S1.E4 – Liza Gershman on the Path to Photography Success

In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze and Zach Hodges sit down with photographer Madison Rensing in Nashville. Her first camera was a cheap pink Canon she got around nine, used for photographing cereal and climbing the tree in her backyard. Her mom later found a used Nikon on Facebook Marketplace for a hundred bucks, and she teared up when she got it. Summers visiting a cousin in Alaska turned into landscape work, and driving thirty minutes into downtown St. Louis turned into portraits of her friends. The turn came from two photographers she knew only through Instagram. Trevor and Alex met her for coffee at 7am, looked at her work, and told her that if she wanted to do this for the rest of her life, she could. She calls it the light bulb. One of them hired her to shoot his wedding, and that was the first proof she could pay her own way with a camera. After a year of community college she moved to Nashville and landed in a room full of songwriters. She shot digital for about a year, then found a $20 Minolta at McKay's, a local thrift camera and book store, and converted to film for good. A friend handed her a Yashica Mat 124G, and about two years ago she moved into Contax. Clients started asking for the film work specifically. Now artists send her their unreleased music, and she puts headphones on and writes down what she sees. She works with people who are not models and have to be in front of a camera anyway, so she builds the shoot around making them feel safe. That approach runs straight into the hardest part of the job, which is deciding what to charge a friend, whether a label-backed artist pays a different rate, and how to say yes below your number without deciding your work is worth less. This episode explores Turning a hobby into a career on the strength of one conversation What a $20 thrift store camera changes about how you work Building visuals from a song nobody else has heard yet Directing artists who have never modeled in their lives What to charge when the client is a friend Keeping your price and your worth separate Follow Madison: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madisonrensingphotos/ Website: https://madisonrensing.com/ Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:37 Welcome to f/22 in Nashville 02:14 Shooting musicians and artists 03:47 A pink Canon at nine and a $100 Nikon 04:35 Alaska summers and shooting friends near St. Louis 08:06 Trevor and Alex find her on Instagram 09:43 You could do this for the rest of your life 11:41 Building a portfolio and shooting her first wedding 13:28 Moving to Nashville and landing in a creative community 17:55 A $20 Minolta at McKay's 20:13 A Yashica Mat and then the Contax 21:45 Pinterest boards instead of shot lists 23:36 Getting the music before it comes out 26:20 Making people who are not models comfortable 27:46 Caring about people while still paying the bills 30:27 Why she does not want to shoot video 34:51 Tours, personal projects, and 2026 38:38 Value yourself more than you think 44:11 Confidence that wavers 46:53 Turning your value into a number 51:52 Where to find Madison Hashtags: #MadisonRensing #FilmPhotography #MusicPhotography #NashvillePhotographer #35mm #MediumFormat #PortraitPhotography #ShootFilm #F22Series #VSCO

In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze and Zach Hodges sit down with photographer Joe Greer in Nashville. As a broke college student he saved for a month to buy an iPhone 4 just to get on Instagram, then spent every free hour shooting the Pacific Northwest. A curator job at VSCO followed, ten months he still calls his art school, spent studying Alex Webb and William Eggleston and sorting tens of thousands of photographs a day. Then a Portland church cut his position right before Christmas in 2016, and going freelance meant seven months without a single reply. New York broke it open. Armed with a Leica M6, he got hooked on street photography and kept posting it even as it cost him followers. That way of seeing became his calling card, and brands including Leica, Bandit Running, and Gatorade started hiring him for exactly it while his agent Ernesto handled the business. He walks through NYC I Love You, built from 150 undeveloped rolls when COVID emptied the streets, and India Volume 1, the 156 photos drawn from seven years of trips and designed by Mouthwash Studios. He breaks down critical focus over zone focus, why he takes far more bad photos than good ones, and why he refuses to stay in one lane. No off switch, no plan to retire, and every frame he has ever shared was edited in VSCO. This episode explores Building your own photo education from books, documentaries, and the greats Turning personal work into the thing brands hire you for What a rep actually does, and why giving up 20% is worth it Walking onto a commercial set without a shot list Critical focus versus zone focus, and what a real hit rate takes Why bad photos and refusing to niche down keep a career alive Follow Joe: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ioegreer/ Website: https://www.ioe.photography/ Chapters: 00:00 A Florida Kid, an iPhone, and the Leica That Changed Everything 01:40 From Florida to shooting the Pacific Northwest on an iPhone 02:21 Discovering #VSCOcam and falling for photography 04:35 Getting hired at VSCO, his art school 06:53 How curating thousands of photos sharpened his eye 08:13 Teaching yourself from photo books and the greats 10:10 Two desert-island books, Meyerowitz and Robert Frank 11:36 Hunger, hardship, and the drive to go pro 12:47 Let go before Christmas, the leap to freelance 13:53 Moving to NYC and getting hooked on the streets 14:55 The wedding-gift Canon and buying a Leica M6 16:20 Getting repped, what a photo agent actually does 18:48 Turning a street eye into commercial work 22:02 Why he shoots without a shot list 24:49 Taking the risk when street photography wasn't cool 27:06 Books over likes, what makes a great photograph 28:44 NYC I Love You, a love letter on 150 rolls of film 29:56 India, the Google trip that started seven years of work 31:37 The XPan, black and white, and The Art of Devotion 33:01 Sequencing the book and letting go of favorites 35:23 The secret to a high hit rate, critical focus 37:51 Zone focus versus critical focus, explained 39:29 Take more bad photos 42:35 Advice, consistency, sharing, and press publish 45:13 Don't niche down, photograph what you love 47:38 No off switch, no retirement 48:44 Where to find Joe, and why it's all edited in VSCO

In this episode of f/22, Zach Hodges sits down in Las Vegas with Susan Stripling, a wedding photographer of 24 years who has never had another job. She lives in New York, she is a Canon Explorer of Light and an Adorama ambassador, and she is a grand master at Icon. Ask how she is holding up after 24 years and the answer is caffeine and duct tape. Susan is blunt about what the accolades actually do. Inside the industry they build relationships and they build a résumé. To a couple choosing a photographer they do nothing, because a prospective client cannot tell an Icon Grand Master from a mom who voted you best photographer in Jersey City. Much of the conversation is about the business behind the pictures. She runs the studio out of one system, answers every inquiry herself, tracks every referral source, and pulls reports at the end of each year to see where the work came from and where it went. She raises prices in itty-bitty increments, sometimes holding the number and dropping the coverage from ten hours to eight, then waits a couple of bookings to see what it does before moving again. Price yourself too far above your referral sources and the referrals stop. She is also honest about what wears on her. She gets bored. She gets burnt out. The venue looks the same and the timeline looks the same. What resets her is not a business fix, it is remembering that she has been there a hundred times and her clients have been there once. Her burnout at work tracks her burnout at home, so she goes and fills the rest of her life first. Her advice for photographers starting out comes in two pieces, and the second one is the part most people skip. This episode explores Why awards build a résumé inside the industry and mean nothing to a prospective client Running a wedding business end to end, from the first inquiry to year-end reporting Raising prices in itty-bitty increments without pricing yourself out of your referrals What changed for photographers starting out now, and why the job takes two skill sets A theater background, theatrically motivated light, and the editorial flash resurgence Getting bored at a venue you have shot a hundred times, and what actually fixes it Why she started scuba diving and refuses to monetize the pictures Thanks to Harlow Lighting for lighting in this episode. Follow Susan: susanstripling.com Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:41 Welcome back to f/22 with Susan Stripling 02:07 Whether the awards actually help her business 03:11 Held together by caffeine and duct tape 04:15 A theater background and nodding to modern style 05:44 Word of mouth then, a marketing monster now 06:27 One system running the whole studio 07:53 Letting go of her own editing 08:41 A complicated relationship with AI 09:28 Moving prices in itty bitty increments 10:49 Getting bored at the venue you have shot 100 times 12:50 It's not personal, it's just business Hashtags: #SusanStripling #WeddingPhotography #WeddingPhotographer #NewYorkPhotographer #PhotographyBusiness #PhotographyPricing #EditorialLighting #F22Series #VSCO

In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze and Zach Hodges sit down with world-renowned photographer and artist Jeremy Cowart at his studio in Franklin, Tennessee, to talk about a career built on chasing ideas, embracing risk, and using creativity to help people. Jeremy traces his unlikely path from painter to graphic designer to celebrity photographer. The journey started with a three-megapixel point-and-shoot and a Hollywood agent who called out of nowhere in 2005. He's candid about faking his way through his first big shoot (10 sets to light for Prison Break, having never used a light before), the imposter syndrome underneath it, and why he's always been drawn to the possibility of failure. The conversation moves through his signature techniques, the multi-light LED wall rig, custom Capture One code, 60-second shoots, and the stop-motion approach he stumbled into on a Star Trek shoot. It all leads to the work he says matters most, his "If You're Breathing" project, where he makes art alongside people in extreme need and funds their stories through merch. Along the way, Jeremy gets honest about money, the feast-or-famine reality of a creative career, the surprising story of being hired by a global brand specifically to use AI, and why, after 20+ years, obsessive learning is what keeps him relevant. This episode explores - How to break into paid work (and landing a rep) - Why embracing risk and failure beats waiting until you're "ready" - Building a signature style and a clear creative perspective - The truth about money and feast-or-famine income - Using AI as a tool without losing the art - Why social impact work can be the most fulfilling work of all

In this episode of f/22, Greg Lutze sits down with Bay Area photographer and filmmaker David Godinez in San Francisco to talk about the realities of turning photography into a career.