The Beginner Photography Podcast
The Beginner Photography Podcast
Make Your Shots Look Spectacular with Jim Nix
#376 On this episode of The Beginner Photography Podcast, guest Jim Nix, a landscape photographer and educator, shares his tips and tricks for landscape photography. HE discuss'es HDR photography, finding unique shots while exploring cities, and editing with tools like Luminar and split toning. Jim also shares his own learning journey, from being intimidated by photography to experimenting with different software and finding their own edit style. He emphasize the importance of experimentation, enjoying the process, and prioritizing photography in your life. Plus, listeners can snag free presets for Luminar and Lightroom. Tune in to learn how to take your landscape photography to the next level!
THE BIG IDEAS
- Prioritize Experimentation: Frequent creative and technical experimentation accelerates growth and helps you discover your style—don’t fear mistakes, they’re vital stepping stones.
- Focus on Finding Joy in the Process: Making yourself happy with your photos will keep your passion alive. Success follows genuine enjoyment, not merely technical perfection.
- Take Inspiration, Then Build Your Own Voice: Learning from others is great, but personal growth comes from adapting and eventually developing your own signature approach.
- Make Time for Photography: Don’t just wait for “free time;” intentionally create opportunities to shoot, even amid a busy schedule. Consistency is more important than convenience.
Links and Resources
Landscape Photographer Jim Nix Website Grab your free Luminar Presets
Watch Jim on Youtube
Follow Jim on Instagram
Follow Jim on Facebook
Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com
Connect with Raymond!
- Join the free Beginner Photography Podcast Community at https://beginnerphotopod.com/group
- Get your Photo Questions Answered on the show - https://beginnerphotopod.com/qa
- Grab your free camera setting cheatsheet - https://perfectcamerasettings.com/
Thanks for listening & keep shooting!
I will say the first thing and the primary thing that I'm doing when I'm editing is looking at the light. I mean, I think of edits in like three phases, light, and then detail, and then color. That's kind of my approach to editing. Those are the things that makes up a photo from an editing standpoint. I want to first adjust the light, and then I want to crunch up the detail or smooth out things. And then I want to play with color kind of towards the end of my edit process. It's not always the same tools, but it's frequently a lot of the same tools, yeah.
Raymond Hatfield:Hey, welcome to episode 376 of the beginner photography podcast brought to you by cloud spot the all in one solution for photographers to sell and deliver your photos online. I'm your host Raymond Hadfield. And today we're chatting with landscape photographer Jim Nix about what All the work that goes into landscape photography from planning to editing now, Jim on top of shooting is a landscape photography educator as well. He has a popular YouTube channel where he shares just a ton of landscape editing tips and tricks. He also works with a number of brands, including Skylum, who makes the popular photo editor Luminar as well. So we start off this interview, talking quite a bit about HDR photography. And after listening back, I kind of thought, well, maybe I should explain what it is as it's really not as popular of a form today as it was, 12, 15 years ago. So try to remember for a moment, what cell phone photos look like 10 years ago. It was not good. It was garbage, and that's because sensors had very low dynamic range. Dynamic range is just simply the difference between the brightest light that the sensor can capture without being completely white and the darkest light that a camera can capture without being completely black. So a camera, dynamic range of two stops would just be pure white and black. pure black with no gray in between. So the higher the dynamic range you have, the more detail you can capture in the highlights and the dark shadows as well. Okay, since early digital cameras had this low dynamic range, photographers would put their camera on the tripod and capture several photos of the exact same thing, but at different exposures from as little of as three exposures to as many as, well, I guess 19 exposures. So you would take the one overexposed photo to capture details in the shadows. And then you would take one properly exposed photo and then one photo underexposed so that you can capture details in the highlights. And then you would then merge those three images together with a computer program to produce a higher dynamic range image, HDR, high dynamic range. Now, some photographers took this way too far and would capture images with like, 40 stops of exposure. I mean, just crazy. And that's where HDR started to get this bad reputation because these scenes never really benefited from having all that dynamic range. And it just kind of seemed like a party trick. But technically, today, when you raise the shadow slider, in Lightroom or, lower the highlight shatter, a slider to save some details in an image, you're technically increasing the dynamic range of your image. It's just not to a degree that, we did back in the day, 12, 15 years ago. So anyway, I hope that that gives you kind of an idea of what HDR is. And this is just way more technical of an explanation than I intended it to be this early on in the episode. So I hope that you can get it. And then get on into this, this episode, but if you do use a luminar to edit your photos, stick around to the end, because Jim does have a pretty, sweet freebie for you all. So with that, let's go ahead and get on into today's podcast episode with Jim Nix. Jim, like I said, we start nice and easy. I just want to know. When did you know that photography was going to play an important role in your life?
Jim Nix:Yeah, good question. thanks. It's, I, I kind of accidentally got into photography. I had no plan. I had no idea that I was going to do it. And it was actually through a work thing that I met, Trey Ratcliffe, if you know who Trey is. Of course, yeah. very well known, especially, this was like 2008 when I met him. And he was, maybe he still is. I don't know, blogging every day, doing HDR photography and all this stuff. Anyway, I met him through a work thing and he was telling me about what he did and he's like, Oh, you should go look at my website. And I was like, okay, you know, cool. I'll go check it out. So I did. And I looked at it and I literally opened it up and the first photo I saw, it was like a jaw dropper. I was like, Oh my God, like, that's incredible. And I'm not exaggerating it right then. I was like, I'm going to do that. Just right then and there. Yeah. I literally decided like on the spot having no idea what to do. I had a basic Nikon DSLR that I didn't really use. And I decided right then I was like, I'm gonna do that's that's amazing. I want to do that. And so, you know, it's a it's almost cliche to say that. Oh, I got started because I saw Trey's HDR photographs and got all fired up. But it's it's true. In this case, it's, it may be cliched as well. But yeah, I started and, I didn't know anything about anything. I didn't know settings. I didn't know software. I didn't know. I literally had zero knowledge other than how to spell camera. and, uh, yeah, so it was, that's a start. I got started. Yeah. I got started. And, and the funny thing is like, wanted to do HDR, which is, you know, admittedly for someone that knew nothing about cameras or software editing, anything, it's a, it's It's a bit of a complicated thing to bite off and try to chew, but that's what I started doing, and that's kind of how I got into it, so.
Raymond Hatfield:My gosh. Yeah, when it comes to, getting into photography, that seems like, you know, the easiest way is just, well, I have a camera, I'll just take photos of my kids and whatnot, and you're like, no. We got, we need lots of equipment. We need gear, specialized software. We're going all in on that. And that is funny.
Jim Nix:Yeah.
Raymond Hatfield:I want to know though, because, from what you had told me, before we had hit record, you had a pretty technical, career, right? You, you needed to know lots of numbers and, and all of these things you had to store in your head. And it was very, technically minded. What was it about seeing Trey's photo? which is admittedly very, creative and unique, especially for the career that you were in before that stood out to you so much so that you said no that's the thing immediately what stood out about it. You're you're asking Yeah to go from such a from such a technical career to go to something so creative Immediately, what was it?
Jim Nix:Yeah, I don't know if it was one thing. I guess it was really just, it just kind of inspired me. So I'm an army brat. My dad was in the army and we moved around. I moved every year all the way through basically about fifth grade. And so we lived in different places. We lived overseas. And so, kind of a traveler at heart. And of course, blog, was travel photography. And so I started going through and looking at all these photos from places I'd been. And I was like, oh my Lord, that's just insanely gorgeous. And, I just love it. It was really, you know, it's colorful and vibrant, which is something I still like to this day. And, don't know, I guess it just, honestly, it just kind of, it inspired me somewhere deep inside. And, I was like, I want to travel places like that again, but as an adult, and I want to take photographs and make them beautiful. And then, I've done a lot of jobs where I kind of, teach or, try to inspire people and things like that. And so I, I also, I guess, kind of wanted to, inspire people to go see things and travel and, that sort of thing. Because I feel like that's a huge part of who I am. Especially growing up as an Army brat and moving a lot and traveling a lot. And so, I don't know, I just felt like it would be great to be able to do that and share that. And then over time, of course, this has kind of morphed into me teaching photography which is I do a lot now on YouTube and on workshops and stuff.
Raymond Hatfield:Gotcha. So, I know having seen some of trace photos that again, it's not easy to get into when first getting into photography. Uh, yeah. As somebody who I had tried to attempt, to do them back in, I don't know, 2011, 2012, something like that, and, the software, there was a lot involved. So when you first decided to start using the camera, in a more intentional way than just snapshots of your life. What was the hardest part technically for you to, understand about photography?
Jim Nix:Yeah, honestly, it was all of it because, my first question is, this is ridiculous. and people laugh about it. because they've done the same thing, but like I, after I, the second time I saw him and I was talking to him about his photographs, my first question was, what kind of camera do you have, you know, um, and, uh, yeah, it's kind of a joke, right? It's, I mean, obviously the camera plays a part, but it's the vision. And then of course, it's the software allowing you to merge them and then the further editing. but truthfully, I was intimidated by all of it. I had no idea what, the F stop meant, and I didn't know that F stop was also aperture and the bigger number means a smaller opening and vice versa. I was like, I was confused about that. ISO made no sense to me. Like, I literally knew nothing. Even though I had a base, basic Nikon DSLR, I mostly was just to your point, kind of snapping family photos here and there, but nothing ever serious. And this is way before iPhones were really something that you did a lot of, you know, I think I started in about 2008. I think the iPhone came out in 2007, so I had a camera, but it wasn't like iPhone photography like it is now, you know, so I didn't really have all those kind of family photos. It was mostly just tinkering around in auto mode, getting some photos with, with that Nikon. So I was intimidated by the camera. And then of course, I started reading it, Trey had a HDR tutorial and I was like, I got to learn how to do this. And Okay, what are you doing at this? What's auto bracketing? I had no idea what that was, and it turned, I couldn't find it in my camera. It turns out my camera didn't have it, so I had to literally, and again, again, I wanted to do HDR because I thought it was so interesting and vibrant, and, so I literally had to take each exposure separately instead of just auto bracketing and it fire off three or five or seven. I would take a photo, change the exposure comp, take another photo, change the exposure comp, another photo, and I had to do that, you know, every time and I was like, Oh, my God. I mean, I think this is so hard and frankly time consuming. And then I was also intimidated by the software because all I had was a basic Mac. And it had, iPhoto, which was their app at the time, and I had no idea what that did, or, and I couldn't do HDR, so I had to buy Photomatix software, which is what I started with, and then, I mean, eventually, I started adding software and playing around, and that's kind of how I got into editing and teaching a lot of editing on my YouTube channels, because I had to tinker around with lots of different software products to kind of figure it out. And so many people were like, Photoshop this and Photoshop that. And at the time it was like 600 bucks for Photoshop. Yeah. My wife will kill me every year. I can't do that. Yeah. Every year. Exactly. I was like, there's no way I can do that. So I didn't go down the Photoshop route 'cause I was afraid to ask my wife if I could spend the money on it for this little hobby. So anyway, yeah. I mean everything was intimidating to be honest. And I would say the only way I learned was by doing, and also just experimenting ruthlessly, simply because. I couldn't exactly follow all the tutorials that I saw online because most of them involved Photoshop, and I didn't have it. So I was like, well, okay, I got Photomatix. That was 80 bucks. Did that. I built an HDR, but it looks flat. It needs some work. I can't really do that in iPhoto. Maybe I should try something else. I moved up to Aperture and then I started getting other things like Topaz and Nik Collection. Anyway, so that's kind of how I got into editing too, is just playing around and needing to play around, frankly, to figure out what I wanted to do and how to make the photo look the way I wanted it to look.
Raymond Hatfield:I, appreciate the blast from the past because I completely forgot about Aperture. That's exactly what I started on. And I thought it was great. It was great. I loved it. I was so upset when Apple had announced that they were no longer going to support it. And because that meant at the time. Looks like I got to invest in Lightroom, which again, I didn't want to do, but, here we are today, but, I want to, go back to, you got the camera, you had decided you're going to shoot these HDRs. Tell me what that, that first HDR was like, what were those first images? What were the problems with those? You had mentioned that some of them look flat. Was that a common theme throughout, the HDRs that you were shooting?
Jim Nix:Yeah, I mean, technically you want the base HDR. I want, and it generally is, the base HDR after you've merged it. And I don't use Photomatix anymore. I use Luminar Neo for that. But, when you merge it, the base image is kind of flat. I mean, what it does, the tone mapping, it evens out the light distribution. So you don't have a lot of contrast. Therefore, it's kind of flat. So it needs further editing. But when I first make them, Okay. You know, he's like, it's an HDR, you make it in Photomatix. I was like, okay, cool. And I make it and I was like, you know, obviously different subject matter, but I'm like, my photo doesn't look anything like his photo. Like, what am I missing? And so, Aperture gave me, you know, after I moved from iPhoto to Aperture, I definitely got more capabilities. And then when I started, like I added Topaz Adjust version three or something, and this is like maybe 2009, you know, and I was like, oh, I can kind of, oh. And then I started realizing my eyes kind of open up. I was like, oh, people do a lot of things to their photo. I mean, I know that Photoshop it is kind of the term for it these days. And back then probably too, but again, didn't have Photoshop, didn't have it in the budget, so I was buying a couple little apps here and there for 50, 60, 70, and just experimenting, so yeah, I mean, I basically was like, gosh, my photos are terrible, you asked what kind of problems or what kind of issues did my images had, and it had, every kind of issue known to man, I got photos that and I'm not exaggerating and I don't want to point anybody here because it's embarrassing. But, you know, I've been using Flickr since 2008 or nine and putting photos up there. And back then I put my HDR photos out there. My first attempts. And I mean, they're terrible. There's like massive halos. It's grainy. I got some that have spots on it. I didn't even remove because I didn't even know how to do that it was just like a hdr and honestly, all I would do is like Increase the contrast and drag the saturation slider and I was like, wow, look at that photo That's so cool, man I had no control over the image because I didn't know what I was doing it's just fine like everybody starts there and you know over time you develop your style and you start to learn things and I just I got there from just experimenting, with different software products, and learning how to control it. but yeah, I mean, it had all the problems you, you pick a problem. I had it, it was just a mess, noisy, horrible use of contrast. Every single thing was oversaturated because I was like, wow, that looks cool. You know, it's vibrant. Well, it's actually, the term I like to use when all the colors are over the top is. It was just like, you know, clown vomit. Uh, so a lot of my photos were clown vomit. It was just like, you know, color everywhere. I didn't selectively control or whatever. So, yeah, I mean, and then things were over the top detail. I'd crank up the details and the HDR structure or whatever. So, anyway, it's funny. And I still do some HDR today. It's just very, very different, right? I I still like vibrant and colorful photos but I control the color. Try not to oversaturate everything because if all the colors are saturated, it just looks terrible. You know, like pick a something you want to accentuate and maybe move that a little bit, but don't, don't get everything over the top. Don't overdo the details. Watch the light, and the contra. I just try to do things a lot more subtly, but I don't do HDR on every image anymore. back then I, that was all I did. Right. Like that's the
Raymond Hatfield:only way to do it. Yeah.
Jim Nix:Yeah. Yeah. That was the way for me back then.
Raymond Hatfield:Is that. I haven't thought about this. Is the reason why we're doing less HDR because camera sensors are getting better or is it just a outplayed technique? Yeah,
Jim Nix:you know, it's funny. Uh, so, yes and yes. but, but right. So yes, camera sensors are way better, right? My raw files on my, my fancy Sony full frame camera are way better than they were in my first basic crop sensor Nikon. I mean, clearly, right. Technology improves every year and all that. So I think that's true. I think it, peaked in popularity like 2012, 2013, because I think everybody was doing HDR all the time and every image. And you don't need to. I was doing HDR all the time. Middle of the day, let me shoot seven brackets, or seven exposure bracket in the middle of the day in perfect light and make any, you don't need that. You can just take one shot and it's just fine. but I still use it today because, you know, even with, sensors being as good as they are, there's still a need for it in some situation. You don't need it all the time, but it still comes in handy. And I was actually at a photo conference, up in Utah, last month. and, I was literally listening to other pro I was teaching, some Luminar, classes there. And then also, sitting in on other sessions for, I mean, well known photographers. I'm not going to name anybody, but there were people that were saying, Oh, yeah, I shoot brackets all the time. And I was asking pro photographers. It's like, do you ever do HDR? And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. I do it all the time. So it's funny that like, people like, Oh, HDR is dead. It peaked in 2012 or whatever. And in some regard, that's true. And the flip side of that is I know lots of pro photographers, because I asked them, they're still doing it today. It's just that people don't talk about it. I think partly because the term got overused and has a bunch of negative connotations, horrible overdone contrast, vomit, vomit colors. Right. But people are still doing hDR today, even with single exposures, that's super popular. People tone map a single image, but you just do it a lot more gently and subtly because it does give a nice pop to a photo. You just have to be able to control it and not go over the top. But I think people don't talk about it because, because of the negative connotations from the past. Sure. Sure. So it's like, Oh, I still do that. I just don't want to talk about it. Yeah. you know, which is fine. Like it doesn't matter to me. I talk about it cause. I just like talking about photography and editing anyway. So
Raymond Hatfield:yeah, it is a fun technique. And I think when you are able to use it, in a way that makes an image look natural, it's really powerful, really powerful. But, I remember in, it was probably 2012, 2013, whenever Apple introduced, it was, I think they just called it HDR photo at the time built into their iPhone. And I thought to myself, when would I not use that? Like, of course, I want more dynamic range on my photos. But it was the worst. Every single photo that I took that entire year, because it was multiple exposures, what was, you'd see ghosting, and it was off, and, yeah. There's a year of photos that I lost, Because I just insisted, on doing that, which is unfortunate, and, so, I'm right there with you. I was one of those people making that mistake.
Jim Nix:Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, it is what it is, right? And, I mean, it's still, it still works a lot. In fact, been in Iceland a couple of times with, with the Skylum team on their, on their Luminar photo camp and, and teaching and, helping lead the camp. And, they take us to ice caves. Like when you're when you're there in the winter and by definition ice cave, right? It's you're basically underneath a glacier inside a glacier But there's usually like an opening and and the guy you have to go on a guided tour with like a hard hat and all that because you know again, it's safety measures But usually at the at the opening or the aperture of the ice cave like the guide will go stand there and pose And so we're taking these shots. Well, you know you're inside an ice cave under a glacier. It's dark, and the only opening has sky behind it, and the guy's standing there, and that's really bright. mean, I've got brackets from that, and I've worked on single exposures. I'm like, the highlights, you can't pull them back, and if you lift the shadows too much, you start to get noise. And that sort of thing. And I'm like, that's a perfect case for shooting HDR. And in fact, we, we recommended to people on the tour, it's probably better if you shoot some brackets here, and make an HDR out of it. Just control the edit. So you don't create something over the top, unless you want to, in which case. Hey, you know what? I'm all for it because I'm of the personal opinion that you should edit a photo however you want to edit a photo and if you like to edit, then that's a good photo, right? You know, that's my opinion because just think you ought to do what makes you happy. And if you're not having fun and if you're not happy with your photos, It takes away the joy of photography, and there's so much joy in it, you know.
Raymond Hatfield:A hundred percent. I couldn't have said that better myself. And in fact, I want to write that down because that is a memorable quote for sure. Because, that's kind of that step, right? That's how you progress from going from a beginner to somebody more advanced, right? That, I guess, that intermediate stage is, that's when you, you know, your settings. Now you start to use your voice. And the only way to use your voice to say things that you want to is to know what it is that you want to say and what it is that you like to say. And the only way to do that is to just, just do it and do it on your own and not just follow tutorial to the T and create something that somebody else had already created. So I appreciate that so much, so much. Yeah.
Jim Nix:Yeah. No, that's funny you say that because, I hate to, I don't want to make this talk all just about HDR. But again, since that was my start, when I first started, I mean, I was following Trey's tutorial and then I started discovering other people that also had tutorials on their website. And so what happens is at least what happened for me, and I frankly encourage this is find someone whose style, results you like. And then, quote, unquote, copy it, right? Mirror that, learn from it, but once you get comfortable with whatever that process is, or whatever that is, experiment and go find your own voice, so like, use them as like a step ladder to get to the next level, and then, go build your own platform, and this is kind of starting to sound weird, like I'm building a house, but in some ways you kind of are, right? Use that as the foundation. Maybe that's a better, better way of saying it. and you can follow somebody, that you like and I did that a lot with Trey and there were other photographers as well. But just found here's what I like. But then after a while, like, don't just mirror everything that they do. Make sure you are experimenting because that's part of the growth, in your style and in your skills anyway, is to experiment and do things that you haven't done and all that. You know, I mean, I experimented with camera settings because I didn't understand. F 22 versus F 2. 8. I didn't know. I literally, it was a foreign language. So like I just started experimenting and then I experiment with edits and just over time, just kind of developed what I like and I've just continued to do what I like. And you know, if people like it, that's great. And if they don't, I'm still happy because I love what I make. and, I always feel like if you make yourself happy, You're continue to stay happy, doing this, whether it's a hobby or a job, so I like to, it sounds selfish, but I think you have to make yourself happy first, you know.
Raymond Hatfield:100 percent I got nothing to add to that. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I want to know now, let's switch gears a little bit because, today, less focus on HDR, but, you still are, very big on, shooting landscapes, and capturing these, these great images of, places that you travel, right? So, can you talk to me a little bit about how that, that progressed? Because, in the beginning, it's, it's hard to, find, I guess, quote unquote, time to travel and go out and you want to bring all the gear, but today, after doing it for a long time, kind of when did you feel like you started to find that that sweet spot, sweet spot in terms of being able to travel and capture images that you loved and were happy with because you felt comfortable in that situation?
Jim Nix:Yeah, it's kind of gradual. So one of my, previous jobs in, let's call it corporate America was, working with companies that were in, in different parts of the world. And so, you know, I had to get on a plane and go to London, for business. And then I had to go to whatever a lot of times it was either around the U. S. or over to Europe. I didn't really go to Asia very much. And so, as I started to get into photography, I was like, well, I'll bring my camera. I mean, you know, if I have some time, well, I found time, on some trips and then I found that I started to make time, which is a very big difference, like finding a time on a business trip versus making time, which to me was like, oh, okay, well, I really want to shoot some shots in, let's say Dublin, Ireland. Well, I got meetings all day and then we got dinners or whatever. When can I shoot? Well, I can't really stay up all night cause I have to be rested for work, but I can do is go to bed at a decent time and get up really early and go wander the streets Dublin, for example, at, you know, at sunrise. so for me, it was a little bit of a transition of, You know, hey, lucky me. I get to go to interesting places and I started bringing my camera. I was like, well, as it turns out, you know, surprise, that worked out really well because, not just I was able to get good photos, but I was able to practice a lot, take a lot of photos, learn what I like and kind of hone my craft while still doing my day job. And, being able to manage that as well. So a little bit of, making time and just accommodating my schedule around the fact that I also want to do something for myself. because I mean, let's be honest, business travel, it might sound glamorous, but it really ain't. Most of the time it is not that glamorous. You might go to great places, but you're in office buildings and you're looking out at stuff. And you're like, gosh, I'd really like to be there taking photos, but you're stuck in meetings. And so I was like, how can I find time to go take photos? And so lot of it was that. And then, we also as a family just traveled a lot. The family just, we just like to go places, it was always like, well, dad's going to bring the camera. And the same kind of thing. A lot of it was like. Okay, let me get up early and get out and shoot before the rest of the families up and about so that I don't interfere too much with the vacation. And then, you know, obviously you shoot some sunsets and that sort of thing too, but I, I used to shoot a lot, sunrise simply because that's when I could get up and I was, I'd rather sacrifice sleep and just, you know, Load up on caffeine, uh, to keep myself going for the day and get some shots versus, go some cool place and come home with nothing. So, it made me, A, addicted to caffeine, uh, B, addicted to shooting a sunrise, uh, and C, you're occasionally tired by the end of the day, but you know, it, it kind of works out. So, yeah.
Raymond Hatfield:One thing that, uh, that I know new photographers struggle with is, is, is seeing. Uh, landscape photography for more than just as you just described there, like, Hey, I'm on vacation. Why don't I just take a photo here, but actually doing it with some intention. So I thought it might be, interesting to kind of talk about maybe one of your recent shoots, a location that you went to, you had to plan for it, do some travel, planning the location and then even coming back and doing the post production, side of it as well. Does that sound good? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Perfect. Okay, so let's start with, can you tell me about a recent trip that you had, taken with the sole purpose of, of photography?
Jim Nix:Yeah, well, so the most recent one would have been, the Skylum trip to Iceland last last year, but that was an organized tour so admittedly, I didn't do a lot of the planning It might be better to talk about I took a solo trip to London. It was a couple of years ago.
Raymond Hatfield:Yeah, but
Jim Nix:um, it was around a reasonably significant birthday and I was like, I just, it's my favorite city, London. I just, I just absolutely adore London. I just think it's so beautiful and photogenic. And I have a couple of photography friends there I like to hang out with. And I just, I love shooting. do shoot landscapes and love it. I also love wandering in cities and, and shooting. And a lot of that goes back to what I said earlier, which is my business trips. They took me to cities. Not to remote landscapes. And so I was like, I'm going to shoot what I see. And anyway, so it's also a favorite subject. So yeah, for a trip like that. I mean, it was, you want to talk about the planning and that sort of thing and kind of how it went
Raymond Hatfield:about. Yeah. So if you knew that you were going to London, you knew that you were going to be taking photos, did you think in your head beforehand of the photos that you wanted to take? Yeah.
Jim Nix:Yeah. Yeah. So, planning for me is, is always a big part of that. And so for that trip, I did a number of things. I'd already been a few times. And so I knew places I want to see and I'm, I'm a fan. I personally recommend shooting the same place multiple times simply because you can't control the conditions or anything like that. And it may look different. things may slightly change even in cities, right? over time. And so, you know, I like to go back. And so even though I shot Big Ben several times before, I was like, hey, I'm going to get another shot of, Westminster Bridge with Big Ben at sunset with the River Thames. They're kind of running through the front of it or whatever. It's the same spot that everybody shoots and that's okay. I don't necessarily always go to a place and say, I am going to get the defining shot of this location because I mean, it's hard to be honest. I mean, I feel like those kind of shots are very few and far between. And if that's your goal, I feel like it's a really lofty goal and I feel like it would be hard to hit quite often. Which could lead to disappointment and I'd rather going back to the joy thing I'm like, I just want to go take photos And I don't really care if four billion people stood in the same spot and took the same photo. That's okay I'm still going to put my stamp on it in terms of maybe how I capture it and also how I edit it And honestly, I just want to stand in that location because I love it and it's beautiful and I love taking photos of this stuff Even though i've already got a couple dozen or whatever. So, so yeah, I do a lot of planning in advance If I know the spots, then I know the spots, but also you might get on a website like PhotoHound. If you're familiar with PhotoHound, it's, it's, Matthew Brown runs it. It's a great website for doing photography research. I used to make lists on my blog, including one for London about the best, what I call top photo spots. and so, you know, just helping other people, Hey, here's great spots I found in London or here in Austin where I live or whatever city. Right. So, bottom line, like Google is your friend. so look it up and then on top of that, maybe check the flickers and the Instagrams of the world, do some searching there and just start to see what other people have done. And there's countless lists on countless websites that people have said, you know, here's the best Instagram spots in London or the best Instagram spots in whatever, because it's a, I'm sure a popular, Phrase for getting traffic to a to a web page, which is cool. And so do a lot of research. And then you can look at things like photo pills, right? Different apps that show you where the sun's going to be at time of day. So there's different considerations around that. So a fair amount of planning. And so I make a list and usually what I do is I just put a list on my iPhone and I just have a list and for cities, it's, it's not particularly hard to find, you know, obviously you can use Google Maps and that sort of thing. And so I just look on my phone, look on my map and I'm like, okay. I mean, some are obvious, like, where's Big Ben, where's the London Eye, whatever, you know, those are obvious, but, this little cafe or this alley, that's a little squishier in terms of where it is, and sometimes people don't say exactly, they're like, oh, it's not far from Tower Bridge, there's this cool thing, and so I recommend wandering, so my point was, make a plan, But then don't just stick to your plan, wander quite a bit, and in fact, the best advice I try to give people when they're going to cities to shoot is to walk a lot. Simply because if you're like, okay, I'm shooting Big Ben and then I'm going to get on the, tube and I'm going to zip over to the London or Tower Bridge and I'm going to shoot that and then I'm going to get on the tube and I'm going to go to, Buckingham Palace or whatever it is. I feel like you miss a whole lot because if you wonder, I just think you miss a lot of shots. And so everybody wants to get the big postcard shots, the Big Ben's, the Tower Bridge at sunset, whatever, which is great. But I think it's, get the postcard shots. And get them several times on a trip if you can because conditions are going to differ, but also if you walk and wander and allow yourself to get lost and not just look in the fastest public transport route between site A and site B, there's tons of interesting shots between site A and site B that you're only going to find if you wander a little bit. And walk and you're not in a hurry. And frankly, you'll probably get better shots and also shots that a lot of other people don't have because they didn't walk or wonder, they just hopped on the tube, for example, and shot across London to the next spot. So I'm a huge fan of kind of, if I could have a better word, kind of purposely getting lost, I guess is the way of putting it.
Raymond Hatfield:I try to do the same, because I feel like my, photographic process is I have, I need to get the gears going right. I need to get the gears lubed. So if I can start somewhere where I already have an idea, like, this is the easy shot. I already know exactly what I want. The light is good. I'm just going to go ahead and capture this. And then I can start to kind of wander off on my own. yeah. I already got those gears going to kind of open up the, the eyes a little bit photographically. And like you said, you are going to find those, great little spots that, and if you are the kind of person who wants the defining shot, that's the only way that you're going to find it. Right. Because if you are brand new to a location and you're looking for the defining shot. All the info that you will have found online is where everybody else has gone as well. So yeah, yeah,
Jim Nix:yeah, exactly. I mean, I've got a lot of shots and I'm like, that's my favorite shot from that place. And it's just like a, a person walking down a street or something. And I'm like, it could be, you know, if it's a European city, a lot of them architecturally might look kind of similar. It could be any European city from Germany to England to whatever, you know what I mean? And they may not look super different. But it's cool. And it's, it's different than anybody else's shot of that place. Again, I only found because I was just wandering with the camera, right? So it's
Raymond Hatfield:so fun, which is fun anyway. And
Jim Nix:it's kind of good for you, right? You're walking, you're getting your steps in or whatever. So fresh air. Yeah. Get some caffeine
Raymond Hatfield:in the bloodstream. Yeah, for sure.
Jim Nix:You gotta
Raymond Hatfield:have that. You gotta have that. When it comes to, like, for me, when I would shoot weddings and engagements, I knew, I gotta get a wide shot, kind of an establishing. I gotta get, you know, nice closeups. I gotta get the interaction shot between people, for you doing landscapes, shooting a location like this. Is it more like, a general idea of where you want to shoot and then you just try to figure it out from there? Or do you have a more defined, detail based shot list?
Jim Nix:If that question makes sense. It does make sense. I don't really have most of the time. I don't have a detailed shot list. I just have a location list. And so, it might be, again, using one. And as an example, it might be. Oh, okay. Well, I'm going to shoot around here. Let's say Westminster Bridge and Big Ben, just easy and obvious for London. But there's, I mean, there's dozens of shots you can get within a two minute walk. All kinds of things, from the London Eye, which is right over there, to being on the bridge, and you get the double decker buses going by, like a long exposure, so you get that blur with Big Ben in the background, and then go down across the road and, well, I guess technically under, the road and then go over to the other side where you get the bridge on the right with Big Ben over there. And then the Houses of Parliament. I mean, there's tons of different shots you can do. I generally, I might have, oh, I saw this shot and that's really cool. I'm gonna see if I can get something kind of like that. I might have something in my mind. It might make a note or two in my phone, but generally it's just like. Big Ben, Westminster Bridge, London Eye, and then I just spend time there. And it is good to mix up lenses, like you're talking about the wide kind of establishing shot and not really the same kind of thing that I do necessarily, but have a bit of addiction to wide angle lenses. I just have always liked them. I just, I was like, You can just get so much in a photo. which is great. But, heard, once heard a photographer say that photography is an art of exclusion. which is true. I never really thought of it that way. You're always thinking about what you want to include in the shot. And by definition, that also means what you're excluding. But sometimes if you think about actively think about what am I excluding? it can make the shot different, you know, so maybe, you know, just very. Uh, the lenses, or at least the composition and mix things up a little bit. So, let's go a little bit
Raymond Hatfield:deeper into that, because my next question that I was thinking of is really like if we're going to these kind of same locations that everybody else has gone before. How do you make your images stand out? But it sounds like one right there is, your love of wide angle lenses. So let's go a little bit deeper into that. Can you give me an example of something sometimes where you have excluded something, and it was difficult because of the wide angle lens?
Jim Nix:You know, I don't know if difficult would be the word, but like, in Iceland last November, we were shooting at Vestrahorn, which is like the I think some people call it the Batman Mountain. It's got the nice peaks, and it sits over there, and then there's this beach on the right hand side where the waves come in, and then like a big flat area. and so often what people are doing is shooting this whole wide thing, and by people, including me, I shot a billion shots of that thing, slightly different each time. but you're getting like the whole thing because it's this big, massive, mountain, with the beach. It's just super dramatic and it's beautiful. But one of my favorite shots I've actually I cut off like half the mountain and I just turned and I just got like the edge that's closest to the shore with the waves coming in and that sort of thing. So I got that with like a puddle, not really a puddle, but more like wet sand reflecting. And so instead of doing the really wide shot, it was still kind of a wide angle, but it basically just turned. And I cut off the whole left side of Vestrahorn, and I just, I like the photo quite a bit. I mean, we have beautiful clouds and there's a lot of things going on in the photo. Again, it's Iceland, so it's fairly dramatic anyway. Always. Yeah. Yeah, I just joke. I'm like, you can't take a bad photo in Iceland. If you like dramatic landscapes, like that's the place, you know. So. something like that is, is still using the wide angle to get a lot in it, but just kind of slightly varying what I'm looking at instead of like, oh, look how big and monstrous this is. It's like there's a piece of it, with the beach. I don't know. It's just, it's like a portion of, of a full wide shot. Of course. And yeah, I
Raymond Hatfield:don't know. I like those kinds
Jim Nix:of things.
Raymond Hatfield:I still remember the first time I put on a 16 to 35 on my 5D Mark II and just how wide it actually was. It truly blew me away. And I found that for a long time it was, very difficult for me to take wide angle images because, first of all, I liked the idea of, telling the entire story and using everything wide. But that learning curve of, you have to get like six steps closer to everything that you want to photograph for it to stand out, was difficult for me. And I wonder if you had any, challenges yourself when you first, maybe picked up your first, real wide angle lens.
Jim Nix:Yeah. Yeah. My first, so I had that, that really basic Nikon. And then after a while I saved up and all that. And I got a, a Nikon D 700, which was like a full frame. And then I got there 14 to 24. And so, once I got that on, I mean, I felt like I never took it off to be honest. I was like, wow. I mean, 14 on a full frame as this is a lot. It's like a superpower. You can't believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I loved it. To your point though, depending on what you're shooting, sometimes my subject was like a thin strip in the middle and then nothing really down there and nothing up here. And so, it does impact, obviously, I mean, quite obviously it impacts how you compose. And so one of the things I've been working on, and it's, you know, I feel like we're always learning, like, you never really stop learning this stuff and trying to get better. But one of the things I try to do is include something in the foreground more often to kind of anchor it, to kind of lead the viewer into the image. So, like, maybe there's something here that's your foreground element, and then the big scene that you're trying to show off is, is really the background as opposed to the whole photo. You know, if you have a dramatic, beautiful sunset going on, that always helps, because you, people can just get distracted by the color and the light if it's really beautiful, and not necessarily pay as much attention to, like, how well is this actually composed, but I feel like with those wide things, yeah, it's like, how am I, as a viewer, how am I kind of led into the photo? In cities, it can be a little bit easier. Landscapes, you might have to hunt for a clump of flowers or a rock or something. And in fact, one of my favorite photos from Vesterhorn that I was talking about in Iceland was I was 14 mil. It's a f1. 8 14 mil prime that I mostly use for night skies, but I was shooting that there because it's 14 and my, my standard, wide angle on my Sony is a 16 to 35. So I had the 14 on, I'm shooting the whole thing and it was a beautiful, like golden hour and sunset, beautiful sky. And there's like this half inch of water. So it's a perfect, not perfect, but nearly perfect mirror. So it's like stunning sky and mountains. And then right in the middle is the horizon and then the reflection. So I was like, this is super cool. I mean, it's beautiful. I loved it. And you know, it's not exactly following the rule of thirds and I don't really care. Uh, it's, it's just, I'm splitting the frame, right? Half up and half down. But then, you know, after taking that for a bit, I was like, what else can I do? There's no foreground out here. It's just literally a flat plane, with a tiny bit of water, which is great for reflections. But then I found a big rock. as I wandered around, I was like, ah, okay. So then I was using that in the foreground and doing different positions where that was kind of an anchoring element. And so that was like here. And then I was trying to position it between the, the shadow, the reflection shadow. So it kind of points and then the clouds kind of mirror, that kind of V shape with the mountain. And so I feel like I ended up getting better photos, that maybe pull you in a little bit more as a viewer. As opposed to just, wow, this is beautiful. And here's a mirror reflection. It was that, but something in the foreground that kind of, I don't know, I think of it as anchoring the photo. so, a little harder to do with landscapes, because, you can't just say, I need to have a rock right here. You know, you got to go find it. Whereas in the cities, there's, you know, often things that are in, in place and you can move, you know, you get cars, bushes, yeah, exactly. Yeah, meters, or even even people likes, I used to, that's one of the reasons I like the sunrise so much was nobody's out. Right. So if you're in these touristy famous cities, London or Paris or whatever, I used to get up at sunrise all the time, partly because I could have it to myself. And I was like, I don't want anybody in my photo. This is my photo. I don't want anybody in it. And I still like that, but at the same time I've gotten to where now I'm like, It'd be kind of nice to have one person in that photo, I mean you see it on landscapes a lot where someone's like standing on a rock and then there's something amazing going on or whatever and I try to do that in cities if I can, usually I'm by myself shooting even if it's a family trip because maybe everybody's asleep and I'm out early, so I can't really arrange it. I can't be like, Hey, stranger scoot over. Stay still. That's what I do. No, I'm just kidding.
Raymond Hatfield:I said, that's what I do.
Jim Nix:Oh, yeah. Yeah. they might think I'm a weirdo, but, you know, I try to do that if I can, if you can get a person walking down the street or something. I mean, you see photos like that. I just think they look cool and adding that human element as a little scale as a little bit of interest. I think it for the viewer. It makes it a little bit more relatable. They're like, Oh, it was a human. I'm a human, obviously, you know, that kind of makes sense. Whereas you see something completely empty. I don't know. It seems, seems empty, maybe like it's missing something. So I'm trying to do that more. Again, you can't really plan it, but, anyway, talking about a lot of things here.
Raymond Hatfield:Yeah, no, that's interesting to think about, because I know, one thing that's always fun to photograph is, like, abandoned places. There's something, like, really mysterious about, like, why is this place so empty? but yeah, you're right, like, when I think of images of, like, a downtown city street that is empty, it does feel a little bit more empty than mysterious. So interesting. I know that, landscape photography, as we've talked about several times here relies heavily on the post production process. So let's talk a little bit about that is post production or the way that you're going to edit a photo also thought about, in that planning phase. Or, do you just kind of have a standard edit that you love to do? This is your signature style. You're going to put it on and you're done. Can you kind of walk me through how that works?
Jim Nix:Yeah, that's a good question. So would say I can't really honestly say that I'm thinking about my edit. Certainly not in depth when I'm taking the photo. I mean, when I'm taking it and I see what I'm looking at. I mean, there are things that I know I'm going to accentuate in a photo. Okay. It's a pretty decent sunset. Maybe I want to do a little split toning in the highlights to give it a little bit more of that rosy kind of white light, maybe a slight magenta look, something I like, you know, Oh, those mountains. I want to add a little bit of structure because I want them to be a little more crunchy and look a little bit more detailed versus I want to remove that from the sky. Cause I like my skies to be a little smoother and softer. And I like that crunchy versus smooth kind of contrast in a photo. Right? I mean, you think about contrast with light, but I think about contrast with, detailed versus smooth. Right? And I don't want all of the most of the time. I don't want all the photo to have just one of those. I want to kind of play off those opposites. So, you know, I think about some, some edits when I'm taking the photo, but generally speaking, I mean, I'll just, I'll get back. And, as I said earlier, I like to experiment and kind of be creative and, and just do something that I like. So I may take a photo and I might, I might do it a few different ways. You know, I take it into Luminar and I'll, there's, there are definitely tools and, filters and, things, sliders, for lack of a better word, that I use all the time. And I, I do this a lot on YouTube, right? With my editing videos, I'll, you know, when develop the raw file with develop raw, and then I might go into something called super contrast, which as the name implies is great at helping you adjust contrast. I will say the first thing and the primary thing that I'm doing when I'm editing is looking at the light. I mean, I think of edits in like three phases. Light, and then detail, and then color. That's kind of my approach to editing. Those are the things that, to me, that makes up a photo, right? From an editing standpoint. I want to first adjust the light. And then I want to crunch up the detail or smooth out things depending. And then I want to play with color kind of towards the end of my edit process. And so I kind of come at it that way. It's not always the same tools, but it's frequently a lot of the same tools, yeah.
Raymond Hatfield:Wow, I had never, thought of editing in that sense. Do you think that it's because, I guess let me first ask this, like you had sent me some photos before our interview for me to post in the show notes, for any one of those photos, how long do you think it took to to edit a single image?
Jim Nix:I mean, Luminor, number one, I mean, I mostly use Luminor, which I love, it just gives me a lot of power and control, over those three things, light, detail, and color, and it allows me to do it kind of quickly, and so I do not advocate trying to hurry and get your edit done fast I definitely say take your time but if you know what you want to do and you can do it. If you know the tool and have edited thousands of photos, you know in it like I have I don't 15 minutes maybe it just depends. I mean, I'm not doing composite work we have all these layers and lots of complicated things. I I do my base edits and then I do kind of local adjustments with basically using different tools and masking different effects in the different parts of it. And then I'll often wrap up with another global edit or two, maybe a little bit more contrast or light adjustment overall, maybe a vignette at the end if I'm using one, but you know, so it's like global in the beginning, and then local in the middle, and then a tiny bit of global at the end, just for that little extra, like, oomph. but because I'm, I'm reasonably fluent with Luminar, and I've been using it for so long, it doesn't really take me long. Sure. The thing that, will often happen is that I'll do an edit, and I'll love it, and then, a week later, I'll look at the photo and think, you know, I kind of want to do this and then I'll go back and tweak it or just leave that version and completely redo it from, from the start, slightly differently. Really? And I'm a fan of doing that and I edit the same photo multiple times a lot. Really?
Raymond Hatfield:Really? A lot? What is the goal there? Like, hold on, let me, let me try to think of, of this question here because that is something I have never had the desire to do, I think, because I don't know, I just, I like taking the photo, I like getting it done, and then sharing it, and not, not doing anything else with it again, so, for you, is re editing a photo, a way to just try something new, or is it because you were very unhappy with the first version of it?
Jim Nix:Yeah, it depends on how much time has elapsed. The first version of something I edited five, ten years ago, I probably don't like at all. Simply because my style has changed. It's not this crazy over the top kind of HDR. I still like colors and I like, I like dramatic kind of punchy photo. I can't help it. It's just what I like. But I don't want it to be completely unrealistic. But I want it to, I just want it to make me happy. But I will re edit a photo for a couple of reasons. It could be that I come across an old one and then think, I really like that photo, but I don't like what I did. I want to redo it. So it could be just don't like what I did in the past. It could be that, I've sat on it for maybe it was, you know, something I just edited for the first time last week. And then I'll look at it today and I think, you know, it might look a little bit better if I did this. And sometimes what happens is I've got to edit and I'm looking at it and I'm of the personal opinion that if you're sitting here editing on this big 27 inch screen and you're staring at it for 10 or 15 minutes You kind of get desensitized to things that you've done especially around color. Yes, you know color after a while You like you might at first think well, it's kind of saturated But then you sit there for a while and you're playing with stuff And you, you layer, not, layer is not the wrong word, but you add effect and you add another effect and you put this tool on there and filter and blah, blah, blah. Over time, you kind of just get desensitized. It's like that big sugar rush of color, that you may, you just become desensitized to it. So, sometimes you walk away and you come back and you're like, Oh, wow, what was I doing? Oh, man, I need to kind of like, you know, hey, Jim, calm down a little bit. And so you go back and maybe pull things back. So, so that happens because especially, I get kind of. I do get excited. I love to edit, so I'm kind of nerdy about that. It's just fun. It's literally fun. I know some people are like, Oh, I hate editing. I'm like, I can't wait to dive into this. Um, but then also, like if it's a, it was a cool shot, I'm thinking back to standing there in Iceland and shooting this and helping people get shots and all the camaraderie. I just get kind of fired up and excited and energized. So I'm like moving sliders and doing stuff. I might go a little overboard because I'm a little excited. so that happens. And so I might come back a week later and tone it down or just decide I want to do something different. But the other thing that happens is maybe it's a photo that I edited a while back. But, if you wait and come back later. your skills are better, assuming you've been editing and practicing. And so you just have a more critical eye. Maybe you think differently about things. And of course your skills will improve over time if you keep doing things. And so I'll come back and say, ah, the composition's great. The light was great. I like everything about it, but I don't really like how I edited that photo. I didn't know what I was doing, or my, maybe my tastes have changed, and so I like to come back later, when my, you know, skills have improved, at least hopefully, and re edit something, and so, I don't know, it's just, also I think that, that's why I don't edit all my photos as soon as I get home from a trip. A lot of people edit them all, share them, put them in their portfolio, whatever, and say, I'm done, and I, I let them marinate, maybe they sit there. I mean, I get it. Like, like all of us that have been out shooting a lot, I've got thousands and thousands and thousands of photos and I'll probably never get them all edited and that's okay.
Raymond Hatfield:So when you go on a shoot, right, you went to Iceland, took a bunch of photos when you get back, what is your, I don't want to say backup process, but are you keeping all of the photos, that you took or do you just save the photos that you want to edit and then just ditch the rest?
Jim Nix:No, I keep every photo. Sometimes I even keep the blurry ones. I've had photos where I've uh, like in a city where i'm getting like I have one I really like and it's a complete mess up and the reason why is I was standing on the edge of the street Getting cars passing and stuff like that And it was on a tripod and it was like five seconds or whatever But this car was coming and literally honking at me to move So I had to grab my tripod in the middle of the exposure to get out of the way So I don't get hit or whatever You And it blurred out funny and weird. It's abstract. I love it. This is fun. It's interesting. and those kind of photos you can push the processing really far because it's an abstract. So you can't say that's not realistic color because who cares? It's a blurry mess. and that's kind of fun. So I keep everything honestly because the other thing is maybe my tastes have changed over time and a year from now, if I'd gotten rid of some particular shots from this Iceland trip, I might a year from now be like, Oh, I wish I had that photo. That was kind of cool. You know, maybe I don't like it so much today, but a year from now, maybe I love it. So, you know, and software gets better. Maybe I can pull something different or interesting out of a photo in two years that I can't do today. You know what I mean? So sure. I keep everything, honestly. I dump them all on an external hard drive and then another copy on another drive and another copy on another drive and another copy on another drive. I just have multiple copies as we talked about earlier. So, yeah, I keep everything, honestly. I don't think there's a bad photo. No, to be clear, I'm not saying all my photos are great. I'm just saying,
Raymond Hatfield:no,
Jim Nix:no, no. I mean, I got tons of, junk, trash, unusable, ugly photos or whatever, but they're special to me, and I think they're great. Even if they're not publishable. and it's also honestly, it's kind of fun to go back and look at and be like, ah, even if the photo is not that great or the location, you know, for whatever reason, it didn't come out so great. It's fun to look at and be like, Oh, I remember that. And we were talking about this and I was hanging out with these people, you know, whatever it was, you know, it's just, it's fun to kind of go down memory lane. And so I keep everything.
Raymond Hatfield:Photography, makes that a whole lot easier, than a painting for sure. And, uh, I, appreciate photography for what it is. And I think, a lot of people do. That's why it is, such a popular, not only hobby, but, just way to, bring back what's been lost. Bring back those old memories. So, it's why I love talking to people like you, to be able to, you know, kind of, chat about these things. It's a lot of fun, but Jim, I know that we are coming towards the end of our time here. So I just want to ask one last question here, which is, beginners, always feel like, what's next? What am I, doing wrong? What am I missing? they don't know what they don't know, I guess. So, if you had to rewind the clock, and go back to, I don't know, 2009 Jim, who was just getting into photography, what is something that you wish that you could tell him?
Jim Nix:Wow. So two things I would say. In the first year or so, I did not experiment enough. I may have mentioned this earlier, but I totally believe in experimenting ruthlessly with camera settings just to learn your camera. What does F 2.8 look like versus, you know, F 22. I think I said that earlier. Change compositions, that sort of thing. And then also in the editing experiment a lot, try different things, find what you like, and then learn as much as you can about it. And so I did some of that, but in the first years too, I was so intimidated. That I probably didn't read enough and practice or experiment enough. I just did some things. Then I'm like, well, that's not very good. I guess I need to try again. And so, it takes time truthfully and, we're always growing and learning and kind of developing our vision anyway. So, so experimentation is number one. And number two, I would say that, and again, I kind of said this earlier, really, which is make yourself happy. Have fun doing it. And if you like the photo, then that means it's a good photo, regardless of what people say on social media, your friends and friends and family are generally nice, but there's a lot of people on social media that you don't really know, maybe your friends with them, you know, friends and air quotes, and they might leave a nasty comment. I remember getting comments on Flickr years ago and people were just rude and it hurt my feelings. And so, I would just say, who cares? You don't even know these people, and their, opinion literally matters zero, so just do what you like, make yourself happy, and if you're happy, then you're more likely to continue pursuing what you're doing. And therefore, not only will you get more joy out of it, but I honestly believe you'll get better simply because you're having fun. I mean, how easy is it to learn something when you're having fun versus people are telling you, Oh, this is no good or whatever, you know what I mean? it's like just ignore those people because you don't even know them most of the time and who cares like who cares what somebody thinks so I guess that's a long way of saying develop a thick skin if you're if you're sharing your photos outside of the family and publicly because I had to and now i'm like, I just don't really care I mean people are some people are gonna like my photos and see some people are not and you know what? You Totally okay. And you know why it's okay? Because people have different tastes. It's not okay for someone to be rude, but if they're rude, I don't really care. I don't even know them. I just, I don't know, experiment, have fun, enjoy what you do. And don't worry about what, opinions are. People that you don't even know may have about your work because in the beginning it's it's hard to I mean some people start out and you see their first few photos. You're like, oh my gosh, you're really good. That was not me. That was not me either. Yeah. I know. Yeah I was I was terrible and I had literally zero background in creative stuff and and I didn't even know what the settings and the cameraman as we talked about earlier, but you know, you learn stuff over time you develop your taste and all that and it's a marathon, not a sprint. In other words, I guess, beautiful,
Raymond Hatfield:well, Jim, I don't know how to edit any better than that. That was a, that was a wonderful little sentiment there. Before I let you go, I know that people are thinking to themselves. I got to see more of Jim's work here. So aside from the show notes where they can see a few of your photos, where can we best follow you online?
Jim Nix:Yeah, so my website is just gymnex. com. So j i m n i x. com. Obviously, I'm on YouTube. I do a lot of editing tutorials and I do some vlogs or maybe out talking about it's all photography related, of course. So I do some of that. I do have a Facebook page. If you just look up gymnex photography on Facebook, you'll find me there. And of course, I'm just gymnex on Instagram. will say I'm one of the, probably few photographers, maybe, maybe it's not entirely true, but, I never jumped in deep to Instagram and did a lot, so I don't know, I, in the beginning, I didn't like it, and then, I just kind of ignored it, and I'm trying, I don't do a lot on Instagram, but I am starting to put a little bit of work out there now, so, so, Feel free to check me out there. It has a decent sampling of my work. It's just, I haven't been actively engaged there really ever. I've done more on Facebook and of course, YouTube and my website, but I'm on all the same places that everybody is, because that's how it works.
Raymond Hatfield:All right. I had three big takeaways from my interview today with Jim Nix. The first one was just the importance of making time for photography, don't just wait until you have time. It always seems impossible to find extra time, but it's not so much about finding more time. Sometimes it's just simply about prioritizing the things that you do with your time that, you know, you have. And if it's important to you, well, then you should do your best to make time for it. Second takeaway is that there's no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to photo locations and shots. I love this one because I'm 100 percent the kind of person who I just really want to take a, a unique, never before seen photo, and therefore I often just won't take it. take the photo, if that makes sense. because like Jim said, you know, if a million people have taken that photo before, how do you put your own spin on it? But this is kind of a, a great reminder that not only will you put your own spin on it just because you shot it, but it also creates a great starting point to be able to see, more creatively and start shooting in your style. So maybe it's not the postcard photo that is ultimately your favorite photo from a shoot. Maybe it's something. You know, a little more, detailed, maybe you go in, it's a smaller story that you're trying to tell, but you wouldn't have taken that photo unless you started with the postcard shot in the first place. And then my third takeaway was just the crunchy versus smooth details and how cool of a descriptor that was, because, photographers love a good juxtaposition and a boy, this idea, honestly, to me, it, it's really cool. What I loved is that immediately in my head it expanded the possibilities for different compositions as well. finding something with a lot of detail right next to something, you know, that is, just very smooth and just kind of blends in. So, crunchy versus smooth details, I love that. Now, like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, if you use Luminar, Jim has a treat for you, because I know that a number of you do use Luminar, so I want to let you know that Jim has 10 free Luminar photo presets that you can grab over at his website by heading over to JimNix. com. It's a free sign up. You get the presets right away. So go ahead and grab them. If you use Luminar, if you don't use Luminar and you use Lightroom, I'm not going to leave you empty handed. You can grab our free Lightroom presets as well at free photography presets. com. Now, if you have any questions about today's episode or feedback on the show, feel free to reach out to me directly at beginner photography podcast. com. You'll see the contact tab at the top of the page there. You can shoot me an email or better yet a voicemail. I'm always happy to help. Now that is it for this week. Again, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Beginner Photography Podcast, brought to you by Clouds Spot, the easiest all in one solution to deliver and sell your photos online. You can learn more about Cloud Spot by hitting over to deliver photos.com. And remember, the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you'll be. Tomorrow. Talk soon.
Outro:Thank you for listening to the Beginner Photography Podcast. If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a review in iTunes. Keep shooting, and we'll see you next week.