I´m Colleen Miniuk, ask me anything

[Colleen_Miniuk]

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Hi NPN! Colleen Miniuk here, although people call me Bubbles. Waving hello from sunny and warm Chandler, Arizona. Thanks for the opportunity to do this AMA!

Growing up in Ohio, Arkansas, and Illinois, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be when I got older. I certainly never intended to become a photographer. I evolved into an overachieving, type-A, perfectionist who just wanted to be rich and happy. Early on, athletics were my ticket to achieving success. I attended Stanford University for my freshman year, then transferred to the University of Michigan, on a volleyball scholarship. I graduated with a Business Administration-Computer Information Systems degree. Still, I didn’t know what I wanted to be (although I did declare in my last college semester, “I want to write a book someday; I just don’t know what to write about.”)

Stress kicked the minute I started working for Intel Corporation in Arizona as a software engineer/project manager. To relieve stress, I picked up photography in 2001 by attending a black-and-white class at the local community college. I walked into my first class without a camera or clue, but immediately felt the color returning to my life. I started spending all my free time outside with my camera. A couple years later, I started selling my work in art shows, getting published in magazines and calendars, and getting hired for commercial gigs (where I’ve photographed just about everything except weddings, funerals, and babies). After sitting in a cube for 9 years, I realized the path society wanted me to travel wasn’t the path I wanted to be on. So I left Intel on February 28, a day I celebrate as my personal Independence Day. I celebrate my 17th (!!!) Independence Day this year.

Changing jobs reduced my stress, but it did nothing to change my relentless pursuit of perfection, achievement, and success—which I did for 40 years without finding happiness. In 2015, I—a recently separated woman—attempted to stand-up paddleboard across Lake Powell on the Colorado River. Like life, the trip didn’t go as planned. During my adventures on the Colorado River, I drowned my lifelong beliefs about expectations, perfectionism, and achievement in the water. Through the storms and the waves, I discovered that “happily ever after” sometimes looks different than what we have been told. I’m finally “rich and happy” by my own definition, just like I wanted to be when I grew up (although I am trying very, very hard to not grow up). My adventure memoir on this, “So Said the River: Life, Loss, and Pie on the Colorado River” is set to be published this summer. It’ll be my 6th printed book as an author, and my 8th published title as a book publisher. Photography has played an essential role in helping me fulfill that college dream and in finding my purpose on this planet (at least for now).

That purpose for photographing the landscape has evolved over the last 20+ years. First, it was my means of escaping a life that didn’t suit me. Then, it was to make money and be noticed. Now, it’s a way for me to help other people enjoy the outdoors, connect with their inner creativity, feel confident in their own artistic expressions, and live their own meaningful lives. I find immense joy in enabling the success of others. I’ll be your biggest cheerleader if you let me! GO NPN GO!

When I’m not photographing, writing, or teaching, I’m likely off camping in my Alaskan Camper, stand-up paddleboarding, hiking, making sand and snow angels, taking adult ballet lessons, painting, sipping bubbly (e.g. Prosecco), reading, laughing, goofing off, wandering, and wondering…my life’s motto is “You can sleep when you’re dead.” Curiosity is near and dear to my heart. I love questions!

So, I’m open to chatting about anything and everything. The only thing I won’t talk about is Ohio State football. Because GO BLUE! The rest is all fair game. I’m excited to hear your questions and to help with anything I can! Let’s do this!

Website: https://www.colleenminiuk.com/

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[abbas (Abbas A Amir)]

Hi Colleen,

I’m grateful for this opportunity. Before diving into professional workshops and teaching, did you have a specific moment that prompted this decision, or was it a gradual process? As artists, we often struggle with self-assessment, wondering if we’re truly ready. Did you experience this dilemma? Additionally, did you rely on social media to kickstart your journey, or did your following grow after you began teaching? While I’m not a fan of social media due to recent algorithm changes, I recognize its importance in reaching an audience. Have you found validation through social media? If not, what other platforms have contributed to your sense of accomplishment, such as publications? How did you initially get published? Apologies for the lengthy and convoluted questions.

But if I had to sum it all up in truly one question as required by the forum rules - What accomplishments/process changes led you to become a pro from being a serious photographer.

[suzi (Suzi Minor)]

When you made the transition from the corporate world to freelance photography, what kept you committed to your new creative path when things got tough? Thank you! and Happy 17th Freedom Anniversary!

[Kayla_Crouch]

Hi Colleen,
I love reading your story and your path. It is so inspiring. As a photographer what was your path to publishing? Did you get connected with an editor? Were you submitting to specific publishing houses? Did it naturally evolve out of getting your work in other areas like the magazines etc.?

[barbara12 (Barbara Altevers)]

I would like to find a mentor but don’t know how to go about it. How would you suggest I go about finding someone to help me through my journey in photography?

[Colleen_Miniuk]

Thank you, Abbas, for starting us off with a fantastic question! Lots pack into this…

I’ll start off by saying that despite my over-analytical, planning, perfectionistic tendencies, I have never been fully ready for anything I have ever done in my life. What is “ready” anyway? Perfection? Mastery? Eating “x” number of donuts? The best way to know is to try and to learn. What awful things will happen if you try and learn you weren’t ready? Usually not much. Step back and learn more. Most of us wait too long—don’t wait, learn enough to be dangerous and seize the opportunity to grow! I realize that adopting a grow mindset is a challenging thing to do in our achievement-based society, but from experience, it’s a WAY more fun and fulfilling way to go through life.

I got into teaching gradually. I took my first photography workshop with Arizona Highways Photography Workshops (AHPW) in 2003. There, I met my buddy Paul Gill who suggested I should volunteer with AHPW. I did so in 2005, and by 2009 I realized I enjoyed teaching just as much as I enjoyed making my own photographs and putting workshop logistics together. So I started teaching with AHPW. I started with a one-day weekend workshop and gradually built up overtime to multi-day field workshops. By 2016, I had developed my own vision for my own workshops, specifically, Sheography, my all-women’s workshops, and decided to venture out on my own.

(Coincidentally, I received my first publication with Arizona Highways in 2007 after meeting the then-photography editor on an AHPW trip I volunteered for in 2005.)

In my first ever workshop, a participant asked me how a polarizer worked. I did not know and couldn’t answer his question. I was absolutely mortified. Being a (now-recovering) perfectionist, I went home and immediately learned about a polarizer. I vowed to learn as much about photography as I possibly could from that moment on. Not just the “what” but the “how” and “why” too. Guess what? I STILL get questions I don’t know the answers too. I no longer get mortified by it. There’s a lot to know about photography, creativity, and life. We can’t possibly know it all. We will never ever have it ALL figured out. (Which is why if you wait to figure it all out, you’ll miss out on so, so much…)

Social media was not around when I started teaching, so I had to gain exposure to my work through in-person sessions like camera club presentations, building my email newsletter, distribution list one person at a time, and by word-of-mouth exposure. While social media has helped me increase exposure, I don’t rely on it 100% (and I don’t rely upon it at all for external validation—that part comes from within now). I still rely upon those same earlier methods to expand my community. I do so because those are the things that I can control. We cannot control the social media algorithms, and I feel like we’re one algorithm change from losing our audiences. With my email distribution list, for example, that is not a risk.

I also gained exposure through art shows, magazine publications, calendars, blogs, podcasts, etc. Although my path has evolved, today, the platforms that bring me the greatest fulfillment are teaching/leading workshops, connecting people with the outdoors, writing books, answering questions on my Dear Bubbles column (and now on NPN!)—the places that allow me to share my voice authentically and that facilitate other people’s growth.

Hope that captures it all! If I had to sum all that up in one sentence, I’d say whatever it is you’re looking to do, GO FOR IT, Abbas!

[Lauren_Major]

Hi Colleen,

Thank you for all the information provided thus far as it is truly inspirational. I am particularly drawn to your abstract imagery and my question is what do you look for when capturing/creating these pictures? More specifically please describe the techniques you use both in camera and in post in your creation process. I will be going to the Oregon coast in May and would like to focus on creating abstracts. Thank you, Lauren

[Colleen_Miniuk]

Hi Suzi! Thank you for your sentiments and for your great question. And congratulations on making your first post here. Yahoo!

At the time of my transition, my biggest motivation for sticking with photography was escaping the physical and mental pain I endured from the stress of sitting in a cube (more specifically, being on a path that wasn’t fulfilling to me). Being outside with my camera was the only thing keeping me sane. Still, I faced a lot of challenges with starting a photography business.

I had received feedback that I would never make it as a freelance because the photography stock industry was collapsing, and I wouldn’t like traveling alone as a female. It was true the industry was changing. It was not a good assumption that it meant it was the only opportunity for photographers to make money. It was patently false that I wouldn’t like traveling alone as a female—in fact, it’s exactly what I loved to do! But I listened to those voices…and stopped doing landscape photography entirely to focus on commercial work. That is, to focus on making money. My motivation in this case to keep going, for better or worse, was to prove people wrong—to prove I could “make it” as a photographer.

Commercial jobs sure paid the bills but sure didn’t fulfill my soul. In 2010, after attending an Outdoor Writers Association of America conference, I dropped all my commercial clients and went back to what I loved: outdoor photography and writing.

Since then, there have been tough days, but I joke that the hardest day in freelancing still beats the best day in corporate America. What keeps me motivated today is gratitude. I am so privileged to do whatever I want to do every single day of my life. I have tremendous support from my family, friends, and community. I am grateful for all the opportunities—even when they are hard. I am grateful to learn about the world, other people, creativity, myself, etc. through photography and writing, particularly through the tough times. I am especially grateful for the freedom to change my mind at any time. Now, I follow the principle, “If it’s fun, keep going. If it’s not fun, stop and go find something fun to do.”

What motivates me now is the enjoyment I get from helping others live their best life by living on my own best life on my own terms. What a journey it’s been over these last 17 years! And it’s not anything I set out to do 17 years ago, either!

[Colleen_Miniuk]

Thanks so much for your kind words, Kayla! Welcome to the AMA! Thanks for submitting your wonderful question.

I mentioned in my reply to Abbas that I received my first publication out of a meeting with the then-photography editor at Arizona Highways magazine on an Arizona Highways Photography Workshop in 2005. The full story goes that Paul Gill, the lead volunteer on that trip (and a wildly successful photographer who had been published extensively), encouraged me to show 30 of my best slides to the editor during the workshop (who was teaching the workshop). I sheepishly asked him in a moment of downtime during the workshop. The editor liked what he saw. A few months later, I had a two-page spread of one of those slides in the magazine. I’ve been working with Arizona Highways magazine ever since.

As you can imagine, my excitement for getting published went through the roof. (There may have been squealing involved…) I gained confidence to start submitting to other magazines and calendars and postcards. I found most of my outlets simply by turning to the backs of calendars in grocery stores and calling the publisher listed for their submission guidelines (today we can just google those). I’ve also found additional outlets through my friends and contacts in the Outdoor Writers Association of America (owaa.org).

Over time, my emphasis on magazine submissions has decreased as my focus on publishing books and writing my own online column has increased. All of it is fun and exciting. But there are only so many hours in a day…so I have to prioritize my fun now.

If this is a path you’re looking to go, I’d recommend finding a single outlet, studying it so you know what their needs and interests are, looking up and following the submission guidelines to a “T” (it’s not the place to get creative…), and seeing what transpires. The worst that can happen is they say “no.” Then you learn something new and try again!

Hope that helps!

[Colleen_Miniuk]

Awesome question, @barbara12 ! Thanks for submitting it in this AMA. I’m glad you’re here!

I’d start by defining your goals for a mentorship. What type of support are you looking for? What are you hoping to accomplish in a mentorship? What traits would a good mentor for you have? How many hours a week or month would you like support? Etc. The more specific you can be about your needs and interests, the more likely you’ll be able to find a good match.

To do that, I’d recommend finding a photographer(s) that creates the kind of work you like to do or would like to learn more about. Then see if they offer learning opportunities like online classes, one-on-one coaching, workshops. If so, and you like what you see, contact the photographer to see if they would be open to setting up a mentorship to help you meet your goals.

At the risk of shamelessly self-promoting, I offer business and photography coaching: https://www.colleenminiuk.com/coaching. I’d love to help if it’s a good fit for you! There are loads of phenomenally talented photographers who love helping others so take the time to find the right one (or ones) for you!

[Colleen_Miniuk]

Hi Lauren! Thanks much for joining us today and for your great question about abstracts. Abstracts are so much fun to create, aren’t they?! I’m so glad you’ll have the opportunity to focus on this in May.

First and foremost, with any of my photography big or small, I need to have a moment of connection. This usually sounds something like this, “OMG, look at that!” or “That’s so cool, I’ve never seen anything like that!” or “Isn’t that fascinating?” Sometimes I start making up a narrative about a scene in my head. Sometimes I ask what else is it? No matter what form that moment of connection takes, my brain (aka my imagination) must experience something before I even think about making a photograph. I use the word “experience” intentionally here. Making expressive images takes all of our senses, not just “seeing.”

Once I have some response, I try to put it into words. I do so because I have an easier time translating verbal language into visual language. I may title my photograph or write a haiku or just spit a few words out to help me direct my energies into a viable vision.

From there, I use visual language to help me compose my image to convey meaning and depth. To do so, I have to pull my brain out of the literal (i.e. the tree or the puddle) and shift into looking at the world in terms of the relationship between visual elements. Based on my experiences shooting with a 4x5 camera—which shows the image upside down and backwards on the ground glass—I see my photographic world in shapes, contrasts, lines (not the things humans label as trees and puddles)…so my approach to creating meaning and depth doesn’t differ when I’m photographing an abstract. In fact, it’s perhaps a little easier to arrange abstracts with this mentality, because nothing is as it seems in a smaller abstract rendition.

To create meaning, I use compositional approaches based in Gestalt psychology and human perceptions (and not “rules”). If we understand how people perceive the world, we can incorporate these perceptions into our photographs so viewers are more likely to experience our intended visual messages (note here that we cannot control how people respond to our images, but we can control our clear communication and delivery with the outside world). I’ll make decisions on things like frame orientation, positioning, visual weight, relative size, proximity, lines, movement, light, color, and more to convey a specific message. The relationships between the visual elements and the edge of our frame changes the meaning.

Then, it’s on to creating the illusion of depth in our two-dimensional media. With any type of photography, but especially for abstracts, I look for ways to separate figure from ground by using lines, layers, and light. A contrast between highlight and shadow creates a line for our sensors (which only see reflected light). Multiple lines working together create shape. Multiple shapes working together create layers. Multiple layers are separated by light, specifically color and tonal separation. I’ve studied a bunch of optical illusions that painters and other visual artists incorporate into their work. It’s fascinating! (My favorite optical illusion is the illusory contour, and I incorporate the concept behind it in my work all the time…in short, the absence of lines can create shape and layer! If you’ve ever been told your image has movement, you probably have the foundation for an illusory contour. If so, add a vignette in processing to emphasize shape and layer in your image. Voila!).

If you’re interested in learning more about this visual language approach, pick up a copy of Rudolph Arnheim’s book “Art and Visual Perception” (art-related, not photography specific) and/or Richard Zakia’s “Perception and Imaging” (photography-specific)

I shoot in RAW format, which is a data file not an image file. Hence, processing the data into an image is required. I’ll use adjustments in processing software (Bridge—Adobe Camera Raw—Photoshop, specifically) to emphasize and enhance both the meaning and depth in my image per my vision. Each photograph gets its own special treatment, but generally I use exposure, color, and contrast adjustments. I don’t do much processing…I’m an ex-software engineer for a reason! I would rather be outside playing than sitting behind a computer…

Hope that helps! Have a fun-tastic trip this May! Hope it’s full of the joy of the little things.

[Paul_LeSage]

I don’t have a question since I already know it all. But you knew that. I just wanted to pop by and let you know how much I enjoy reading your answers, as always. Keep up the good work and congratulations on your upcoming 17th Independence Day. Love ya.

[jackson (Jackson Frishman)]

Hey Colleen, as one river person to another… What do you find most challenging about photographing on river trips, and how do you approach that challenge?

[bill_theis]

This may not be the forum for this discussion but I would appreciate your thoughts nonetheless. As a photographer who is reluctant to depart radically from what I see out in nature, I am a bit worried about the flood of A.I. generated images that look so very graphic but cannot be physically possible (you know the ones: triple rainbows–sometime 4, etc). I worry that the public at large will come to expect this, much as they already have accepted super saturated (gaudy?) colors due to their exposure to this on their super saturated TV sets, which become reality to them. This would obviously make my photography bland indeed. Or do I follow the lead and put two moons, extra mountains, and all sorts of crazy stuff in, just to be noticed?
On another note: Photography has fought hard to even be considered to be an art form. Does all this nonesense jeopardize this?

[Colleen_Miniuk]

Thanks so much for stopping by, Paul! You’re endless support and ongoing encouragement means the world to me! Hugs and love right back atcha!

[melony (Melony Price-Rhodes)]

Hey Colleen… I just wanted to say hey!! Have a great fun filled week!!! Melony

[abbas (Abbas A Amir)]

Thank you so much for your detailed, insightful answer. I feel very motivated. Like you said I am still not sure if I am ready but definitely want to pursue my second passion – teaching and clubbing it with my first passion – photography.

Since making money from teaching photography is absolutely NOT I am after, I would be keenly looking out for any opportunities to assist professionals like you in the coming weeks/months/years.

Again, really appreciate your thoughtful and encouraging answer.

[Colleen_Miniuk]

Hi Bill! Thanks much for sending over your question about AI. I think this is the perfect forum to have these conversations—among friendly photographers!

My main concern with AI is how it steals existing work to create new ones. It’s a blatant copyright infringement. As photographers, we have little control over how our work is used in this technology. I’ll be curious to see how the legal aspect of AI plays out as the technology evolves…

Other than that, AI is just another method for creating art. We’ve seen so many different methods evolve to create art over centuries. I care less about how the art gets made, more that it just does. It does beg the question, who or what really makes a photograph? You and I turn some knobs. Press some buttons. Click the shutter. But there’s software and hardware involved to bring that image to life. Using software to combine images? Using clone stamp? Changing white balance? Is that all artificial? I could make an argument it is. If you’ve used processing software, you’ve used AI and reaped the benefits…but then what really is a photograph?

Where I see people getting hung up on is that they feel AI is lying to them. That an image created by AI isn’t real or the truth. It’s not, but neither is a photograph. The problem isn’t AI. The problem is that a fair amount of the population, photographers or not, believe that photographs are real and/or should depict a reality or truth. There is no shared reality, no shared truth in anything in this world, but especially in photographs. What is real and truthful is defined by the photographer. The second you set up a frame, even a “straight” single exposure, it’s not telling a full truth. You’ve eliminated things. You’ve changed the color of the light perhaps. You’ve enhanced things by using selective depth of field, for example. And you and I could stand in the same place and not see the same thing at all because of our backgrounds, expectations, mental capacity, etc. (a.k.a. the Invisible Gorilla…).

I get it, people don’t want to feel duped. But the solution isn’t to stop creating our own art in our own ways in our own reality and truths so that we can attempt to meet an unrealistic societal expectation. The solution is for people to stop believing everything they see and value photographs, however they are created, for what they are: art and self-expression.

A case in point: a few years ago, I was judging a photography contest. One submission was of a leaf. I viewed it as a shade of teal and my friend saw it as grass green…what is real here? Who’s telling the truth here? Telling me it is green does not make me see green or believe the leaf was green. So if I make an image of a leaf and increase the blues to match what I see, am I lying? I’m not, if my world is to be trusted. But others might believe I’m tricking them or manipulating them. I’m not. My world just differs than everyone else’s. In the same way your world just differs from everyone else’s and everyone’s world differs from everyone else’s.

That’s the beauty of self-expression in photography. We can all see and express different things, and they all be right answers. If other people want to saturate their images to 100, so be it. If others want to use HDR for all their images, so be it. If others want to use AI to create their art, so be it. It doesn’t mean you or I have to. (And I won’t…)

The introduction of AI gives us a great opportunity to stop and think about why you photograph in the first place. Because you love the experience of being outside? Or because you love sitting behind a computer letting a program produce random things? Or because you want to put two moons, extra mountains, and all sorts of crazy stuff in your frame? Or because you want to be noticed?
I know my answer. No amount of AI could ever take away the awe and wonder I feel when I’m on a river or a coastline or in a field of flowers. You do you. Create YOUR art for any reason that’s meaningful to you in any way you wish. (And stressing about how others decide to create their art is a colossal waste of your precious time on this planet and mental energy you could be putting toward creating your own work…)

I don’t spend time evaluating whether photography is an art form or not—with or without AI. I’m out practicing photography as an expressive art regardless of what society thinks of it because it brings me much joy and fulfillment. I couldn’t care less what other people think about it…

We cannot control what people think of our lives or how other people respond to our photographs. In fact, I like to bastardize an Eleanor Roosevelt quote: “What other people think of your photographs is none of your business.” Worrying about the response to your work isn’t a good use of your time. Making photography you’re proud of is a great use of your time. Connecting with people who value your work is a great use of your time. Doing whatever you wish with your one shot at life is a great use of your time. So choose wisely. Choose what makes sense to you. Choose yourself.

[Colleen_Miniuk]

Hi hi Melony! Thanks for poking your head in here and saying hi. Great to “see” you here! Hope you’re enjoying the AMA so far and that your week is off to a super fun start too! Hugs!

[Matt_Lancaster]

Hi Colleen,

Thanks for your time and answers in this AMA!

Like a lot of art, photography can be practiced as a 2nd career or hobby and many of us do so rather than make it our primary career. So this question harkens back to your days and years when you practiced outside of your primary career.

What did you find worked best for your photography career as you balanced it with your primary career?