Today, we interview Adriana Espinosa Jankovic about her business.

Adriana is a young photojournalist specialized in politics. She just covered the campaign of the Socialist Party behind the scenes, up to François Hollande’s election as France’s new president last week-end.

Paris, France.

I primarily work for the Socialist Party here in France, photographing different events and small reunions for the candidate François Hollande. However, I do also freelance on the side and photograph other non political-related events in Paris. All of my work is photojournalistic.

François Hollande at a meeting, march 10.

Yes! This past year there has been an endless amount of events leading up to the election day. I’ve tried to cover as many small events held by people living in a certain arrondissement (neighborhood) of Paris to the big events featuring the candidates with thousands of supporters. I personally find the smaller events more interesting because I like to get to know the subjects I’m photographing in order to bring out more of an intimate feeling in my reportages.

Photography has always been an interest of mine ever since I was a child. However, due to the uncertainty of employment and income in the field, I decided to study Psychology, which I also enjoyed. I studied Psychology for 6 years and just received my Bachelor’s of Arts a little over a year ago, however, something was missing in my life. I wanted to do something more artistic so I chose to further pursue my love of photography. I enrolled in a Photojournalism Master’s program in Paris. Here I felt like I really belonged and I could capture life and express myself through my lens. The field of work may not be as certain as psychology, but I get more joy out of being outside and moving around in a job where I am able to choose my working hours and my work style.

As I believe it is most important to do in this day and age, I rely mostly on social networks to get the word out about my profession. I also have a website where I expose some of my most interesting works. But I mostly rely on word of mouth. Most of my clients have heard of me through someone else. In my line of work, I am constantly meeting new people and going to new places. I believe that it is important for photographers to market themselves as much in person as online.

Enrolling in the Photojournalism Master’s program. Even though there are many good self-taught photojournalists and photographers out there, I can see a great difference between those who have had training and those who haven’t as in the way they expose their photos, the framing, the post-production etc.

I can’t say I regret pursuing Psychology for as many years as I did because, at the time, it was a great interest in my life. It definitely shapes the way I see things today, especially in the way I see people and situations through my lens. I would have to say that my biggest regrest is not taking more
photography courses during those years and getting more hands-on working with ‘argentique’ cameras instead of the modern ‘numerique’ which I work with today. I would also have gone to more photography expositions and spent more time around art.

Taking the picture is a very small part of being a photographer. Get on every social media out there. Go to events and exhibitions. Meet people. Make yourself known.

I think it is really important in modern day to be able to use both, the camera and the video camera- especially if you are going into photojournalism. However, I am going to contradict myself by saying that, even though I have taken courses specialized on DSLR video, I can’t seem to get entirely enthusiastic about it. I think that it is important to have basic knowledge about how it works in case there is a situation where you must take over and film, but I prefer to learn new photographic techniques with my camera with the time I would spend learning about filming. It is a goal of mine to learn more about it in the future as I know that it is becoming more and more important.

Activists watching and reacting to a panel featuring Nicolas Sarkozy

My biggest challenge to overcome is being a foreigner in Paris. From things as simple as caption writing in French, which is not my mother tongue, to meeting new people is a constant battle for me. I feel like French society is particularly closed and I have to continuously step out of my comfort zone, which gets tiring every once in a while.

Seeing as I work in a fast-paced news based industry, speed and timing are very important. Following an event, I immediately download all of the RAW files on my memory card into Lightroom
where I make a few touch ups in lighting and framing, if necessary. I then make a final editing selection and send them out to my clients in JPG as fast as possible using Dropbox or other online programs for sending heavy documents. I rarely use Photoshop since it takes longer to edit the pictures through and not quite crucial for my line of work.

Place de la Bastille, Paris, on election night.

I use PhotoDeck to upload photos which I find interesting and for those who attended the events to be able to look themselves up. It’s always fun when you see your photograph from an event that you attended. I don’t, however, upload photos that I have sold or specific events that I’ve worked for where the rights to the pictures are no longer mine.

My clients find my website interesting because of the diverse aspects in the way I photograph. They have also commented on how easy the site is to navigate, which I find extremely important nowadays. Having a website that is hard to understand gets tiring easily and people quickly lose interest.

I like PhotoDeck because people like me, who are not very computer-skilled, can easily manipulate it to fit what they want to show. I feel it is quick and easy to upload photos
and display them as I want.

As of the stage I am in my profession as a photojournalist, I think PhotoDeck covers everything I need to use it for.

Today, we interview David Garcia about his business.

David is an interior design and real estate photographer based in the UK. He uses PhotoDeck to power his portfolio, and as a client proofing platform.

I live in central London not far from Tower Bridge

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Most jobs involve loading the car full with equipment, lights and bits I will never use, but if I know that whatever is missing is the one thing I will need. My assistant is usually there to help and then we drive to a location house somewhere, often in London, for the day’s or week’s shoot.

I shoot 50% medium format digital and 50% dslr depending on the job. Capture One, Lightroom and Photoshop are the main programs used on the laptop. “Photography is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent moving furniture. ” Arnold Newman. That quote sums up a major part of my day.

Some of my clients have a hard drive with them and we transfer processed High and Low Res files at the end of the shoot, with others I may have an hour, or a day of editing and post-production to do before delivering the files. I use PhotoDeck’s client pages to deliver high res jpgs, and also DVDs or ftp sites. I think it’s useful to be able to offer your clients multiple ways of delivery and let them choose.

My major clients are the big furniture businesses and also I do a lot of work photographing interiors for designers and real estate developers with some editorial in the mix too.

I’m a veteran now, having started in the 80s as a fashion photographer’s assistant then becoming a fashion photographer myself before moving into the interior and advertising side of the business.

I have an agent who looks after the marketing though I do my own website and have just started trying to keep up a tumblr blog.

My agent uses my new blog entries to update their twitter feed sometimes, and I use the Photodeck private gallery pages to show work to potential clients for particular projects, much like a private lightbox view.

Moving from fashion photography into interiors.

I don’t really look back like this. There would be many mistakes for sure, but every one of them was part of the learning process.

Modern technology both in image capture and new forms of social and professional networking make for a positive future for photography, though not one that may support the vast numbers entering the profession.

Keep taking pictures of course and don’t be afraid to make fool of yourself, either in getting the picture, or later in marketing yourself.

I have started doing the “behind the scene” type videos clients are coming to expect from a shoot. I am wary of doing full blown productions without the team such things really need, but can see that if I was a younger ambitious photographer this is a direction I might pursue.

Biggest challenge at the moment, as always, is finding new clients. I hope my agent is addressing that.

Marketing and file delivery.

I have had more clients approach me since I moved my site to PhotoDeck and that is all the feedback I need.

No hassle with flash anymore.

A UK based print fulfilment lab could be useful.