Are Your Customers The 99%?
For the last week or so I have been following the Occupy Philadelphia protest. It is a fellow movement to Occupy Wall Street that I am sure, or at least hope, you have heard of. The basic premise is that the people occupying Wall Street (self-proclaimed “The 99%”) have had enough of how banks have gotten bailouts and special treatment but still manage to take advantage of the average, middle class person in this country. This is not all they are protesting but this is a part of their core message. To learn more I would suggest that you look at their website www.occupywallst.org as I don’t want to say something that is not accurate.
Opportunity In The Streets
This past spring the world was flooded with images, even more images than usual. The protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere filled our inboxes, Facebook pages and news sources. Images and stories filled our eyes and our minds. The shear proliferation of cameras assured that few if any didn’t see some image involving at least one of those events.
Teamwork
As some of you know I spent last week in New England, mostly Vermont but also New Hampshire and Maine. Many more of you know that the Green Mountains of southern Vermont suffered drastically from Hurricane Irene. The devastation was epic.
One thing that I noticed when my wife and I were there was the speed in which these people rebuilt roads, homes and businesses. The outreach to their neighbors was as swift as the waters that swept away bridges, roads and buildings. In our travels we passed one business of some kind that was no longer recognizable; most… Continue reading
Stills As Video
Not much to say on this one, just something to show you. I made this for a client to give a virtual tour of his home. This is an extension of the Estate Legacy Products that I offer on www.estatelegacy.com and I can do this for you and your family too. I also offer leather bound, high end books with both photography and written word to tell the story of your house and home. Contact me and let’s capture the legacy that is yours.
Take a look…
Philadelphia Flooded
Today people reported 3 hour commutes that should take no more than 30 minutes. 3-7 inches of rain overnight lead to roads flooded, trees down, mud slides, you name it. This is just 10 images of what I could actually get to, and Philly isn’t the hardest hit.
Click the image to view.
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I just read a post from a photography coach that says “the sale of photography is an emotional one” (full article here: http://www.zenologue.com/blog/2011/09/photographers-who-click-connecting-with-your-client/). Well I have to disagree. I will agree with Nigel that there is definitely an emotional element to photography and that the desire of any image is to instill an emotion in the viewer or have them react in some way whether that is to buy the image (portrait, wedding etc.), buy a product, or just support the views and/or opinions of the subject of the image. But to say that all photography sales must be… Continue reading
Coach or Captain
I recently saw a quote by Albert Gray “Winners have simply formed the habit of doing things losers don’t like to do.” I have an issue with the winners vs. loser scenario in that I don’t believe that there are really losers out there. Sure there are those that are not as successful as others but that doesn’t make them losers. In my opinion there are at least three types of people, Coaches, Captains and players.
The players are those people who are all members of the team that do their jobs, some do it well, some don’t, perhaps because they are on the wrong team. In time they either quit the team or they get traded to another team where they have a better chance of being successful in their own right.
Hurricane Irene – The Aftermath
As many of you know I am based out of Philadelphia. Irene went through this weekend and caused damage up and down the east coast. Here in Philly we got by fairly well except for the flooding. Overall though we fared pretty well. The image below was taken at the end of the famous Boathouse Row on the Schuylkill River. The water was about 50′ up the bank and crested at about 5′ over flood levels.
I have many photos but none of them show the force of the water. For those you need to watch the videos. Below is the videos I shot from just before, during and after the storm. (My apologies for the audio. I didn’t have a good mic with me)
Empowerment
So what is empowerment and what does it have to do with photography? Webster’s dictionary defines empowerment as;
- to give official authority or legal power to <empowered her attorney to act on her behalf>
- enable
- to promote the self-actualization or influence of <women’s movement has been inspiring and empowering women — Ron Hansen>
But what does it really mean to you and your everyday life? Continue reading
Do I Need A Professional?
Many times I don’t hear the question “Do I need a professional?” but I do know that many clients and potential clients ask the question, at least of themselves. The answer is, to be honest, not always. But if you want the quality that either creates memories or helps you achieve your goals, yes you probably do. Making the decision to hire a pro is actually rather easy to answer. The real question is how do you find the ‘right’ photographer for your project. Continue reading
