Flash Masters

We chat to Tim Kamppinen - Flash Masters Photographer of the Year 2023!

• Neil Redfern & Helen Williams • Episode 61

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In this episode we speak to the Flash Masters Photographer of the Year 2023 - Tim Kamppinen!

Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Tim is an incredible wedding photographer and in this podcast we chat to him about his approach to weddings, off camera flash, his biggest piece advice to new photographer who are new to lighting and what he bought off Facebook which he drove 10 hours to collect...

This conversation deftly slides from the echoes of his favourite sounds to the heart-pounding thrill of clinching the Photographer of the Year title by the slimmest of margins, proving that sometimes, the most extraordinary stories are framed in the viewfinder of persistence and passion.

Huge congratulations again to Tim, we are honoured to have him in the Flash Masters community and we can't wait to see what he produces in 2024!

Follow Tim on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timkamppinenphoto/
Tim's website: https://www.timkphotography.com/

Join us in the Flash Masters community:

Website: https://flashmasters.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flashmasters/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flash-masters

Flash Masters is hosted by:

Helen Williams: https://www.instagram.com/helenwilliamsphotography/
Neil Redfern: https://www.instagram.com/neilredfern/

Intro:

Welcome to the Flash masters podcast. Flash masters recognizes and celebrates the best flash photography in the world through education, awards and community. To find out more and to join the Flashmasters community, visit flashmastersco. Here are your hosts, Helen Williams and Neil Redfern.

Neil Redfern:

Hi everybody, welcome to episode 61 of the Flash masters podcast, with me, neil Redfern, and me, helen Williams, and we have a treat for you in today's episode because we are joined by the Flash masters photographer of the year 2023, all the way from Grand Rapids. It's the photographer with the best mustache in the game it is Tim Kamppinen.

Neil Redfern:

Hey guys thank you so much for joining us, tim, and congratulations on becoming the Flashmasters photographer of the year. That is an amazing achievement and we could not be prouder that it was you, because we adore your work. Thank you so much.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm jumping in my chair. I need to calm down. It's like what an achievement.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, anybody who's not familiar with Tim's work his website will be in the description and go and check it out, because it is stunning. Every time the collections close and we get the entries in, we're always really keen to see what's Tim putting.

Tim Kamppinen:

Thanks, yeah, I mean it was very close between me and Jeff Tisman and he's a phenomenal photographer as well, so it could have easily gone to him. Yeah, it was one silver so exactly?

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, everybody's not aware. There was the smallest margin possible in the way that we give out points between Tim and Jeff, which was one silver award. So it was literally neck and neck until the last judge gave their selections in. It was so close.

Helen Williams:

I was on a roller coaster I'm the one who gets all the judging back and I will say there was a moment I thought Jeff's piped him because he had a few goals this round and I thought surely not. And then I went through them all and then your silvers went up and up and up and I did the calculations like three or four times and I'll even admit that when it came to like launching and clicking, you know, go on the website to show the awards I was going. Please do the maths right, helen.

Helen Williams:

please do the maths right, because it was so close and I thought, if I've calculated this wrong, I could be announcing the wrong winners of the world.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, and the way that the website works is we don't see that the website updates when you click go, doesn't it on the collection, basically? So you're trying to do the calculations offline to make sure it's going to be the same as what the website was going to do, and if you hadn't done it right, we would have sent out the wrong winner, because it was so close.

Helen Williams:

It would be so easy for me to invest that or to have just forgotten to allocate a silver or a gold. There's so many different things I need to do on the back end. I thought one small error and literally I could be sending out the Tim's one and then the leaderboard updates to Jeff, and it was. I've got to say that was terrifying and I'm so pleased that it all went well.

Neil Redfern:

Well, yeah, you did it.

Tim Kamppinen:

That would have been awkward.

Neil Redfern:

Very awkward. So, tim, what is life like in Grand Rapids? I love the name of where you live. It sounds so cool. I just picture like these watery rapids and mountains. Is that right, or am I right?

Tim Kamppinen:

Well, there's no mountains. I wish there was mountains, that would be cool. But there's a river that goes through the city, the Grand River, and I guess years ago when the city was founded, it was like a rapids right in that area where the town built around. And then at some point they there's a river that goes right through the middle of the city and there's like all these bridges going over it, which is kind of cool, like a lot of popular spots for photography that we end up going to are down by the river, the bridges. But yeah, they built at some point I don't know how long ago, probably like over 50 years ago. They built these dams to control the water flow. So now it's like much calmer. It's just like a big river going through. There was a.

Tim Kamppinen:

There was a thing, I don't know, a few years back. They were talking about taking out all those dams and returning it to like the natural flow of water and making it like a more of a destination for like kayaking and stuff like that. I don't know. That never materialized. I'm not sure what the state of that project is. It would be cool, yeah.

Neil Redfern:

In the UK, if we hear the word rapids, it just makes me think of a theme park. That's why I think it's so cool, nice. It's like I'm living in rollercoaster town.

Helen Williams:

So you don't have any locals, just getting on some little inflatable dinghies and going down the river.

Tim Kamppinen:

Well, there's, I mean people people definitely go kayaking and canoeing and stuff and boating on the river, yeah, but it's not like a. I guess it's more like casual leisurely.

Helen Williams:

It's a lazy river instead of the rapids yeah. Yeah, exactly Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us on today's podcast, tim. We're so excited to have you on. Before we get into sort of the meat of it and take as much sort of information from you as we can, we always like to start with some very silly questions or things that aren't related to photography, so Neil loves to throw me under the bus and shock me. I'm going to do it to you, neil. Crack on with the first question.

Neil Redfern:

Okay, tim. So what is your favorite noise?

Tim Kamppinen:

My, favorite noise.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, I was inspired by Paul Flanagan, who was on the podcast recently and he asked us some really deep questions. It's like, oh, that's really good.

Tim Kamppinen:

This would not be anything musical. This is like an actual sound. It can be whatever you like. The sound of a heavy deadlift, nice Trashing down after a completed rep, I guess.

Neil Redfern:

No, that's cool, Just to let people behind the curtain. Before we started recording. Recording this over, Zoom and Tim very kindly showed us to his right. As he sits there now is his home gym.

Helen Williams:

It's very impressive.

Neil Redfern:

What sort of weights are you listing Tim In the past?

Tim Kamppinen:

I've done several powerlifting competitions. I'll probably do more of those in the future. Cool, basically, if people don't know, powerlifting is like squat, bench and deadlift and you basically lift the most weight as you can for one rep. On each of those three lifts you get three attempts at each. So you do three squats to try to get the highest weight you can, and then three benches, three deadlifts. That's fun to train for. I kind of swing between wanting to do powerlifting and then I just get sick of doing those lifts over and over for a while and then I go completely the other direction and just do all kinds of random bodybuilding type exercises, where you're just doing different exercises all the time and changing it up and getting more variety.

Tim Kamppinen:

I go back and forth between the two.

Neil Redfern:

Put me to shame. I've not been to the gym for a long time and I need to get going.

Helen Williams:

My gym's closed, but that's for another one.

Tim Kamppinen:

Well, it's perfect time now that it's crammed to the gills with every oh it's the worst time, isn't it right now?

Neil Redfern:

We're recording this at the beginning of January, so it's like every gym will be packed, but then in a month time it will be empty again.

Tim Kamppinen:

That's what's nice. I only have myself to. I can use that. I don't have to wait for equipment and just do whatever.

Neil Redfern:

I want no excuse not to go to your gym, with it being 10 foot away. Yeah exactly.

Tim Kamppinen:

All right, that's it. The drive time is one of the big advantages. People talk about saving money, but if you're like me, you don't really save money because you just are always wanting to get new equipment and add on, but you save a lot of time for sure.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, I'm not one to save money at all. And yeah, fortunately my gym's closed. But yeah, well, we'll save that for a different discussion. Let's see it. Moving on, I've got a very random question for you. Obviously, we are known as flashmasters. You are now the Flashmasters' king, so my question would you rather walk around naked in public for a day or go to jail for one year?

Neil Redfern:

I did not know about these questions too.

Helen Williams:

Right, Mr Flasher, would you rather flash in public for a day or go to jail for one year?

Tim Kamppinen:

What jails like. Do some research on the like. What level of security are we? Am I going to get stabbed in the lunch line in jail or is it like just kind of a federal vacation? I?

Neil Redfern:

don't know if Helen's thought of the small print here.

Helen Williams:

I don't know. Let's say the bad boy. No, let's just say it's one of the nice jails.

Tim Kamppinen:

It's like that show Oz For like the tucks avoiders rather than the murderers.

Helen Williams:

Oh yeah, I'd probably just go to jail, for I don't want to walk around.

Tim Kamppinen:

That's embarrassing. I'm not good with that sort of I'm kind of a private person that you guys probably have gathered, helen, trying to dig up dirt on me, like you said.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, well, go to jail for a year.

Tim Kamppinen:

I feel like I could do some solid personal development. Yeah, definitely In jail with the just for a year over a year. That wouldn't be great. I run a couple of pull ups and oh yeah, you'll be fit as anything.

Neil Redfern:

I didn't know what Helen's question was going to be. As you could already have guessed, there's not a huge amount of research goes into this, but, on the same vein, what would be your death roll meal?

Tim Kamppinen:

Some variety of pizza probably. I eat a lot of pizza. I like pizza. It's probably my favorite food.

Neil Redfern:

I think when we've asked this question before, pizza's been the top answer.

Tim Kamppinen:

Pizza and ice cream. How about that Nice Any?

Helen Williams:

particular flavor.

Tim Kamppinen:

Of which?

Helen Williams:

Oh, yeah, for both Ice cream though.

Tim Kamppinen:

For pizza. I just usually have like lots of meat on the pizza and I'm good, and then ice cream, some kind of peanut butter caramel combo. But here's the key with ice cream. I feel like people either know exactly what I'm talking about when I say this or they think I'm a freak. But whenever I eat ice cream, I put salt on it because I love salt Wow. Yes, ice cream.

Helen Williams:

To bring out the sweetness. I'm intrigued.

Tim Kamppinen:

Because I'm so into health and fitness, I love it.

Neil Redfern:

I'm going to try this.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, it's so good, the sweet and salty combo, it's so good. Pretty good listening.

Neil Redfern:

Once we improve their photography, put salt on your ice cream, especially like a big crunchy.

Tim Kamppinen:

kosher salt or sea salt, that type of thing. I'm not a pizza.

Neil Redfern:

No, and a little add on question Tim does pineapple belong on a pizza? Yeah, yes.

Tim Kamppinen:

I don't like it. Every now and then I like Hawaiian pizza with pineapple. I don't get the hate for it. I'm with you.

Neil Redfern:

I'm with you Me too.

Helen Williams:

Moving on to my final question, a little less like Risqué than the last one, but what has been your most ridiculous purchase?

Tim Kamppinen:

Oh God, my most ridiculous purchase. While I, just a couple of weeks ago, I drove to Columbus, which is a five hour drive, then five hours back again to buy a bench for my home gym a used bench that I found on Craigslist for a low price, and I was like I could drive to Columbus I'm not doing anything else today. I love the dedication. It's not as great as I hoped. It works. It does what I wanted it to, but there's a few annoying things about it.

Helen Williams:

I don't know stuff like that.

Tim Kamppinen:

I've gone out of my way numerous times to just like drive many hours to get things that I found on Facebook, marketplace or Craigslist, just because it's a good deal. And when you factor in the time it's probably not a great deal, but I've done it anyway, just because.

Helen Williams:

I just feel like it's not even that rare a find. You've got 10 hours to pick up a weight bench. You could probably come and buy a Walmart, or I'm guessing you could no.

Tim Kamppinen:

I mean it was a good deal. But if it was local I would have like it would have definitely been a really good deal. But when you factor in the drive, like most people probably wouldn't think it was a good deal.

Helen Williams:

So we've learned that actually Tim can be a little bit frivolous and whimsical with his car journeys. Oh, it's good.

Neil Redfern:

I just think it's good to have a passion like that, and the fact that you're prepared to drive 10 hours for something to do weightlifting shows your passion for weightlifting, which I think is cool.

Tim Kamppinen:

I mean, let's be honest, I'm pretty two dimensional. You know, I do photography and I look like those are like my main things that I'm interested in in life, so that's my major hobby.

Helen Williams:

So what I'd want to know sorry is, someone who lifts a lot of weights, do you still sort of get wedding hangovers Like are you awake in the next day? Does your back get sore? I get really tense shoulders. Are you just, like I, out train it?

Tim Kamppinen:

I don't notice it that much anymore because I remember when I was first starting Well, part of this too is when I was first starting out I was doing just full day coverage of everything and I was shooting. Like it was funny. I was looking at a wedding that I did probably the third wedding I ever did because I was looking through old photos, like looking to update portfolio and stuff, and I ended up looking at these really old weddings like the first few I did and I was there for like 15, 16 hours shooting.

Helen Williams:

Whoa.

Tim Kamppinen:

From the time I started. It was like I showed up at the salon when they were and I was there for like four hours before they left.

Helen Williams:

Oh, my goodness.

Tim Kamppinen:

I just thought that's what I needed to do, and I know some people are like that with the way they just like to be there as long as possible in the morning so they can blend into the background and people get used to them. But I don't do that anymore. I remember feeling after those weddings like I really yeah, I could barely get out of bed the next day. I was just totally drained. But nowadays it's usually between eight to 12 hours in that range somewhere and I don't feel super beat up the next day. It's not that bad.

Helen Williams:

So yeah, the fitness thing is not too bad for you. It sort of benefits your business too.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah Well, I'll tell you though, when I'm lifting heavy a lot I have a harder time, like if I'm training for a power lifting me, for example. I just feel kind of stiff all the time in the light, like not super sore, but just like because you get used to that and the soreness goes away, but my legs and knees and stuff feel kind of stiff and then I'm definitely not as mobile like on the dance floor, like getting low and like dropping down to get better angles and stuff. I've had myself getting a little bit moving a little slower in those phases.

Neil Redfern:

I understand. When you've got really muscular legs like we have, it's tough, Exactly. You know what I'm talking about. Neil, I know that's what I'm saying. It's hard to try and get trousers to fit my thighs in.

Tim Kamppinen:

Exactly yeah, you got to get the waist taken in Because it's oh, Neil's legs.

Neil Redfern:

I know what Tim's saying. That's all I'm saying.

Helen Williams:

Yes, you do. Anyway, I was going to ask some quick.

Neil Redfern:

there's some questions which people want to know from the Flashmaster photographer of the year, tim, but I don't want to like. They're quite boring and stuff, but I thought we'd just go through them very quickly just to get a bit of an idea about you and your business. So can I ask, how long have you been shooting weddings for? Since 2009. Cool, that's very similar to me actually. How many weddings do you shoot a year? Not nearly enough. How would you want to shoot a year?

Tim Kamppinen:

I think around 20 would be a nice target. I'm not there at the moment. Last year was kind of slow and I'm hoping this next year will be better, but I heard that from a lot of people in the industry that it was kind of down. 2022 was kind of like the peak of reschedules and stuff like finally happening, and I feel like there's a lull from people not really starting relationships over like 2020 into 2021, people aren't going out meeting new people and stuff.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, I think that's a real economy.

Tim Kamppinen:

It's probably a combination of all that stuff.

Neil Redfern:

But it's funny. Even though obviously you're based in the US or in the UK, the situation is almost identical. I would say I know for Helen and I and for lots of people that we speak to in the community, this year in particular is slow, isn't it? So I think it's a worldwide thing.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, and I've been speaking to members. We did a big flashbacks as sort of members poll last year, sort of the number one concern was bookings at the moment and how they went down, and I've been speaking to lots of the ambassadors as well. So, from newbies to people who've been well-established to those who were considered to be at the top of the industry, it does seem to be an industry-wide problem at the moment. So you're not alone.

Neil Redfern:

The other two questions which people always want to know, the answer to seems quite dull. But what cameras do you use?

Tim Kamppinen:

I shoot Canon. I use two R5s at weddings, yeah Cool.

Neil Redfern:

And your finally, your favorite lenses.

Tim Kamppinen:

So for the last year my favorite lenses were the 51.2, the Canon RF 51.2. Yeah, I love just been using that more and more because it's so versatile and lets you get good background separation without having to stand like 20 feet away. You know, when you're standing closer you get that more interesting perspective, you get more environment in the shot versus just a total blur. Yes, shooting with the 7200. So I've been loving that. And then my favorite like secret weapon lens that I think that's how I think of it is the, the Canon 16 millimeter 2.8.

Neil Redfern:

Oh, I did not expect you to say that.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, that's my favorite dance floor lens I've ever used because it's it's super light.

Tim Kamppinen:

Obviously it's very wide, but the thing with that lens and a lot of the newer mirrorless lenses, especially Canon's designs, is that if you look at it like, say, you open a lightroom and you turn off the profile corrections, it's like a semi-fish eye lens.

Tim Kamppinen:

There's a lot of barrel distortion and the field of view is actually even wider than 16,. It's closer to like 14, or even I saw somebody estimate it was like in between a 13 and a 14. So what I do is I shoot with that on the dance floor and by default I just leave the profile corrections turned off so the people on the edges aren't stretched out as much, like they look a lot more natural. And then every now and then I'll get a shot where I do want that stretched out, exaggerated perspective and then I'll tweak it and like I'll turn the corrections on for that. But most of the time I just leave it off and everybody looks it's a lot more flattering to the people in the photo. You still get that really close extreme perspective. So yeah, I've been doing that with the light on a stick, the Buckland method lighting.

Neil Redfern:

Heck, I love that.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, cause, and that was part of the reason, because I have the 15 to 35 for Canon. But that's like I don't know, I don't know how many times, but many times heavier than this, than the 16. So, holding that with one hand and trying to hold the flash in the other hand, is like my arm starts to get tired and then I can't.

Tim Kamppinen:

It's harder to like get a low angle with my wrist bent back, because it's like with the heavier lens on there, and so I was just trying to figure out how I could make the whole thing lighter and easier to do, and it's like a $250 lens.

Helen Williams:

Wow.

Tim Kamppinen:

So I just picked it up on a whim. I was like, well, I'm going to try this and if I don't like it I'll just return it or sell it on Marketplace or something. But I loved it once, I tried it.

Helen Williams:

So yeah, it's amazing, especially those dance floor times when you are trying to hold the light as well. The lighter the lens, the better. But, yeah, that's really interesting. Actually, Can I just I'm not interjecting, I'm kind of moving the conversation on if you've covered your questions. Neil, I was trying to have a look. I was just like searching for your name. But first of all I have to check the spelling of your name all the time everywhere.

Neil Redfern:

I just remember double P. Once you get double P right, I think you're OK. Yeah, it's a finished name.

Helen Williams:

Is it? I was going to ask if you had any like any suggestions on how I remember, how to spell it and which letters are double.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, I don't know I'm spelling out. Like people ask how to pronounce it and I tell them like it's like camping in, like I'm going camping in the woods, like that works.

Neil Redfern:

It's great for SEO. I don't imagine that it's going to be many Tim Campanins out there.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, people in the people in this area think it's a Dutch name because there's lots of Dutch people, people around here that have Dutch ancestry, with names like, you know, van campen and stuff like that. So people see campen and they think it's just another Dutch name. But it's actually finished. Like the part of Michigan that I'm from in the upper peninsula has a big Finnish populate. Like like my grandparents were finished. They actually were born in Finland and came here. Wow.

Helen Williams:

Well, I love it, but every time I have to put something on or do and I'm doing all the the naming of the files or flashbases I have to check every single time. Anyway, I'm off. That was a different tangent. Whilst I was trying to get some dirt on you, I was putting your name into Google. Seeing what I could find, I said you are like a stealth man. Like trying to get dirt on you, Tim, is practically impossible. But I will say your Instagram is one of the best Instagram feeds I think I've ever seen, and I was. It's absolutely tragic.

Neil Redfern:

You need more followers, or anyone who's listening to this podcast who doesn't follow Tim's Instagram, you are missing an absolute treat because you have Tim Campanins photo and, as Helen has been talking about this, that is K A M P P I N E N photo. Tim, can you put them in photo?

Helen Williams:

There are so many behind the scenes that you put together. It's absolutely incredible. Yeah, I think people what people could learn from literally scrolling your Instagram is amazing. So my question for that is because I know we've spoken on in the flash masses community. We did an amazing interview with you where we discussed about how you shoot and and took certain photos. But my question is just for people who haven't seen that how do you create those behind the scenes or what do you use to film those? If anyone else wants to do something similar, how do you go about that?

Tim Kamppinen:

So that's something I started doing last year and I actually I started recording all these videos. I had all these videos recorded for a long time before I even started making reels out of them because I was just it's kind of it's kind of overwhelming learning, like I didn't know the how to do the video editing and stuff I hadn't. I did a little bit of that when I was in college, but everything's changed since then and I didn't. I had to relearn everything. What I do, for that is what I started with was just a GoPro that I had mounted on my camera, and there's lots of different ways to do it. It's a lot easier if you're like, not using flash, because you can just mount it on the hot shoe. If you're using flash, like I am and probably most of the people listening this podcast I would think you got to figure out how so you can get the go. If you shoot Godox, they make a trigger that has a hot shoe on top of it, yeah, and that would be.

Tim Kamppinen:

Second, easiest thing is if you use that trigger, the XXT to, or whatever it's called. Yes, that's right. Yeah, you can get a little hot shoe foot for your GoPro or your DJI action for or any like any of those little action cameras, and then you can mount that on there, and I've literally probably tried every possible way of mounting it to my camera, like I just have like a big bag full of random parts and pieces of things that I bought from Amazon to try to attach, yeah, yeah.

Tim Kamppinen:

And like try to get it from the right perspective and also so it's not just in the way all the time and keep it low profile. And I've just gone around around just modifying those setups. But basically you just have a GoPro or some other action camera and you figure out a way to mount it on your camera that you're using. That's how I like to do it. You could also just set it like on top of your camera bag, pointed in the direct.

Tim Kamppinen:

That's what I did the first time, the first time I ever used it. I just I had like a little tiny like six inch tripod leg thing that I just screwed it into and I just set it on the ground next to where I was doing a photo shoot and got some behind the scenes that way, and then after that I figured out how to attach it to my camera. I just record what I'm doing and then edit it together with the final shot and that's pretty much it. But I use I never do the editing in Instagram and I don't know if that's that might be better to do it that way for Instagram actually showing the video to people. But I absolutely hate using all the tools in Instagram and I can never figure out how they're supposed to work and trying to edit stuff on my phone, so I edit it in Final Cut on my computer and then I just upload it to.

Neil Redfern:

Instagram Very cool and, as Helen said, I'm looking at your Instagram now. It is such a goldmine of amazing information to see all this behind the scenes. I just be looking at here one of your shots here, tim, which we've seen a few Flashmasters members who not many at all do it as well as you which is a composite group shot which is so dramatic and it's really influenced how Helen and I were seeing images like that that you've been taking. But the great thing about what you're doing is you're proving you can do it without an assistant as well, which is amazing, because usually people will do that with an assistant holding a softbox and walking around. You're on your own.

Tim Kamppinen:

If I have a second shooter, you know I'll have them hold the light, but a lot of times I don't. So I use my light stands. All my light stands have Arca Swiss ball heads on them and all my flashes and lighting equipment LED lights, everything have little Arca plates and the advantage with that is that well everything works on the light stand because they all have the same connector. But then I can also use my camera. I can use the light stand as a tripod and put my camera on it. You know I use spider spider holsters and I have the spider holster with little Arca plate add on thing and then I can just set that on the light stand as a tripod. So if I have two light stands with me which I basically always have at least two light stands with me then I can also use that as one tripod and a light stand for flash composites. That's brilliant.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, we need to bring you in. Oh, there's so many times we've been trolled on the flashbasses YouTube channel and we've had people go. There's no way wedding photographers can make these images on a wedding day or all our social media and we're like Tim does it on his own without an assistant and even films the behind the scenes Like exactly.

Helen Williams:

Hold my drink, like, send Tim in and be like you know, check this guy out. You're definitely proof that it can be done and, I will say, make me feel incredibly lazy. And I think, for anyone who wants to give an excuse as to why they can't do these on a wedding day, there is no rebuttal from what you do at all.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, I've seen some of those comments. It's just funny. It's like yeah, it definitely takes time, but I tell people about it beforehand, like I've talked to them when we're I don't know. I feel like a lot of people talk about how they like oh, that's great, but nobody has that kind of time on a wedding day.

Tim Kamppinen:

Well, you need to. This is something I learned a long time ago from Jerry Guionis. You need to tell them how much time it's going to take and like like, ask for the time that you need if you want to get the results that you're looking to get. And you know he's he's on the extreme end of he. You know he always says, like, tell them you need three hours for photo and then, and then they'll end up giving you two and you'll be happy. Like I don't even go that far with it, but I, but I do.

Tim Kamppinen:

You know I try to make it clear to. I try to make it clear to people when we're doing timelines and stuff that the more time we have, the better the photos are going to come out. Like the more variety we'll be able to get, the more locations we'll be able to go to. And if you want to give me like 30 minutes. We'll get some good photos, but it's only going to be like a handful or not to be able to get everything that you can ever imagine in 30 minutes, yeah, so.

Neil Redfern:

I'll say the other thing that you do so well obviously we'll look again, looking through your feed, looking through your website is you're showing these beautiful off-camera flash portraits. So couples I'm sure are booking you for that, so that the bouncer wants to give you that time. If you're, if you're someone who wants to take these sort of images, but you're not showing them, or nowhere near as much as you are, then there's a bit of a disconnect, isn't there?

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, that's a really good point Cause I yeah, if you, if you don't focus on that and the photos that you're putting out there and you're on your website and your social media, then you're much less likely to get the people that are willing to give you that time.

Tim Kamppinen:

It's tough. It's tough for somebody if they're trying to change their style and do more of this. I can see how it would be hard to get that time out of people to do something that they weren't. It's not necessarily the the thing that they hired you for in the first place. But if you just try with everyone to get as much time as you can and you don't have to be like totally like pushy about it, but just try to push them to give you a little extra time then eventually you're going to, you'll get. You know some people will be willing to do that and some people won't, but at least the more that it happens, you'll get more of those photos to show and it's kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy of like people start coming to you for that thing, the more you show it Totally.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, I definitely agree. Yeah, that's something that we often get asked, like if we ever take photographs of Brian Grooms in the rain, for example. Make sure you show those, because that will make the next couple come out in the rain.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, exactly, there's one particular rain shot that I have that a lot of people recognize and talk about, like you know if it rains we want to do something like that.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, definitely I can imagine with your work, Tim. People often want staircases as well. I know that you've created some incredible images by. I remember one in particular, that the black and white shot and I was like, how have you done that? And you shot through a staircase and I just found that incredible. When you're going to a venue, what are you looking for when it comes to the creative portraits? Is there any go-tos that you like to see, or is it just you're walking a place and just see what you're given?

Tim Kamppinen:

I mean, I always recognize first the obvious shot, like if there's a big beautiful chandelier or staircase and stuff, and so like I definitely do a lot of just like environmental, like showing off how beautiful the venue is with the couple in the scene.

Intro:

I mean, those are those kind of jump out at you if it's a good venue.

Tim Kamppinen:

If you're in a venue that doesn't have anything obvious like that, then it gets trickier and it's like what can I shoot through or what would look good as a background if it was totally out of focus? You know, like different lighting and stuff. I don't have like a algorithm to do that.

Neil Redfern:

No, no. I say again for real if you go and look at Tim's Instagram, you'll see certain images and then try and guess how they're done, and you won't with a lot of them Like, there's the shot.

Tim Kamppinen:

Oh yeah. I remember now what you're talking about the staircase, the one where I cast the shadows? Yeah, exactly.

Neil Redfern:

It's almost like I know you can't train yourself to do that, but it's almost like. How undrusted is any if there is a trick?

Tim Kamppinen:

Honestly, it's like you have to learn the technique first, and then you can recognize the areas where this technique would work. Yes, so like that shot honestly, when I took that photo, I had, just like in the last couple of weeks, been watching some video about using light to cast shadows for photography. Like you know, like cookies, if people don't know what a cookie is, it's like a cut out cuckolaris, scobo sort of thing.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, like a gobo, yeah, or like the Meg beam is a way you can do that. You can also just shine a light through some object, like a plant or anything. That's gonna cast an interesting shadow, and you can control how the shadow looks based on where you place the light. If the light is farther back from the thing you're shooting through, you're gonna get much harder edge shadows, versus if the light is close to the thing you're shooting through, the shadows will be more diffused and fuzzy. But yeah, once you learn a technique like that I'm not always great at remembering Like I have all these techniques that I know how to do, but I don't always think of them in the moment and sometimes I think of it after the fact like this would work really well and I'm like kicking myself about not doing what you mean, like driving home from the wedding, like yeah.

Neil Redfern:

That's when your mind will be in overdrive. You're taking thinking oh, if I would do that.

Tim Kamppinen:

That's typically like, yeah, if I'm being honest, that's like what I'm usually focused on, and thinking like as I drive home from a wedding, like all the things I didn't do that would have worked.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, that's natural. That's the creative mind.

Tim Kamppinen:

But yeah, the more like, if you learn these things and then practice them and try them out like on your own, when you're not under the pressure of having a client in front of you, then you'll start to recognize when it's going to work in on a real shoot. You'll see that you'll have those things kind of jump out of you. So like when I was there, I was looking around and, as that wedding was, the whole wedding was in the basement of a restaurant and there was no natural light. It was in December. The wedding didn't even start until after sunset so there was like no window light. There was no light anywhere. There was no windows.

Tim Kamppinen:

Oh wow, you thought I was in that case, yeah so basically every photo I took at that wedding was lit in one way or another with flash or LED or so I was looking around trying to figure out what to do and I saw that pattern on the grates and, like I said, I had just been thinking about this technique and practicing it just recently, prior to that wedding, and I saw it. I was like, oh, I could try to light through that and that would look. That would probably look cool. So I set up the flash and took some test shots and rearranged it to get the best pattern on the wall, doing all that before I went to get the couple to, because I don't want them standing around as I'm like fumbling, trying to work out the setup.

Neil Redfern:

I love that, though and that is I mean also, we're going to be biased, but that is the power of off camera flash as well. You're literally creating something beautiful out of nothing, really, and if you didn't have external lighting, off camera lighting, then you're going to really be stuck, but you've created stunning images using that technique. I also imagine it would be quite funny for your couple as well, who are thinking what is he doing? He's got those underneath the staircase.

Tim Kamppinen:

Well, that's what I love, too, is when you do that and they are kind of like, I'm like, just trust me, guys, it's going to look great. Then I can show it to them on the camera and they're always like oh, my God.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, if I get a shot that I know is good and I'm really happy with, I will usually show that to them, because, especially in a case like that, where they're like what is he even doing? Like why are we standing here? I can't report it. I want them to know that we did this in real life with lighting. This wasn't like some Photoshop thing that I did. Totally.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, I want to show it to them when it happens. The other one which I imagine was been an amazing experience for your couple is the shot that where you've taken like a really far away shot of a couple but it looks like you've almost left the venue. It's on like a cliff edge.

Tim Kamppinen:

Oh yeah.

Neil Redfern:

You've left a couple on one cliff. You've then gone back through the venue. It looks like you've gone to a whole different wedding venue and shot down the coast.

Tim Kamppinen:

That was in St Martin. That was last year. I did a wedding in St Martin. It was actually on the 4th of July, which for Americans, obviously they're a big national holiday. But that was interesting Cause did you see the behind the scenes for that? Yes, yeah.

Neil Redfern:

I had to run through. It's amazing that the trigger even worked. Yeah, so I'm saying that, was that even part of the same venue?

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, it was. So it's a resort that's like split into two halves but it's all apart. It's technically like the same company but they have like one half. That's like the family resort, like if you have kids and stuff, and then the other half that's like the adult only side, so you don't have to listen to screaming kids all the time on vacation. They were like over on the far side, which was where their reception was like on the adults only side, but the place where I had to shoot was like over, I think, on like the other side of the resort. So, yeah, I did like go up the hill and like through, just like through this restaurant where all these people are just eating, and I was like can I go on your? They're like yeah.

Neil Redfern:

Just a random guy with a camera.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, cause I had I scouted and that's another thing that I am not shy about admitting is that I like to scout things ahead of time if I can. I know some people just they think that that inhibits their creativity or they won't be, as I don't know like like it takes away the spontaneity. But for me I don't know, maybe my brain just doesn't work that fast I just like to be able to walk around and look at things and figure out how I want to shoot it without the client standing right there, like waiting for me to hurry up and do something. So, if I can, if I haven't been to a venue before, especially a destination thing, where I'm there like the day before anyway, because I want to get there and like stay at a hotel or whatever whenever I can I like to go to the venue and look around and scout it out a little bit. So I got into that destination wedding.

Tim Kamppinen:

I was at the resort, like the wedding, I think, was on a Friday and I got there on Wednesday. So I just walked all around and looked at everything and took pictures of on my phone I was like taking pictures of like possible locations to do portraits, and that was one of them that really stood out to me, like if I stand at this gazebo and I have them stand way over there on that other little like gazebo thing sticking out of the rocks, then that'd be a really cool angle. So I had that in my head the whole time and if I hadn't scouted that I either, I might not have even thought of doing it.

Tim Kamppinen:

Like it wouldn't have occurred to me that, like there's like this vantage point that I could shoot from way over there, and also I don't think I don't know for me, like, if I have an idea like that right in the moment cause we were like really crunched for time to like get to the reception I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to like try doing that if I hadn't scouted it, because you know, you see something that thinks like, oh yeah, if I go over there and shoot, and then you get there and there's some problem that you didn't realize like and it doesn't work out, like I didn't want to waste their time and make them late if it wasn't gonna be worth it.

Neil Redfern:

But the other thing. I just think it puts a bit more pressure on you. You can't exactly. If it doesn't quite work out, you can't get away with it, can you? The couple are gonna remember.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, exactly yeah. Where's that shot? You made us wait an extra 10 minutes when we were late for the reception already, like you know. But I told them I was like it's gonna be worth it. Just trust me, let's do this. Love it or regret it. And they love that shot. You know it was like it was a two page spread in their elbow. Well, I think the shot in the reel was like a vertical shot. I had another one that was horizontal that I took from the same spot and that was like a two page spread in their elbow. It is absolutely Of course I used the vertical one for this show.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, it's breathtaking that shot. I'm literally looking at the reel now and what we'll do is we will post when this podcast goes live. We'll post some of Tim's award winning images and you can see them for yourself. His Instagram, especially, is a treasure trove of amazing images and inspiration. Just last one on that, Tim, could you even speak to the couple? Are you on your phone to them or anything?

Tim Kamppinen:

I was talking to them on. I think it was the planner, it was her phone, like I called her number, and she had her phone on speaker and then I had my phone on speaker. I love that.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, it's awesome giving the couple an experience, isn't it that, folks, that's gonna mean more, cause it's gonna be like this is when this crazy thing happened, and they're gonna really remember that.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, there's been a couple of times when I've done that for a long distance shot. I just have them like so just call me and like just put your phone on speaker and just set it down on the ground and then I'm like telling them how to pose and like move a little bit this way.

Neil Redfern:

They must be so excited to see that shot.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, it's incredible.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, I just think, looking through your Instagram, there is no question or no doubt why you know you picked up our flash masses photographer of the year. It's just so well deserved. Like I said, yeah, for anyone who wants inspiration of images and to look up behind the scenes, you've created some insanely good content on there. So, yeah, if you're not following Tim, please do. Yeah, if you don't mind. I've got a couple more questions before we let you go and let you carry on with your day, but the first one I was going to ask is what tips cause. Obviously you've won an insane amount of awards in how we flash masters. Do you have any tips for people in terms of how they should choose what images they enter for awards? Is there anything that you look for?

Neil Redfern:

That's a really good question, cause I think it's a real skill to the curation of what you actually enter.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, you asked me that. Life's true. I don't know how good my answer is, I guess for me I'm really just in general, really critical of my own work and like kind of analytical, and like you know, I'll look at a shot and I'll be like, yeah, I like that, but then I'll just like instantly start looking for like well, what's wrong with it? Where are the faults? Like what, what isn't great about it? What could be? So you get like you don't want to be that way with every photo you take and just give yourself a complex about and not like work, your clients, your clients, don't look at the photos that way.

Helen Williams:

No.

Tim Kamppinen:

But if you're submitting it for a competition, that's kind of how you have to think about it. You need to like, look for the flaws and like, is there something wrong with this photo? Like by the rules the quote unquote rules of photography like, what are the problems with this? And if look for the photos that have the fewest of those, I guess you might have a shot that you really love because it was like the first time you did a new technique and it came out like better than you imagined it. It would right and you might really love that shot. Your clients probably love it.

Tim Kamppinen:

But you know the posing wasn't great. Like there was something. They look kind of stiff and rigid in the pose. Like then, even though it's a great shot for your clients and it's awesome that you got that shot, like it might not do well in the in a competition if there's something that stands because the judges are just gonna see that they did this technique well, but like there's this big element of it that's not up to the same standard, like the poses off or stuff like that. So just be critical and think in that way.

Tim Kamppinen:

Think like a judge has never seen this photo, doesn't know who you are is seeing like 30 other photos that might be doing the same, might even be doing the same technique, and like what makes yours different? Like how's it gonna stand out? Look for the photos that have something a little bit different to them. And then I try to do like Each round I try to submit photos that have some variety, like I don't want to do like five versions of the same exact thing, because my thought is that if the judges are seeing the same thing over and over, they're not going to pick like every version of it. They're probably going to pick like which one's the best version of this one thing that we keep seeing over and over.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, that's a good tactic.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, I try to have a little more variety, like if I have two photos that are because when I when I'm submitting, when I'm picking my photos for submission an hour before the deadline always, as is the custom. I swear like the last. It was like down to like two minutes before for the last round when I submitted.

Helen Williams:

Oh, I can't, I can't be like me Kids lose my.

Neil Redfern:

You say this, but we've entered contest and that we'd exactly the same.

Helen Williams:

Exactly the same it was the worst, the absolute worst. This is set a reminder on my phone for maybe an hour before deadline, then submit. But now I do.

Neil Redfern:

They get angry when the website doesn't work. Like, oh, this stupid website and it's like, yeah, maybe, and I've been here every day before deadline, Like why hasn't everyone entered?

Helen Williams:

They've had two months and then you guaranteed is the last hour. Everyone's piling them in and. I'm sat there tutting like like I'm better and I'm not, I'm no better at all.

Neil Redfern:

Exactly the same thing.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, yeah.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, I'm a procrastinator, definitely. But yeah, when I'm picking the photos, you know I'll go through and I'll pick a bunch. Like I have a folder or a lightroom collection of like potential photos that I might submit at some point to flashmasters and I'll go and look in there. You know I'm looking at like what did I submit previously that maybe didn't get an award and like, think about, so there was one photo this round I mentioned this on the live stream with you, Helen that I had a photo that I submitted, like I don't know, three, maybe four times before and it never got, never got picked, and I finally got a silver for this round. I submitted again.

Tim Kamppinen:

So, yeah, if you have a photo like that that you really, that you really believe in and you're like, because I looked at that photo, I was like I don't know, I don't know what's. Is there some glaring error with, like something wrong with this photo that I'm not seeing? Like I didn't get it, so I just kept submitting it. I was like eventually somebody's going to pick it because I think it's a solid photo. It was the one of the bride and groom on the staircase and she's got her feet up and he's like giving her a kiss on the cheek and yeah.

Neil Redfern:

I submitted that, the dress code, the trace shot, oh wow.

Tim Kamppinen:

See, I said you can.

Neil Redfern:

It's a really important point. This because I, when I just realized which shot you mean there and I would never have realized that you've been entering that for a few years I would have thought that was an obvious winner. And it just goes to show, doesn't it, that if you don't win an award, that does not mean that the image is no good, or it's not that it just means be persistent.

Tim Kamppinen:

Yeah, it's, it's. You know there's so much. Any time you're talking about a competition of art. Yeah, it's going to be basically entirely subjective. I mean not entirely. I think you can tell when you see a photo. I think there are some photos that are objectively not good. Yeah, we all recognize that.

Tim Kamppinen:

But when it comes to like what's the best out of all these and which ones deserve to get an, award, it just comes out the judges on in that round, and so yeah, if you have a photo and you can't really figure out what's wrong with it, quote unquote then why you didn't? Why I didn't get picked? Just keep entering it. You probably get an award at some point.

Helen Williams:

And that image could have been. We could say that was the particular image that pushed you over the line to win. There was one silver in it.

Helen Williams:

There you go, yeah, silver award on on attempt four, and that will, let's just say that, one new flashmaster of the year and if you gave it but thought, oh, I won't enter it for something else in the didn't win, then we could have been, you know, interviewing Jeff instead. So I think that's a really good. We keep trying to make this point to everyone who listens and those who are members, and I think it's sometimes quite difficult to take in, but I think that's a really strong message there.

Tim Kamppinen:

So, yeah, I get. Anyway, I don't think I ever finished my original thought, which is a common occurrence with me.

Tim Kamppinen:

But, I have this folder in our collection in a light room of all the potential entries, and then when I sit down to decide where I'm going to do this round, I look at that and I'm like, can I narrow it down? And like, ok, here's a lot of times I'll just go and pick out like things that I think I might enter for this round, and it's like still like 20 photos and I try to narrow it down from there and at that point it's just like all right, which ones of these are the strongest, which ones stand out, which ones are the most unique? If there's two that I think are really strong but they're very similar, I'll only pick one and then I'll be like, well, I'll enter the other one next round, you know.

Neil Redfern:

That's really good advice. Final question for you, tim, if you don't mind, before, before we let you go, and it's just a just a simple worry it's a lot to follow in your footsteps and become the Flash Massage photographer of the age. Any one piece of advice you would give someone who's maybe starting out with off camera flash and looking to gain a bit more experience and confidence. It's one thing you could say to those people who who want to say like, try and achieve some of the levels that you've got to. What would you say to those people?

Tim Kamppinen:

Somebody who's just starting out, I would say practice as much as you can.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, good, good answer.

Tim Kamppinen:

Like practice on your own time, when you don't have the pressure of a page shoot happening.

Neil Redfern:

Such simple advice, but I don't think enough of us do that and I don't do it anymore.

Tim Kamppinen:

I need to do it more. I have a few things that have been meaning to like try out just in my free time that I haven't made it, but now that it's kind of some ideas like, oh, you're about pocket.

Neil Redfern:

I always think that's a good idea actually to have like these. I wonder what will happen if I do this and then you just store it the shot that you did with the bubbles. You've got to try that for the first time and it might not work. Do you have that shot in your mind for a while and then you think, oh, I'm going to do it now.

Tim Kamppinen:

No, that one was the. The bride sprung it on me. She was like I brought this bubble machine, can we use this? And I was like what?

Neil Redfern:

Wow yeah.

Tim Kamppinen:

See.

Neil Redfern:

I would have thought that was really thought out and planned, because it's executed so well.

Tim Kamppinen:

That was a great couple I had a bunch of obviously that's the same couple. I had that shot with the gels yeah.

Neil Redfern:

And I think that is probably the flashmaster shot. We use that all the time with the red and the blue. Yeah.

Helen Williams:

It's incredible.

Neil Redfern:

That one.

Tim Kamppinen:

But we had, we had done we had already done all these great portraits and I was like kind of. I was kind of thinking like maybe she'll forget about the bubble thing, cause I didn't really know what I was going to do with that. I mean, obviously I figured we'll backlight them or something, but it was like I didn't have a great space in mind to do it in and I knew going outside the wind was probably going to be an issue. And we were like packing up and we had all these awesome, and I was like showing them as we went like, oh yeah, look how that. And they're like, wow, that's awesome. And I thought like, yeah, she's going to forget about the bubble thing. I won't have to, I won't have to try to pull that off too. When we wrapped up, just like so, can we do the bubbles? And I was like, okay, all right, we'll do the bubbles, it should work, though.

Neil Redfern:

So I can tell you, I mean, I feel so inadequate. Now, cause, to let you be a little bit behind the scenes. Team, I was massively inspired by that shot and Helen, no cause, she was there with me. I bought a bubble machine to try and recreate it for a video name. Checking you, I could not get it right and I had all the time in the world with a couple and doing a style shoot could not get it to work.

Tim Kamppinen:

Oh yeah, you're a very talented man, I mean I did. I did end up having to like composite several shots with that one Cause, the bubbles feel a bit better. You know they were going in all different directions, you know like, so that wasn't just one frame, just so you know that was a bit better, yeah, cause I could not get anywhere near what you had done.

Tim Kamppinen:

So I think you never saw the light of day, you would have to. Maybe have a and I haven't tried this, but maybe if you had a fan behind them blowing towards to blow the bubbles, towards the camera, maybe that would work. Yeah, you can't predict. Smoke is the same way. Smoke is really hard if you're outdoors.

Neil Redfern:

Yes, yeah, I've used that, sometimes got really good results, and all the time you think this is just awful.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, when couples say they have them and Mike is either going to be epic or there's like there's not the ever any in between. It's going to be amazing, or the winds just not going to play ball. You're going to be surrounded in some colored smoke and I'm not going to see you.

Neil Redfern:

It's the fun of what we do, oh well, well, tim, thank you so so much for joining us on this podcast. It's been brilliant to speak to you and, again, we are so proud to have you as our flashmaster of the talk of the year. We couldn't be proud of to have someone as talented as yourself with the accolades. So, yeah, congratulations again. Thank you so much for sharing all that you do, not just on the show, not just on this podcast, but also when you came on to a flashbass live stream and shared so much information with us. We're honored to have you in the community. You're you're an amazing, amazing photographer and and so giving as well with your time and experience, and we're very, very grateful.

Tim Kamppinen:

Thanks so much for having me and it's always a pleasure talking to you guys, so anytime, oh, thank you, yeah, and all the best for 20 for 20, for we can't wait to see what you come up with this year.

Neil Redfern:

Yes, I'm sure there'll be some well many, many more awards. I am sure, just looking at the leaderboard, 35 awards, tim as one so far, which is ridiculous. So I dread to think how many you'll you'll rack up in 24, but we look forward to seeing them.

Helen Williams:

No pressure, no pressure, exactly no pressure. Everyone is going to be hunting you down, but it's so nice to think you're giving everyone a kick up the backside and I know I'm sure everyone's going to be raring to go to chase you down.

Tim Kamppinen:

Let's do it, it'll be fun.

Neil Redfern:

Exactly. If you would like to join Helen and I and Tim in the Flashmasses community, you can do so at flashmassesco. But, as always, thank you so much for listening and we will see you next time.

Helen Williams:

And don't forget to keep flashing.

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