It's Spring Break. Go somewhere fun. Do something fun. Really.

Man.  These are the biggest files I've loaded to the blog.  Click on em and see how big they get.  And that's the output from an Olympus EP-2.  Amazing to me.  But that's not what this is all about.

These are images I took last April when I did a fun roadtrip to west Texas.  These were done in Marathon at a funky, fun hotel in the middle of town in the middle of nowhere.

I didn't know what I expected to find but as usual I didn't find it I found something else.  And that's fine. That's the experience of trying something new.  You really don't know what you're going to end up finding.  So a  whole year has passed and it's time to go somewhere again.

When you are in a precarious job like photography there's always a temptation to make your vacation into something that can be monetized.  I started thinking up workshops so I could make the big bucks like Joe and David, without having to go thru the process of selling anything tangible to the ad agencies or the companies I work for.

I thought about a week long workshop for 10 people in Marfa, Texas.  We'd stay at the Paisano Hotel, have all kinds of desolate adventures and share war stories over great bottles of wine and rare steaks.  But then I remembered that the two deficits Marfa seemed to have last time I was there were good wine and supermodels.  And what's a workshop without good wine?

I've been doing a lot of video and I have something like twenty five years of experience doing TV commercials and stuff so I thought maybe I could throw together some sort of cool multi-media workshop teaching people how to make movies with their DSLR's.  But God, that's so time consuming and I'd come back from vacation with no finished work for me.

Then I decided to bag all the monetizing possibilities and challenge myself to shoot fun stuff for a week and plaster it all over this blog.  To do something for me.  To shoot stuff I liked instead of stuff I thought someone else might like and it all made sense to me.  I should just have fun.

Then I thought about all you guys out there and what I wanted to say to you.  Well, here it is:  "Life is short.  If you love to do art then get out of the office and out of the house and do some damn art that you like.  Don't follow a leader.  Don't take a workshop.  Fill the tank and ride.  Find your muse and squeeze it for every last drop.  Fall in love.  Take a different road.  Meet strangers and photograph them.  Share secrets with someone.  Sleep under the stars.  Eat something you've grilled over a campfire.  Stay one night in a five star hotel.  Drag your camera everywhere.  Write a poem.  Write a love letter.  Be silly.  Dive into Balmorhea Springs.  Listen to new music.  Stay up all night.  Kiss someone with passion.  Eat great food.  See the ocean.  But do something fun and new for Spring Break.  Life is random.  Take the prize while you are still alive."

And those are my thoughts about a good Spring Break vacation.  Do I have a metric to measure the success for any of this?  You gotta be kidding.

The process of reinvention. Starbucks gets it.....

50mm Carl Zeiss 1.4 shot at 1.4 on Canon 1dmk2n.

50mm Carl Zeiss 1.4 shot at f8 on a Canon 1dmk2n.

Consumers and B to B clients are moving targets.  That's why it makes sense to focus on updating your "public face", your offerings and even the way you personally engage clients and potential clients.  Many people debated the intelligence of removing the type from the Starbuck's logo but it makes perfect sense if your plan is to move beyond coffee.  They've made the foray into ice cream and music, now watch them start serving wine in the afternoons and evening.  Their core market is adults and they own the morning for the middle to upscale part of the market (Sorry McDonald's....) but the problem with adults, even the most caffeine addicted adults, is that few of them can drink much coffee in the evenings and still sleep.

That means that Starbuck's sales  probably look like downhill skiing when you chart hour by hour sales.

If you can get adults back in by changing your product mix to match hour by hour sensibilities then you maximize your investment in rent and wages.  Wine and cheese makes perfect sense.  Happy Hour at Starbucks.  Please note that this is just my opinion about how they might go forward.......

As photographers we've got some psychological and process hurdles to get over too.  The days of print sales are wrapping up.  If you sell directly to consumers (weddings and portraits) you've got to re-invent your business so that pricing and fulfillment aren't 100% dependent on the physical print being your final product.  As demographics shift the draw of the print declines in lock step with the acceleration of electronic display.  You should probably be working to a sales model that delivers final images on an iPad.  With a slide show.  With video.  With other extensions.

In commercial (advertising and corporate) photography the print is as rare as a dodo.  We deliver high res tiff files to clients who are aiming toward magazine or direct mail or brochure print production.  We deliver profiled and optimized Jpegs to web designers and web marketers.  If you gave a print to our direct clients (such as medical practices and retailers) the first thing they would do is scan it into their system and the second thing they'd do is find another photographer.  

My graphic designer spouse reminds me that color preferences change in two to three years cycles and popular typestyles change quickly too.  Refreshing the look of our logos becomes a priority when daily presentation of a website is the lifeblood of commerce.  

Website design is now fashion.  And fashions change with the seasons (warning:  this is not a suggestion to use pumpkin graphics in the fall and beach balls in summer.....)  What's your Fall line look like?

Just like Starbucks we have seasonal shifts of demand and by broadening our offerings and pushing into new markets we can smooth out the curves so that the slow times are less........slow.  Think of the addition of video services as the introduction of Frappacinos.  That was a brilliant move on SB's part to build Summer traffic.  The coffee of our business is the photo assignment.  The copywriting is the hot chocolate.  

Now, along with refreshing my brand, I guess I need to come up with names for our different products.

Anyone up for a Venti Executive Portraitiano?

Ennui. Success. Anxiety. Work. Throughput. Satisfaction.

I should be happy, satisfied and feeling relatively secure right now.  Business is booming, my fifth book is just about ready to ship off to the publisher,  I've got money in the bank and we didn't panic too much during the "People to Goldman Sachs" wealth transfer of 2008-2009.  In fact, we made money in both our savings and retirement accounts.  So why do I feel more like the bottom photo instead of the top photo?

It's the age-old conundrum:  Am I better off challenged and struggling or am I better off trying to maintain whatever little lead I've accrued.....knowing that it could all come tumbling down with the capricious whip of fate? Or the duplicitous hand of a new generation of investment bankers? Am I happier wishing optimistically for better things in the future or am I more depressed knowing that there's a long way to fall?

I've been living the frugal mentality for the last three years.  Only buying what I needed to stay competitive.  Only spending on stuff we needed for maintenance.  Eating peanut butter and jelly and staying out of expensive restaurants.  But last week I decided that we're either recovering (as a national economy) or we were all going to die.  And I decided that, if there will be bread lines and riots in the street,  I couldn't possibly face them without a new MacBook Pro,  a new fluid head for my video tripod and a full set of Carl Zeiss lenses for my Canon camera bodies.  Forget frugality.  It's time to have fun.

But seriously.  I think my anxiety is tied to all the mixed messages I get every day.  The internet tells me financial armageddon is nigh.  But my clients throw me good work consistently.  And my stocks keep rising in value.  The web tells me that my chosen profession is the latest minimum wage job category.  But my rates keep going up and people keep paying faster and faster.  The schools are kicking teachers out the doors and Texans are nonchalant about class room with 40 kids.  But my kid's school district is resisting all the madness.  It's amazing.  We all understood that it was fear that caused the market (and the economy) to finally collapse.  Why can't we understand that it will be blind optimism that will bring it back?

Oh well.  Back to work.  

I am NOT an architectural photographer but sometimes.......

This image is a PhotoShop merge of five files.  I shot on my Canon 1dmk2n with the plain vanilla 20mm f2.8 Canon lens.


I have high regard for real architectural photographers.  I'm talking about the rare ones who really understand architecture, who love good furniture, who have studied design and art history and bring something layered and nuanced to the equation.  Too many photographers out there do interiors strictly as documentation and they don't do it very well.  The latest trend it to light everything flat, shoot multiple bracketed frames and then do (auto) HDR in PhotoShop.  Yes.  You can see all the details.  No.  You have no idea what the architect's original intention was.  Having a tilt/shift lens and a Canon 5d2 or Nikon d700 and a bucket of PhotoShop doesn't make you a "real" architectural photographer.  Only passion, education and experience can do that.

I have no room to talk.  I have no interest in architecture.  No interest in interior design.  And beyond the comfort of my favorite chair I have no interest in furniture.  Sorry,  I also have no real interest in landscapes.  You just can't be into everything.....

But occasionally I'll do a project for a client and they'll want a quick shot of their lobby or the front of their building.  Our core mission might be to document doctors working or to make interesting portraits, and most times the architectural shots are an afterthought.  It doesn't make sense for my clients to bring in another photographer and I'm hardly technically handicapped when it comes to shooting straightforward stuff, so I often get pressed into doing this kind of work.

The lobby above is nice but it's tight.  I learned long ago that the best shots are usually right from the doorway.  I keep an old Canon 20mm f2.8 around for this kind of work.  It's wide on my 5D2 but not so wide on the 1D2N's cropped (1.3x) frame.  And on friday I wanted to shoot with my 1d2N.  I put the camera on top of my tripod and leveled it.  I put it in the vertical orientation and shot five shots, without changing any of the exposure or focus parameters.  I corrected on file in Lightroom and synced the other four to the same specs.  Then I tossed them in PhotoShop and hit "photo merge."  A few seconds later, out popped this pano.  Easy as pie.  The client is happy.  I'm happy and that's cool.

I spent my early years as a "jack of all trades" and shot many magazine features about historic houses and buildings.  I did "rack" brochures for hotels and resorts.  And we did it all with 4x5 view cameras. But what I've learned over the years is that everyone has stuff they love to do and then stuff they have to do.  The more you can do of the first the less you have to do of the second.  I never mind taking a few documentation shots but I try never to fool myself that just pointed a camera at something makes it art.  Or that snapping the shutter makes me an artist.

A post in two parts. 1. Putting together photos for a book is drudgery. 2. I had a blast at Bill's class today.

Writers (pretty much all "pure" writers) have it dirt easy.  They need only string together 30,000 or 45,000 well chosen words (for an instructional photo book) and they're off to the races.  I contend that's the easiest part.  You pour a big cup of coffee, sit down at your computer and type till your fingers cramp.  Then you walk it off and come back for more.  If you've done your research, and you've actually used the techniques and the gear you are talking about, over and over again, the words should flow like water onto the screen.  In the world of pure writing there are several layers of "lifeguards" who police the turbulent literary waters and keep writers out of trouble.  There are editors who suggest things to keep writers safe from future embarrassment.  And there a proofreaders to make writers seem smarter and less error prone than polite society.  But they are relative wimps when compared to the all terrain vehicle which are the writer/photographer book producers.  We actually have to kick start both sides of the brain with that single cup of coffee.

I would have finished my LED light book before Christmas but I felt like I needed lots of examples to show what I was talking about.  I'm an okay writer but I still subscribe to the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words.  When I went over the flow of the book in my mind I figured I'd need a couple hundred decent photographs to prove......I mean illustrate.....many of my points.  From the basic, "No! used properly these new lights will not turn your watchband green..."  to "Look, the models are cute no matter what you light them with."  

The cheat-y thing is that writers can just make stuff up and write it down and few people nudge them on the fine points.  But when you write book aimed at other photographers they can be merciless photo experts.  They sometimes demand image quality over content but are happiest when they can have both.  

My brain can't do both things at once so I have to write everything out first and then go back and re-translate everything I've written into a language called, "Photo."  And, unlike pure writers,  I wanted images of beautiful people in my books which meant that I had to find said beautiful people (talent scout), work with their schedules (project manager) and negotiate for their appearance in the book, with signed model releases (lawyer work).  In the end it's the temporary acquisition of models that's most vexing.  Did I mention that novelists are free to just make up people?

I tend to overdo  stuff so when I sat down to edit thru the folder I'd set up on my computer for LED book photos I was shocked to find nearly 12,000 to choose from.  Don't feel inadequate, most are not life changing images.......

I came over-prepared, like the test taker with five hundred, sharpened #2 pencils.  Once I edit them all down and match them up with the right words I have two more tasks to complete.  I have to caption everything and I have to create lighting diagrams for the "hard of imagining."  But it's fun to know that it's not been in vain.  I've learned so much about lighting and new technology.  Anybody need an LED consultant?  

The photo above is the set up I had for shooting the image below.  I wanted to light and shoot a camera and lens because that's the product I end up with in my hand most days.  The 60D is my favorite video camera.  I wanted to show it off.  And I love the way the lens looks.

Part Two:  I've been speaking to students for the last two weeks.  I'm getting some good practice at public speaking and now I don't get nervous when I walk into a big auditorium full of people, or, like today, when I walk into an intimate setting with nine students and one very well informed professor.

With big groups all you can really do is entertain.  Thank goodness "50-something" people have actually done enough to have stories to tell, but are young enough to remember and to tell them without mumbling......

With small groups you really need to show up ready to rumble.

I love what Bill Woodhull (the photography dept. chair at Austin Community College) does with his associate degree plan.  He makes students take an intensive course on the business of photography.  No gear, no gorgeous models, just:  How do you make money, save money, grow a business, calculate your real cost of doing business, market yourself, protect and leverage your intellectual property and  so much more.  Bill needs to take his course on the road and hit the other thousands of college students whose four year programs never touch this stuff.

Anyway, I'm on the advisory board at the college and I get invited to come in every semester to tell them what I think the imaging industry is doing and how I deal with the same concepts I've outlined above.  Usually the class sits silently and I talk and then we all go home.  Today's class was exceptionally focused.  They asked tough questions.  They engaged.  And that always makes me think.

Here's my "take away" thought from the class:  I think the market for corporate and advertising photography is returning.  And doing so in a big way.  Marketers have a desperate need to re-brand, re-launch and reinvent themselves and imaging is a big, big part of branding and customer communications.  We've got pent up demand from almost four years of radically declining image replenishment.

In a word, I'm "OPTIMISTIC."  But this new energy and demand is meaningless if we let the emotional context of the last three years keep us fearful in the face of re-emerging clients.  We need to stand up and be strong about keeping prices commensurate with the value we create.  And we need to be extra vigilant about keeping a tight hold on our intellectual property ownership.  We need to mirror our clients and ramp up OUR expectations.  Because the way we handle business during this recovery year will doubtless set the stage for the way this business will go for the next ten years.  Time to "spine up" and charge based on your value and the value of your IP and not how many hours you can work.  We bring value beyond commodification.  It's time we got back to acting like it.

Thanks.  Having fun in Austin, Texas.  Wish you were here to pick up the tab for the next round.....

Book Achieves Critical Mass. Light at Tunnel End. Work Gets Easier.

I don't know what possessed me.  I was freaking out about finishing the LED book.  Didn't think I had enough images and what not.  So, when I suspended blogging a week and a half ago my aim was to assess what I had and what I needed.  Turns out I have ten or fifteen thousand shots from my LED experiments/shoots/playtime.  I've learned a tremendous amount about these new lights since last August when this brilliant idea struck.  Now I'm more relaxed.  I'm editing down the photo selection, thinking about writing informative and witty captions (good luck!) and generally getting everything into the right place.  I'm much further along than I thought I'd be.

What have I found out?  That the light source is secondary to your regular day in, day out vision.  That most scenes just need a little boost of light to be successful.  That it's pretty damn fun to light with continuous light sources.  That LED's don't have some bad mojo that you need to tread carefully around.  And that they work really well for video projects.  That's about the long and short of it.

Above is Jana.  She's standing under a covered patio at my swimming pool and I'm filling in with two very small LED panels, covered with diffusion materials.  I'm shooting close to wide open with an 85 and not worrying about sync speed or radio triggers or cables or........any of that stuff.

Too much fun.  Thanks.  Kirk