Category: Uncategorized

No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the planet, but I have been traveling. I’m posting this from Philadelphia where I have been working on a project with ASMP. I can’t share much about it yet, but suffice it to say that it is connected to the Strictly Business 2 events from earlier this year. 

Anyway, it’s been a hell of a trip. I almost didn’t make it here and there is no guarantee I’m going to get home on schedule. Remember how I’m crazy and travel by train? Well, the train has to cross the Mississippi and, in case you haven’t been paying attention, that river is seriously flooding. The water crossing flooded the train station closest to the river (Fort Madison, Iowa) and came up to the edge of the tracks in places! Here are a couple of pictures (click for larger versions) I took as we went through that area…and remember, I am not a photographer.

The train–this is water on the other side of the tracks–that is, the river is on the far side of the train:
 

The view shooting from the upper windows (train is a double-decker), as straight down as I could:
 

This is the bridge we had to cross. The upper level is for cars. The lower level, right on the water, is the train level:

And on the other side, in Illinois, this is typical of what the people are suffering:

Tomorrow I begin the trip back. At this point, that bridge is, as I understand it, not open because the water is even higher there now. But the water levels are dropping in that area finally, so maybe I’ll get across. More importantly, maybe some of these fine people who live in these affected areas will be able to go home and restart their lives. 

I’ll post again, and something more commercial photo oriented as soon as I can. In the meanwhile, consider making a donation to the flood victims. Here are some links (all rank high on CharityNavigator.org):

The American Red Cross (click on Disaster Relief Funds)
The United Way of Central Iowa
Humane Society of Missouri

 

Caitlin has posted about producing a production booklet for projects. This is one of those things that seems like a total “Duh!” until someone writes about it and you realize how few photographers go to the “bother.” She means something more than a call sheet–read the post to get the idea.

When I was producing (which I did for my guys when I repped) I’d always produce as comprehensive a plan as possible, and share it with everyone connected to the project. The clients loved it and that organizational detail brought us more work. Doing things like this raises your value to your clients and helps you get better projects, and better fees.

In a recent edition of Time magazine, Brad Pitt is quoted as saying “While acting is my career, architecture is my passion.” He said this when asked about his getting to help design a hotel in Dubai. You know what I say? If you want to be an architect Brad, good for you! Go to school, get your Masters (BAs aren’t enough any more), do the multi-year internship (which must be documented) as required by the licensing boards nation-wide, take the 9-part test and the orals, get your license, and THEN you can be an architect. Until you do all of that, you’re taking paying work away from real architects who have spent god’s own wallet on school and testing and software and who don’t have a second career to fall back on.

Maybe Brad will be a fabulous designer–maybe he has it in him, and if so, that’s great, if he does it fairly as described above. It is more than unfair to have a celebrity take paying work from really hard working creatives in other industries like that. 

We see it too often in photography too. Some celebrity gets a plum assignment solely because they are already famous for her/his singing or acting. Every time that happens I want to just scream!  With Mr. Pitt I would love to look him in the eye and say something like “How would you have liked it if you didn’t get the breakout role in Thelma & Louise because they gave it to Robert Mapplethorpe*, just because he was famous in his field? Would that have taken bread off your plate then? I bet you it would have since you were doing bits on TV before that break made you a star.”

I’m sure Mr. Pitt hasn’t even thought about this and means no disrespect. However, the taint of it still is there. Whenever a creative project goes to someone famous for their work in another field, it hurts. I bet Brad is a nice guy who just hasn’t been made aware of how bad something like this sucks for the creatives in this other industry. Maybe this will reach him somehow. Or someone will tell him.

It’s hard enough making it in any creative industry (acting definitely included)–we need ALL creatives to stop cannibalizing the work in their sibling industries. If you make it big as a creative, thank the heavens and just say “no” to the ego projects like Mr. Pitt’s Dubai hotel. 

 

 

 

*yes, I know he died before this movie came out, but you get the point.

 

 

If you didn’t get the latest Manual in May, on how to use tools better, it’s now posted on the Manuals page.

In the Sunday NYTimes there was a great article about Trent Reznor. Here’s a creative who is struggling not only with issues of feeling inadequate (who’d a-thunk!) but also how to deal with the expectation of free creative. 

Among other things, I think he brings up one point that we often ignore when we look at monetizing creativity: the desire to have the work seen/heard by as many people as possible. That is, creatives make their art, in whatever form, not to hide it but rather to have it experienced by as many people as possible–money notwithstanding. There would be nothing better than for artists to be able to make their art and truly share it with the world without having to even think about making money.

Unfortunately, like the rest of us mere mortals, artists have to pay the bills too. Reznor discusses his own frustrations with this issue. He doesn’t like the fact that music is assumed to be (practically) free today, but he accepts that reality: “I don’t agree that it should be free, but it is free, and you can either accept it or you can put your head in the sand.”

This is something many of us need to learn to accept as well: in the new digital world, the general public expects many things to be free now–things that weren’t ever free before and things which, in being free, make making a living much more complicated for the makers. We need to find new ways to monetize art, especially photography. 

As much as I hate to say it, I think that we need to accept that image use on websites (non-commercial sites and probably all blogs) is/is going to be free. Social media sites too, but we can’t do that until most of them change their terms & conditions so that the artwork can’t be used commercially (most social media sites have terrible rights-grabbing T&Cs). However, in doing this, making this use free, we need to figure out how to still make money. Why not offer the images on products as well? If a kid loves your image enough to put it on his blog, s/he might want to wear it too, and using sites like Spreadshirt.com you can put your work on shirts (that’s what I use for my tshirts).

Make books and sell them too. Start thinking more and more retail/consumer-oriented. These products may not be your main income line–especially if you shoot advertising–but they can fill in many of the gaps.

I’ve found, pretty consistently (though, as always, there are exceptions) that the more one reads (be that the classical visual method or the newer audio version), the better her/his creative is. However, many creatives have reading disabilities like dyslexia and so they miss out on a lot of the material out there they would actually like to read. Now Jott.com offers an RSS feed reading service. You call Jott, name your feed, and it reads it aloud to you. This way you can keep up with all sorts of blogs and news services you may have been skipping.

Caitlin has an interesting post (from Last Thursday…my bad for not mentioning it earlier) about shooting film today–is it even possible? The short answer is “yes.”

Questions like this have always been around. Today it’s film or digital? but before digital it was what format? Back in the day (as they say), we’d have those clients who would call up and tell us what format…and usually we’d (gently) tell them that the photographer was really the best person to decide what format was really best for the project–after all, that was a part of his expertise. We’d do this because, 8 times out of 10, they’d be wrong about it.

But, and here’s a little trick for you, when the client says “do it in this format”–or digital or whatever–and when they are (luckily or not) right about it, then just do it “their way.” Give them that illusion of power, if it makes them happy. No reason to stand on an apple crate and announce that you, the artiste, will say what is and is not right…just do it. It’s a simple way to make a client happy. Show your professionalism and unique abilities in other ways, like by solving some difficult lighting issue or delivering the files early.

Okay, this isn’t directly biz or photo-related, but I just had to write about this….

For the first time in a very long time, I am really proud of my country. Regardless of your personal political stand–left, right, center–every American should be proud that we have an African-American presidential candidate from a major party (in this case, the Dems).

It took this country almost 90 years to get rid of slavery, and another 95 or so to get fair voting rights (and others), but then, from then to this–40 years. Kind of amazing when you think about it. And not only a black candidate–he’s mixed race and has a name that is about as far from Bob Wasp as you can get! WOW!

I was a tiny kid when MLK, Jr. was killed (I don’t remember the event directly). I wasn’t yet born when he made his most famous speech on the Mall in Washington, DC. These are events I learned about in history class. In an all white public school. 

Now we have a nation of people who are seeing the man for the content of his character, not the color of his skin, to paraphrase Dr. King. It’s amazing. Even if you aren’t planning on voting for him in November, you have to give pause and be proud of our country for achieving this. 

And how is this for an amazing historical coincidence: on the evening that Mr. Obama accepts the nomination, officially, it will be the 45th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech. 

Kinda give you chills.

Way to go, USA. Take a minute or two to be happy and proud of your country (if you’re an American). For many of us, it’s the first good, hopeful, happy thing we’ve seen from our nation, in the big, political sense especially, in a very long time. And for those of us who have not felt the weight and darkness of the past many years, you too should celebrate this anyway. Even if Obama is your worst vision of a candidate–for any reason(s) except the color of his skin–you too have reason to be very proud. When you see African-American kids on the news, like I did last night, excitedly talking about how they too could be president some day, it’s a great day in America.

 

 

Heather Morton has Ask an Art Buyer on her blog every Wednesday. This week, she handles a question about reuse. Great resource!

It’s kind of funny how the word porn has gone from something said with distaste–like as if you still had the taste of the soap your mom once used to wash out your mouth, or spat out like an involuntary Tourette-like event–to a term of, well, almost affection. Certainly admiration.

In that vein, the admiration and inspiration one, here’s a post where an artist and critic lists some of her “artist porn”–things that inspire and excite the creative in her.

I think we all should make lists like this. What things in life inspire your creative side–not the obvious, like your camera or a perfect model or your kids, but other things like the design of a perfect spoon, or the films of Jeunet or a great pair of shoes (hey, I am a chick and love shoes)–what’s your list?