Latest / The Photography & Video Show Podcast / 14: Portraits with Passion: WW2 veterans with Glyn Dewis, boudoir photography with Emma Finch, Adobe terms of use saga
Transcript
- 0:11David McClelland: Hello and welcome to the Photography and Video Show Podcast for July 2024.
- 0:17David McClelland: I'm David and coming up in this month's show, We hear from Emma Finch, founder of Belle Privé Studio, about why boudoir photography is so en vogue right now, and why it can be as much of a journey of self discovery for the photographer as it can be for the client.
- 0:36Emma Finch: It's only recently that I've understood that I like to help people.
- 0:41Emma Finch: I like to feel valuable to people.
- 0:43Emma Finch: And the reason why I've been so drawn to, to the genre of, of boudoir is because I want to help women with their, with their self confidence, with their body image, get something that I've struggled with in the past, as most women have.
- 0:54Emma Finch: I did a boudoir shoot years ago after I had the kids, and it really.
- 0:59Emma Finch: It made me feel good about myself.
- 1:01Emma Finch: And I wanted to pass on that experience to other women.
- 1:08David McClelland: And joining me to chat over the news this month is photographer, educator, YouTuber, best selling author and founder of the 39 to 45 Portraits Project, Glyn Dewis.
- 1:19David McClelland: Hello Glyn, how you doing?
- 1:21Glyn Dewis: I'm very good, David.
- 1:22Glyn Dewis: Very good.
- 1:22Glyn Dewis: Looking forward to discussing what we're going to talk about.
- 1:26Glyn Dewis: So, yeah.
- 1:26David McClelland: Yeah, we, we've got, um, There's been a lot of news across the industry.
- 1:31David McClelland: Lots of new kit launches and stuff over the last few weeks since we were last on the pod.
- 1:37David McClelland: But we're going to focus in on one area in particular this month.
- 1:41David McClelland: But before that, uh, Glyn, it's been a few months since I've seen you.
- 1:45David McClelland: People who've visited the Photography Show over the last ten or so years will maybe have come across your work.
- 1:52David McClelland: But what have you been up to?
- 1:54David McClelland: Certainly seen on your on your socials you've been out making the most of the great british weather uh down where you live in the in the southwest of the UK what you've been up to?
- 2:02Glyn Dewis: Yeah, primarily, as you'll know me, I was a portrait photographer, but over the last few years, which it was all purely motivated because of COVID restrictions.
- 2:11Glyn Dewis: I started to dabble in the old landscape and seascape and obviously living down in the southwest sport for choice with the Jurassic coastline.
- 2:18Glyn Dewis: So.
- 2:18Glyn Dewis: I was getting out doing more of that kind of stuff because while I didn't have a portrait to do, rather than my camera just staying in the bag, I was getting out and doing stuff to keep the grey matter going, keep creative, and I kind of moved from doing the stuff with my regular camera to then, for quite some time, really pushing the mobile side of it to see what I could do with that, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
- 2:39Glyn Dewis: I've got to the stage now where there's pictures I took with my mobile that I'm very happy with.
- 2:44Glyn Dewis: But I kind of wish I'd taken it with my main mirrorless now.
- 2:47Glyn Dewis: So, uh, but yeah, that's kind of what I'm doing.
- 2:49Glyn Dewis: Working on some other things, working on some courses, doing a lot of stuff to do with printing and got some, uh, some great photoshoots lined up.
- 2:56Glyn Dewis: So it's all good.
- 2:57Glyn Dewis: Yeah.
- 2:58David McClelland: We'll be hearing some more about some of your uh project work and portrait work I mentioned the 3945 portrait project early we'll come back to that later on uh but for now Glyn the the reason i wanted you to join us on the show this month is because in a word Adobe.
- 3:16David McClelland: And that's not the, the brown brick made from clay and horse manure and other organic matter.
- 3:21David McClelland: Yes, I did look up what Adobe actually means.
- 3:24David McClelland: But instead, it's the company that produces the software that whether you work in photography, video or design, you almost certainly have used Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, InDesign, all of that stuff.
- 3:36David McClelland: Omnipresent in many creatives workflows, Adobe has been, well, pretty much ever present in their social media timelines over the last few weeks because of a couple of pretty red hot issues that have enraged, inflamed users, and well, I dare say practically engulfed Adobe itself.
- 3:53David McClelland: So, Glyn, a lot's been said, a lot's been written over the last few weeks.
- 3:58David McClelland: You've been, across this more than most, I think it's fair to say, trying to filter out some of the fact from the if not fiction, then certainly the exaggeration.
- 4:06David McClelland: So, let's start with the first of the two stories, the Terms of Use changes.
- 4:13David McClelland: Can you give us a kind of timeline as to how this story snowballed over the last few weeks?
- 4:19Glyn Dewis: Yeah, I certainly can.
- 4:20Glyn Dewis: It was, but before before I do just want to kind of just get out there that I I am a freelancer.
- 4:25Glyn Dewis: I do my my what I do is purely for me.
- 4:27Glyn Dewis: I don't work for Adobe, although I do occasionally get contracted by Adobe.
- 4:32Glyn Dewis: I have used their their sort of software, their apps for many, many years.
- 4:37Glyn Dewis: But ultimately, over the years, my my goal and my intention is to build a business of trust, and I'm very fortunate that I do have a good following of people.
- 4:46Glyn Dewis: That like that subscribe to what I do the white in the style of what I do what I create and how I how I teach it and present it my ultimate kind of, um, commitment is to them the well being of them.
- 4:58Glyn Dewis: So I've built this trust over the years.
- 5:00Glyn Dewis: So what I'll say is what we discussed now about Adobe.
- 5:04Glyn Dewis: I'm approaching it from somebody who uses their stuff.
- 5:06Glyn Dewis: But if in any way I wasn't happy with how that was, um, sold to me or any kind of hidden terms that I wasn't happy with then that would damage my business, which would ultimately damage the people that follow me.
- 5:19Glyn Dewis: So I'm only, I'm going to now, we're going to talk about this, but it really is, as you very politely said, it's been exaggerated purely because it's been a bit of a knee jerk reaction to some of the terminology.
- 5:30Glyn Dewis: But I would only want people following me when I know that something is trustworthy.
- 5:34Glyn Dewis: And I can say hand on heart that my experience with Adobe over the years has been incredibly, it's been a very good relationship.
- 5:43Glyn Dewis: If I've ever done anything with them, they've paid.
- 5:45Glyn Dewis: I've got friends who work at Adobe.
- 5:46Glyn Dewis: But if there was something hidden, which I now found out about, I wouldn't be happy.
- 5:51Glyn Dewis: But that's not the case.
- 5:52David McClelland: And trust I think as as we will come to discuss over the next 10 or so minutes, uh is very much It's a trust or a lack of trust that underpins a lot of I think what the response from the community has been in fact, you know, you mentioned your your background in the industry and the stuff that you've done with Adobe in the past.
- 6:11David McClelland: You and I met doing, uh, it was 12 years ago at the launch of Creative Cloud in 2012.
- 6:19David McClelland: I was hosting this week long, uh, Adobe Creative Week and you were a guest on the show.
- 6:24David McClelland: That was the first time that you and I met and we had a, a heated discussion then, if I remember, with a, with a studio audience.
- 6:30David McClelland: about airbrushing and
- 6:32Glyn Dewis: I remember it very well.
- 6:34David McClelland: sure you do.
- 6:35David McClelland: It's still somewhere there on the on the internet.
- 6:38David McClelland: But likewise, you know, I think many of us, Adobe's got a very good community outreach program.
- 6:44David McClelland: It works with a lot of people in the community.
- 6:47David McClelland: So there are a good number of people who over the years have rubbed shoulders with Adobe directly as well as indirectly by using their software.
- 6:56David McClelland: But that being said, trust is what we're about.
- 6:59David McClelland: Right now and there's certainly been a kind of fracture of that trust and that started to manifest itself a few weeks ago when Adobe issued an update to its terms of terms of use.
- 7:11David McClelland: Tell us a bit
- 7:12Glyn Dewis: It was Terms of Use, Terms of Service, and this happened at the very beginning of June.
- 7:15Glyn Dewis: And it's rather than a new Terms of Service, it's actually a reacceptance of the Terms of Service.
- 7:21Glyn Dewis: And it's, and Adobe, I think, would be the first to put their hands up that the way this was done was questionable.
- 7:27Glyn Dewis: It could have been done a lot better whereby people were opening up their applications, you know, just going to do their regular stuff.
- 7:32Glyn Dewis: And a pop up would appear to say they are to accept these terms.
- 7:36Glyn Dewis: If they didn't, they were no longer able to use their apps.
- 7:39Glyn Dewis: And it's like, what?
- 7:39Glyn Dewis: And understandably that caused a lot of anger because it was, you know, it seemed to be thrust upon them.
- 7:45Glyn Dewis: But I think what's happened then is that has then caused people to then dive in to see what, what are these terms that I'm agreeing to?
- 7:53Glyn Dewis: Or I've got to agree to, to use these applications.
- 7:56Glyn Dewis: And once they've dived into them.
- 7:58Glyn Dewis: Because the lay person doesn't necessarily understand legal terminology, on the face value, when you look at it, it can sound awful, absolutely awful, particularly in one section of the terms of service where it explains what it gives wording such as that it gives Adobe authority to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, sub license all your content.
- 8:22Glyn Dewis: So that was, that's where the problem started.
- 8:24Glyn Dewis: However, I was initially made aware of this by several emails all of a sudden seemed to come in and one in particular said, Glyn, is this true?
- 8:31Glyn Dewis: Is it true that if you use any Adobe app, Adobe have got their rights to have it be online or offline.
- 8:38Glyn Dewis: That is how ridiculously inflate.
- 8:41Glyn Dewis: Absolutely.
- 8:42Glyn Dewis: That is how inflated this became rather than, you know, taking on face value, what the words are.
- 8:47Glyn Dewis: This is how very quickly the terms of service became exaggerated.
- 8:51Glyn Dewis: And people were believing all kinds of stuff.
- 8:53Glyn Dewis: So that's when I thought, hold on a second, just to hear that sounds ridiculous.
- 8:58Glyn Dewis: It sounds absolutely ridiculous.
- 8:59Glyn Dewis: So that's when I kind of dived in to have a look at what was going on.
- 9:02Glyn Dewis: Then I started to notice that there was many videos being published across social platforms, in particular, YouTube.
- 9:09Glyn Dewis: And sure enough, Adobe responded to that on the 10th of June to say, look, we've recently rolled out the Terms of Service, and there are certain areas that people are concerned about.
- 9:19Glyn Dewis: So they clarified certain things like, we do not own your content.
- 9:23Glyn Dewis: Because again, that was one of the things that cropped up.
- 9:26Glyn Dewis: People were concerned about ownership of content, the fact that Adobe were looking on their hard drives.
- 9:31Glyn Dewis: Which again, they clarified saying, look, we're not looking at your local content.
- 9:36Glyn Dewis: It is content that is actually uploaded to the server.
- 9:39Glyn Dewis: And there's certain things about that.
- 9:40Glyn Dewis: It's not as cut and dried as what it sounds just because it's on the server doesn't mean to say it's being looked at.
- 9:45Glyn Dewis: So they kind of clarified this.
- 9:48Glyn Dewis: Then there was a follow up blog post again, because that didn't, you know, sort of stem the fire.
- 9:53Glyn Dewis: That sort of seemed to fuel it even more because people were then doing more videos saying, blog posts aren't legal documents.
- 10:01Glyn Dewis: And it was just, it was just getting ridiculous.
- 10:03Glyn Dewis: There was just, nobody was listening.
- 10:05Glyn Dewis: It just said, that's how it seemed from the outside looking in.
- 10:08Glyn Dewis: But what Adobe then did was, and you know, all credit to them because they didn't need to do this because legal terminology is, is the same across many, many companies.
- 10:19Glyn Dewis: But what they did was on the 18th of June, they then reissued the terms of service.
- 10:25Glyn Dewis: They published it again, and that was misinterpreted because people were saying that Adobe are backpedaling and they're reissuing a new terms of service.
- 10:33Glyn Dewis: Absolutely not reissuing a new terms of service.
- 10:36Glyn Dewis: They were rewording it for the layperson like the likes of me, the likes of you who aren't in the legal profession to be able to understand what those actual words mean.
- 10:47Glyn Dewis: That's what they did.
- 10:49Glyn Dewis: Um, And I think then a lot of people were like, all right, now I get it.
- 10:54Glyn Dewis: Because you see, David, my my priority here was I was having followers who would clearly getting a bit distressed about this, and they're very anxious about using the Is it true they can do this?
- 11:03Glyn Dewis: Is it true they can do that?
- 11:05Glyn Dewis: And I have a duty to ensure that look, I need to get the facts for you.
- 11:10Glyn Dewis: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna kind of take any sides.
- 11:13Glyn Dewis: I'm gonna go right down the center here, and I'm gonna just take it on face value.
- 11:16Glyn Dewis: But what?
- 11:16Glyn Dewis: What is actually being explained here?
- 11:18Glyn Dewis: And when it's all explained, it's like, now I get it.
- 11:21Glyn Dewis: Now I completely get it.
- 11:22Glyn Dewis: And so it's great that there are people now that are understanding it.
- 11:26Glyn Dewis: Um, because it's had to be explained.
- 11:28Glyn Dewis: And I'll, you know, I'll say, I didn't, when I first read them, I was like, that doesn't sound good.
- 11:33Glyn Dewis: It really doesn't, because I didn't understand what they meant.
- 11:35Glyn Dewis: But when it was explained, it's like, right, now I get it.
- 11:38Glyn Dewis: You know, they're not.
- 11:38Glyn Dewis: So Adobe clearly state that they don't own your content.
- 11:42Glyn Dewis: You own your content.
- 11:44Glyn Dewis: They're not looking at your, um, content on your hard drive.
- 11:47Glyn Dewis: It's purely on the server, but there's certain sections like section two covers, you know, have the ownership and the privacy and why they would look at it.
- 11:57Glyn Dewis: And if I, I mean, I've got some of these tabs open here, I can just kind of go through it.
- 12:01Glyn Dewis: Section two basically says it covers the access to your content and, you know, I'll read it verbatim here.
- 12:06Glyn Dewis: It says no one, but you owns your content.
- 12:09Glyn Dewis: But we do need access to your content as necessary to operate Adobe's applications and services.
- 12:14Glyn Dewis: Now, the only time they would ever look at it, if you imagine, I mean, you'll, you'll know, because you've, you've used the Adobe apps, you've used generative fill.
- 12:21Glyn Dewis: There may be the odd occasion when you try to maybe fill in an area, you submit it, you see it go up there, you see that contextual taskbar there, you tell it what you want, it then sends it to the server.
- 12:32Glyn Dewis: And every now and again, you might get a response back that says that it's not going to do it.
- 12:36Glyn Dewis: I'm paraphrasing now.
- 12:37Glyn Dewis: It's not going to do it because of inappropriate content.
- 12:40Glyn Dewis: Their server has maybe seen a bit of skin and it's thought, Oh no, I can't.
- 12:44Glyn Dewis: That's inappropriate.
- 12:44Glyn Dewis: I can't do it.
- 12:45Glyn Dewis: That is their servers looking at your content.
- 12:49Glyn Dewis: Now, if you imagine how many people are using this stuff, You know, there isn't a team of millions of people sat in offices at Adobe waiting for David McClelland to upload something using generative fill to look at it to see if it's okay to have a look at it, but it says they may look at your content and examples of when a human might look at it.
- 13:11Glyn Dewis: It says here is because basically when, um, something is flagged up that it's not appropriate, and when I say not appropriate, it could fall into the lines of, you know, is it spam content?
- 13:24Glyn Dewis: Is it phishing content?
- 13:25Glyn Dewis: All that kind of stuff.
- 13:26Glyn Dewis: Okay, that's when they would dive into it.
- 13:28Glyn Dewis: So it says a human review of the cloud content would only happen when you ask us.
- 13:32Glyn Dewis: So if somebody contacts saying, Look, I'm I've seen this, it's not appropriate.
- 13:36Glyn Dewis: When you make cloud content publicly available, like on Adobe Stock or Behance, that's fair enough.
- 13:41Glyn Dewis: When your cloud content is flagged as illegal or abusive, and when you opt into a pre release beta or product improvement program, which obviously you can opt out of, so those were the options there, you know, when, when it would generally be looked at.
- 13:55Glyn Dewis: The op, the actual terminology in section four, which I think is the one that really caused that knee jerk reaction, which has got those things.
- 14:04David McClelland: section, isn't it
- 14:05Glyn Dewis: Your content where it says about you, you are giving Adobe authority to reproduce, distribute.
- 14:11Glyn Dewis: That's when I first read it.
- 14:12Glyn Dewis: I was like, wow, that doesn't sound good.
- 14:14Glyn Dewis: But when you read it, it's absolutely fine.
- 14:17Glyn Dewis: It basically, I mean, a perfect example is to reproduce or distribute.
- 14:22Glyn Dewis: Even let's say it talks about Adobe can distribute.
- 14:25Glyn Dewis: That doesn't mean externally.
- 14:27Glyn Dewis: That basically means, let's say if you're using your, I don't know, Lightroom, let's say, or Photoshop at your home on your main computer, and you want to do something on Adobe Express, they've got to distribute it from Photoshop into Adobe Express.
- 14:41Glyn Dewis: That's what it kind of means by,
- 14:44David McClelland: Yeah,
- 14:44Glyn Dewis: and you might want, you might create a document in Adobe Express that's in English that you think this would be good to have this translated into French.
- 14:53Glyn Dewis: That there is creating a derivative work.
- 14:56Glyn Dewis: It's not changing what you've done and selling it and what have you.
- 14:59Glyn Dewis: Yeah,
- 14:59David McClelland: But the problem is, here, Glyn, is that when you, when you have somebody practically hold your hand to walk you through it and say, right, this is what this actually means, then, then that's fine, but if the wording is vague, if it's unclear, and, frankly, if it's in the context of the, Hmm.
- 15:17David McClelland: the whole world being a bit paranoid about Tech and what generative AI, anything else really to do with technology accessing our personally identifiable information and our creative works, of course it's not that difficult for our own brains to start going on a bit of a journey the same as a Gen AI does when it starts hallucinating.
- 15:40David McClelland: Um, that will, um, It will automatically go towards the negative side of the story here.
- 15:47David McClelland: So, is the problem, is the problem how vague, how blunt, how impregnable these terms of services generally are anyway?
- 15:59David McClelland: And again,
- 16:00Glyn Dewis: Yeah.
- 16:01David McClelland: the terms of service, by the way, that Adobe, uh, reissued that we had to re agree to back at the beginning of June 2024 were not actually that radically different to those that were already there.
- 16:15David McClelland: Um, and I, I'm looking in a story here, I'll post a link to it in the show notes from The Verge, they actually highlight the differences between the Terms of Service issued on February the 17th compared with the one that was issued at the beginning of June and it's pretty minor changes.
- 16:32David McClelland: But, because a few people obviously flew the flag, because of the way that attention was drawn to it, because you had to click through in order to continue using your Adobe apps, that's why it's raised a lot of, uh, a lot of noise and, frankly, because it's free.
- 16:50David McClelland: Do we trust big tech anymore?
- 16:51David McClelland: Well, whether or not you believe it, Adobe always has its users best interests at heart.
- 16:56David McClelland: In a way, that's by the by, because there are lots of other examples of companies that also big question marks hanging over their head, and I'm afraid Adobe gets lumped into the same big tech bucket as some those other companies as well.
- 17:09David McClelland: So, we need to simplify this language.
- 17:12David McClelland: We can't have a Glyn Dewis on hand all the time.
- 17:15Glyn Dewis: Well, and this is what's something this is what's positive going to come out of this.
- 17:19Glyn Dewis: I mean, it has been, you know, pretty horrific.
- 17:21Glyn Dewis: And yeah, sure enough, Adobe have really faced a backlash.
- 17:25Glyn Dewis: They really, really have.
- 17:27Glyn Dewis: And I'm sure they regret the way that this was initially introduced at the beginning of June, it could have definitely been handled better.
- 17:33Glyn Dewis: But I think if anything's going to come from this, and it's not just Adobe, because there are other companies, which I've done all my research to find that in their terms of service, they have identical wording companies like absolutely a like Blackmagic who make DaVinci Resolve identical terminology in their terms of service on one.
- 17:53Glyn Dewis: Topaz labs.
- 17:54Glyn Dewis: It's identical.
- 17:55Glyn Dewis: Absolutely identical.
- 17:57Glyn Dewis: But this the problem here is, is that the way that this was initially done by Adobe where people were receiving that pop up that they had to agree to these terms.
- 18:05Glyn Dewis: I think what that's done is it's it's caused people for the very first time to actually look at the terms of service because ordinary we're all we're all guilty of it.
- 18:13Glyn Dewis: You know, we sign up to something.
- 18:15Glyn Dewis: I'd be fine.
- 18:15Glyn Dewis: And away you go.
- 18:16Glyn Dewis: But this kind of like full stop of like, if you don't click on this, you can't use the apps has made people go and check it out.
- 18:23Glyn Dewis: And when they've checked it out, by no fault of their own, have they maybe misinterpreted the terminology.
- 18:29Glyn Dewis: Very easy to do when you take it on face value, what those words are.
- 18:33Glyn Dewis: So in a kind of perverse way, it's good that this has happened because it's forced Adobe to say, look, in simple terminology, this is what this means.
- 18:44Glyn Dewis: But really now, now this has happened.
- 18:47Glyn Dewis: Other companies should be doing the same because if people do their own, do their homework and go and look at other terms of service, they'll see identical terminology.
- 18:54Glyn Dewis: So, you know, if you're going to get annoyed and angry and misinterpret Adobe's terms of service, then surely that means then you need to go and do the same with On1 and Topaz Labs and Skylum and all those.
- 19:05Glyn Dewis: Theirs are the same.
- 19:06Glyn Dewis: In fact, Skylum's one even says they can monetize your content.
- 19:09Glyn Dewis: That's not in Adobe's.
- 19:10Glyn Dewis: So there are differences in some of them, so,
- 19:14David McClelland: thing I will comment on is Adobe's reaction to the noise throughout the journey, because I think it would be fair to say that right at the beginning of this, as people were noting their objections, Online um, Adobe kind of put the barriers up a little bit and it was only after that when we started to see people from Adobe the Adobe evangelists the Adobe community lead people actually responding very personally, whether that was, uh, Paul Trani or Scott Belsky, you mentioned my hearts earlier on, um, addressing these directly and really being on the front line of the, of the social media, um, uh, face there trying to, um, address the loudest voices head on.
- 20:01David McClelland: I mean, I think, of course, they're never gonna, they're never gonna win, but it was notable how they definitely were out there in the battlefield.
- 20:09David McClelland: And then, yeah, the number of responses, Adobe did take this very, very seriously.
- 20:15David McClelland: And like you, I hope there, if there is something that we can learn from this and take away from it, it's that, well, we don't go through this again, and that other companies will also follow suit.
- 20:27David McClelland: And, uh, uh, simplify the terms and conditions because we're all going to benefit from
- 20:32Glyn Dewis: Absolutely, yeah.
- 20:33David McClelland: Now, the terms of use isn't all that's been keeping the Adobe legal team busy this last month, is it Glyn?
- 20:41Glyn Dewis: No, no, not at all.
- 20:44Glyn Dewis: Obviously, there's the, there's the, uh, legal action that's being taken in the U.
- 20:48Glyn Dewis: S.
- 20:48Glyn Dewis: regards to the subscriptions, um, and if you depending on what you read, it's basically to do with the difficulty in closing your account being one issue and the hidden fees, how expensive it can be for people to leave.
- 21:03David McClelland: So this all comes down to what they call APM, isn't it?
- 21:07David McClelland: This Annual Pay Monthly.
- 21:08David McClelland: And very often when you will sign up, and this is, as I'm sure we'll discuss in a moment, it's not just an Adobe thing, this is pretty much any something as a service that you sign up to.
- 21:20David McClelland: You will see a monthly fee, and then, well, I guess it goes in a couple of different ways.
- 21:28David McClelland: Usually the default one you'll see is the monthly fee As long as you sign up for a year and then if you switch that little radio tab away or whatever then you will start to see the monthly fee if you just pay month by month and it's a lot higher and what the what the part of what the legal action in the u.
- 21:46David McClelland: s.
- 21:46David McClelland: Is about it seems is that this has not been particularly transparent and customers have found themselves tied up into annual contracts when they do didn't believe that they were being tied up into, uh, into annual contracts.
- 22:02David McClelland: Now for me, I, I, again, maybe I'm not a typical consumer because with a good part of my work I go through these terms and conditions.
- 22:13David McClelland: That's, that, that's part of my job to understand that and to try and find the points at which consumers get, get tripped up.
- 22:20David McClelland: But then the other half of this, is the cancellation piece as well, and how difficult it is supposed to be, or it is alleged that it is being, to cancel your subscription to these services.
- 22:31David McClelland: Now, I've been through this process myself when I was doing some client work.
- 22:35David McClelland: I had two Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions, and I had to cancel one of those.
- 22:40David McClelland: And I honestly don't remember it being all that difficult.
- 22:45David McClelland: Now, I'm aware that I'm in the UK, and maybe it's different process for me over here than it is in the US, so maybe with that caveat, I would say I didn't find it to be too difficult to process personally.
- 23:01David McClelland: What's been your take on this one?
- 23:04Glyn Dewis: Um, interesting one is the reason I wanted to look into this was because whenever I tried to explain the terms of service, this was inevitably thrown back as being well, how can we trust them when this is going on?
- 23:16Glyn Dewis: So it made me look into it, but I've kind of gone through it to see what what is the process?
- 23:20Glyn Dewis: How easy would it be for me against somebody in the UK if I wanted to come out of this?
- 23:25Glyn Dewis: Now, when you go, you quite rightly mentioned there that there are different tiers.
- 23:29Glyn Dewis: Now, if I was going to go for a new person, I was going to subscribe to the Creative Cloud.
- 23:34Glyn Dewis: Let's say I wanted all of the applications.
- 23:35Glyn Dewis: So we're talking everything across the board.
- 23:38Glyn Dewis: Now, if I did that, I've got to open up on here.
- 23:40Glyn Dewis: Now I can give you the actual prices for it.
- 23:42Glyn Dewis: UK now.
- 23:44Glyn Dewis: We've got a number of different ways.
- 23:45Glyn Dewis: I could actually get the Creative Cloud.
- 23:47Glyn Dewis: The first one being a monthly.
- 23:49Glyn Dewis: Now this is this is purely a monthly, not a monthly, but a year contract is a monthly, which I can cancel at any time, and that would cost me 85 a month.
- 23:58Glyn Dewis: However, if I paid monthly, but in the annual plan, which 12 month contract, that would be 56 a month.
- 24:08Glyn Dewis: So a significant difference.
- 24:10Glyn Dewis: And also for the first three months, 50 percent off.
- 24:12Glyn Dewis: So I'd be paying 27, just under 28.
- 24:16Glyn Dewis: But that is paid monthly for a yearly contract.
- 24:18Glyn Dewis: And then the other one is where you have, you can do an annual prepaid, which is just shy of 700.
- 24:25Glyn Dewis: So you're going to most people, which is what we used
- 24:28David McClelland: used to pay for the box.
- 24:30Glyn Dewis: Absolutely.
- 24:30Glyn Dewis: We did.
- 24:31Glyn Dewis: Yeah, we didn't own it.
- 24:32Glyn Dewis: We, you know, we got an end of user agreements and we were licensed to use it and we would get the updates.
- 24:37Glyn Dewis: It'd be 18 months if we were lucky.
- 24:39Glyn Dewis: Obviously, now we get them, which can be on a weekly basis.
- 24:41Glyn Dewis: So look at the prices there.
- 24:43Glyn Dewis: Most people would go for the, uh, the monthly, and it could maybe be a little bit confusing if you think you've signed up for monthly, but you end up getting the annual.
- 24:50Glyn Dewis: However, what I will say about the annual one is You are tied in for a year.
- 24:56Glyn Dewis: And it says that when you go to click on that, it says see terms.
- 24:59Glyn Dewis: Now, you know, again, I'm, I could be guilty of this.
- 25:02Glyn Dewis: When you see C terms, you think I cannot be bothered.
- 25:05Glyn Dewis: That's going to be reams upon reams of content to find exactly what I want.
- 25:09Glyn Dewis: However, I clicked on it.
- 25:10Glyn Dewis: It's four lines of text.
- 25:12Glyn Dewis: When you click on the C terms, all it is is four lines.
- 25:15Glyn Dewis: The second line says, again, I'm paraphrasing you are in, this is a 12 month contract.
- 25:22Glyn Dewis: Okay, so you're going to have to pay that thing for 12 months.
- 25:25Glyn Dewis: Now, the problem is that people aren't happy that if they've signed up for that, and they want to close that subscription sooner, they are being charged.
- 25:35Glyn Dewis: Now, my thoughts on this, again, I'm trying to remain impartial on this and be on the fence here, is that this is no different to me now, if I was going to get a new broadband contract with, say, BT.
- 25:47Glyn Dewis: Now, if I, if I liked that contract, I thought I liked the price of it, I'm tied in for two years.
- 25:52Glyn Dewis: If I want to leave that to a different provider within that two year period, I have to pay the remaining cost of what it would be to had I stayed in for two years.
- 26:04Glyn Dewis: With Adobe, what I've seen is that if you try to finish your contract early, yes, there is a cancellation fee and you would expect it to be how much it would be to the remaining term.
- 26:17Glyn Dewis: However, what they say is You pay 50 percent of the remaining term.
- 26:22Glyn Dewis: Now, the only company I'm aware of that actually does that rather than making you pay the full price is the RAC, breakdown recovery.
- 26:30Glyn Dewis: If you, you know, if you want to come out of their contracts early, that's what they do.
- 26:33Glyn Dewis: But everybody else, like we've got BT, EE, house insurance.
- 26:37Glyn Dewis: We, if we finished it early, we would have to pay that.
- 26:40Glyn Dewis: So that's, that's basically my little bit of digging that I've done.
- 26:43Glyn Dewis: So I'm, I'm intrigued to see how this goes.
- 26:46Glyn Dewis: But what I will say is Adobe haven't been sued.
- 26:49Glyn Dewis: There is a legal process going ahead because you'll see somewhere that people say, Oh, Adobe have, have been sued as in past tense.
- 26:55Glyn Dewis: No, no, no.
- 26:55Glyn Dewis: There's a legal process.
- 26:58Glyn Dewis: in place now.
- 26:59Glyn Dewis: Do you know what I mean?
- 26:59Glyn Dewis: They're investigating.
- 27:00Glyn Dewis: And clearly, Adobe are going to investigate it.
- 27:03Glyn Dewis: But I, I think I'm going to do a little bit more digging because I'm curious to see what the process for closing your account, which like you, I went to do all but press cancel.
- 27:14Glyn Dewis: And I found it very easy.
- 27:15Glyn Dewis: I went to my Adobe account, then to my plan, manage plan, and then cancel.
- 27:20Glyn Dewis: I didn't click the cancel.
- 27:21Glyn Dewis: So I'll be intrigued to see that.
- 27:22Glyn Dewis: However, I do find it funny, David.
- 27:25Glyn Dewis: And when I say funny, I don't mean ha ha, I find it kind of weird, probably the best thing to say is that when you look at the terms of service conversation we've had, and now the subscription, you'll see lots of comments within YouTube videos, Where people have said, you know, they're leaving Adobe or they've left Adobe.
- 27:42Glyn Dewis: Yes, I did it yesterday.
- 27:42Glyn Dewis: I left loads of people saying they've left.
- 27:45Glyn Dewis: Not no mention of how difficult it was, how much they were charged.
- 27:48David McClelland: Oh yes, of
- 27:49Glyn Dewis: that's kind of weird.
- 27:50Glyn Dewis: kind of weird that all these people are saying they're leaving in droves, but not one person said I tried to leave, but couldn't, or I was charged a fortune.
- 27:57Glyn Dewis: So I'm intrigued to see how all this goes.
- 28:01David McClelland: Yes.
- 28:01David McClelland: So, uh, just to address one of your points there about where this, where this allegation, legal action is, I'll, again, I'll post a link to this story in the show notes.
- 28:10David McClelland: The FTC, the Federal Trade Commission in the U.
- 28:13David McClelland: S., filed a complaint in California on Monday, which would have been the week, uh, around about the 18th, maybe a bit before then, my calendar in front of me, saying the company, Adobe, Behind Acrobat, Photoshop, and so on, has harmed consumers by failing to clearly disclose its planned terms.
- 28:32David McClelland: And again, things may be different in the U.
- 28:35David McClelland: S.
- 28:35David McClelland: than they are here Europe, or in other markets as well, so Glyn and I are speaking about our experiences there.
- 28:41David McClelland: But, um, one way or another, it's certainly another headache for Adobe, and will track
- 28:48Glyn Dewis: certainly hasn't helped them fight the terms of service.
- 28:50Glyn Dewis: It really hasn't.
- 28:51Glyn Dewis: It's not, uh, you know, talk about, you all things coming at once, you know, they say it comes in threes.
- 28:56Glyn Dewis: I'm hoping that's not the case with this.
- 29:00David McClelland: Well, a lot going on at Adobe for sure, and I'm pretty sure it's not the last we'll hear of this similar kerfuffles with other providers of online services, too, and Glyn mentioned a few of them there.
- 29:10David McClelland: We're also seeing similar stuff right now about, uh, Uploaded user content, uh, for Gen AI uses at Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
- 29:20David McClelland: But I think the discussion on that's maybe for a different podcast.
- 29:24David McClelland: Anyway, let us know your takes on the Adobe fiasco, drama, call it whatever you will.
- 29:29David McClelland: Get in touch on the socials.
- 29:31David McClelland: Leave us a comment on one of the podcast posts on the Photography Show Facebook page.
- 29:37David McClelland: And well, later in the show, I'll even let us, I'll even let you know you.
- 29:40David McClelland: how you can get in touch with us using good old fashioned text message.
- 29:45David McClelland: Time for a change of gear for now though.
- 29:48David McClelland: Let's hear from this month's feature guest.
- 29:59David McClelland: Emma Finch is a Manchester based, multi award winning portrait photographer.
- 30:04David McClelland: Starting her professional career with children and family portraits in 2016, she opened Belle Privé, a Manchester studio specialising in boudoir and lingerie photography.
- 30:17David McClelland: As well as capturing images for private and commercial clients, Emma lectures and trains extensively, including a popular talk on portraits with impact.
- 30:29Emma Finch: Portraiture, it's all about the connection, um, to the person.
- 30:32Emma Finch: It's all about the person.
- 30:33Emma Finch: The first thing you want to look at, um, in any portrait image is the person, it's the eyes.
- 30:39Emma Finch: Um, having said that, I think all the elements come together.
- 30:42Emma Finch: So composition, lighting, um, posing, styling, all these things come together to make Uh, a powerful portrait.
- 30:50David McClelland: I think when you're starting out, you, you know, you've got lots of think about settings, lighting, you know, how to work the camera, and you're not really focusing on the person in front of your lens as you get more experienced, um, and it becomes second nature, you know, you just know your settings, you know, your lighting, you know what to do.
- 31:06David McClelland: Uh, you can really connect with the, with the person in front of the lens.
- 31:09David McClelland: and I guess there's, there's, there's two ways of looking at that.
- 31:11David McClelland: portraits with impact.
- 31:12David McClelland: Firstly, for me, because I shoot mostly clients, I want them to look at the images and go, wow, is that really me?
- 31:19David McClelland: Um, I want the, the impact to be for them.
- 31:21David McClelland: I want them to be really happy with the images I'm shooting for them.
- 31:24David McClelland: but secondly, the other element to what I do, because I do competitions, if I'm shooting for a competition, so I'm not shooting to take a flattering image of a client, then I want that image, not necessarily to be flattering, but to have some impact, whether that's in the lighting or in the styling or in the expression of the, of the person, but just something where you have a connection to that image where you feel some emotion to it.
- 31:48David McClelland: So I think really to create an impactful portrait, all the elements of, of photography really, really need to, to come together.
- 31:55David McClelland: And it's interesting what you talk about there.
- 31:56David McClelland: It's something that I enjoy hearing from creatives about and it's about that connection with your client, and I guess depending upon the context in which you're shooting and whom you're shooting as well a professional model, on the one hand, versus someone who might be, in a, what could be seen as a vulnerable environment, somewhere where they aren't familiar.
- 32:20David McClelland: Not every day someone goes into a photo studio and is surrounded by lights and all has professional photographer front of them.
- 32:27David McClelland: So what strategies do you have for creating that connection, when it's that connection that you are creating?
- 32:34David McClelland: Trying to nurture in order to create an impactful portrait What are the strategies that you have to try and ensure that you do create that connection?
- 32:43Emma Finch: So with clients who, you know, sometimes this is the first time in front of the, of the camera, as you mentioned, you know, it's intimidating walking into a studio, particularly if it's boudoir, you know, you've got to be standing in your underwear in front of someone that you don't know with studio lights.
- 32:57Emma Finch: It's very intimidating.
- 32:59Emma Finch: Um, really the whole process starts.
- 33:02Emma Finch: with the first communication that they send to me.
- 33:04Emma Finch: I want them to be as prepared as possible before they arrive at the studio.
- 33:07Emma Finch: So I give them lots of information, um, you know, this is me, this is what I look like, this is the studio, this is what the studio looks like, this is how to get there, this is what you should bring, this is what happens on the day.
- 33:17Emma Finch: I want them to be fully aware of what's going to happen before they sort of step into the, into the studio, so they're not arriving uh, You know, flustered, there's no shocks.
- 33:25Emma Finch: They're not, they're not late, you know, there's, there's no surprises there.
- 33:29Emma Finch: I usually work with a hair and makeup artist, which is perfect because they've got two hours, um, you know, relaxing with a very chatty makeup artist.
- 33:37Emma Finch: They're looking good.
- 33:38Emma Finch: They're feeling good.
- 33:39Emma Finch: the studio tends to be, it's quite girly.
- 33:42Emma Finch: It's quite, uh, it's very comfortable.
- 33:44Emma Finch: There's lots of soft furnishings.
- 33:45Emma Finch: I don't have all my, um, kit out.
- 33:47Emma Finch: I don't have all my lights out.
- 33:48Emma Finch: So I only have the lights out that I'm going to be using.
- 33:51Emma Finch: so try and make it as, as relaxed and comfortable as possible.
- 33:54Emma Finch: Um, when we start the shoot, you know, I will always say I'm just doing a test of the lights.
- 33:59Emma Finch: You know, I'm not doing a test of the lights.
- 34:01Emma Finch: I've been doing this long enough to know what the lights are going to do.
- 34:03Emma Finch: I want them to know what it feels like, uh, in front of the lens, uh, with the lights flashing, which, you know, if you've not been in a studio environment, they're bright lights.
- 34:12Emma Finch: I want them to get used to, you know, me being in front of the lens.
- 34:15Emma Finch: and then once we start, and this goes for whether I'm shooting children or grownups, I always have the camera up near my face.
- 34:22Emma Finch: My camera's ready, but it's a very, it's a very sort of fluid process.
- 34:26Emma Finch: You know, chat, chat, chat, click, chat, click, you know, it's not, okay, we're going to shoot and then it all goes silent.
- 34:31Emma Finch: And then I start clicking.
- 34:33Emma Finch: there's lots of fluidity.
- 34:33Emma Finch: of communication, lots of positive reinforcement, lots of compliments, um, you know, if I'm shooting with kids, you know, we're chatting about dinosaurs or princesses or whatever it is that, that they enjoy.
- 34:44Emma Finch: I want the people to be as comfortable as possible.
- 34:47Emma Finch: Um, and you can, you can physically see that, um, they come in, they look nervous, they look tense, their shoulders are up and you can see after about 10 minutes, the shoulders relaxed.
- 34:55Emma Finch: They start to sort of smile more naturally.
- 34:57Emma Finch: They're moving more naturally.
- 34:58Emma Finch: and it's just having that communication, um, going through that, the whole, the whole process.
- 35:04Emma Finch: and you can see from the start of the shoot to the end of the shoot, there's a whole transformation.
- 35:08Emma Finch: By the end of it, they are posing like a professional.
- 35:10Emma Finch: I don't even have to tell them what to do.
- 35:12Emma Finch: Um, and they will sashay down the corridor, like a supermodel at the end, because they feel amazing.
- 35:17Emma Finch: and really it's, it's down to sort of the communication and, uh, and just keeping it positive at all times.
- 35:22David McClelland: You spoke about the importance of the makeup artist there a chatty makeup artist and I can absolutely back that up working in tv for goodness knows how long particularly when you have nervous or first timer contributors who have never been to a Tv studio before that 15 minutes, you know having two hours in makeup that that that doesn't happen in Tv but having 10 minutes five minutes or something with a makeup artist and they are fantastic, not only at the craft making somebody look look their best look at uh a good version of themselves, whatever it is on the day but at relaxing them at not not distracting necessarily but helping them to feel comfortable in the environment because they're kind of inside but on the outside as well Uh, and that role really cannot be underestimated.
- 36:14David McClelland: So, uh, yeah, i'm i'm pleased to hear that you you find the value in that as well.
- 36:18David McClelland: Uh, so you started off, uh, you have two young children.
- 36:23David McClelland: You started off in family portraiture work with, work with the client group.
- 36:27David McClelland: that, that, you know, I'm sure you've got some fab family portraits of your own, but then you chose to specialize, uh, Belle Privé was one of the outcomes of that.
- 36:37David McClelland: What drove that decision to specialize for you and what was it that inspired the direction?
- 36:43David McClelland: Was, was there a moment when.
- 36:45David McClelland: Belle Privé and the boudoir lingerie commercial photography became, became clear to you, or was it a bit of a journey?
- 36:52David McClelland: Did you try some other areas first and what fit?
- 36:56Emma Finch: As with my whole career, it's, there's, it's never been planned.
- 36:58Emma Finch: It's been very, very organic.
- 37:00Emma Finch: Um, how I got into photography originally.
- 37:03Emma Finch: Was my, my two girls.
- 37:04Emma Finch: I wanted to capture, them growing up.
- 37:07Emma Finch: They were very tiny.
- 37:07Emma Finch: They, they changed so fast when they're little.
- 37:10Emma Finch: And I really wanted to improve my photography purely for me.
- 37:14Emma Finch: So I could capture good images of them.
- 37:16Emma Finch: It sort of grew into a business.
- 37:18Emma Finch: Um, you know, I had a website.
- 37:20Emma Finch: I think somebody scrolled to the end of the internet to find me because was the most basic website.
- 37:25Emma Finch: Um, you know, I, I, I did it.
- 37:27Emma Finch: I took the client it's all been word of mouth ever since it's still word of mouth terrible at marketing.
- 37:32Emma Finch: So the family, you know, the family and children are very much specialized in the under fives because that's how old my two were at the time.
- 37:38Emma Finch: So what you show in your portfolio tends to be what you attract.
- 37:41Emma Finch: So it was very niche area to start, start with and starting with the under fives, which are tricky clients to work with.
- 37:49Emma Finch: Uh, very fast moving, a little bit temperamental, a little bit grumpy.
- 37:54Emma Finch: It really got me used to camera settings and knowing them really fast, and working with slightly awkward, uh, impatient clients.
- 38:02Emma Finch: So it was a really good grounding in, in portraiture.
- 38:04Emma Finch: If you can shoot a two year old in the park, then you can, you know, working in a studio with a grownup is, is easy.
- 38:10Emma Finch: So a couple of years after doing the, starting the, the family business, I wanted to get to grips with, with studio lighting, which I thought was a, you know, a complete dark art.
- 38:19Emma Finch: I was a natural light photographer.
- 38:21Emma Finch: Um, I thought you needed 12 different lights firing in 12 different directions.
- 38:25Emma Finch: turns out it's not just as complicated as I thought.
- 38:28Emma Finch: so I spent about a year in the studio.
- 38:30Emma Finch: Um, you know, learning studio lighting, working with models and really understanding posing because particularly with boudoir, it's all about the posing, you know, there's nowhere to hide, you're not hiding under a dress from the toes to the top of the head.
- 38:43Emma Finch: It's got to be, it's got to be in position.
- 38:45Emma Finch: again, it was kind of organic.
- 38:47Emma Finch: I've always loved lingerie.
- 38:48Emma Finch: I've always been drawn to sort of vintage Hollywood and that of glamorous, that's, I'm very inspired by, by that.
- 38:56Emma Finch: period of time.
- 38:57Emma Finch: and I sort of started to build a portfolio.
- 39:00Emma Finch: I started to get some awards and publications and I thought, Oh, quite good at this.
- 39:05Emma Finch: I'm really enjoying this.
- 39:06Emma Finch: it's only recently this, this sort of past year, I've been through a sort of A journey of self discovery, which sounds a bit cliched, but it's only recently that I've understood that I like to help people.
- 39:19Emma Finch: I like to feel valuable to people.
- 39:21Emma Finch: And the reason why I've been so drawn to, to the genre of, of boudoir is because I want to help women with their, with their self confidence, with their body image, get something that I've struggled with in the past, as most women have.
- 39:33Emma Finch: I did a boudoir shoot years ago after I had the kids, and it really.
- 39:37Emma Finch: It made me feel good about myself.
- 39:40Emma Finch: And I wanted to pass on that experience to other women.
- 39:42Emma Finch: the clients that come, they've always got a backstory.
- 39:45Emma Finch: Uh, there's always a reason for coming.
- 39:47Emma Finch: they've had surgery, they've got cancer, they've had a difficult past.
- 39:50Emma Finch: They want to sort of reconnect with themselves.
- 39:53Emma Finch: These images are never going to be shown to anyone.
- 39:55Emma Finch: I can never use them in my portfolio.
- 39:57Emma Finch: This is purely the experience of doing the photo shoot.
- 40:00Emma Finch: I often say to, to people that often the images are, the secondary to the experience.
- 40:06Emma Finch: So it's the experience of doing the photo shoot for themselves.
- 40:10Emma Finch: and you can see the transformation, as I mentioned before, throughout the shoot.
- 40:14Emma Finch: Uh, and it's fantastic.
- 40:15Emma Finch: It's so rewarding.
- 40:17Emma Finch: And I think boudoir can be Often a misunderstood genre, but it's incredibly rewarding.
- 40:22Emma Finch: just to see that transformation, in the client, I absolutely love it.
- 40:26Emma Finch: I, I really love it.
- 40:29David McClelland: I find it fascinating how you talk about photography being a journey of self discovery as well, and although it maybe wasn't apparent to you earlier on in your journey, the penny dropped for you more recently about art.
- 40:43David McClelland: Okay.
- 40:44David McClelland: This is perhaps why it resonates with you.
- 40:47David McClelland: I have this, this thing that I feel as though I need to do, and that is now manifesting itself through the work that I'm doing with my clients.
- 40:57David McClelland: I find that fascinating.
- 40:58David McClelland: And you talk about how your clients go on a journey from Whatever they have going on in their lives, why they are coming to see you in the first place, to that moment where you, where you show them the selects, you show them the first edits, and it's like, Wow, is that me?
- 41:14David McClelland: Well, yes it is.
- 41:16David McClelland: I'm curious as to, and you've obviously touched on it there, how has that journey felt for you?
- 41:23David McClelland: How do you feel?
- 41:26David McClelland: reflecting back on your journey over the last 10 or 11 years and those moments where you're showing your clients, yes this is you, how does that make you feel?
- 41:37Emma Finch: I eat, sleep and breathe what I do.
- 41:40Emma Finch: I am so passionate about what I do.
- 41:44Emma Finch: it is incredibly rewarding.
- 41:45Emma Finch: you know, to see that, um, transformation in clients and to get the messages back from, from people.
- 41:52Emma Finch: Again, this sounds.
- 41:53Emma Finch: Cliché, but it's almost life changing for some.
- 41:56Emma Finch: you know, I had a client recently, she'd had a, a difficult childhood.
- 42:00Emma Finch: She, she'd been abused.
- 42:01Emma Finch: She always felt shame and negativity around her body.
- 42:05Emma Finch: She wanted to come into the studio, no makeup, she'd shaved her head, no fancy lingerie, anything like that.
- 42:11Emma Finch: She just wanted, you know, draped bits of fabric and she wanted to sort of reconnect with her body and see herself, um, in a different way.
- 42:21Emma Finch: And she was kind of nervous when she came in.
- 42:23Emma Finch: And again, you can, what you can literally see the transformation, it happening in front of your eyes.
- 42:29Emma Finch: And you can see that in the, in the progression of the images throughout that shoot, and she opened up towards the end and told me why she was, why she was doing this, um, and you could see the joy in her face, other times I've had clients cry at the end of a shoot, you know, they've cried, I've cried, you know, it's been, it really is a transformative and profound experience for some clients.
- 42:49Emma Finch: I mean, some clients are just coming for bridal boudoir or something like that, you know, but a good chunk of them are coming with a, with a backstory.
- 42:56Emma Finch: Um, you know, there's a psychological reason why they feel they need to do it.
- 42:59Emma Finch: Yeah,
- 43:03David McClelland: these clients are sharing their, their stories, their backstories with you.
- 43:07David McClelland: My wife is a psychologist, she works with, with children her client group and professionally She needs to go through therapy or have supervision of her own just so that she can help to make sense of the journeys and the things that her clients are sharing with her.
- 43:23David McClelland: Sounds to me as though your role as a photographer and how your clients, just by virtue of the kind of work that you do with them, sounds to me as though there's a lot of psychology that plays out Uh, in in your interactions with them too.
- 43:38David McClelland: That must be quite difficult sometimes to to take on some of the stories that your clients are sharing with you.
- 43:44David McClelland: A real privilege but a real responsibility too.
- 43:47Emma Finch: it's, they do tend to open up.
- 43:49Emma Finch: It's, it's, as I say, it's, it's quite a, it's quite a girly experience.
- 43:52Emma Finch: You know, when we're shooting, it's just me and my client.
- 43:54Emma Finch: So, uh, and it's quite a small studio.
- 43:56Emma Finch: It's quite comfortable.
- 43:57Emma Finch: They, they do open up.
- 43:58Emma Finch: It's like.
- 43:59Emma Finch: When you go to the hairdresser, you end up telling the hairdresser everything.
- 44:01Emma Finch: It's that sort of experience.
- 44:03Emma Finch: But for me, I, I find it so rewarding.
- 44:06Emma Finch: It's always a positive experience..
- 44:08Emma Finch: It makes me want to try and explain to people who are a bit like boudoir really What it's all about, you know, it's not about taking pictures to give to the husband.
- 44:17Emma Finch: It's more than that, you know, it's for the women.
- 44:19Emma Finch: Maybe it's the way I've branded myself or the words that I've chosen to use on the website.
- 44:24Emma Finch: I do get women who book for themselves just for themselves.
- 44:27Emma Finch: No one's going to see the images.
- 44:28Emma Finch: It's purely an experience for themselves.
- 44:30Emma Finch: Uh, and I love that.
- 44:31David McClelland: Let's take a quick side step from the boudoir for a moment and looking at your output, apart from the family portraits you've spoken about, apart from the boudoir work, I also see, nuzzled in there, some dramatic and character portraits too, where Mad Hatter and Child Catcher were two characters I saw in your portfolio I think they're, they are well, they look to me to be dramatically different.
- 44:57David McClelland: Um, maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but where do they fit into your body of
- 45:01Emma Finch: Yeah, a little bit different from the, uh, from the children and the, and the women.
- 45:05Emma Finch: So I run events, um, through photography session days and, uh, the events are always themed.
- 45:10Emma Finch: So you know, different themes in different locations, but it's all about portraiture.
- 45:15Emma Finch: So often the character portraits that you see are, test shoots for events that we're going to be doing.
- 45:22Emma Finch: Also, my business partner, Graham Curry on the events is a character model.
- 45:25Emma Finch: So if he has new characters, To, um, to try out, then I will test them for him.
- 45:31Emma Finch: It's win win for me because I do competitions.
- 45:33Emma Finch: I do, you know, the Guild of Photographers, societies, competitions.
- 45:37Emma Finch: As I mentioned before, most of my work, I'm not allowed to share.
- 45:40Emma Finch: I don't have a release to share it.
- 45:42Emma Finch: No one's ever going to see it.
- 45:44Emma Finch: So in order to be able to do these, competitions, I have to have images that I've got permission to use, which is where the character portraits, come in.
- 45:51Emma Finch: And I'm finding that actually I seem to be doing quite well with these, uh, character portraits recently.
- 45:57Emma Finch: But I, again, I think it's to do with the impact and the images.
- 45:59Emma Finch: You know, if it's a costume or a character that you, that the judges haven't really seen before, then it's something a bit different.
- 46:06Emma Finch: You know, it might stand out from, from the rest, you know, rather than just a, a, you know, a, a nice portrait.
- 46:11Emma Finch: I think gone are the days of, you know, a nicely lit portrait doing well in competitions.
- 46:16Emma Finch: I think judges want something a bit different, a bit more, a bit more creative.
- 46:20Emma Finch: So, that's where the character portraits, come in slightly at odds with everything else that I do, but, uh, still enjoy it as fun.
- 46:26David McClelland: Well let, let's try and draw a line then because going back to how we started off our conversation about creating those portraits with impact and we lent into the connection between the photographer and the person, if you are instead taking images that are character portraits where you have a character actor like Graham or someone else, how do you still create that connection?
- 46:52David McClelland: That, that connection.
- 46:53David McClelland: Is the connection necessary for a successful portrait, or do you think that there are other things, other technical things, but other, more, I don't even know, somewhere that kind of, uh, crosses both the technical and the connection line to create that impactful portrait?
- 47:09Emma Finch: Yeah.
- 47:09Emma Finch: So I think again, all the things that we talked about before is important.
- 47:14Emma Finch: So the composition, you know, I do like dramatic lighting.
- 47:16Emma Finch: I, I, I really, I do like dark and moody lighting and something I like to do something with my lighting.
- 47:22Emma Finch: Um, you know, the pose is important.
- 47:24Emma Finch: The styling is important.
- 47:26Emma Finch: The connection to the, to the character.
- 47:29Emma Finch: It doesn't necessarily have to be a positive connection, you know, you can be, you know, you need to feel something, whether you're scared or a bit, ooh, what's that, you know, you need to, the image needs to make you feel something.
- 47:40Emma Finch: so you really want to show the personality of the character that they are portraying.
- 47:45Emma Finch: so recently had some success with the Viking, shoot, you know, and he looks scary and you look at it and you think, ooh, I wouldn't want to meet him on a, on a dark night.
- 47:53Emma Finch: So you're, you're feeling something.
- 47:55Emma Finch: Um, and again, that's down to, you know, Graham's ability in front of the camera and his expression in his face, but also all the other elements that are sort of tie it all together.
- 48:03Emma Finch: So you get that sort of emotion, not necessarily positive, but you feel something when you, when you look at it.
- 48:08David McClelland: And what are your tactics then for, creating that, uh, well, antagonistic you mentioned there a viking, or you work with a variety of different characters I'm sure, you have to change your, skills, behind the camera in order to create those reactions back from your talent.
- 48:30Emma Finch: so again, I'm not shooting to be flattering now.
- 48:34Emma Finch: I'm, you know, I'm shooting to create some drama in the image and, um, to create some, you know, more impact.
- 48:40Emma Finch: Um, so I'm mindful of the pose.
- 48:42Emma Finch: I tend to let them do what they want to do posing wise and then just tweak it.
- 48:46Emma Finch: So obviously anything coming towards the camera is going to look bigger, anything moving away.
- 48:49Emma Finch: You know, you want to see both hands, you want to see, you know, all these sort of basic elements with posing need to be mindful of.
- 48:55Emma Finch: But when it comes to facial expression.
- 48:57Emma Finch: you know, with the Viking, you know, the village is burning down, but you know, if you'd lost the fight, you, you know, you just sort of, you know, give them some sort of backstory to sort of get that expression, in their face, because the more expression you get in the face, the more impact it's going to have.
- 49:10David McClelland: Yeah, hot seating, role play, I I like it very much.
- 49:14David McClelland: So, Belle Privé, as we mentioned, that's the name for your boudoir and lingerie studio portrait business.
- 49:20David McClelland: And boudoir, burlesque, it's an area of work that has blossomed in popularity in recent years, hasn't it?
- 49:30David McClelland: What are the reasons for that, do you think?
- 49:33Emma Finch: it's sort of grown with the, me.
- 49:36Emma Finch: The rise of sort of femininity, you know, it's sort of, Boudoir sort of started off as, you know, with the burlesque dancers back in the, in the 20s, and it's sort of, it's sort of grown, and with the sexual revolution, people have got more used to seeing, you know, it's more accepted, I think.
- 49:52Emma Finch: These days are, as I mentioned before, they are, they're booking for themselves, you know, that maybe sort of ten years ago people would do it as a present for the husband or present for the boyfriend.
- 50:02Emma Finch: I don't get that anymore.
- 50:04Emma Finch: That's not what I get.
- 50:05Emma Finch: It's always, for themselves, um, you know, they want to have enhanced self image.
- 50:11Emma Finch: They want a new perspective on how they look, um, they find it liberating.
- 50:14Emma Finch: They find it empowering.
- 50:16Emma Finch: Um, it's quite a healing process for many as well.
- 50:19Emma Finch: So, it's becoming, yeah, definitely is more accepted.
- 50:22Emma Finch: I think a lot of women have either done it.
- 50:24Emma Finch: Or would like to do it.
- 50:25Emma Finch: You don't always know about it.
- 50:26Emma Finch: You know, you're not going to see the images.
- 50:27Emma Finch: They're not going to be posting the images, but it is a very, um, it's a very empowering experience for, for clients.
- 50:35Emma Finch: Um, and with, with burlesque, because I work a lot with the burlesque community.
- 50:39Emma Finch: it's a very Body positive, a genre of, of performance.
- 50:43Emma Finch: and that's actually how I started.
- 50:44Emma Finch: So when I was, starting in boudoir, I needed people to, you know, to try the lights, to, um, you know, to, to practice my posing direction.
- 50:53Emma Finch: and I did some burlesque classes.
- 50:56Emma Finch: a few years ago, I absolutely loved it.
- 50:58Emma Finch: It was, it was so much fun.
- 50:59Emma Finch: It's such a all inclusive, community of, of, of people.
- 51:04Emma Finch: Um, you know, any shape, any age, any, any demographic can, can do it.
- 51:08Emma Finch: it's so much fun.
- 51:10Emma Finch: So I was working with burlesque, people who were, um, just sort of starting out in burlesque.
- 51:14Emma Finch: They needed content for their social media.
- 51:16Emma Finch: I need somebody in front of my, um, my lens.
- 51:19Emma Finch: They were fairly confident with not always being fully dressed.
- 51:22Emma Finch: So it was win win.
- 51:23David McClelland: You mentioned lockdown there.
- 51:25David McClelland: How challenging was that for you?
- 51:26David McClelland: I mean, it's what, four years, more than four years ago now since that whole fit hit the shan, but a business point of view there, and you mentioned that the number of different business outlets that you have, how were you able to sustain your business personally as well as financially throughout that difficult period?
- 51:48Emma Finch: it was difficult, particularly having two kids at home and having to, having to homeschool.
- 51:53Emma Finch: I was,
- 51:54David McClelland: Ha
- 51:54Emma Finch: I was quite fortunate in that I got Um, a commission from, um, a lingerie company just to shoot the, the flatlay, the lingerie.
- 52:02Emma Finch: So I'd homeschool until three o'clock, then I'd clear the dining room table, put the, the lingerie on the table.
- 52:06Emma Finch: And, and this is quite a skill to it.
- 52:08Emma Finch: You've got to stick it down with tape to make sure everything is sitting correctly, put the lights up and then shoot into the evening.
- 52:14Emma Finch: And it was just the sort of cutouts for the, for the website.
- 52:17Emma Finch: and then one day I went up to my, daughter's bedroom, it was quite young at the time, and she had her knickers on the table with a lamp.
- 52:25Emma Finch: And I said, what are you doing?
- 52:26Emma Finch: And she said, I'm just photographing my knickers.
- 52:28Emma Finch: Mommy, like you.
- 52:31Emma Finch: don't tell your teacher.
- 52:33Emma Finch: Um, so I, I did have that work, which was, you know, it was fortunate to, to have that work, but yeah, I struggle through lockdown because.
- 52:40Emma Finch: I didn't realize I was a people person and it turns out that I am and I need to be around people.
- 52:45David McClelland: And this, this all comes back to this journey that we all go on, uh, I guess whichever area we work in, but we learn things about ourselves and it sounds as though you've learned a lot about, about yourselves and your family as well.
- 52:58David McClelland: I'm curious, you mentioned there that your, your daughter was copying mummy basically.
- 53:04David McClelland: What do your, what do your kids, what do your family make of the work that you do?
- 53:09David McClelland: And I'm thinking specifically of the boudoir and lingerie stuff.
- 53:12Emma Finch: Yeah.
- 53:13Emma Finch: So the girls, the girls know what I do.
- 53:15Emma Finch: Absolutely fine with it.
- 53:17Emma Finch: I would never shoot anything that I wouldn't show them.
- 53:20Emma Finch: So they, um, they know what I do.
- 53:22Emma Finch: They've seen my work.
- 53:24Emma Finch: I want them to grow up in a, in a very body positive environment.
- 53:28Emma Finch: Uh, I don't want there to be any shame around, female bodies, anything like that.
- 53:31Emma Finch: So they're absolutely fine with it.
- 53:33Emma Finch: Older members of the family were, it took a while to come around to it.
- 53:37Emma Finch: You know, I, I did get smutty work under the counter work, a little bit of, um, pushback on that.
- 53:45Emma Finch: But as I say, I think this has made me more, determined to, to do well.
- 53:49Emma Finch: And the fact that I'm, you know, I'm speaking nationally on, on this and I'm getting the awards.
- 53:54Emma Finch: Uh, I think it shows them that I'm, I'm reasonably good at what I do now.
- 53:58Emma Finch: So, I'm happy.
- 53:59David McClelland: Emma Finch, thank you very much for joining us here on the podcast.
- 54:02Emma Finch: you very much.
- 54:02Emma Finch: Thank you.
- 54:10David McClelland: And we've put links to Emma Finch Photography, Session Days and Belle Privet into our show notes for this episode but if you just put a co.
- 54:18David McClelland: uk onto the back of those words then you'll be able to find your own way to her websites.
- 54:27David McClelland: right, Glyn, let's steer clear of Adobe stuff for a few minutes time, because I want to chat to you about a project that you've been working on for a little while now, but it's continuing, as indeed does its importance.
- 54:38David McClelland: We've just had the 80th anniversary of the D Day Normandy landings in June.
- 54:44David McClelland: In a nutshell, what is the 3945 Portraits project, and how did it come about?
- 54:50Glyn Dewis: Uh, it is basically a self funded project that I set up in the beginning of 2019, uh, and it is my way of saying thank you to veterans for what they did during World War II, because I always felt that on Remembrance Day, saying thank you wasn't enough.
- 55:06Glyn Dewis: Uh, I've always had a fascination with the history of World War II.
- 55:09Glyn Dewis: I love my photography and retouching, so marrying the two together just seemed the natural thing to do.
- 55:14Glyn Dewis: And it basically, in a nutshell, it means me traveling, I was traveling the UK, visiting veterans in their own homes to do a classic timeless portrait of them to then then be able to give that to them so it would remain with them and then their family for generations to come.
- 55:31Glyn Dewis: So it was a, like I say, self funded, best thing, bar none, I have ever done in my life, most humbling thing I've ever done.
- 55:40Glyn Dewis: Um, most emotional thing I've ever done and the biggest lessons in photography ever.
- 55:45David McClelland: Oh, that's interesting.
- 55:47David McClelland: Biggest lessons.
- 55:48David McClelland: What, what, what do you mean?
- 55:49David McClelland: Um,
- 55:50Glyn Dewis: The, well, ordinarily being a portrait photographer prior to the project, when I would photograph people, it would be environments where there was plenty of space, there was plenty of kit, such as a studio, everything was perfect.
- 56:03Glyn Dewis: Where, and also generally photographing people who were willing to be photographed and were happy to be photographed.
- 56:09Glyn Dewis: Now, Veterans generally, they, they didn't want to be photographed, although they did because they knew the reason for it being was that their parents or their family were going to get portraits, so they agreed to it.
- 56:22Glyn Dewis: But the biggest lessons came from photographing people who didn't necessarily want to be photographed and weren't used to it.
- 56:29Glyn Dewis: So it was how would I get these people to relax in front of the camera so that I don't just capture a pose.
- 56:34Glyn Dewis: I actually capture them.
- 56:36Glyn Dewis: So when somebody looks at the go, that is so then that was the most important thing, but also being adaptable to my environment because everybody's home that I went to was very, very different and had its own challenges regards to space and lighting and stuff like that.
- 56:50Glyn Dewis: So I had to really Learn to adapt my lighting setup to get the same look, regardless of what modifier had and what environment I was in.
- 56:59Glyn Dewis: So it was a huge, huge learning curve, which I'm really grateful for.
- 57:03David McClelland: And you certainly have achieved that uniformity when you go and have a look at the portraits and on the on the project's website there is quite you know you've got so many of them there that there is a real uniformity amongst all of those uh veterans and it wasn't just the still images that the portraits that you were capturing as well I also saw towards the bottom of the of project page you have a lot of video interviews as well
- 57:31Glyn Dewis: Yeah, I did.
- 57:31Glyn Dewis: It wasn't.
- 57:32Glyn Dewis: And this wasn't something that was done with every single veteran because it was very much my decision to do that was on a case by case basis because every veteran was different.
- 57:42Glyn Dewis: And there were veterans where I would photograph them seated or standing like a three quarter length shot and then do a headshot because it felt it felt acceptable to do that.
- 57:51Glyn Dewis: Whereas for some of them you didn't want to step over that boundary and maybe you do that next time once they felt even more comfortable with you.
- 57:57Glyn Dewis: Yeah.
- 57:57Glyn Dewis: But regards to the actual interviews, there were a number of ones I did, but my, my intention with that was never to talk about the horrors of war, because that's what people are always asked about, and these veterans are always asked about it.
- 58:10Glyn Dewis: So I made a point of asking them things like, you know, What was your training like?
- 58:16Glyn Dewis: Now, do you remember any characters?
- 58:17Glyn Dewis: Um, you know, what did you, what was life like after the war?
- 58:21Glyn Dewis: Because, you know, we're talking about six, six year period here.
- 58:24Glyn Dewis: There's now, you know, 80 years of life that could have, you know, happened there.
- 58:29Glyn Dewis: What did you do then?
- 58:30Glyn Dewis: So it was really brilliant to some of the stories that came.
- 58:33Glyn Dewis: There was, there was so much laughter, that came from those videos.
- 58:36Glyn Dewis: So Yeah, it was wonderful.
- 58:38Glyn Dewis: Absolutely.
- 58:38Glyn Dewis: The best thing I've ever done.
- 58:39Glyn Dewis: But, um, it got to the stage.
- 58:43Glyn Dewis: COVID had a massive impact
- 58:45David McClelland: Well, so, so you started in twenty nineteen.
- 58:48Glyn Dewis: early 2019.
- 58:50Glyn Dewis: Um, and I did 16, 000 miles in the in the space of a few months traveling the UK for that.
- 58:56Glyn Dewis: Um, but it sounds really daft.
- 58:59Glyn Dewis: But considering what the project entailed, photographing very elderly people, I never I never gave it a thought.
- 59:06Glyn Dewis: that eventually we'd be losing some of them.
- 59:08Glyn Dewis: Some of them would pass away.
- 59:10Glyn Dewis: And when that did start to happen, you know, cause there were certain veterans that I became incredibly close to, you know, Alan Scott was like a grandfather.
- 59:17Glyn Dewis: We became so incredibly close.
- 59:20Glyn Dewis: I would do some shopping for him for quite personal items.
- 59:22Glyn Dewis: It got that close.
- 59:24Glyn Dewis: So when he passed, it was like a member of your family and it became quite a common thing that every, you know, another month had lose somebody else.
- 59:32Glyn Dewis: So when COVID happened, it was almost a very natural.
- 59:35Glyn Dewis: line in the sand to either finish it or to have a break.
- 59:39Glyn Dewis: But as you mentioned there, we've recently had the 80th anniversary.
- 59:42Glyn Dewis: That has now given me the motivation now to think, you know, do you know what?
- 59:45Glyn Dewis: I can do more of this.
- 59:47Glyn Dewis: And there are clearly more veterans out there.
- 59:49Glyn Dewis: So now I'm on a, I'm on a mission to, uh, to get as many more as I can to be eventually put into this book that's going to be produced.
- 59:57David McClelland: Oh, tell me about the book.
- 1:00:00Glyn Dewis: Yeah, it's going to be a book which isn't going to be one that's sold for profit or anything like that.
- 1:00:04Glyn Dewis: But I've got ideas for this really, really good quality coffee table book that will contain the portraits, any interviews that were done, they'll be appearing on the pages as well.
- 1:00:14Glyn Dewis: So as you turn them, you'll see all this wording and then there'll be photographs of when they were younger.
- 1:00:19Glyn Dewis: Some of the veterans have managed to get some of their portraits from when they were younger.
- 1:00:22Glyn Dewis: So they'll be in there as well.
- 1:00:23Glyn Dewis: So it'll be a real history of those people that were captured.
- 1:00:26Glyn Dewis: But then the second half of the book will be, this is why it was done, and this is how it was done.
- 1:00:32Glyn Dewis: So it'll go into the whole process about everything to do with how the photographs were taken.
- 1:00:35Glyn Dewis: The exhibition, there'll be stuff, you know, pictures from that as well.
- 1:00:39Glyn Dewis: So it's a whole, a book that will encompass the whole project, um, and that, that's going to be for me, however, it will be available to purchase, but not, you know, whoever purchases it can get it for the same price that I'll be getting it for.
- 1:00:52Glyn Dewis: That's, you know, that's how I want to do this.
- 1:00:55David McClelland: What have been the responses like from the family members?
- 1:00:59David McClelland: You say that part of the, of the project is to, uh, capture the portraits of the, of the veterans and provide the images for them Yes.
- 1:01:09David McClelland: But also for their family members.
- 1:01:11David McClelland: How, how have they responded on the whole
- 1:01:14Glyn Dewis: Unbelievable.
- 1:01:15Glyn Dewis: And again, it's stuff I didn't expect to happen, but I've made some incredible friendships.
- 1:01:21Glyn Dewis: with families now that, you know, where the veterans themselves have passed on, but incredible friendships.
- 1:01:25Glyn Dewis: But I think the biggest, most humbling and upsetting thing really, but in a positive way that happened on several occasions was when veterans passed and I was invited to attend the funeral, which during COVID, you know, we had limitations of, I believe 30, and I was invited along with my wife, which was an incredible honor.
- 1:01:47Glyn Dewis: But unexpectedly, when the casket would come in.
- 1:01:51Glyn Dewis: The portrait I'd taken was on the casket.
- 1:01:53Glyn Dewis: And that's like, Oh, my God.
- 1:01:56Glyn Dewis: And I Yeah, exactly.
- 1:01:58Glyn Dewis: Just completely took the wind out of me.
- 1:02:01Glyn Dewis: I mean, what an incredible, incredible thing to happen.
- 1:02:05Glyn Dewis: You know, on that day, that's what they wanted to be on display.
- 1:02:08Glyn Dewis: And I've had, you know, they've used the photos in order of service on the front covers.
- 1:02:12Glyn Dewis: And it's like, this is just stuff that I never, ever saw happening.
- 1:02:17Glyn Dewis: But, you know, God, it's the most, it's the most precious thing I've ever done in not just my photography career, but my life.
- 1:02:24David McClelland: So, taking the work that you've done there and appreciating the moments and the power of the portrait, you know, you were in these veterans homes, maybe for a day, maybe for a couple of hours, or something like that, yet you've taken, you've captured something that is so timeless and important to them.
- 1:02:43David McClelland: Has that, uh, influenced, affected, played into, how you approach your portraiture work outside of capturing veterans.
- 1:02:54Glyn Dewis: Absolutely, it has, because it's made me even more somebody that doesn't photograph models, people who are used to being in front of the camera, I get much more, um, satisfaction and what have you from photographing people and capturing, it sounds really corny, because this is what my opinion was before it, it sounded corny when people said, photograph the personality.
- 1:03:16Glyn Dewis: I know you can do that now.
- 1:03:18Glyn Dewis: I know you can.
- 1:03:19Glyn Dewis: And this that out of all the things that I learned doing it was how to get people to relax in front of the camera.
- 1:03:25Glyn Dewis: And I came up with my own methods for doing that.
- 1:03:27Glyn Dewis: But that's what I employ now to help people.
- 1:03:30Glyn Dewis: You know, you don't the photography when I'm doing a portrait is secondary.
- 1:03:34Glyn Dewis: The most important thing is the relationship that I have with that person.
- 1:03:37Glyn Dewis: So you know, there's no talk.
- 1:03:39Glyn Dewis: There's no kit setting up or anything at all.
- 1:03:40Glyn Dewis: It's just time spent with them.
- 1:03:42Glyn Dewis: First of all, And I was, you know, there's so many lessons I learned from it.
- 1:03:47Glyn Dewis: And one of them is to listen, to listen to, you know, what people have to say, you know, the old comic saying of, you know, we have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion.
- 1:03:56Glyn Dewis: My God, is that, it's a jokey thing to say, but it is so incredibly true.
- 1:04:00Glyn Dewis: And there's a veteran I can think of that, that worked so well for because he was somebody who was literally on the edge of crying as well, speaking to him.
- 1:04:08David McClelland: Hmm,
- 1:04:08Glyn Dewis: And he was explaining this one story, but, you know, the long story short is it ended up with me not using a flash to, to photograph him, but I used a video light so that there was no flash going off because I had this feeling that if I had used that, would it give him the flashback to what he explained to me?
- 1:04:26Glyn Dewis: Um, and, you know, it's okay for me turning up from my happy home to go to this veteran's house, getting what I want and then leaving, but leaving this elderly man in a state of distress that couldn't do that.
- 1:04:36Glyn Dewis: So by listening, the most important thing of all, it taught me to think, right, how should I approach this?
- 1:04:43Glyn Dewis: I feel like that that period of me doing this project matured me as a photographer because it forced me to, to learn how to photograph people who weren't used to or wanted to be photographed.
- 1:04:55Glyn Dewis: That's the, that's the best learning ground.
- 1:04:57Glyn Dewis: It really, really is.
- 1:04:58Glyn Dewis: You know, you can stick a light on a stand, you can get your camera settings, you can get somebody in front of that camera who can really work it, you're going to get a great picture.
- 1:05:05Glyn Dewis: But when you've got somebody who is uncomfortable, they're anxious, although they don't like having pictures taken themselves, how do you get the best out of them?
- 1:05:12Glyn Dewis: That, that is the skill of a photographer.
- 1:05:16Glyn Dewis: That it's not, it's not the kit.
- 1:05:18Glyn Dewis: It's, it's the personal communication skills is the ultimate skill of a portrait photographer.
- 1:05:24Glyn Dewis: And I learned that big time.
- 1:05:27David McClelland: Glyn, thank you for sharing that story.
- 1:05:30David McClelland: I'm sure given the nature of the interactions that you've had and continue to have with the veterans, the conversations you have with them.
- 1:05:38David McClelland: It's not just as a photographer that you're growing.
- 1:05:42David McClelland: It's as a Glyn as well.
- 1:05:45David McClelland: Um, thank you.
- 1:05:47David McClelland: Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
- 1:05:49David McClelland: That is all the time That is all the time that we have for this month.
- 1:05:52David McClelland: Uh, to mark your cards, the in person Photography and Video Show 2025 will be taking place not at the NEC in Birmingham, but at the Excel in London from Friday the 8th to Tuesday the 11th of March 2025.
- 1:06:05David McClelland: It's the same Photography Show that you already know and love, but for 2025 lifted and shifted to London, uh, By the banks of the River Thames and on the shiny, super fast Elizabeth Line.
- 1:06:17David McClelland: We'll be talking about that on the show more in due course, but if you're already locked and loaded, then now's a great time to get some great deals on those hotel rooms.
- 1:06:26David McClelland: If you want to get in touch with us, perhaps let us know your take on the Adobe Terms of Service fiasco.
- 1:06:31David McClelland: Call it what you will.
- 1:06:33David McClelland: And then of course you can pop us a comment on our Facebook and, and we're giving a go to a new exciting way to get in touch with us using good old fashioned text messages in your podcast app at the top of the show notes for this show you'll see us a send us a text message link simply simply tap on that it'll take you to the messaging app on your phone or your PC.
- 1:06:53David McClelland: Mac or other device if you've got messaging set up on there.
- 1:06:56David McClelland: Obviously do check with your bill payer but in the UK certainly text messages are included in many people's plans and don't worry we don't get to see your full mobile number that is all being handled by our podcast host.
- 1:07:10David McClelland: So yeah, get in touch.
- 1:07:11David McClelland: If you're listening to us for the first time then, well, where have you been?
- 1:07:15David McClelland: We're delighted to have you with us though here on the first Thursday of every month, so do hit subscribe.
- 1:07:20David McClelland: And we've also got lots of great episodes in our back catalogue too, so why not go back and have a listen?
- 1:07:26David McClelland: Glyn, thank you so much for joining us this month.
- 1:07:30David McClelland: It's really, really great to speak to you on here.
- 1:07:32David McClelland: Uh, where can best, where can people best keep up with what you get up to online?
- 1:07:37Glyn Dewis: Very, very simple, it's just look for glindewis.
- 1:07:40Glyn Dewis: com, that's Glyn with one N and Dewis spelt like Lewis but with a D.
- 1:07:44Glyn Dewis: And also check out the 3945portraits.
- 1:07:49Glyn Dewis: com
- 1:07:49David McClelland: Super stuff.
- 1:07:50David McClelland: Thank you Glyn, and thank you all for listening, watching, whatever you're doing.
- 1:07:54David McClelland: Until next time,