Marc Silber is a photographer, a three-time best-selling author, film-maker, and the producer of the popular YouTube series Advancing Your Photography. Today’s he’s sharing his photography journey, from going to school with Annie Leibovitz to guiding other photographers on their own journeys.
Resources:
- Client Prep Guides + Simple Product Sales System
- advancingyourphotography.com
- Advancing Your Photography YouTube Channel
- https://www.silberstudios.com
Transcript
Allie 0:01
Hello, and welcome to the photo Field Notes podcast, I have a quick little update for you. I’m going to talk more about this in the future. But just to let you know, I have a new guide and system for you. That’s for sale at photo field notes.com/shop. And this is the system the updated system that I use to prep my clients for their photo sessions. So I have guides created in Canva, that can easily be updated and shared for general photo sessions maternity and newborn photo session prep, wedding prep, and then also a product guide to show your products and your prices. And then with that, it also comes with a PDF guide. It’s a 23 page PDF guide called the simple product sales system. And that’s everything from how to prep your clients to expect products, to how to set up all the tools to easily run your sales. So my philosophy for years has been that I do give away digital files, I price myself for profitability, giving away digital files, you can also do this in a tiered system where you give away some number of digital files. And then I offer prints to my clients in addition, and even though they’re getting their digital files, they are very, very often buying prints. Because I have shown them the quality, I’ve guided them I’ve shown you know I’ve set them apart. And so this walks you through that. It also comes with my email template guide, which is giving you the exact emails that I use from the time that people book through the delivery of products. So it’s not just about selling products. It’s actually like the whole workflow all in one. But there’s a ton there. But I’ve tried to make this a little bit more simple because I was finding that in some of the courses I was doing if the videos were really long, I wasn’t finishing them. So instead of videos, I just made it a PDF, really simple step by step directions. And, and then customizable guides 12 customizable mock up images where you can put your own images into like an album, wall art, all of these fun things so that you can show your clients what your photos look like in these products without having to purchase a million different samples. So again, that’s at photo field notes.com/products Go check it out. I’ll talk a little bit more about my philosophy in the future. But that’s where to start. Alright, that’s it for now. Let’s get into the episode.
Introduction 2:20
Welcome to the photo Field Notes podcast, where you’ll find stories, tips and inspiration from professional photographers to get you taking action in your own business and making your business dreams a reality.
Allie 2:33
Hello, everyone, this is Allie Siarto. And today I’m talking with Marc Silber, who is a three time best selling author, a photographer, a filmmaker, and the producer of the popular YouTube series advancing your photography. And in that show, he’s interviewed scores of some of the biggest names in photography, which is really fun. I like the multiple things that you’ve done mark in that way. So a little bit more about Mark he learned. He actually started out learning darkroom skills and the basics of photography at the legendary Peninsula school in Menlo Park, California, in the 60s and moved on to hone his skills to professional standards at the famed San Francisco Art Institute. I used to dream of going to the Art Institute. I want to hear a little bit about that. And beyond that, so mark moved into teaching photography and workshops all over the country. He became renowned as an engaging and helpful speaker and coach, as his greatest story comes from helping others. All right, Mark, I want to hear all about this. I want to hear about your background in photography. I want to hear a little bit about the Art Institute your thoughts on like education and photography today. I know that’s a lot more but let’s, let’s start with your story.
Marc 3:39
Okay, well, thanks for having me, Ali. My story starts when I was about 12 years old. What happened was I you know, like a lot of kids at the time, I was taking photographs with probably a brownie, mainly a Kodak Brownie that really dates me. That was the iPhone of the day. Everybody had one. But you know, I’d send my rolls of film off to usually just, there was a local camera store, you drop them off, or maybe even a drugstore. And you know, you’d wait very excitedly and they’d come back and they were tiny little muddy prints. Very disappointing. And one day, I was in the seventh grade and my teacher said, Would you like to see I’m a photographer. Would you like to see how the darkroom works? And I said, Yeah, that sounds cool. So, you know, we went to his house and his wife cooked us dinner and then after dinner, we went into his darkroom and developed a roll of film. Now the film, you know, developing the film itself was kind of interesting, but it wasn’t until we cut it up and put it in the enlarger. And all of a sudden the magic of the darkroom unfolded for me it was like a revelation because I could control the process. Up to that point. I was at the mercy of these labs that ran it through their machine and everything came out really, you know, uninteresting. All of a sudden I could see the potential. And that’s when I became a photographer in the seventh grade. And I embraced it wholeheartedly. There was a darkroom in the school, you know, somebody who has to make an interesting documentary that you know, is like, covered with cobwebs, because nobody had been using it and I, and I went in there and cleaned it out. And I just embraced it. And then I ended up building my own darkroom in my mom’s laundry room, you know, which worked really great.
Allie 5:39
Fun side note, on the laundry room, when we bought our house, our house was built in the 70s. And when we bought our house, and we went down to the electrical, our now laundry room was labeled a dark room. So we were like, Oh, that’s a fun history, the laundry room is dark room.
Marc 5:53
Well, it works well, because you have a big sink there, and usually not a lot of windows. So anyway, then, you know, at that point, I was just full on as a photographer, and really did pretty well as a team. And it was, you know, I had some, I have a lot of interesting stories about that. And I’ve written about them in my books. Probably the most interesting one is I was a senior in high school. And I was really getting antsy with, with what was going on. I hated being in the classroom, I had gone to a really great school in New England for my junior year. And I came back to California for my senior year. And it was basically a rehash of everything I’d already covered. So I was it’s a dangerous thing to have a bored teenager, and I was ready to drop out of school and take my camera and travel around and do something interesting. And of course, that didn’t happen. But what I discovered was that I had almost enough credits to graduate I needed one more social study class. And I cooked up this thing, which was kind of interesting. I, there was a kind of a mini mini Peace Corps project in the remote region of Mexico. And I pitched it to the principal of the high school and I pitched it to my parents. And to my surprise, they both said, yes. So I went there with a roll of flax with dozens of rolls of film and worked on this project, came back with these amazing photographs to this day, some of my best work. And that was pretty remarkable. I went to school in Vermont for a while then I came back to California, and I did go to the San Francisco Art Institute. Annie Liebowitz was there at the same time. She was older, though. Did you know her? I didn’t at the time. I met her later, you know, at the time was kind of funny. I was pretty introverted and shy. And I think most people were unfortunately. And you know, there were some things I learned in art school. But I have to say most of it. I was self taught. And then fast
Allie 8:09
forward. Yeah. Wait, well, let’s pause there. Because that’s really interesting. Because I’d love to know your your thoughts today. And you know what education looks like? Obviously, at the time, that probably there were a lot more barriers to entry to get into photography, you couldn’t just go on and enroll in this class or read this book or do well, there were books, but there’s just so many more resources today. And so I’m curious to hear if you were that teenager, again, just starting out? Would you go to art school? Or how would you? How would you pursue that today?
Marc 8:44
I’ve thought about that a lot. First of all, I really believe that that what you need to learn is the technology in school, the art part of it, frankly, just comes from your own study your own, you know, understanding of composition. But the part that really I could have filled in which wasn’t being taught. Were the technicalities of lighting of it. You know, at that point, I mean, I already knew my way around a darkroom, but I’m sure I could have learned more things. And especially now it’d be incredible to learn, you know, digital photography inside and out and Photoshop inside and out. But mainly things like lighting and working with a bigger environment of photography, rather than just kind of on my own, which is what I ended up doing. But I think there are I think there are opportunities. The other big thing about art school and this is probably the biggest thing that I got out of it, which is what I do now is critiquing and learning. You know that you had to have a project that you followed me We all picked a project for the year and followed it you know Very doggedly through to the end, which is really important. It’s an important part of photography rather than just taking one off photographs, making a cohesive story, which is what I did when I went to Mexico. So I was already familiar with that. Yeah, well, I
Allie 10:16
think I think about I only took one art class only what took one art class. In college, I studied advertising and digital media. So technically one actual in the Art College of Arts one class and it was a drawing class, it was a summer class. And I think this is interesting from your perspective, where you’re like, you know, you’re focused on a project because I learned photography through a nonprofit, local community organization, where it was like an accelerated version, we had weekly, twice a week classes once in the classroom, once in the lab with the critiques. So we learned really quickly, like the technical side, and we did critiques and we learned about composition. But we weren’t necessarily like diving in on a project, it was very quick turnaround. But that art class on drying, I remember drawing a praying mantis. I don’t know why that was what I was drawing. For some reason. I don’t know if it was a side, I cannot remember. But I remember thinking I was done with this project and be like, here’s my praying mantis to the instructor. And she was like, good start, keep going. And I was like, Oh, I think that the key to art is just to keep going, like you take this project, and you keep going with it. And you don’t just call it die. Oh,
Marc 11:25
true. At the Yeah, you know, I have a weekly class. In fact, I just got through working with these guys. And we meet together, I’ve given them a number of different, you know, stories and things to work on, and that sort of thing. But really, they pick their own story, and we’re carrying it out originally was going to be a one month project, but they all want to keep going which I agree is a good idea. And that’s really what makes you into photographer is if you have to tell a story. Because otherwise, you know, you could you could go okay, here’s a landscape. And here’s the sunset. And here’s a portrait. But when you put it all together, it really elevates your photography. I’m a big believer in that I think there’s
Allie 12:10
just so many cool, you also see these opportunities to like, take a project really far, both from your own creative learning side. And also, if you can come up with the right project, the press that you can get for it as another having also worked in PR. Get for it, I started a project in early 2020, called Euro stuff. And the idea was we were trying to cut down on our waste. And so I was photographing every item that came into our house, which very quickly became overwhelming. And I ended up stopping the project. Because once I got worried about when in the early days of COVID when we’re like wiping everything down, and I was like I can’t do this, I can’t like wipe everything down. And
Marc 12:48
there’s just a piece of mail or whatever that.
Allie 12:52
I mean, now if I’d actually carried through, it would have been an amazing project. But I just think you can come up with that really cool perspective or life project. Yeah, that has a story behind it. There’s really cool press. So anyway, Mark, I keep interrupting keep going.
Marc 13:06
No, no worries. Okay, so the rest of my backstory, I went off in a completely different career path, and became a management consultant had a really great consulting company in Silicon Valley. But I was hungry, I never really fulfilled my goals as a photographer and 2004, I ended up selling the practice to my partners and said, Okay, guys, I’m leaving, I’m gonna go relaunch my career as a photographer, and I did. But by then, of course, it was the, you know, the digital age and I had to really catch up, I had to relearn everything. And, you know, that’s fairly daunting. You know, back back then, you know, Photoshop wasn’t the most friendly, user friendly application, there was no Lightroom it was, you know, it was a pretty kind of, in terms of the way things are now fairly crude here of the digital age. You know, the, the cameras weren’t perfect yet. They were getting there, but they weren’t. They weren’t great. They were big and bulky and whatnot. But I, I launched into it. And I taught myself digital photography, and said, Okay, I’m going to become a pro, I’m going to make my living doing this. And I did. And then in 2008, I said, Okay, I want to teach. And the best way I know to teach now, I was doing a lot of workshops, but I said, you know, if I get on a video, and make a video, people can watch me all around the world. And that’s what I’ve been doing since then I have this channel called advancing your photography, and I teach photography, and I’ve written three books about it, and I have classes I’m pretty immersed in this world of photography.
Allie 14:49
Let let’s now get into that because as someone who’s teaching that in that way, and you know, getting feedback from people, you see some of the common questions some of the common myths misconceptions coming in about learning photography. So what can you tell me a few of those? What are some of those common misconceptions that people come in thinking that might kind of be a little misguided miss? You know, they’re, they’re coming in thinking the wrong thing.
Marc 15:17
Yeah, this is from I did a survey recently of some really great photographers. One is Ed Kashi, multi award winning photographer, you know, he shot for National Geographic, just an amazing photographer, that practically every big name publication you can think of. And I asked Dad, Hey, Ed, what are some of the common misconceptions of photography? And he said, The biggest one is the false belief that it’s easy to do. Now. That sounds like why is that a misconception? Edie? You know, isn’t it good to think that it’s easy to do? Well, here’s the thing, it sets the person up on kind of a wrong expectation. Like, if you picked up a violin, you knew you would know you’re not going to play beautiful music the first day, and the first time you run the bow across this thing. But yet, I think we feel like with iPhones and smartphones, it’s so easy to, you know, hold the camera and press the shutter that you can become a photographer overnight. And that is a misconception because it’s just as much of a challenge to learn to become a great photographer, it is as it is to learn the piano or, you know, guitar or learn to be a great chef or whatever. This instant, instant newness, which I call fast food, you know, photography is deceiving, because yes, maybe you can press the shutter and there’s a beautiful sunset. But what about a meaningful photograph? So he labeled that as the first misconception, and I have to agree with him. It takes some work, you know, like anything, that’s great that you’re going to do a good job at, it takes some work. And if you’re prepared to do the work, great. If you think it’s going to happen in a split second, you may not, you may not get to where you need to go. Because as you said in the in the darkroom days, the barriers to entry were pretty high. So you had to be pretty dedicated just to get in the door.
Allie 17:23
Let’s let’s talk about let’s talk about that idea. Because I think a lot of people listening are probably have, at some point seeing some conversation or had a thought you see it on a Facebook page, where people say, Ah, there’s so many new photographers coming in. And they have, they just got a camera for Christmas. And they put up a Facebook page, and they don’t even have a legal business. And I mean, we all see it. So what would you say to those photographers who are feeling that kind of frustration that so many people are jumping into the market?
Marc 17:54
Yeah, I mean, here’s the thing. Everybody has their has the potential of having a unique voice. They don’t always develop it. Because sometimes this could be another misconception. You get, like what does get a lot of likes as a guiding principle. You know, we’re looking at social media. That’s a big change from how I learned photography. We looked, I looked at books. And one of the first books I looked at was Henri Cartier Bresson, amazing photographer, street photographer, I looked at Ansel Adams, I looked at Edward Weston, I look at some of these great photographers, as my model, the concept of likes, and you know, how big you were on Instagram obviously didn’t exist. So they were only known by their work, you know, I mean, which is what you should be known by. And I think that that’s an important thing. And I still feel that’s really important to to look at not just those photographers, but look at classical artists to see what they did. You know, you can look at Rembrandt, you can look at a Vermeer and see how they lit their subject and how they frame their subject. There’s a lot to be learned there. But it does take a careful examination of that work, and then turn it into your own version. Like you’re not trying to copy these other artists, but you can get inspiration from it. And that I believe, is a really important process in learning. But again, it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not a split second thing, it takes some time to really develop your voice. So I will say to those people that you just mentioned, hang in there, develop your voice, don’t pay attention. Don’t even be sidetracked by all the Who cares how many millions of photographers there are in the market? You know, when the Beatles launched their career and how many other pop groups were there? You know, how many others how many singer songwriters were there? I mean, there’s many more now but they did it right.
Allie 19:58
And I should I didn’t even ask you for listeners, what type of photography is your favorite like when you jumped in in 2004? What were you focused on at the time?
Marc 20:08
Probably you see, for me my I have two genres that I really kind of gravitate towards. One is what I call environmental portraits where you’re, you know, you’re photographing somebody in, in their environment, not a not a headshot or in a studio, but in their environment, and landscape. So those are the two types of photography that I most kind of, for me, I resonate with. And so that’s what I was looking at, you know, is looking at the, the old, my old favorites, but I was also looking at a lot of newer photographers at that time, like Chase, Jarvis and Joe McNally. And a lot of other people I ended up interviewing later on, became, you know, really prominent to me, because I could see what they were doing with digital photography.
Allie 20:58
So if you were to describe, kind of finding your style, let’s go with environmental portraits, for example. Yeah, because I think more listeners probably fall into the portrait side. So if you were to describe finding your style in that, which you kind of did you like you look at the others, but you also find your own voice. And within that, you know, describe what it looks like, what is your style, or what is your approach that makes you unique?
Marc 21:22
You know, I really tried, I see communication as a really huge factor in photography. And a camera is nothing more than a communication device that records what you see in front of you. You know, there’s a lot of ways we can communicate, we can communicate through our voice, we can write, we can draw, we can take photographs, we can make films. And so for me, it’s an extension of me my ability to communicate. So what I try to do when I’m photographing people, is first of all have a rapport with them. One of the reasons I used to really like shooting with the role of flex, if you’re, for those who aren’t familiar with it is it has two lenses. And one lens is just used for focusing and composition. And the other is actually what’s used to expose the film. It’s kind of interesting. I mean, they don’t make them anymore, it’s a little more complicated than we need. But, you know, it was kind of cool. But what was neat about it is you look down into the screen where you’re focusing. Now what that allowed for is not is not having a barrier right in front of your face, like when you hold up a big DSLR to your face. It’s kind of like this big forboding piece of machinery right in front of you and your eyes. Well, we communicate a lot with our eyes, when you look at somebody and you’re talking to them, and you can see them and they can see you something happens. So that’s something I really try to do in my portraiture, I try to have that report so that it’s an extension of that. Now, does that mean the person always has to be looking right into the camera? Or looking at me? No, not at all. In fact, sometimes I want to moodiness that isn’t just a friendly smile or whatever. Because I’m trying to see something, you know, maybe there’s a different part of them, that I’m trying to capture an emotion, let’s say, and I’ll even guide them and I’ll say, hey, look, I want to see that. What was that moody? Look, you just gave me what? You know, bring this evening, bring that back. I am an active photographer. I’m not talking about street photography or documentary photography where you don’t interfere with your subject. I’m talking about photographing, again, somebody out in an environment so I tried to get very involved with my subject. And I’m either trying to get them ideally to forget about the camera, because the camera tense you know, people tend to tense up and show you something artificial rather than who they really are. And that’s what I’m aiming at getting them past that so it’s kind of like them and me and there’s just happens to be a camera and that’s considered an important
Allie 24:20
Yeah, that’s also a good reminder. I think a lot of photographers try to move too quickly and they try to get quantity over quality. And I think the number one tip if I were to give anyone a tip would be to slow down because totally slow down really good point. It’s everything from not just like, like the zoom with your feet idea like actually back up. The longer portrait lens instead of just going like let’s go 24 millimeters like right in your face. But also building building that connection, I think is it takes time. So don’t take your time. Just communicate is
Marc 24:56
you know it’s funny how much timing is a part of photography, if you think about it, timing, I mean, really, when you get down to what does it take, you know, as far as what’s imagery, you know, its composition, its lighting and its timing. Sometimes you have to go really fast. I mean, there are those moments, right? Especially in things like sports and action where, where the actions could just disappear if you’re not on top of it. But the other side of that coin is what you’re saying, Yes, take your time. In fact, here’s a tip. Do not enter the scene, and immediately pull out your camera and start photographing, talk to the person, look around, see what’s going on. You know, my son work in a, he still works for this startup. And Annie Leibovitz came in to photograph the startup. And he said, it was interesting that she just walked around, didn’t even have a camera with her for the first half hour, she just went around and looked at where everybody worked, and what the scene looked like, and what they look like, and she was gathering kind of mental notes. And you can only do that if you are paying attention. And because that’s the other thing, slow down. Pay attention. And look, really, really look. That’s Those are, those are crucial ingredients. Yeah,
Allie 26:21
I think important. Yeah. And that constant communication, because if you’re, if you’re slowing down, what you’re not communicating what you’re doing, then people are like, what’s this weird person doing?
Marc 26:31
I got up a sleeve. You have to be very transparent. You really do. And, you know, and, and, again, you have to make people feel comfortable. Because if they’re uncomfortable, there’s just not going to be a good look. There’s no, you know, unless you were purposely trying to make somebody look nervous, I suppose you could
Allie 26:54
write probably not not probably the most popular approach to make people. Alright, so Mark, are there any other misconceptions that you see caught, like common misconceptions that you see?
Marc 27:07
Here’s a yeah, here’s one that I hear. And I really liked to debunk it. And so I don’t know who started this, but it’s that you need to shoot in manual mode, you know that you’re not a real photographer, unless you shoot in manual mode or something like that, which I think is a crock of, you know what, and it’s not just me, every pro that I know. And I brought this up a few weeks ago with Scott Kelby where I was on his show, and it was like, Oh, we all hear that. But who’s, who’s pushing this? Because the pros that I know, basically, most of them shoot in aperture priority, right? Why wouldn’t you utilize your camera to help you out and that there are times I have to move to manual, there are those moments but 98% of the time, I don’t need to and it just gets in the way because the more equipment and the more diddling you have to do with your camera, the less you’re able to really pay attention to your subject, or you could even be distracted, and something amazing happens. So I hear that a lot. And I just want to say to those people who are struggling with this and trying to learn, okay, don’t worry about it. Listen, it isn’t it isn’t a prerequisite it’s some sort of some false impression. Because again, every pro I know and I pretty much asked them all they do not shoot in manual mode. It’s not the Holy Grail.
Allie 28:41
That’s when I when I took my first class we completely focused on aperture until we got into Flash and then I think we moved a little bit more into manual but my gosh, honestly for the first like probably few years shooting weddings, I don’t think I even like really understood manual. It was actually
Marc 29:00
a wedding especially you have to be ready you know you have to be moving fast at a wedding right? And anyway, I bring that up because I’ve seen that I’ve seen tutorials and I’m like why are we focusing on this there’s so many more important things to learn. And this is the I guess leads to the next misconception, which is that somehow gear and cameras are going to make you a great photographer. Not true gear in cameras or gear in cameras any more than a fully decked out kitchen. Let’s say every imaginable you know utensil and you have the best stove and you have the best of this and that all of a sudden out of that is going to spring really great food. You know, you could take a great chef and put them on a camp stove and they’d make a great meal because they understand what cooking is about. And the same thing is true with photography. I mean, you could hand a old one any old camera practically an iPhone or anything Adding to a skilled photographer and they’re gonna make good photographs with it. But by the same token, you can hand them hand the most amazing camera in the world to somebody who doesn’t understand what composition is all about doesn’t understand. Lighting doesn’t understand how to make your subject work with you. And they’re not going to have great photographs. And I’ve seen it. I’ve seen people decked out with the most amazing fact too much equipment, they’re like, they’re they’re actually weighing themselves down with too many cameras and too many long lenses and this and that, they need to be more nimble, and fluid. And yeah,
Allie 30:40
I wish I could remember there was a, like a YouTube, maybe like a little series on YouTube or somewhere where it was like, they would give different photographers who were well known or successful photographers, they would just give them like these really cheap, awful cameras, and set them out to make really great photos. And then they show how they did it. And it was really fun to see how they still they took this like, really, really like, like play toy camera, and they still made out of it. So what do you what do you think? Rather than focusing on that, rather than focusing on the gear, what do you think photographers should be focusing on?
Marc 31:21
Well, in so in my book, advancing your photography, I talk about that there’s five stages of photography. And maybe I should just run through those because gear is only one of them. There’s five stages. The first one is you have to have your visual, your ability to visualize an image. You know, ideally, you kind of see the image before you even press the shutter, but you should have some vision of what you want to photograph. And that comes from studying classical art, studying other photography, getting ideas yourself. And research is really important. Like if you’re going to an environment you’ve never been in, it’s a good idea to research it what what is, you know, what’s it going to look like? If I’m going to shoot sports? For instance? How can I get up close and personal at the sporting event, or if I’m shooting architecture, what are these buildings look like? What would be unique angle, that’s part of your vision. So getting your vision in the second stage of this is your equipment, you do need to know your equipment. And you especially need to know what your camera will do with light every cameras a little different. And you can’t assume that what you see is what the camera sees at all, camera sees very differently than our own eyes. So you have to know that the third stage of the process is processing your images, we have to do that, you know, and I mentioned like, my you know, coming of age as a photographer came when I went into the darkroom, well, the same thing is true with a digital darkroom, you got to know how to carry your vision out so you can see it, maybe you want to a really great black and white. But it’s not just a matter of D saturating, there’s a lot of controls that have to go into making a really good black and white image. So you need you know, your processing. And then the final stage is sharing it getting your work out to the world, there’s a lot of ways to do that. Besides social media, I use social media like everybody else, but it’s just a very minor way to get your work out to the world. And one of the best ways is making prints, hanging them on the wall, put them in books, you know, get get your prints out there. So to answer your question, need to know all five of those stages and keep them in balance. It’s sort of like living a holistic life, you don’t want to be just doing one thing, you know, you might love reading, but you don’t want to spend your whole life reading, you have to get outdoors to you know, you have to balance these things out. Learning composition, to me is like one of the best investments you can make. Because there are what I find is many in this kind of one of those misconceptions that many photographers get stuck with maybe four or five compositional techniques, and that’s as far as they ever go. And it’s kind of like having a five word vocabulary. What kind of sentence Are you going to be able to make, you know, but if you had a, I found 83 compositional tools, we have 83 tools in your toolkit and you could pull them out and use them and also combine them. So it really combines to hundreds or 1000s. You can be really fluid and you can really express yourself well as a photographer. So that’s more important than just getting stuck on gear for sure.
Allie 34:47
Yeah. And then last question, and then we’ll get into sharing all the resources because obviously there’s more than we can get into everything here. One One thing that you said people ask a lot about is finding a mentor And what do you tell them in terms of where they can find that mentor?
Marc 35:05
Yeah, well, I try to provide that for people. I mean, that’s one of what I consider one of my main roles is, and I have a YouTube channel that where we do live YouTubes, where I can give feedback on that sort of thing. But if you want to find a mentor, I would look in your own community, I would look for a photographer that you resonate with, and you might even volunteer, you might even go say, Hey, I’d like to intern with you on a limited basis or whatever. I’ve had people intern with me full time to get experience and they go away, and they get amazing jobs afterwards. So, you know, that’s one possibility. I think, finding a my early mentors were not pro photographers. They were my uncle was a really avid enthusiast. I had another teacher who was an avid enthusiast so you find people who know more than you. And that can give you good advice. So just beware of the gearheads because you don’t want to spend all your time there are people who really get so stuck on that, that they never really go out and take photographs. So I’d be aware of that. And look at their work if if their work seems like something that you would be proud of. That’s probably a good person to work with.
Allie 36:25
Sounds good. Okay. So Mark, where can people find your books, your information? Where can they go next? Your
Marc 36:32
video best? Yeah, the best place to buy my books is advancing your photography.com. And you can actually get my book on a special we have a special price for that you actually cover the postage and handling we give you the book. So advancing your photography.com and you can get my other books there as well. My YouTube channel if you remember my name is spelled ma R Si. Si, l. B E or if you remember that you can find me anywhere so you can find me on youtube Mark silver. You can find me on Instagram Mark Silber, you can find me on Facebook, Mark Silva. My main website is Silber studios.com. Just remember it’s a B Silva studios.com. And that’s how you can find me. I’m pretty findable. If you just put, you know, just Google my name. You’ll you’ll see where I am.
Allie 37:27
Yeah, and I’ll make it even easier because all of these key links will be in the show notes so everybody can check their Mark, thank you for sharing your story and sharing your tips.
Marc 37:38
My pleasure. Thank you, Ali.
Outro 37:41
Thanks for listening. check out show notes at photo field notes.com. And if you loved this episode, leave your review on iTunes. See you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
