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Speakers' Corner - Jo Hansford - part 1 of 1 2
by Jo Hansford Published 01/11/2010
Brief personal background and years as a pro.
I started out as a journalist, then decided it wasn’t the career for me. I began
to see photography as more than a hobby around 1996, when I did two City &
Guilds courses, then decided to pursue it further by going to college. After
college, I assisted some commercial photographers before setting up Jo Hansford
Photography in 2000.
First camera/ photo experience.
My first memorable camera experiences were with a Pentax K1000 and a 50mm lens.
Whilst I was a journalist I would occasionally be asked to capture some shots of
events/people while out on stories – I can still remember the sense of combined
excitement and terror when I was asked to take some photos of Sir David
Attenborough at a local wildlife reserve opening. Scary! rewarding experiences
of that stage in my life.
Why photography?
Photography gives me a unique way of combining art with personal expression, at
the same time as documenting and commenting on life. My early work was very
personal – using very abstract imagery from nature, colour and shape to reflect
mood and emotion
Film/digital (both?) Is there still any place for film?
I shoot digital these days, though it’s only in the last year that I stopped
using film. For me, film will always offer a unique and beautiful form of craft
and artistic expression, which is different to digital. Much as digital has come
a long way, I feel film will always stand out for the unique and slightly less
predictable and artistic imagery it can produce.
Capture and output devices used
I use Canon EOS-1D, 5D and 5D MkII DSLRs, plus three zoom lenses; a 70-200mm,
16-35mm and 24-70mm. As a business, we shoot weddings (60%)
family/children/babies on location (25%), commercial (10%) and fine art (5%); so
the main need is to capture images suitable for albums and wall art. The 1D and
5D range support these needs perfectly.
We shoot RAW and process all files on Apple Macs, using Lightroom and Photoshop
for processing and finishing of images.
Bit of detail about your own studio set-up/staffing
We are a largely two-man team; myself full-time and my husband, Nic, works for
the business on a part time basis. We also have part time help with bookkeeping,
accounts and albums. We have offices and a viewing room at home, so our clients
come to us. Our brand is about our unique style coupled with high quality
products (albums, prints, frames and so on) and customer service to match.
The problem with professional photographers today is.....
The industry is largely unregulated, so there is huge variation in what people
are offering in terms of quality of imagery, the product (print, albums, wall
art etc), the service offered and the price tag on photographs. Since the
arrival of digital, photography has become accessible to the mass of the
population, resulting in a new breed of weekend and part time photographers,
selling their work for very little. This is dangerous because it lowers the
value of photographs as a product. We all need to strive to achieve the highest
quality of work and to charge for it accordingly.
The worst commercial error you have made to date
I went solo and full-time as a freelance photographer before I was ready, then I
struggled with how to market and price my product and felt isolated. My first
year solo didn’t really happen!
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1st Published 01/11/2010
last update 13/03/2013 17:15:53
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