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Hi fellow NPN enthusiasts. It is an honor for me to participate in this AMA session.
I am Gary Randall. I am an Oregon landscape photographer and have been doing this full time for over 20 years now. I live in an Oregon forest with my wife Darlene and our kids Hazel, our red heeler dog, and Inky our little black cat.
I have been an avid outdoors person since I was a child. My family spent a lot of time hiking, camping, and exploring the outdoors and I have not let go of that love. The area where I live is beautiful. I am surrounded by forests and beautiful vistas. I live between Mount Hood and the majestic Columbia River Gorge. My home here in Oregon has inspired me and my landscape photography completely.
I am someone who started a career as a responsible young man and became disillusioned by the time I was in my mid 40’s. At the time I decided to leave my job as a mechanical engineer/CAD draftsperson to pursue a lifelong dream as a photographer. Back then I had little grasp of how much photography had changed since I started as a hobby in the 1970’s, especially as a career. At the time I was not aware of how much of a part the Internet would play in developing my career.
I started my career doing commercial work such as real estate, weddings, and portraiture because they paid well and was immediate income. I was creating landscape work for myself until print sales stepped up and I was starting to receive requests to teach and conduct workshops. It was then that landscape and nature photography took the front seat in what I was doing.
I feel so thankful for the life that I have chosen since tossing aside the career that I was supposed to retire from. Landscape photography has opened so many doors that I never dreamed would open for me, mostly meeting so many people with a common dream, and the chance to travel to places that I had only dreamed of visiting. I enjoy helping others achieve the same in their lives. I try to mix 50% instruction with 50% inspiration when I am working with my clients.
I am an open book when it comes to my photography and am glad to answer questions from the artistic side, technical side, or professional side of my photography career. I am looking forward to this AMA session.
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Thank you for showing up Alan. Thanks for this timely question.
In my mind AI images aren’t photography. I have no use for it in my work, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room at all for processes that use machine learning. I use a lot of the new AI tools while processing my photos. Some of the new tools such as the Remove Tool in Photoshop. The noise reduction features have really saved a lot of noisy photos etc.
That’s my point of view.
Thank you Alan. I’m looking forward to seeing you in next months workshop. I’ve missed you!!
Thanks so much for being here today. I read your code of ethics on your website. I love all three aspects you listed there. My question about workshops it this: I am considering trying to do local workshops here in my area. Probably just one day events. I want people to get off the beaten paths and see how amazing our area is. The “Leave no Trace Principles” become harder to enforce the larger the group is. What sort of pre-workshop education do you do and what size group to you find to be ideal to minimize impact on the environment? I love your work! Nice subdued images of amazing natural places. Thank you!
You mentioned in your introduction that print sales started to increase for you. How are you marketing your prints? Do you show them in person or just online? Do you sell just loose prints or do you mat and/or frame them as an option? What do you find is the impetus for clients to purchase a print? And finally, what is the most common-sized print you sell? Thank You for your time.
Hi Paul. Thank you for your kind words and thank you for your question.
It’s difficult sometimes when you’re with a group because they can spread out. It’s also easy for them to get into seeing and taking their photos that they forget where they’re standing. It’s natural really.
In my workshops I always talk about the location, how to photograph it the best and how it might be sensitive to our foot fall. I have a quick discussion about LNT as well as the best way to photograph it before we head out. It really helps if you just mention it to them and then they realize and are more aware during the session.
I am a workshop leader who isn’t there for my own photos, although if my clients are busy I do take my own, I can be like a mother hen. I will go from client to client to make sure that they aren’t in need of help. This also makes me aware of where they might be standing or if they’re walking through a closed area. A workshop leader has to be the team leader.
My experience with the best group size, when I’m conducting a workshop by myself, is six. Anything over six people will divide my attention too much and won’t allow me to give my clients the experience that they came for, plus it’s harder to keep an eye on everyone. Safety is also a very important part of my workshops.
Print sales are only one part of the aggregate in my business income. I sell most of my prints locally, although I send some to some far and away places, most of my print sales are face to face after they contact me. My social media presence and the awareness of me and my work here in Oregon as well as the rest of the Pacific Northwest is substantial enough that a lot of folks are aware of me. That’s what happens when you do this for so long.
I have approached commercial businesses, interior design firms as well as hospitals and clinics. My favorite clients are folks with nice homes that are in need of art. They find me through adverts that I post in places like Instagram, Facebook or, lately, NextDoor.
I have also had my work in galleries. Galleries are fun to approach. I take some nice samples of my work with me. I try to make sure they they are large and of art gallery quality.
As photographers who want to sell our work we have to be sales people. The more people that you approach the better your odds are of finding new clients. I wish that I was a better salesman.
Before someone will be compelled to buy a print they must feel an emotional reaction to it. That’s just a fact. This is art and art is supposed to evoke a feeling from the viewer. It could be because it’s a familiar place, or it could just be an attraction to the beauty of the image, but they must feel it. A lot of times the narrative or story that comes with capturing the scene helps. Also if they are interested in you as an artist they can want one of your works. Those are the people who will want to collect or possess more than a single print of your work.
I think that the most common size that I have sold through the years is probably just 24x36 framed paper prints. They are the size that will usually fit in an average size home. I have sold them unframed as well as framed. I have sold some large canvases, several 5’ wide. Photographers don’t really seem to care a lot for the canvas, but my non photographer clients seem to love them. My favorite print medium is large acrylic panels, mostly in the range of five feet wide. I have yet to sell a massive one like I see other photographers selling but I’m not averse to it.
Hey Gary. Many of us photographers have a particular fondness for the vehicles that get us out to wonderful places. Tell us the story of your PPV. How many miles on the odometer now?
I love my PPV. For those unaware I drive an old 1991 Jeep Cherokee 2dr 5sp with a 3.5" lift and 33" tires. I haven’t really thought about buying anything more modern. The PPV has never let me down and it’s a lot of fun. PPV stands for Photographic Pursuit Vehicle.
I’ve had it for the last 12 years. I’ve always had a vehicle with Four Wheel Drive, living here in Oregon. I just came across it one day on Craigslist and felt like I needed it. It has become a part of my identity. I’ll never sell it.
The odometer has spun over 300k now and it’s still standing. To be fair I do work on it and maintain it. As a matter of fact it’s about to get a new clutch so it can be ready for this season. I might even fix the AC. lol
Hi Scott. It’s great to see you here at NPN. Thanks for the question.
In the early days when I first started using the Orton effect I would slater it in in generous proportions, usually all over the image. Since then I have backed down from that and do a lighter hand with it. I will also create a black mask and then take a white brush and paint it in selectively.
I’m assuming that you’re creating the Orton layer and then taking the opacity to 5. That’s probably a good place to start but realize that every photo will be different. The Orton effect affects the brighter parts of the image and it’s usually there that I use it the most.
Gary, do you use anything like a wacom tablet in your editing?
Especially in your forest scenes where you might need to bring back the moss glow from a flat raw photo?
I have one and use it occasionally but I’ve been processing my photos with a mouse for so long that it’s easier for me to use the mouse. Especially the way that I process my photos. I don’t do a lot of “drawing” on them. I have a disconnect between my hand and the pen that I don’t seem to have with the mouse. Also through the years my processing method has simplified. I used to do a lot of careful masking etc back in the day but between the capability of our modern cameras, the new tools that we have, especially the masks in Lightroom, and me simplifying my method I rarely do any manual masking anymore.
I know people are going to look at me like I’m a neandertal, and maybe I am, but it works for me.
That’s so hard for me because I love so many areas here in Oregon and Washington. Although I’m from here I really didn’t have much of an opportunity to explore before becoming a landscape photographer. I worked too much. I have been able to see so much over the last twenty plus years of doing this.
The easy choice is the gorge. I have lived in and around the gorge practically my whole life. I lived in Bridal Veil for a time. The Columbia River Gorge is home. I include Mount Hood in that realm. I currently live in Brightwood on the south side of the mountain. I love photographing the forest around Mount Hood and the gorge.
I have an absolute love for Eastern Oregon. I have explored much of the east side of the state.
Now I’m on a roll. The Olympic Peninsula in Washington is incredible and one of my favorite places of course. And the North Cascades… Stop me now.
I owe the Pacific Northwest so much and give it most of the credit for the success of my business. If I lived anywhere else I’m sure that I would not be able to pull this off.
Hey Gary - Great to have this opportunity to ask a question. This is a personal question, but you can make it about your photography or decline to answer altogether since you wrote in your intro that you would field questions about your photography.
My question is, if you could write an additional few paragraphs about yourself that reveal much more about who you are, what you’ve been through in life, and what is important to you, what would you tell us?
Hi Matt! Thanks for the thought provoking question.
Well, I don’t talk a whole lot about not being in this for the money, but money stresses me out and takes away from the enjoyment of what I do. I’m in business because I have to be. I’m glad to make it another year in this business. I know that many, if not most photographers feel that financial successes are the most important aspect and motivation for doing this. I once had the dream life, a wife and kids, big white house on the hill, two new cars in the garage and a career that was supposed to carry me to old age. I got to mid-life and it all fell through. After that I just decided to leave it all behind to spend living the rest of my life for myself. Success to me, in my life, is that I have been living my life on my terms. Photography is a result of that. It’s not the reason for it.
I love the life that I’m living now. It’s simple and not complicated. I have a wife that loves me no matter what and I have my little dog Hazel and freedom to roam. I’m not asking for a whole lot more.
lol !!!
