Fun Interview With Nashville Photographer Marty Wayne
January 26, 2010
Q: What has been the most surprising or most predictable reaction to your photographs?
A: You are so lucky! LOL ( I shoot a lot of glamour ) Or ‘OK .. I’m getting hungry” (when they look at my food photography).
Q: Tell a little secret about yourself that no-one knows …
A: I never shoot nude. (I always keep my socks on)
Q: What are your thoughts on the paparazzi and their effects on photographers and photography?
A: It’s a sad day when EVERY woman has to make sure they are wearing panties to avoid embarrassment!! LOL
Q: Do you like to talk about yourself or your pictures? If yes, about what aspects of photography? If no, why?
A: I usually prefer to let my work speak for itself. What I’m passionate about is capturing something or someone in a way the world ha not yet seen.
Q: How would you describe your attention span?
A: I like to think my attention span is pretty attentive. LOL
Q: When did you decide to become a photographer?
A: Full-time as my only income source, I think this Match will be eight years. But I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was a little kid. My parents have a picture I took that has my plastic airplane (green w/ yellow wings) apparently pressed down in tall grass, and my G.I. Joe doll in full fatigues ‘wing-walking’. LOL At the time, I was totally scared I would get in trouble for sneaking my mom’s 110 Instamatic camera outside!
Q: What does photography mean to you?
A: It’s a way of expressing what sometimes, only I see in my head, creating it in front of the lens with a third party, capturing that moment, developing or post-processing it to convey to another person, what I have seen in my mind. When that happens, for that moment, I am happiest.
Q: Can you recall the first photo you took that made you go WOW!?
A: Back in college, it was a girl I was totally ‘in to’ and went on an ‘assignment’ with me to capture silhouettes (my choice was hot air balloons because there was an event going on and I was up on this hill to capture it perfectly) – I will try to find it and submit it with this interview.
Anyhow, she had been an Olympic gymnast and was standing up on this structure and doing some stretch or pose. I was able to fire off three shots with my old Canon aE-1 (no auto-winder) before she moved.
When I processed the images in the dark room, while the paper was still in the developed, I KNEW I had ‘the shot’ I really believe that was the first time a photograph I took made me say ‘WOW’
Q: Do you have any formal training regarding photography?
A: I have nine hours (three courses) But I really too them to have unlimited access to the darkroom!
Q: How technical is your photography?
A: U use a light meter, I apply technique, then I shoot from the hip with an agenda!
Q: How do you feel about cropping?
A: I do a good bit of that through the lens. But no matter how you ‘crop’ the image, the way an image is displayed, through cropping in any sense of the word, is paramount to the impact it will have on a viewer.
Q: Where is your favorite place to live and work as a photographer in the World and why?
A: Right now, I have a small studio at my home here in Nashville, and I have built the entire house w/ different scenes to shoot in. So, for now, I can think of no better location. But Hawaii would not be so bad either! haha
Q: Define the word “beauty”!
A: It’s ‘realized’ when you (each unique individual) see something that makes you stop, and just ‘take it in’ and afterward, you feel refreshed and excited.
Q: What is your most favorite and least favorite word in photography or life? How do they make you feel?
A: To ‘photoshop’ and image. When I hear someone say how good ‘that image is/it’s really photoshopped’ While, Adobe Photoshop is a great tool, in my opinion, that is like saying the cart that your favorite racing drive uses wins the race. First, the car is the vehicle, but the ‘additional’ options added to that Chevrolet or Ford, etc. are what make it the best tool for the job. I see Photoshop like that car.
It will get you from point a to point b (camera to the printer or web) but it’s the enhanced engine, special breaks, the ability to ‘plug-in’ the right accessories that makes that car so special. Photoshop is the perfect vehicle to use to utilize all the great tools and plug-ins available. But without the right driver… -well…
Q: How does your personality change when you look through the camera?
A: I think only about what I want the world to see when they view my final product. I ‘grew up’ with film, and you HAD to be frugal with your supplies and STILL get the perfect shot. Digital makes it much easier to ’shoot until you get it’, but I still practice ‘get it then shoot it’
Q: How do you feel about missed shots which cannot be recreated?
A: What’s the quote of Whittier; For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been’. it applies all to well to photography!
Q: Ever concerned about failure?
A: Every day. Shoot as if your next shot dictates your future.
Q: Who are your influences?
A: Anyone who has ever picked up a camera with a thought, and produced a print that moved me.
Q: What is your favorite image, either your own or someone else’s or both? Describe its creation or meaning to you?
A: I guess I’ll have to go with the standard Ansel Adams. His work, even of still-life, showed such life in his images. When I look at his images, I see life and beauty in a way that no black and white image should be able to display. And he was one to ABSOLUTELY think outside of his light box!
Q: Describe a day in your personal or professional life.
A: I wake up, I pray, I think about what I want to do/create that day, I attempt it until I’m ready to fall over, I lay down, I pray, and when I wake, I repeat.
Q: What are the biggest personal or professional challenges you face on a daily basis?
A: Staying creatively-fresh!
Q: What has been the single biggest obstacle against growing as a photographer in whole?
A: I hope I grow every day
Q: What are your favorite subjects to photograph?
A: Toddlers!
Q: Tell your funniest, scariest, most bizarre, most touching story from a photo shoot!
A: I was hired to photograph a woman for her husband. She had recently lost as I recall, about 100 lbs. While shooting her, she was getting ‘misty-eyed’ I asked, worried somehow she was uncomfortable, and she said ‘you’re trying to make me sexy and I’m not’ At that point, I sowed her a few images I had just shot, she said ‘ yes but you’ve fixed those’ (remember, they are still on the camera) LOL We continued, and I showed her a few more, and she almost cried again saying ‘That just doesn’t feel like me’
Then while I was showing her the final product she was crying again, and said ‘I feel like I’m looking at someone else, she’s so pretty and I’m not’ She later called me and cried AGAIN thanking me. From that experience I learned that as a photographer, I have a chance to show you how someone else see’s you, AND you like it. That’s such a blessing.
Q: Do you ever have photographer’s block and if yes how do you deal with it?
A: Not really. I guess, if I do, I just walk outside, or to the park. Things and people jump out at me, mentally, saying ‘this would be a great shot!’
Q: What types of assignments are you attracted most?
A: Where I’m creatively-challenged
Q: Describe what black and white photography means to you?
A: If a photograph moves you and it’s black and white, then it’s the the true test. You don’t have the vivid colors, so many props, etc. to make the photograph interesting. B/W is the camera, the subject, the viewer. IMHO, if the photographer is lucky, he is the last thing thought of when you look at any great image.
Q: Do you think of yourself as an artist and what do you think of the word artist?
A: As a photographer, I think I try to ‘capture’ the art.
Q: How do you describe your photographic style?
A: Diverse. I like many styles and types of photography. I shot, amongst other things, modeling and glamour photography as well as food photography.
Q: Who or what would you love to shoot that you haven’t already?
A: Well, about 5 years ago, while covering a music industry and NASCAR mutual event, Nikki Taylor gave me a two-minute photo session. (she was accompanying her then country music BF Keith Urban) OK, it was on camera flash at night, but she was beyond WOW and even more sweet! So once I shoot Cindy Crawford I can die a happy photographer. LOL
Q: What would you have done differently during your photography career so far and could this be an advice to others?
A: Never stop looking for inspiration around you/in your own back yard.
Q: How do you feel about digital manipulation and to what extent do you utilize it?
A: When you shoot adjust and print, it’s a photograph. When you digitally manipulate and image, it is still an art-form, but the line between photographer and art/painting is blurred.
Q: What other thoughts would you like to share?
A: Shoot until you drop, give thanks, get up and do it again!
Visit Marty’s photography website and MySpace page.
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