I noticed some time ago that photography, which started for me as a hobby, rapidly lost it’s appeal when I began treating it as a business. This phenomenon is not unique to me, of course. Many photographers say that becoming a pro is a sure way to kill a perfectly fine hobby. It is not surprising either, since any job, no matter how fun it is, has some dreadful elements, buy definition of a job. These are things like deadlines and, more generally, the obligation to meet external expectations.
The good news is that, according to Csikszentmihalyi, it is totally in my power to maintain flow, or at least maximize the amount of time spent in the flow state. After all, the attention split between the conflicting objectives happens entirely in my head. The trick, for the lack of a better word, is to convince myself to take interest in what needs to be done and to apply mental energy in order to increase the complexity of the activity at hand. For example, if a business-related task requires attention, it would be wise to make that the focus of the activity and strive to become really good at it. Conversely, it helps to recognize that the necessary attribute of an autotelic activity is that it needs to be done without any expectation of an external reward or future utility. It is certainly easier said than done, at least for me personally, but it does help to be reminded that “wasting time” on fun things is, upon consideration, not wasteful at all. In fact, it is often the best possible thing I can do.
for some sports and concert performance shoots. The amazing 61 Mpix of resolution and the super-nimble autofocus (I mostly shot with a 
) makes shooting incredibly exciting. Last time I had the same feeling was when I laid my hands on a then-new Canon 1Dx. Immediately, I knew that it was a revolutionary piece of equipment that was going to change the way I approach taking photos.
It’s a counterintuitive idea that you have to improve yourself in order to be able to help others. That means that at every given moment, as you work on something, your motivation is is both selfish and altruistic. But the fact (demonstrated by Adam Grant’s research, for example) that these motivations are independent is even more difficult to grasp.
UV light photography is typically done in a dark studio and, until recently, with a relatively long shutter speed to maximize the intensity of the fluorescent light. As a result, “black light” photographs have a distinct look that features high tonal and colour contrast, a black background and a distinct bluish-purple colour cast produced by the visible portion of the LED or strobe lights.
We have been experimenting with mixing the visible, white light sources with UV strobes in order to expand the range of types of images that can be obtained using UV light and fluorescent paint. In the process, we have come across several technical and creative issues that shape the concepts that lend themselves well to UV photography.
In order to maintain the impart of the fluorescent makeup, we found that it is effective to break the conventional rules of lighting the model. Specifically, instead of diffusing the incident light, we used a small, directed light source that created harsh shadows on the model’s face, i.e. sharp transitions between the light and the dark areas. This way, the fluorescent makeup, which was located in the deep shadows, was not affected by the white light and was very prominent in the resulting image.