Photography Field Notes and Photography Tips from Shoots
Field Notes is where I record what actually happens on professional photography shoots.
Not theory. Not tutorials. Just experience.
Everything here comes from working as a professional photographer across digital photography, analogue photography, and film photography, both in studio and on location. The work spans headshots, lifestyle photography, studio photography, fashion photography, advertising photography, and long-term stock photography and stock agency work. These notes focus on decisions made under pressure. Camera choice. Lighting judgement. Casting. Workflow. What changes when time is limited, access is restricted, and images still have to perform.
This is me, James Nader, working the shot on location at 12,500ft in Hintertux, Austria.
These are not tutorials. They are not retrospective justifications. They are observations made inside the work. While it’s happening.If you want to understand how professional photographic decisions are actually made. Before style. Before branding. Before outcome. This is where that thinking lives.
My Field Notes 2026
These Field Notes are my record of those moments. What happens before the shutter. What changes when a studio clock is running, a location is slipping away, or a brief quietly tightens halfway through a shoot.
This is where I examine why certain cameras earn trust. Why some lighting choices survive pressure and others collapse. How working across headshots, lifestyle photography, fashion photography, advertising photography, and long-term stock photography for agencies like Getty forces clarity, restraint, and repeatable judgement.
Contact James
JAMES@SILVERGUMTYPE.COM
No warm-up. No rehearsal. Just the frame.
One frame. One window. No return. The light moved. Access closed. The location decided the pace. There was no space for hesitation. This Field Note is about committing. About trusting preparation when comfort disappears.
Five minutes. One light. No place to hide.
Five minutes. No agency. No safety net.The light stayed fixed. The background stayed silent. The subject had nowhere to hide. This Field Note is about pressure. About what surfaces when control is removed and instinct takes over.
A Thin Brief Exposes Weak Direction.
There was no defined look to follow. No reference images. No layout. No guarantee the ideas would land. What held the shoot together was my creative direction.Clear instruction. Calm authority. Knowing when to guide.