Past, Present, or Future?
This week every year we are inundated with blogs that either relive the last 12 months speculate about the bright positive future and hope we all have for the coming new year. I have been debating all week what to even write about. How can I have a great blog post that doesn’t mention something that will alienate some of you and exclude others for reasons of politics or religion or anything else? It seems to be the time of year where everyone is either self-righteous, preachy, or with the upcoming 2012 elections, political. There is one other category though that we sometimes hear about.
It’s Simple
Simply put, Happy Holidays to all my readers. I thank you for a great year and I wish you all the best this holiday season.
How Photography Piques Curiosity
First let me say that I want to apologize to all my readers for not writing often enough recently. I have been working on a personal project that is very important to me and has taken much of my time. I will make a stronger effort to write more often. More about that project shortly.
While working on this project I have been trying to create images that add value to the point and that make people what to know more. The point of the photography was and is to make people take the time to learn more. Each image that I create for the project needs to be impactful and it needs to create a feeling. It is not a stretch for me to make images that tell stories or that make the viewer curious to learn more. In fact, it is my job.
The project that I am working on was actually a challenge that was made to a group of men due to a sexual assault that happened in my area. The challenge was for a man to find a way to get out a message about sexual harassment and why our rape culture is not acceptable. I took that challenge.
It’s About Giving Your All
Back in early October I wrote an article about seizing opportunity where ever it arises, in this case the beginning of Occupy Philadelphia, titled Opportunity in the Streets. I really didn’t know what business I might get out of that but I am happy to say that those images and thousands I took at the occupy encampment has led to other shoots and events that I was only able to get because I was there.
Through meeting people at Occupy I have gotten events, portrait shoots and a number of other gigs that have kept me very busy over the 56 days that the movement occupied Dilworth Plaza in from of City Hall in Philadelphia. So in a sense I guess I am indebted to the people there and the movement too. But how did a political demonstration/movement/evolution really give me chances to get work?
Photographers Getting Arrested
I just got an email about another photographer that was arrested in Milwaukee. This is the second photographer in Milwaukee to be arrested for doing their job. You can see video and read the full story here: http://www.wisn.com/news/29677440/detail.html. OK two incidents that happen in one city, a poorly trained pocket of police, no big deal right? Wrong. It looks like it may be becoming a pattern.
Other journalists and photographers have been arrested, beaten, and even shot (with “less lethal” rounds such as beanbags and/or rubber bullets) in Oakland. This has happened in Oakland, NY, Chicago, pick a city and it has probably happened. Police are increasingly aggressive towards those with cameras. You may be thinking that well journalists try to cross police lines, they get int he way, they violate this or that when trying to get “the shot.” Well perhaps but then why is a mother of 3 arrested for photographing a tourist attraction?
Virtual vs. Digital
For a while now there has been the discussion that digital photography is cheaper than film and therefore prices that photographers charge should be decreasing and not increasing. In fact the truth of the matter is that the cost for photography has declined dramatically but that has nothing to do with digital vs. film. The major cause of that is that many unknowledgeable people entering the market and not charging properly for their services. These new photographers will learn in time that they are in fact cutting themselves short and they are driving the market down to their own demise. I won’t get into a discussion of what to charge in this article. I will however go into a bit of the cost of digital photography.
In the film days there was the visible cost of film, developing, processing, chemicals, paper/media, enlargers, and various other equipment. Today much of that has been replaced by computers, software, multiple hard drives, internet connections, and we still have the cost of media and printers. Cameras have increased in price dramatically for professional level equipment. In fact if you actually do the math it is more expensive today than it was 15 years ago and that is taking inflation into consideration. Again the cost is not a topic for this article. If you want to compare the costs of digital to the cost of film Google it; there are thousands of articles out there.
What Are Your Services Worth?
What is a photoshoot worth? Well it can be worth a lot to me but then again I am a photographer. So how can I work with a client and show value both to my client and to myself? To answer that I can also ask another question, what is my client’s product or service worth to them or their business?
The reason I am even posing these questions is because I am in the midst of working out a deal with a potential client that has value for both of us. My client needs images to promote their business (a sort of chamber of commerce) and I need more local business. So what does that mean to both of us? Well it means we both have something of value that is as good as money.
I have the desire to do more business locally for a plethora of reasons, the least of which is the cost of gas these days. Traveling hundreds of miles is getting rather expensive and that means that my client has to pay more for my services. By staying local I can support my neighborhood and hopefully have more of my local investments come back to me as more clients! So how can I get in touch with these potential clients? I just moved here 15 months ago and in this area, that is very new.
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
