Just An Update, No Advice Today
Posted on 17 August 2010 | 9 responses
I love being able to share things that help other people. I usually try to do that when I set out to do a blog post, but today I just have some information. (Although it might be helpful to somebody, and that would be great!)
I’ve been working on an invention in my spare time lately. I’ve never done anything like that before and it has been a real learning experience for me. I have cobbled together all kinds of things in the past, but nothing I have taken the time to go through the patent process for. This time I have. I’ve developed a product and, while I can’t tell you what it is yet, I can tell you that the patent search came back with no other products like it. Next I’m filing a provisional patent so I can tell people about it and start selling my product. That way I’ll have a year to fully develop my final patent while the provisional patent protects my product.
It’s kind of exciting and kind of scary. Seems like any possible gains in life come with some level of risk. At 47 I’m still trying new things, and I still find myself occasionally procrastinating when things seem a little intimidating. I guess I need to go back and read some of my old blog posts about not procrastinating. 
As soon as I get confirmation that the provisional patent is in the hands of the US Patent office, I’ll let you know what’s cooking.
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Do What You Can with What You’ve Got
Posted on 4 August 2010 | 16 responses
I have a Nikon D200 and almost all my shooting friends at work have a D300s, D700, or D3s, and some have two or more cameras. Because I’m a “normal” photographer, I have gear envy and I usually want a different (newer, better) camera. However, I certainly don’t need one. In fact, I know my camera’s settings quite well. It does what I need it to do. I don’t have any desire to shoot video with a DSLR (yet). My Really Right Stuff bracket fits just right (a new RRS bracket for a new camera would set me back $275+). With a different body, my battery grip would need to be replaced too (another $150+). The resolution is just fine. So the only reasons for me personally to upgrade, would be to get a couple features I kind of want like “Live View” on the LCD, and camera settings from the top LCD repeated on the back LCD. Even the low light noise isn’t appreciably different until you go to the $5k price point, and I just can’t go there. But here’s the real key… unless somebody sees the EXIF data, nobody knows what camera I’m using. They just look at the images.
Now I’ve been talking about my camera and why I don’t need to upgrade it just yet. But that’s a detailed example of a bigger issue. The big issue is, do what you can with what you’ve got.
Every time I consider doing a little evening or weekend freelance work to pick up a few extra bucks (primarily so I can buy more gear) I keep thinking, “I would, but I need another light, or different camera, or softbox, etc.)” —— Have you ever said to yourself, “I would do that project but I don’t have ______ so why try?” It’s time to replace that sentence with, “Even though I don’t own _______ yet, how could I do that project anyway?” I bet you’d come up with some workable solutions, and if not, use the same question to brainstorm with friends. They might suggest that you borrow or rent what you need to get by.
Larry’s Obligatory Personal Historical Reference
Years ago I had just started a business doing public speaking. I was traveling and teaching people how to use handheld computers. Projectors were necessary but a decent one would set me back more than $2,000, so I rented them. At one point I started regularly getting hired by GE and of course they would pick up my speaking fee and all my expenses (including projector rental). At the same time a friend of mine had just bought a projector and was able to occasionally loan it to me. I charged a projector rental fee even when I borrowed his, and in no time I was able to buy my own projector. This was a great deal for everybody involved, because once I owned a projector I stopped charging that rental fee, so GE’s cost to hire me dropped, and I occasionally loaned my projector back to my friend so he wouldn’t have to buy a second one for his company. So not being able to afford a particular piece of gear didn’t keep me from doing my job. When I think about freelance photography on the weekends, I need to remind myself about this.
I really enjoyed hearing Zack Arias tell his story about how he went to photography school, graduated, bought tons of gear, went deeply in debt, and then ended up selling everything just to pay the rent… then later started with a bare bones collection of used gear and a single light, and that’s when he really “made it.” He calls it GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and it’s common among photographers. Truth is, you don’t need more gear to take great pictures, and being forced to work with something less than what your photography heroes demo in their latest blog post or training video, will make you a more creative shooter.
At least that’s what I’m telling myself until I can get some good-paying photography jobs so I can go buy that sweet D3s.
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Picturing Inspiration
Posted on 2 August 2010 | 3 responses
I found a great site for a little photographic inspiration. There are collections like 33 Examples of Perfectly Timed Action Photography and 30 Stunning Examples of Long Exposure Photography. The site is Web Design Ledger, but the links above take you to one of the sets of inspirational shots with a link at the bottom of that page to several more amazing collections. Go get inspired! I just wish my shots (like the sunrise above) were good enough to qualify for a collection like this. I guess I’ll just have to keep getting better.
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One Reason I “Fake It” In Photoshop
Posted on 23 July 2010 | 2 responses
If you’re a shooter and you’ve been to any photography related trade show, you’ve seen LensBabys. They’re a very cool way to create artistic zoom blur effects in camera. Photographers love them and with good reason. More about that in a minute…
I have always been at least a bit of a shutter bug. Not crazy-obsessed. Heck, I don’t think I’d even have qualified as a “passionate” photographer, but I have always been interested and played with photography. In college I took a few photography classes as a part of my communications major because I wanted to go into the advertising business. My earliest focus was on layout and design, and since photography wasn’t digital back then, it required quite a bit more time than I could commit. I had to choose between design and photography. I chose design.
Over the years I was drawn back into photography when digital cameras hit the market. I bought the first 1 megapixel consumer digital camera. I bought the first digital SLR (it was 2.5 megapixels). And I tinkered with them, occasionally capturing images myself and incorporating them into my design work. With the progression of computer technology, just about every profession has been able to do more things more quickly, and with the advent of digital photography and the great leaps there in the past few years, lots of people who had a passing interest in photography could “gear up” and do some serious cool work!
Where I work I’ve been surrounded by some of the best photographers who are also among the best trainers in the world. My interest in photography has been juiced up to the extreme and I could almost qualify as “passionate” about it these days. I see things in composition and light that I’ve never seen before. I have a ton of gear (much of it samples from vendors) and I’m in a great place photographically. When I have any question at all, I can walk down the hall to the desk of some great trainers and ask the pros how they’d handle a particular situation.
With my solid, thorough, 17+ year background in Photoshop, I have had a mentality that if I screwed up a shot, I could just fix it later. With my exposure (no pun intended) to all these great shooters I have not only an appreciation for their camera skills, I am starting to gain the necessary experience to pull off some rather solid shots myself. As a result, these days, my Photoshop “fixes” are just minor tweaks as compared to what I used to have to do. Still, I have some old Photoshop habits that seem tough to kill off (and maybe I don’t want to).
As I mentioned earlier, LensBabys are an artistic special-effect lens you put on your camera to capture artistic images in-camera. As it turns out though, I don’t think I’m natural enough (confident enough) with my camera to be able to use a LensBaby effectively. I actually admire photographers who are so comfortable with their gear and who have shot so many images, that they can pre-visualize how and when a Lens Baby would be good to use. I’m not there yet.
For now I’ll need to shoot images like the palm trees next to the mirrored building I shot in downtown Tampa, and then apply special effects in Photoshop after the fact, to get the special effect zoom blur like the two images on the right. I’ve heard arguments that you don’t need a LensBaby and you can easily replicate the effect in Photoshop if you want, and I’ve heard that pro shooters love LensBabys because they love capturing the artistic effects in camera. While I continue to grow as a photographer, I hope I’ll get good enough to know exactly how and when to use a LensBaby effectively one day. The good news is, in the mean time, at least I know how to use Photoshop well enough to get the finished effect I’m going for.
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The World of Model Mayhem
Posted on 16 July 2010 | 5 responses
It seems that Model Mayhem is the go-to site if you want to find models for a shoot in your local area. In fact, I did a search and there are literally thousands of females in a 25 mile radius of my location in Tampa. But wait, you don’t exactly get thousands, or even hundreds of useful model portfolios. The good ones are far too rare. I used their search engine and did a search and then started looking through the results and I was shocked at the huge number of unprofessional sample images. The huge majority of the models don’t even have a single decent head shot! One out of 50 has a forward facing face shot that lets you see what the person looks like.
Shots like the one above are all too common. (Relax, I didn’t rip off somebody’s portfolio image. This is a stock shot from iStock.) But you can see how the focus is NOT on her face and models expect you to pick them based on these “lifestyle” type shots. Now, I’m sure this girl has very nice proportions and a very cute, if not pretty, face. But based on this shot, I’d be hiring ‘the girl with big legs.’ Not that she really has big legs. Just that the camera angle in this shot makes it seem so. You can’t really tell what her hair looks like. You don’t really know what her face shape is like. Heck, her skin color is even indeterminate based on this exposure. And the other problem with LOTS of the close up shots is that the retouching is so over-the-top that all skin texture is blurred to the texture of a warm lump of wax.
In the end, Model Mayhem is a good resource and seems to be somewhat helpful, but I’m thinking they should have some kind of rating system to help photographers weed out the totally unprofessional folks from the people who know what they’re doing. And it shouldn’t be based on the model’s self-description or how “new” they are.
And I’m checking out the effectiveness of the Casting Call features too. It will be interesting to see what kind of results come in. Once I have worked with Model Mayhem’s site for a little while, I’ll post an update on any tips and tricks I discover for making the system work for a photographer’s needs.
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It’s Deadline Day
Posted on 14 July 2010 | 3 responses
Note: It should take you about 15 - 20 minutes for today’s blog post.
Do you have a goal, or even a few goals, that you’ve been thinking about for a while? Have you been thinking about doing things toward those goals and possibly even taken steps toward their realization?
If you answered yes to both of these questions, great! But today… in fact, right now, it’s time to set a deadline date for each of the major goals in your life. Do this in the next 10 minutes for each of your major goals. Then write down a brief description of each major goal and the associated deadline date. Finally, write down something that will “punish” you if you don’t make it to your goal, and something that will reward you when you do accomplish it.
Now wake up every day and read your goals list out loud, along with the deadline dates, and your rewards/punishments. And then add the phrase, ’so today I am going to do _______ toward accomplishing my goal.’ (And the blank should be filled with something tangible.)
I’m gonna do this myself. I hope it caught you by surprise and that it motivates you to really do it, and then to stay focused on your goals.
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Are You Ready for Tomorrow (and Next Week)?
Posted on 12 July 2010 | 4 responses
I’m 47 years old, so I grew up in a time before every home and every white collar job revolved around computers. During my childhood, adults generally expected to have a handful of full time jobs in their life and one (or possibly two) careers in their lifetime. Computers changed all that, and technological developments in general have dramatically changed the speed at which a working professional must continue to learn. Some folks in their upper 50s or 60s may have been able to skate by without getting totally immersed in computers and huge changes, but at this point, anybody 55 or younger has simply got to learn and change. Everybody (with a very few exceptions) has to stay up on the leading edge of technology in their industry.
Speaking of my childhood, I remember all kinds of wild predictions about the future from back then. Some have come true, while others have yet to be realized. I remember in 1976, when a futurist came to my social studies class and told us how everybody would be able to buy groceries and instantly have the money come out of our checking account and go into the store’s account. I thought that was crazy futuristic stuff, but I use my debit card every day now. He also predicted that we would all have a printer hooked to our TV set and we’d download daily newspapers via a small satellite dish, straight to our TV and even print them if we wanted. While he was off a bit, I think that’s a pretty solid description of the internet and PCs with a personal printer.
But some of the stuff that didn’t come true had to do with future cars and transportation in general. Another missed guess was that our houses would all be solar powered by now. Nope. Now, if I were a cynical kind of guy, I’d say that’s because the power-company owning government entities and the big car and oil companies have crushed anything that threatens their business as usual profit schemes. But why 20+ year predictions do or don’t come to fruition, isn’t my point today. The thing is, when new technology is emerging, what are you doing about it?
Back in my youth, grown-ups could work from day to day without expecting dramatic changes in their industry. Going to conventions every year or two, was more than enough to stay up on trends. Those days are gone. Almost everybody needs to do online training and read trade related web sites to stay current. Over the past couple of weeks there have been a few stories at Engadget, about what Canon is predicting will be the future of photography. It’s thought-provoking. It’s interesting. And some of it may actually happen. However, I wouldn’t get all caught up in the gloom and doom of the end of the still photography business. Just stay up on what people are willing to pay for and how to do it. For example, these days if you’re selling photography, you had darn sure better know how to do HDR photography.
So get current and find out what people are paying for. Take some classes. Read some articles online. And maybe in 20 years you’ll still be leading the pack.
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Don’t Trust Your Future Self
Posted on 30 June 2010 | 2 responses
Yesterday I spotted a really cool post on LifeHacker.com. It was about the little mind games we play when we procrastinate by telling ourselves that we’ll get to it later. The gist of the article was that your future self isn’t any more likely to get it done than your current self. So do it now! Here’s the article (which also links out to the original source).
LifeHacker is a pretty cool site full of DIYs, business and homeowner shortcuts and advice, and some software and hardware stuff for regular people. Not all of it is accurate, because sometimes the advice is a little off. (Apparently lots of folks contribute to the content.) Still, there are some pretty cool, insightful nuggets and this was a great one in my view! Maybe I just needed to hear it.
Have a great day and get something extra done today that you’ve been putting off. I know I will!
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Get Greedy for Testimonials
Posted on 28 June 2010 | 1 response
Testimonials are the most important free resource when it comes to marketing your business!
Okay, maybe your own ability to speak about yourself and your business is the most important free resource, but I wanted to start with a really dramatic first sentence to drive home the point, so play along, okay?
It’s time to get greedy and start collecting testimonials intentionally. Always have them in the front of your mind. If a client pays you a compliment, be very gracious and incredibly appreciative, and then ask them very politely if you can quote them. If they complimented you in writing, then get their permission to use their quote. If it was verbal, somehow you need to get it in writing. Make it as easy as possible for somebody to give you their written quote. Maybe you shoot them a quick email while the quote is still fresh in your mind and say something like, “Michael, I really appreciated your kind words when you were in the office earlier today and I’d love to be able to use your testimonial if that’s okay with you. I think the way you said it was, [fill in the quote as you remember it here].’ If I remembered it wrong or if you want to change it, feel free. Thanks again. This really means a lot to me.”
The goal is to make sure they know that you appreciate the testimonial and that you somehow get in writing that it’s okay to quote them.
Once you start collecting testimonials, you’ll be surprised how easy it is. And these quotes are gold! When people praise your work or business, that says so much more than even the most clever advertising headline.
Oh, and if people don’t spontaneously compliment your work and business, maybe you need to work on your own customer service or work product a little more first.
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Work Smart or Work Hard or Both
Posted on 24 June 2010 | 1 response
You’ve heard, ‘Work smarter, not harder.’ And you’ve probably heard that you need to work harder from time to time. Really, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that you must work to be successful! Sitting there waiting, wishing, dreaming, won’t make it happen. Sure, dreaming is a part of the process, but far too many people get caught up in the dreams and never get off their butt and get to work. Some people (like me) can get all caught up in the big picture planning phase and never get anything really done. The concept of working smarter by planning, is good as long as you don’t fall into the trap of just planning and refining your plans.
One of the best things to do is start by making a list of steps needed to reach a particular goal. And don’t make the steps too big. It’s better to break down the goal into little steps, at least in the beginning, so that it’s easier to get started by knocking out some of the small steps. There’s nothing like checking off To Do List items to get you rolling.
One of my favorite iPod Touch/iPhone programs ever, is the outlining program called CarbonFin Outliner. When I bought it, it was $10 and had fewer features. Now it’s cheaper, has lots of editing features, view options, it syncs with a web-based version so you can access your outlines via the web, and now you can even edit online! Very cool and very helpful. The reason I like a good outliner is so I can plan all of the big steps of a project, and then break down each big project phase and add smaller, more manageable, single-step, sub-items to each big step. Checking off any of the little items takes me one step closer to my goal. And checking off one item every single day keeps me moving toward goals, even when I don’t feel up to it.
So if you don’t have a checklist system or program (paper is fine too) then get one. While paper is okay, sticky notes are not, because they don’t usually go with you, stay organized, etc. You need a real system. So… go work your list right now. (That’s what I’m gonna do.)
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