Six from SheClicks: 12 Questions, 12 Answers – Inspiring Moments from the Podcast
Welcome to a special episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast! Since launching in June 2023, our podcast has featured inspiring conversations with some of the most talented women in the photography world. In this episode, Angela Nicholson, founder of SheClicks, revisits her favourite moments from the first 20 episodes, sharing answers from 12 incredible photographers during the popular Six from SheClicks segment.
We begin with Cristina Mittermeier, whose powerful storytelling through photography drives environmental change. Cristina shares how she crafts compelling visual narratives that inspire action while staying true to her artistic vision. Tracy Calder reflects on her award-winning ‘Plant Scars’ series, explaining how a personal weekend project evolved into an acclaimed body of work.
Listen to the podcast with Cristina Mittermeier
Rachael Talibart, renowned for her breathtaking seascapes, discusses how weather conditions influence her creative choices, balancing fast shutter speed captures with atmospheric long exposures. Meanwhile, Christie Goodwin opens up about navigating personal feelings toward subjects while staying professional and delivering stunning music photography.
Fashion photographer Lindsay Adler reveals her top strategies for working with models, ensuring natural and dynamic poses. Carolyn Mendelsohn, celebrated for her compelling portraits, explains how she builds trust with her subjects, enabling authentic, emotionally resonant images.
Listen to another episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast
Kate Kirkman shares how she balances her diverse photography businesses, from weddings and boudoir to commercial shoots, while maintaining her creative energy. Music photographer Scarlet Page gives invaluable advice to aspiring photographers, emphasising persistence, passion, and the importance of seizing every opportunity.
Food photographer Donna Crous talks about where she finds inspiration for her beautifully styled culinary images, from seasonal ingredients to striking colour combinations. Marina Spironetti explains the difference between holiday snapshots and great travel photography, highlighting the importance of thoughtful composition and emotional storytelling.
Brooke Shaden delves into her conceptual fine art process, sharing how some of her most evocative images emerged from unexpected creative shifts. Finally, Amy Bateman talks about her commitment to continuous learning, embracing new techniques and adapting her approach to evolve as a photographer.
Throughout this episode, you’ll hear insightful stories, expert tips, and valuable creative lessons from these exceptional photographers. Whether you’re an aspiring photographer or a seasoned professional, these highlights from Six from SheClicks will spark your creativity and deepen your understanding of the art of photography.
Don’t miss this inspiring episode filled with wisdom and behind-the-scenes stories. After listening, why not explore more episodes from our back catalogue?
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Thank you to CEWE, Europe’s leading photo printing company, for supporting this podcast. CEWE offers an extensive range of high-quality photo products, including the award-winning CEWE PHOTOBOOK.
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Episode Transcript
Angela Nicholson
Welcome to the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. I'm Angela Nicholson, and I'm the founder of SheClicks, which is a community for female photographers. Since our podcast launched in June 2023 we've heard inspiring stories, valuable tips and creative insights from some incredible women in the photographic industry. For this special episode, I've selected 12 of my favorite questions and answers from the Six from SheClicks segment of our first 20 episodes. I hope you enjoy revisiting these highlights as much as I did.
Our first clip is from our very first podcast. Christina Mittemeier shares how she uses photography to evoke action and drive environmental change, blending storytelling with visual art. Your photography is not just a journalistic approach that shows a certain situation, but it's aimed to provoke action, and it's driving changes. How do you approach the subject to achieve that? What strategies do you adopt? And that's by Carmen that question.
Cristina Mittermeier
Thank you, Carmen for the question. I spend a lot of time, because I work through partnerships, through these organizations that have called me in, or called Sea Legacy in to help. So I spent a lot of time just talking to people about, what is it that's important for them in in the narrative, and once you have I mean, and I think the National Geographic assignment here is really helped in in formulating the storyboard of images that are necessary to tell a story. So I you often use this exercise, if you only have 12 pictures to tell a story, what are those 12 pictures going to be? Because each and every one of them needs to do very heavy lifting to, you know, create the narrative, and there has to be a common thread throughout them, right? But every one of those photographs has to be able to stand alone as well and to be beautiful and artistic in its own right. And so it's a big challenge. And so it's not just, you know, showing up somewhere and start clicking, you know, there's a lot of thinking that goes behind every assignment, especially when you're shooting with other people's money, you have a huge responsibility to use every minute of the day very wisely, so you better have an idea of what is it that you're trying to say before you start photographing.
Angela Nicholson
Okay, now that answer sounds like a photographer who started shooting with film.
Cristina Mittermeier
Ah, and I did, you know, I'm old enough that I started my career with a, you know, rolly flex, and all my medium, medium format cameras, and all Nikon FM two, I mean, just so old technology, right? But you were constricted to 36 frames, and you didn't know if you had the photograph or not. So you better be damn good at your technical stuff. And more than once, I came back and everything was overexposed because I didn't realize that, you know, there was a setting my plus two exposure, right? Yeah, you learn by making mistakes. And I and I think there's a huge discipline, and not only in shooting with film, but also in developing film in the light, in the in the dark room, because you understand how shadows and light work so much better. So if you have a chance to delve into the wet, dark room and into shoot with old cameras, try.
Angela Nicholson
It's fun.
Next, Tracy Calder reflects on her award winning plant scars series and the creative process that turned a personal weekend project into something truly special. Your gold medal winning plant scars series is beautiful, and Philippa says she read about how you took yourself off for a weekend to make it. Do you have anything similar planned?
Tracy Calder
Well, I'm trying to do one big project, personal project, a year, and last year's one. I'm not sure if it's worked or not. I'm still sitting on the fence with it, so I haven't shown anybody yet, but I did. I did spend a lot of I think one of those things that the plant scars thing was was so wonderful to do again. It was one of those really therapeutic exercises. And I would like to keep adding to that portfolio, because I've been interested in the idea of kind of, like these sort of shapes and hieroglyphics we can see in plants, and, you know, the damage created from environmental issues, so I'm still adding to that, but I do try and do a project year, but last year's one, I think it's one of those things that I wanted it to be really good. And I wanted it to be really good too badly. So when I looked at it, I think the pictures aren't that great, but I was still hanging on thinking, I'm gonna I'm gonna get something out. I'm gonna get something out of it. So I may have to let that one go first before I start the next one. So I haven't got an idea for another one, but I'm booming and arring as to whether the previous one is worth pursuing or not.
Angela Nicholson
Right. So talk me through the process of the plant scars project. Did you ring fence however long? Was it a week or a weekend? And say, right, I'm going to do a project then and really go off on your weekend and decide what that was going to be, be inspired wherever you were, or did you decide what you wanted to photograph, and then start planning the weekend?
Tracy Calder
Well, it was, I love the Isle of Wight anyway. And obviously I'm in Winchester, so I'm not too far so, so I went on holiday there, and I take one photo, which was the kind of Pac Man photo of the plant scars. And I took that. We were on holiday, and then I came back, and I thought, actually, that's quite cool. And I remember seeing some of the other adults there, and thought, oh, maybe there's a whole way of, kind of almost like showing a language of flowers. So I basically thought, right, I'm going off the weekend by myself, and I'm just going to go to the garden, and this is what I'm going to do. And because I was staying in the garden itself with vent no which you can do, they will let you in before the public gets in. So I was there at like, six in the morning. Nobody around, lots of little lizards, red squirrels running about, you know, just me and my camera. Wow. And it was absolute heaven. And I thought, if I didn't get anything out of this, it doesn't matter. I'm having a wonderful time. And it did keep getting stabbed in the head by these cacti, which was a bit irritated. Yeah, so then, as I was doing it, I thought, oh, maybe I'll get five or six.
Angela Nicholson
That sounds amazing.
Tracy Calder
Yeah, it was. It was really good fun.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, our third clip is from our podcast with Rachel talibart. How do you decide if it's a slow shutter speed day or not? Are there certain types of weather, or do you look do a bit of both, join a shoot. And that question is from Janina.
Rachael Talibart
Great. Thank you, Janina, good question. Well these are good questions. Okay, so it does, it does. It does depend which is a bit of a rubbish answer. So I'll elaborate. In fact, I was just going through a day on Lightroom at the weekend from last year where in the bulk of the day there was, there were big waves, and I was down at Newhaven doing storm waves, and they're fast shutter for me. I just don't want to smooth out these amazing waves, these huge waves I want to capture. So I generally, I prefer to work with nature rather than against it. So if nature's offering me up a stormy day, I'm not going to do a long exposure and smooth that out. If nature's offering me up a calm day, I might do a long exposure just to accentuate that atmosphere, right? So in the morning and afternoon, well actually in the middle of the day, it was high tide, big storm waves, fast shutter. But then I have a three hour round trip to get to the coast, because I live in a suburb of London, so I'm not going to waste that day, because that's like carbon footprint and fuel and so on. I need to make the most of it. So when the tide went out towards the end of the day, when we've got much they're not big waves now because the tides out, but we're getting some lovely light. I moved to a different location. I went to Berlin gap, and I got the tripod out, and I started doing slow shutter work. So I think the answer is, actually, was suggested in the question is one of the options, which is that, to an extent, the conditions are driving my choice, because I'm working with nature all the time. I'm not going to work against it. I'm going to I'm going to work in tandem with it as much as I can.
Angela Nicholson
Yes, so you think about what it's offering you, and therefore how you want to interpret it.
Rachael Talibart
Yeah,.
Angela Nicholson
Next we have a question for music photographer, Christy Goodwin, quite a few people asked a question like this. So have you ever had to overcome strong personal negative feelings towards a subject or a band that you've been commissioned to shoot? If yes, how do you approach such a scenario?
Christie Goodwin
Yes, of course, I've had that. And how do you overcome that? Well, one thing, and I've explained that before. I work a lot of with feelings, and I have noticed that, that sometimes when I don't like somebody, it shows in my pictures. Well, I can see it. There's this, I don't know, there's something in it that just didn't work. But the thing is that I always, and that's what I try to do, is if I don't like somebody or them, it's not about music, because I don't even listen to it. But if it's more personal, if I don't like a person, I always think they're there because fans want them, and I'm there as the communication tool between that artist and the fans, and that's what I need to do. And I just try to think of those people, although I don't understand why they're screaming there and they're happy to see that person, but they are, and have to respect that, and I have to capture that for them, and that's how I try to the thing also is that you have to take yourself out of it. Quite often. It's not about you, this photography, I'm just the one pushing the button, but it's not about me, but the artist and the fans, and I'm just bringing them together through pictures. That's my job.
Angela Nicholson
I think that's a great approach. That sounds like really good advice. Now, fashion photographer Lindsay Adler explains how she brings out the best in her models.
How do you manage models who won't pose the way you ask them to any tips would be appreciated. And that question is from Mary, who I think has struggled with some with some models not posing as she asked them to.
Lindsay Adler
Mary, no matter how experienced you are and how prestigious the model agency is I regularly get models that don't know how to do their job. It always shocks me, because they'll be represented, and it's a very prestigious agency, and they're just kind of standing there. So a couple of tips that I try to coach from my subjects is I will try to get them to actually sway and move. Because what happens is, it's when someone's kind of standing there, they get all like rigid and they're kind of standing at camera. So if I say okay, like your hand soft towards your chest, maybe on your clavicle, but I'll say, Okay, now I'm gonna be sweat your shoulders back and forth and drag your hand across your chest, across the Cleveland and what it will do is it will give me just a little bit more authentic motions in the body, instead of them just being standing there like a statue. I think that's a good one. And then, really, this one sounds obvious, has nothing to do with posing, but I do before any shoot, when the models are getting their hair and makeup done, I try to have a conversation with them, to get to know them as much as possible. So I had a model on set the other day that was seemed really grumpy. Her name was Nora. I'm just telling Nora, if you're out there, is it true? You seem really grumpy. So I came over to her, and I tried to ask her a little bit about herself, and then I found out that she was from Istanbul, so I picked up and I talked about my favorite things there, and I asked her for advice. And so then went on set. If she seems a little, you know, tight, I'll go, Oh, um, oh. And by the way, I was just remembering this other thing to get her mind off of being uncomfortable or not wanting to be there, I try to take her mind another direction. Okay, okay, great. So now I'm thinking for this next pose, and it just, it allows us to flow better. And then I will also give them vibe over body position. I'll say, Okay, in this shot, we are going for strong. So what I want you to do is I want everything to be very angular in good posture, rather than just saying, Can you put your hand on your hip and stand tall those sorts of things?
Angela Nicholson
Oh, yeah. I think that's that's really good advice, just kind of giving them more idea of what you're aiming for.
Next, we hear from Nikon ambassador and photographic artist Carolyn Mendelson. When you try to capture the authenticity of a person, and you spoke about this earlier, how do you make them relax so you can create an image that you know they're comfortable with and it's got their personality in it.
Carolyn Mendelsohn
So I think that's a brilliant question, because I think we probably can all relate to that feeling of being really uncomfortable in front of a camera. Very few people feel very comfortable in front of the camera, so I'm very aware of that. What I tell people, If I feel they're particularly worried, is, I just want them to enjoy the experience. I'll say, Let's enjoy the experience. Trust me, I've got the camera. Don't worry about whether you're photogenic or not. Let's enjoy this adventure together. Let's enjoy this time together. I want to find out about them. So really, 80% of my job is enabling people to feel happy in their skin and to forget that I'm taking the picture, and I sometimes do little mini directions. So I might ask somebody to move their head a little. I involve them in the process. So I look at it as a collaborative a collaboration. When I'm taking that picture, we're working together, but I want them not to worry about how they are looking, because that's my job as the photographer, right?
Angela Nicholson
And actually, you're the best person to assess it, aren't you, from that position, because they only ever see a mirror reflection of themselves.
Carolyn Mendelsohn
Yeah, that's right.
Angela Nicholson
Do you use things like eye detection or set the electronic shutter?
Carolyn Mendelsohn
I always used to use spot focus, and it's only recently that I've started to use or that I've trusted eye detection, but I'm still composing that portrait with them. And interestingly, I've very recently had a really exciting assignment, and the person who was feeling very uncomfortable about how they're represented photographically, because they're always being photographed, and they're never in control of it. So I was working collaboratively with them. So I did use eye detection, but I'm quite happy to use eye detection or spot focus. But also I put my new cameras, I can make the shutter really well there isn't a shutter, is there? No, there is a shutter. You know what? I mean, don't you, the sound?
Angela Nicholson
It's an electronic one. Yes, yes. It's not mechanical.
Carolyn Mendelsohn
Electronic shutter, yeah. So it's, yeah, exactly. Thank you, you, you, you can kind of fill people in on the technical so I put it on. And so it was very quiet. I could hear it, but she couldn't, and she said, I love the fight. I don't know whether you've taken a picture or not, and that was interesting for me, because I love a good old shutter sound personally. But it was really eye opening to have a subject I was taking a picture of. Say, actually, she loved that. She didn't know.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, I could see that being quite an advantage. Only just occurred to me that actually sometimes actually sometimes when you know, you take a shot and there's a crack of a mirror and a shutter going, then some people say, Oh, I think my eyes are shut. And you can't then take the next couple of frames because they're busy saying, I think my eyes were shut. So you know, if they don't know, they're not going to say that. So just struck me.
Carolyn Mendelsohn
Yeah.
Angela Nicholson
Kate Kirkman now answers a question about balancing her diverse photography businesses. How do you split your time between the different types of photography that you do? The thing you mentioned, weddings, boudoir, food.
Kate Kirkman
I would say the easiest way to set it is wedding work, commercial work, which also involves things like personal branding, food and everything, and boudoir. And I would say it's probably 40:40:20 weddings, boudoir commercial,
Angela Nicholson
but you like doing the boudoir more. So are you trying to make more time available for that and scaling back on the weddings?
Kate Kirkman
Yeah. And we have just about to launch a new business called meetings, which I'm actually working with two other female photographers who basically, if I wanted to, I could shoot reader oftentime. Yeah, that's how many inquiries I get now and the demand. But again, I don't think you'd want to just shoot Moodle. I think it'd be emotionally exhausting, because, honestly, it's a bit like a counseling session. So I'm gonna do that with with two other women, just to give Bucha its potential. I quite like a balance. Angela from honest, another one that would only want to shoot one thing, day in, day out.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah. So the ratios you talks about, that's how it works out at but that's a balance that works nicely for you.
Kate Kirkman
So we don't anymore shoot 25 weddings a year, because that almost immediately negates the ability to either shoot everything else as much as you want to, or you end up being so busy that you hate it.
Angela Nicholson
And nobody wants that.
Kate Kirkman
Now we might shoot 15 weddings, and then the weddings we shoot now both photography and videography. So in essence, during 15 wedding we like doing 30 weddings, but in terms of income.
Angela Nicholson
Right, yeah.
Kate Kirkman
So that's enabled me to spend more time on boudoir.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, okay.
So marry a videographer is what you're saying?
Kate Kirkman
Yeah, definitely. I love filming, and he's taught me, and it's I love it.
Angela Nicholson
Great.
In our next clip, Scarlet Page offers practical advice for aspiring music photographers. This question is from Eilish, who is a BA Hons photography student who wants to get into live music photography when she leaves University. What's your advice for her on this? And how should she get her work out there for more people to see it?
Scarlet Page
Aha. Well, I would suggest making friends with your local venue, showing your passion, showing that you're keen, you know, communicating with press officers. There's always press passes for local papers and you know, you just have to you do have to do the hard work. You do have to reach out. You do have to make phone calls, you know. And sometimes, like I say that being hard on ourselves, it sort of holds us back sometimes, from taking that leap of faith. And you know, but if you're not doing it, someone else will be, and it's like, well, why shouldn't you? You know you have just as much right to to make those requests, and what's the worst that's going to happen. So never let anything like that hold you back. And then once you do have a pass, or you're allowed to be somewhere. It sees your opportunity. If you're there early, and you know, if you are speaking to the band or the management or the press officers, see if you can do a quick photograph, you know, at the side of the stage door, or just a portrait of somebody in the band. If you, if you get a chance, it's like, at Glastonbury, that is exactly what I did. So I was commissioned by the Foo Fighters to shoot their set, and that's turned my arm. They're like, Okay, I'm gonna go. So then I was like, All right, I'm gonna stay for the whole thing. But at that point, I reached out to anyone I knew that I'd already worked with, which I know is different from someone just uni, leaving college, but in theory, it's it's just the same you have to find the people, find a stepping stone to them, and then this is what I did. I'm going to be here if there's anything you need. Or is it possible to make sure that I will have a photo pass? Because sometimes there's a closed pit and no one's allowed in. Could I get some extra songs on the side of the stage. Would I be able to get a quick portrait, possibly before they play? So there's a band generation sex, which is Generation X, and the Sex Pistols members have formed a new band and and I literally got three minutes, and I had to shoot them against the side of. The white tent. So the background wasn't great, and the light wasn't great. My ISO was really high, but the shots have come out amazing. You know, it looks great. Looks like it could have been a studio shoot, but it you know, it's hard work. You have to keep asking and making things happen. But I find that the most rewarding things are the things that I've made happen myself, and you can't wait to be asked. You have to just, you know, get in there and get on with it.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, maybe one thing that Eilish needs to bear in mind is that, you know, she's at university that are university bands, and they will become the next Foo Fighters, or you two, or whoever, absolutely so, you know, getting in early. You know, she might not immediately get a pass to go and photograph the Foo Fighters, but she could get to photograph our local band, who then become a big name, or, you know, or they connect with bigger bands, and, yeah, just start at the beginning.
Scarlet Page
Absolutely. And like I say, local bands, local press, local venues, you know, just reaching out to them, local festivals, anything like that, and but very quickly, when you start doing it and you are good at what you do, make sure you're not giving everything for free.
Angela Nicholson
Oh, yes
Okay, that's some great advice. Thank you.
Food photographer Donna Crous shares where she finds her inspiration for her stunning photography, where do you get your inspiration for the composition of your food images?
Donna Crous
All over the place, I constantly am looking at food images. So between food magazines, Waitrose magazines are great because you just, if you got a Waitrose card, you can just get it for free. And every month I have to get my Waitrose magazine, Pinterest, other Instagrammers, other photographers, colors, definitely the color of the dish, as opposed to the props, as opposed to the background. That also just adds inspiration. Seasonal what's in season in terms of what we're making, whatever it could be Christmas, it could be Easter, but it could also be seasonal, in terms of berries and cream for Wimbledon, that sort of thing. So yeah, definitely. And then, and then for me, I think just fresh food, like lots and lots of fresh food, is a big inspiration for me. So being in a market, walking around a food market, and finding something that I've never seen before, buying it, and trying to photograph it, and then trying to learn how to cook whatever it is. Yeah, food, there's inspiration all around us. We are. We are bombarded with food and with food photography and and a lot of really great images, and we just got to be we just got to see them, because I think we, we kind of breezed past them, especially in the supermarkets and that, because it all just feels like it's, it's marketing. But if you actually look at the images themselves, there's some really beautiful pictures out there.
Angela Nicholson
Yes, I guess if you're, you know, when you're out and it's, there's something that makes your mouth water think, Oh, I could say, if it's a lemon, I could make a lemon drizzle cake out of that. And then you're automatically thinking, what plate will I put it on? You know? And it's about making seem inviting, isn't it?
Donna Crous
Yep, that's definitely the thought process that goes into it. Is, is, again, it starts from the market, and then it might be a bunch of strawberries, and then it's okay. So what have I got that I can put them into? And what have I got that I can put on top of it and, you know, just and what's unique? Because for me, if you've got a bowl of strawberries, if you're paging through Instagram, for instance, and you're looking for a picture of strawberries, you're going to get a whole load of bowls of strawberries. So it's about making that bowl of strawberries totally unique and different and stand out so that anybody looking at your images, for instance, on Instagram, will stop and go, Oh, that's an interesting way of of doing strawberries. And never thought of that before. So again, trying to come up with totally unique, individual ways of showing something that we see every day, that we see around us. So it's making people stop and look.
Angela Nicholson
Yeah, yeah, it's a challenge.
In our 10th highlight, Marina spironetti answers a question about the difference between holiday snapshots and great travel photography. What makes a great travel image rather than a picture just being a holiday snap?
Marina Spironetti
Good question. Well, aside from the technical things, of course, has to be exposed properly. You know, all the technicalities, it has to be perfect from that point of view. And I think we all agree on that. The difference is that the holiday snap is a picture. Probably you just by definition, you take it and you don't think much about it. While a good travel picture is something you think about, it's something you plan, it's something you compose, it's something you go back to, if maybe the light or the weather is not right, and it's something you put your heart into to an extent.
Angela Nicholson
Yep, that all makes sense to me.
Next, Brooke Shaden talks about her creative process. Your image is very evocative. Do you always start with the meaning and work from there? Or sometimes you start with an image and fine tune it to fit the meaning when it becomes apparent.
Brooke Shaden
You know, actually I do do that sometimes much less frequently. So usually I have the idea, I move forward, I make it and and there we are. And it's very straightforward, but every once in a while, start an image that I think has one meaning, and then once I start editing, I realize, either based on the idea just evolving and editing, or the Edit informing the idea, I will change what the meaning is. And this is where titling comes in, really handy. Or I can choose a title that nudges it in a certain direction, but there have definitely been times where I've created an image that I think is about one thing, and then I realize just the visuals point to something else. And sometimes that makes it a failure. And sometimes I say, well, that's not what I was going for. I'm gonna try again. But every once in a while, I get something where I think, oh, that's better, like, I think I actually like that better, and we're just gonna go for it and pretend like it was always meant to be like that.
Angela Nicholson
Why not? While you were speaking there, my mind went to the image with the two elk skeletons, because, I mean, nobody could have planned that you just, you just found them, and then, and so your idea came.
Brooke Shaden
Yeah, exactly.
Angela Nicholson
I was very intrigued, because I found a badger skeleton in the woods near us, and honestly, my last thought was having a photograph with it. I was a bit freaked out, but your mind went straight to the creative potential. And I really love that image. Oh,
Brooke Shaden
thank you. I appreciate that, because, you know, it sparked quite a lot of backlash when I released it. And I love that image personally. And I spent weeks and weeks thinking about how I was going to photograph them, because I found them, and then I went on a trip for two weeks, and so I had time to think about it, and I every single day, I just hoped that they would still be there when I got back and they were and I actually had a different idea with those elk skeletons, and that was to get inside the rib cage of one of them, to photograph it that way. Once I got there, I realized there were simply too many flesh eating beetles calling out those things. Oh, wow. And the rib cage was smaller than I thought it was. And so I thought, I'm not gonna try to, like, break the skeleton and squeeze my body in there, and then, in the end, to have all this hair covered in these little beetles, it just was too much. So in the moment, I rethought it, and I realized that they kind of looked like lungs to me, and I thought that was really fascinating. And so I positioned them in a way that sort of put that out there. But I knew that I wanted to be with the skeletons and have it look like a natural part of the evolution of life. And so thank you for bringing that up.
Angela Nicholson
How many friends did you have to call before one of them said, Yes, I'll come and help me with the elk skeleton photo.
Brooke Shaden
You know what? I think I have really good friends because they almost never say no, like I'm it was. It's amazing to me how how how willing my friends are to do anything. And I think, I honestly think that, and this is just something that I think is a good life lesson. I think that the more enthusiastic you are about something, I think it's infectious for people, and so you're like, when I have these ideas, my friends always tell me that, like, my joy is palpable about it, like I'm so excited and so hyped up about it. And I think that there's something to be said for that, because I think it's more the not the thing we're doing. Because, trust me, my friend Jimmy, who came along to help with that image, she had her gloves on, She squealed the whole time. She was not into it in the same way that I was, but we had a blast, and we still talk about it, so I think, I think that's the impetus?
Angela Nicholson
Oh, good, good for her.
Last, but not least. Amy Bateman responds to a question about evolving her photography. How do you make sure your photography continues to evolve?
Amy Bateman
Continue to learn. I know exactly where my weaknesses are. I do debrief myself still, even if it's just in my head on the way back from commissions and things like that, and even my book, I go through and think, Oh, that's not really good. I could do that better next time. Or that one I haven't quite hit the field. Got to make sure that one. And every time there's a new firmware update, I make sure my I'm really familiar with my technology, my equipment. I know there's lots of things at the minute with my flash, particularly, I've just got some new flash systems I really need to learn and get to grips with. And there is so much in photography I'm tip for the iceberg. I don't know. There's loads that I don't know what I'm doing yet, and loads of terminology. I try to fill out one of those LinkedIn forms about being a professional in the area of expertise, and I think it came out with something like 23,% I knew 23% of photography. I'm just like, Yeah, I'm surprised it's that much.
Angela Nicholson
That sounds quite high, actually.
Amy Bateman
I know, but I think it's just always being aware of where your weaknesses are and trying to strengthen them and be the best you can be.
Angela Nicholson
Okay, so what technique is next in your pipeline to try and learn then or master? Is it to do with flash?
Amy Bateman
Yeah, I love these off-camera flash. I think HDR is fantastic for I do like taking sort of five images in sort of indoor situations or even outdoor really, because I hate using a tripod. But the flash is something that really can just being able to fill in the shadows for outside portraits or with animals, things like that, can make a massive difference to the image, but it's got to be done well, it's also can be done really poorly, and it's just practice. I think the off camera flash is what I'm focusing on. I think 2024 the flash year.
Angela Nicholson
Right, look forward to seeing some of those images. I mean that the great thing about digital photography is, if you've got the kit, costs you nothing to experiment
Amy Bateman
Absolutely.
Angela Nicholson
and play around and get the result. With film, good grief, costs a fortune.
I hope you enjoyed these standout moments from the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. Thanks to everyone who sent in a question for the Six from SheClicks section, please keep an eye out on the podcast page of our website for the upcoming guests so you can send in more questions. I'll be back with another episode soon, but in the meantime, why not listen to a few more episodes from our back catalogue? You'll also find sheclickicks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, if you search for SheClicks net. So until next time, enjoy your photography.
