the Canon.
5. Where is the most inspirational place you have ever visited?
The Lost Coast in Northern California. I went there on a road trip with some other photographers last March, and all of us being wedding photographers we kept unravelling these unbelievable landscapes as we drove from Portland to Santa Rosa, ca on the 101 Highway. Regretting that we hadn’t a bride and groom, or at least a bride, to set against the amazing landscape. So I went back this October with some people in love to shoot as I would have liked, and it was amazing!
6. Do you have an all time favourite photo that you have taken?
Not possible. Being rather new to this vocation, and without any prior training I find that my photos are constantly getting better. I find that every time I do a shoot it becomes easier and easier to see what I want to make, and make it. So my favorite picture is always my most favorite among the last batch I put up on my blog.
7. What is in your camera bag?
50mm 1.2 (my favorite lens!!)
135m 2.0
45mm t/s 2.8
24mm 1.4
Two 5D bodies
2 Pocket Wizards
Sunpak 380 flash (off camera light)
580 EX II flash
8. Do you ever have the time to take photos just for fun? If so what do you like to take photos of?
For fun I’ll often grab a couple of friends, some great vintage items and do a shoot! It’s wonderful practice and all my actor friends are always thrilled to have a lot of pictures of themselves so it works out nicely. I’m also on the road with my husbands band a lot and I so I take pictures on our road travels together and pictures of other bands they might be traveling with and their performances. I really love shooting live music shows in black and white, I feel it helps me to hone my composition skills when I’m just looking at shadows and light in high contrast.
9. Do you have a favourite photographer?
Henri Cartier Bresson.
10. Other than your camera, what is the most important item in your camera bag?
my 50mm 1.2
11. Do you find that most of your photography bookings come through your website or word of mouth?
Almost everything comes through word of mouth, one or two have come through my membership in the WPJA.
12. Is there anywhere in the world that you would love to photograph?
I want to take some pictures of people in love in Cambodia where those temples are in Argwat. Where the giant tree roots over take the ancient ornately carved stone structures….. Soon.
13. What are the main challenges you face regarding your portrait/wedding photography?
At the moment being my only employee. I do everything right now but hopefully as things progress over the next year I can hire someone to carry some of the work load. It’s hard not to get so bogged down with the administrative aspects of runing a business, trying to make the right choices and trying to keep up with the workload. There is also this psychological barrier too because I started my business to support myself and I never really envisioned in the beginning that I’d need an employee. I feel like there’s never room in the budget. But there is, and I just have to get around to it. For this reason I am thankful that the slow season is upon us.
14. Do you ever get nervous when showing your clients the photos you have taken of them?
No. I’m pretty confident in my shooting style and that my clients hired me for the style that is apparent in my work. So I make sure that my work is consistent, while still taking some time during the session to try some things that may or may not work. With as much fun as I often have with my clients on shoots, I feel that their impression of me is also impressed upon my work. If they really like me and they already liked my work, then they’ll really love their pictures.
15. If you could give someone starting out in photography 3 tips, what would they be?
1) Find support and ask your “how do I…?” questions on forums like Open Source Photo, Flickr, and Digital Wedding Forum. I love the wedding photography industry because everyone is just so helpful and supportive.
2) Get a great contract right off the bat - you have to remember that your client turnover is very long. It’s often over a year that you are corresponding with a client. If you have a bad contract with which you can be taken advantage of, you are stuck with that contract and that client for a while before you can move on.
3) When you meet with a client - don’t sell your service! Sell yourself, think of it as a first date. Don’t talk about wedding photos, talk about them, ask them lots of questions, be actively engaged with them and let them know you are interested in them as people. People are interested and like people who are interested in them. Be genuine, and don’t think about the paycheck!
16. You have a great Website, did you design it yourself?
Bigfolio! It’s just one of their templates, but I’m currently working with getparade.com on a custom site.
17. I notice that your photos are always refreshing and ‘not the norm’ (such as the one of the man jumping out of shot), are these spontaneous or do you have these shots in mind before the shoot?
I look at a couple, how the move, how they touch each other. Every couple has their own dynamic. This one couple, the guy was a bit shorter than the girl but they totally embraced this fact. This understanding is wonderful inspiration. I never can plan a shot for a couple. There’s a different mood every time we meet. Sometimes where they might have felt a bit awkward for the engagement session, they are totally footloose and fancy free on their wedding day. So I just go with the flow and keep an open mind.
18. Do you ever have inspiration ‘blocks’ and how do you get over these?
I feel as though inspiration blocks come from over thinking. I don’t think about it if I don’t have a camera in my hand. If I do think about a shot I’d like to take someday with a couple whose right for it, I’m not trying to think of it. It usually just comes to me. Photography occupies my mind so much of the time that I find myself inspired often.
19. I notice from a lot of Wedding blog sites etc that people always comment on how nice you are and how relaxed they felt whilst you photographed them, do you have any techniques to put your clients at ease?
Treat them like friends, and they’ll be your friends. I like to tell funny stories about my husband and about my wedding, there are certain tales that garner certain responses which I save for particular times in a shoot. We also do lots of breathing slowly ad consciously. It’s something we used to do in acting school because often, when all eyes are on you, you stop breathing, you become tense and can’t relax. So before they get all clogged up the first thing we do is breathe. And when you breathe deeply so near the one you love, you can smell their smell. There is also a lot of sniffing involved. I find that comforts a lot of people.
Have a search on Google for her, inspirational!