I thought it may be fun to post some of the other things that are interesting to me on Sunday Mornings.

Welcome to Off Topic Sundays, an excursion into the unknown.

“… and darkness fell across the land…”

First off. I received an email from someone in the business asking me to help create a ‘day of darkness’ by blocking all my content from the people who are stealing us blind.

I have no interest in that sort of thing. Not because I have no interest in IP protection. I most assuredly do.

But going dark for a day means nothing. They simply wait out the day while we go to the corner and hold our breath until we… breathe again.

Symbolically simplistic and professionally silly.

And I wonder how many would participate? We can barely get 2% of the photographers to join a professional organization. CL is full of “I’ll shoot it for beans” photographers. And I know too many photographers who would simply take advantage of the other photographers heartfelt, but misguided moment of ultimate-pouting.

I won’t be going dark.

Cello Madness:

Blending the sublime sound of the cello with the rhythm of the beat box… heh. Clever and well done.

“Appropriating” or “Ripping Off?” – a sure to be interesting interview

What may surely become a very controversial interview is Chase Jarvis and the ReMix King on “mixing” and appropriating art. Don’t miss it.

There’s a saying that you should understand. It’s “TALENT IMITATES. GENIUS STEALS.”
Now before your undies get in a wad, I’m not saying steal work and pretend it’s you’re own. More deeply, I’m asking a question. Do you want to understand and set free your most creative work? Then pay attention here. And mark my words: the REMIX is the single most important artistic concept of our time [Go ahead and read that again. And read all the way to the bottom if you want to win a Polaroid Z340 instant digital camera...]

Interview on Tuesday, February 7.

APE has a wonderful piece: “Still Images In Great Advertising – Jeremy & Claire Weiss”. It is an interview with two very talented photographers. Check it out.

On Sales

“7 Pain Free Sales Tips for Creatives” is a short piece that sort of spells it out, folks. A good read.

Design Matters

For the more geeky among you all, here is a good post on Modal Windows (popups). No, they are not Gregorian Chants version of a popular OS, but rather a contextual way of creating popups that are more interesting to the website user.

Each Sunday I will present some music that I love here. A sort of mini-concert.

Jazz First:

Keith Jarrett “Over the Rainbow” (my personal favorite song)

Don Ellis delights with the great, classically inspired “Pussy Wiggle Stomp” Heh.

One of my favorite drummers, Steve Smith, and his band “Vital Information”

And a Classical moment as well…

A section of Aaron Copland’s wonderful Clarinet Concerto for Strings, Harp and Piano

“Mmmmm… Chimichangas…”

We had our first annual Lighting Essentias (Essentials for Photographers) Picnic and Funfest last weekend. To say we had a blast is a very sad understatement… we had more than a blast – we made new friends and exchanged ideas and ate a lot of Mexican food. Thanks to all who attended – and we had people from every corner of the country – and I look forward to next year’s glorious meetup.

Till next Sunday.

Thomas L Friedman, in a post today at the New York Times, says that “average is over.”

And he is right.

It is.

You can see it in industry and media and design and art. You can see it in nearly every area of business.

Apple proved it. And Mercedes. And Braun. And Singapore Airlines. The list is pretty extensive.

To get to the top – the vaunted, rare, incredibly beautiful top – takes more than being average. In fact, simply being in any field at a sustainable level will take more than average. More than “good enough”.

Especially in commercial photography.

My bud Kirk thinks the whole photography thing may be totally over. At least for today.

Maybe he is right, but I am not buying it. I refuse to buy it.

If I did, I would have to simply do something else. Riding something dying to the end is not for me.

I love photography, and photographers. And I think they are here for a lot longer than some believe.

I hear how there are too many photographers. I hear how the prices are terrible. I hear how no one is making any money (except from those who are actually out there making money).

I hear all about how there are problems, but few seem to be addressing the reality that the context is changing, and the participants have varying degrees of ability to adapt.

Few will simply come out and say the basic truth because it is so hard to accept…

The ability to take a decent – actually even better than decent – photograph is not that big of a deal. Even the cheapest cameras are capable of ‘making a good picture’ – as long as your criteria does not include the actual content of the image. Color, exposure, sharpness… all good with even the most basic camera.

(Flickr will eat me alive… I will just leave it there…)

What used to be an average photographer took a lot of work. Now… not so much.

Not much at all.

Click…

But the subject, context, emotional connection, and the relationship of viewer to the image have not changed. Those things are still important, necessary, vital.

And as elusive as they ever were.

The photographers who understood those things, that ‘got it’ were always at the top. Penn, Avedon, Demarchelier, Elgort… the list is pretty extensive. Lots of  ’old guys’ who didn’t really sit around and talk shit about lenses and film speed and what the newest cool lighting was. Maybe they would have if they weren’t so damn busy making images, but – alas…

The most difficult thing to talk about is the image itself. It is open to interpretation and combined with a point of view, can be the most terrifying and mystical aspect of the art. What do we say about it? What do other people think? What do the ‘right people’ think? Will I spill to the world I am a simple luddite if I like this or not like that? What if what I say is – gulp – wrong?

The fear of not having anything to say about the photograph quickly fades when the discussion turns to pixel counts and the GN of some new Chinese made flash unit.

Those things are measurable. Quantifiable. Easy to understand and place in direct competition.

24 Megapixels is more than 18 Megapixels.

Fact. Done. Fini. Nanna nanna booboo.

It is the stuff that average photographers latch onto and make their own. This camera does that and that camera does this and then it is all about the camera. I have this new thing and that old thing simply doesn’t ‘measure up. We can quantify that by counting the pixels or checking for fringing at 6000%.

Photography = camera.

Except – when it isn’t.

Cameras are average. Cameras create average. Cameras encourage average.

BECAUSE they are quantifiable, measurable and easily comprehended.

They take the fun out of photography, the joy and pure emotional excitement of making an image, and move it into a realm of boringass technology and defined, finite abilities.

Resolution.

Average.

Over.

Why? Because art is none of those things. Vision has nothing to do with them. Style and personal viewpoint and expression and emotion and depth and the ability to move someone to tears or elation or to go to Staple and grab that thing cause they simply gotta have that thing cause the photograph made them WANT THAT THING… none of that is quantifiable, measurable in pixels, or has anything to do with maximum flash sync.

Cameras may be the very instruments of the death of photography. Killed that sucka dayd.

Or at least tried to – but missed.

Because there are so many terrific photographers out there that it would be simply impossible to begin listing them. By the time you got to the end of the list, you would have to go back and start again. The amount of times I am knocked out by new photographers work is tenfold what it used to be. This is the glorious age of the image, of the photograph, of the art.

How can that be?

Fact: the world of photography has moved a notch up. And many of us are scrambling up to see what it looks like from that rung.

The bar raised and didn’t automatically take us all along for the ride. We find ourselves again having to earn our position there. Some of us, I fear, will never again stand on the top rung where we hung out and got fat and lazy and belligerent and arrogant and slovenly and so set in our ways that we find anything that youth does to be abhorrent and inevitably evil. We owned it. We were there so long that we never noticed that it became… average.

Being pretty good with a camera is no longer good enough. Being able to shoot something in focus may not be enough. Simply making pretty pictures is not gonna work for long term sustainability.

Because it became simply too easy to do to have any kind of gate for filtering. No top of the line enlarger or killer ass strobe system gonna save our sorry asses now.

So what are the ‘average’ shooters doing these days?

Working hard to tread water… finding additional ways to shoot and make it through the next rent check? Yeah, probably.

And bitching… lots of bitching. And digging in… lots of that too.

It will not serve anyone well and in the end will prove to be a terrible barrier to success.

Devastating really.

And you know who is to blame? Well, besides ourselves…

Time.

There was a time when simply being able to work a view camera, take an exposure reading and make images on large format cameras with the subject in focus was enough. Lots of photographers started businesses with little talent, but a lot of technique.

There was a time when being “good enough” was, well, enough. All the client needed was an ‘average’ shot of a beer opener or a bag of nuts or a Cuisinart. Average was good, average we could do standing on our heads. Average was the result of the camera doing the heavy lifting and our expertise in manipulating the tool.

Technique is not enough to carry us through these days because, well, the techniques we learned are no longer important. New techniques must be learned.

Here, I’ll say it again. It is easier than it has ever been to be technically good. In fact… who cares anymore. Sharp and in focus and technically brilliant is a given. Even teenagers can do it in their garage with dad’s borrowed camera.

Some photographers get out there and learn the new ways and continue on, and some resist and feel it is imperative from a moral point deep in their guts to hold on to the ‘old ways’ in order to jab the metaphorical middle-finger to the “young’ns” who seem to be stealing their lunches. I am not into metaphorical middle fingers myself, I prefer the real thing. Much more natural and ‘organic’ and is so much fun to accompany with some pithy profane word-smithing.

But the bottom line is that the bar has been raised. Not a lot.

A HELL of a lot.

And to be in the more rarefied air above the new bar will take more and more effort.

And talent.

And vision, style, emotion, guts, pain, blood, laughter, failure, elation, and that tingly little spine thingy that happens when you do something and it just screams at you that you nailed it… you freeeeeeekin nailed it.

Yeah… more of that.

Average is gone. It is over. (Except in pop-culture and Hollywood, where mediocrity is a badge to be worn with courage and a jaunty, arrogant smile. Think Kanye West… got it?)

It is painful to realize that when we are looking in the mirror, we may be looking at someone who is not ‘dabomb’ that was once staring back. That all the hard work to get where you are meant something then – and nothing now. That instead of resting on our laurels, we have to once again put on the running gear and prepare for a marathon. We have to train and train and train again.

Again.

And some of us will do just that.

And some of us will not.

And some of us will simply metaphorically flip us all off and tell us that we are nuts and that there is no hope and who the fuck cares anyway.

And a few of us will continue to wonder why good enough sustained us before, but will no longer be, well, good enough.

Hey, I don’t have the answers for you. I only have the view from my seat. If I could tell you what the answer to it all was, I probably would be very rich.

I can tell you it ain’t about the camera or the lenses or the strobes or the triggers or the software

I can tell you that it will be a lot of work. And a lot of fun.

And sheer hell on some days.

So what?

You think it is better in other fields?

Sorry, you gotta get out more. There are actually businesses that are far worse off than commercial photography.

I will leave you with a video.

As many of you know, I am a drummer.

Wait – after seeing this kid, maybe I am a guy that used to be a drummer.

Sixteen years old, and he plays with the ability of a guy who has been playing for decades. There are other examples of sheer brilliance on the net, but this one really stuck out to me. NOTE: you must watch all the way to the end. To imagine the amount of practice that this kid has had to endure is mindboggling.

But there is one thing that we know for sure…

Average is no longer an option.

Just ask any drummer you know.

<h2>NOW WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?</h2>

EDIT:

Just after finishing this post (which was supposed to be about 600 words… sigh) I read this article about Annie Leibovitz.

I suggest you read it… I really do.

“This is an amazing time to be a photographer,” she said. “I discovered things about myself which were really comforting — that the work had a deep well, that it wasn’t going to go away.”

Sure beats sitting around and beating yourself up for things that are out of your control… ya know.

EDIT #2

So I am about to crash and I read this from Jake Stangle:

“You need to approach a photo editor with a preexisting body of work that does not speculate on the fact that you might take really good photographs if you were hired. Your portfolio needs to prove this. It can be 100% personal work. You just need to demonstrate that you can shoot. Your portfolio and website need to be a vehicle that high fives photo editors and wraps its arms around their shoulder and softly whispers in their ear, “hey girl, hop in my Hyundai Sonata, let’s do this, I got you”. 

Simplest sentence ever #1: If you’re not getting calls (or even meetings), your work isn’t there yet. You need to get your work there. You are the only one that can do this. Money won’t help. It could take a couple months, it could take years. When the work is there, the calls will start to come along. But not until you, and only you, get it there. This is a universal truth.

Simplest sentence ever #2: Any time you’re in a rut, you need to know and remind yourself and understand the ONLY way to get out of this rut is by making more work, pushing harder, did I say work harder? Nothing is gonna happen when you slump down. Just lost time and wasted days. So get your ass up and keep hammering, working hard infinitely. Behind every photographer is a really haggard guy or girl with a bad back.

Simplest sentence ever #3: The longer you bitch, the more you complain, the more inactive you are in getting to where you want to go, the longer, bitchier, harder, and more unpleasant it will be. This is the devastating truth. So sack up (disclaimer: I am a feminist), get in your F150, and get r’ done.”

I think, no – I KNOW – you should read this whole series at his site: Here is the link to the last one, you will navigate to the others from there.

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Great. We all feel a little bit of a spring in the step and some empowerment at the first of the year.

So let’s get a game plan going… something not as fleshed out as a marketing plan, and not as whimpy as a resolution.

A plan. Simple, concise and doable.

1. Drop all toxic friends and relatives like a hot stone that has needles on it. We don’t need the negativity, guys. We truly don’t. Things are crazy and moving fast, and we need teammates, not opposing sides.

You don’t have to be rude, or aggressive… just stop hanging with them. If the conversation starts to roll around to ‘those damn craigslistshooters’, change the subject. Or leave… isn’t there some bacon on the stove you forgot?

Be unavailable for whine sessions. Yeah – it’s tough out there. For everyone, not just photographers, and frankly no one gives a shit how down and out we be feelin’.

Truth be told, there are a lot of busy photographers out there. Lots. And more are getting gigs every day. If you are not one of them, I suggest very strongly, that you start to look inward and work on changing your game, not sit around with other shooters who are also in a world of hurts, licking wounds and ‘remembering when’.

And stop talking ‘smack’ about the competition, other photographers you don’t even know, the creeps you do know, and yourself. No more put-downs of anyone, including yourself. It is toxic, unattractive and terrible for the Karma thing.

Stop it. Now.

2. Redo your website. Look into a new design for the year, with some nice bigass images, some great bio copy, a new shot of a smiling, go-gettin’-em photographer with a glint of crazy in the eyes.

If you can’t redo it, I would bet you could add some new images and a gallery or two. I KNOW you can. Things were crazy last quarter, and there are some images that must be added. Do it today.

Then tell every one on the planet about the new images… (we call that marketing, but you can just call it showingthedamnphotographsyoumade… whatever works).

Oh, and if you are wondering how to know if your website needs a facelift, here are 6 questions. Answering yes to two, is a ‘probably’, three is a ‘for-sure’ and 4 and over is a ‘HELLYES’.

1. Is your website based in Flash?
2. Do you have a ‘splash page”?
3. Do you have to call your ‘webguy’ every time you need to add a photo or change a gallery name?
4. Do you use more than 3 fonts for the page?
5. When you built your blog, you did it in something called “Front Page”.
6. Did you do your own logo and use a piece of clip art, especially anything to do with a camera (shutter release, aperture, little guy with a view camera, tripod…)?

3. If you have a blog, create an editorial calendar and stick to it. I decided last summer to change up LE (well, now it is E4P, and begin to have more content than I had before. I wanted some short form posting available to me, so I changed it. If you are using WordPress, I recommend this plugin: Editorial Calendar

Wasn’t easy. Didn’t expect it to be. But it had to be done and we do what needs to be done. The new format of this site was chosen to feature how much content there is here, and not to be seen as a single entry ‘blog’ as the previous look implied.

If you don’t have a blog, start one. You do not have to post 10 times a day, or even once a day. Maybe once a week or 3 times a month… let your clients know what you are doing. Share your creative shoots with them. Keep them informed of new projects, travel, assignments you have. Everybody loves the busy person – be that busy person.

(Note: if you decide to build a blog to teach other photographers how to light stuff, make sure that is your market. If you are looking for work, make it a blog about your work and your clients. Not about how to use a light meter… there are plenty of old farts out there doing that.)

4. Do more creative. Start a project. Shoot a series. Try shooting something outside your comfort zone. Set a goal to make a couple of dozen images a month, and work them down to at least 5-6 images for the portfolio per edit.

Find the time. Make the time. Force the time. This IS the time to get on it… not next week, or after the holiday, or – heck, we humans can come up with a ton of great things to do instead of doing the work, but I would rather Do the Work. It pays off in dividends, and it is what we are supposed to do.

5. Eliminate time wasters. TV? It mostly sucks, right. Cut out all but two favorites. Love sports? Great, how about one game a week? Twitter? Sure, as long as it is now and then and you have something to say. Facebook games? Getouttahere with that crap.

Be shooting, be planning a shoot, or be editing. Done. (Yeah, that pesky 9-5 sometimes gets in the way, but it will be there until you make the jump, so do your best there as well, and cut out the un-freeking-necessary time wasters that are all the rage…)

Wait… am I saying that social media is not an important part of your marketing? Heck no, it is and it will be, but there are smart ways of doing it, right? And if you are not working them in a smart way, what are you doing?

6. Get OUT of your comfort zone and start doing the shit that has to be done without whining about it. (This one I have stapled to my forehead.) It is difficult to do stuff we are not good at. Calling for meetings. Showing the book to kids who are barely out of school and hoping that they give you a shot, or staying up super late to get that edit out the door for the client.

Comfort zone is treating it like a second class gig… something we do when we aren’t doing, you know, that other really important stuff.

There is no other really important stuff. (I am making a point here, so if your house is on fire, yeah… it goes to the top of the list. Good, you got me on that one. But only if it is your house and you are absolutely sure it is on fire… got it?)

7. Write it down. Make lists. Make plans. On paper.

Post them where you can see them. Post them where you can make notes on them and scribble in dates and make – the – plans.

When we write something down, it automatically becomes more important to us. (A little trick I learned a long time ago – before giving someone a business card, write something ‘important’ on it. Those cards are not so easily discarded. True… try it.)

Work out what you want to achieve this next quarter, and then break it into manageable chunks. Make the points something you can actually do. Make them realistic goals.

“I am going to show my book to 500 Art Directors this quarter” is a wonderful idea. Stupid, but wonderful. 500? Really?

Let’s work on ideas that are wonderful and NOT stupid.

“I am going to make one appointment per week to show my new portfolio” is a lot more feasible. Wonderful. Not stupid.

Having a plan is something that can make the difference between getting to where you want to go and wandering aimlessly like a snowbird in Scottsdale on a stormy Sunday morning. (Take it from me, lost lost lost lost… blinkers blazing…) Not a pretty sight.

The plans you make should be measurable, workable, doable and written down.

One last item.

Oh yeah, sorry…

8. One last item: Show Your Work. Show it to everyone. Get it on your iPad, your Kindle Fire, iPhone, Android, Black… nawww. Make up a small book of images at Blurb and put it in your camera bag. Tell everyone you meet how much you love being a photographer and, “oh – by the way, would you like to see some images” can come tumbling out in context.

That’s it in a nutshell.

Dump the negativity.
Work on your website (redo/fix/update.
Blog (or Photoblog) – refresh/create.
Shoot more creative.
Eliminate Time Wasters.
Get OUT of your comfort zone.
Write it down.
Show Your Work.

There it is.

It is what I am going to do. What are YOU going to do?

Share your plans in the comments.

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Bill and I chatted down in Mexico during a workshop, and his piece accurately reflected my teaching beliefs, as well as other thoughts I had on the business.

It was great fun to do, and I am posting the article here for you. You can download the PDF here if you like: Bill Millios’ Article on Me in Rangefinder, July 2010

This photographer says his photograph is not free:

From PetaPixel:

“As someone mentioned, THIS single photo didn’t cost me $6,612, but if you wanted to create it, from scratch, that is what is involved. So I consider it the replacement value if it’s stolen, or how much my lawyer will send you a bill for if it’s found being used without my permission.

If you give your photo away for “credit” then the best possible scenario for you is someone will see your photo, contact you, and ask if they could borrow one of your photos… for credit. Try this… next time you’re at dinner, tell your waiter you’ll tell all your friends how good the service was if he gives you dinner for free.”

Two things come to mind.

(And understand I am a big fan of Petapixel, so this is tough love, buddy.)

1. I don’t give a shit how much your camera cost. I don’t care where you had to go to get it. I don’t care about investment, or time spent, or education… none of that. The image has value because you made it. It is yours.. and YOURS to do with what you want. It has a value that is NOT measured in what is invested in it.

Would I care how long someone worked on their novel to decide if I wanted to buy it? If the author lived in squalor would it be worth less than an author who lived a lavish lifestyle on the Italian Riviera while writing his tome? Do I care about how much the painter spent on his easel, or brushes?

No. And I have a problem with deciding what the value of a photograph is based on the dollars spent to create it.

It. Just. Doesn’t. Matter.

What matters is that it is the authors work, his photograph, her Polaroid… it is THEIRS.

Petapixel: You Do NOT have to justify your work. You should not even think you should. You don’t owe anyone an ‘explanation’ of why you want to be compensated. Don’t be sucked into their world of “I can’t do it, so I will take from those who can. Cause, I’m, like, entitled, man…” It is your photograph and that is all there is to it.

2. Shooting for free, or credit, seems to be a symantical problem. Being paid doesn’t necessarily mean dollars. It never has.

Access can open doors, and work that is amazing can be created by a photographer with some assets at their disposal.

I once had an offer to travel all over the Southwest in an RV. Two weeks, paid. All meals, all travel/motel/RV hookups and expenses, and anywhere I wanted to go. They let me choose the time and what they wanted was 12 shots for their brochure, exclusive for 2 years. All other images taken were mine to use anyway I wanted.

Oh yeah, they offered credit.

What do you think I did?

Santa Fe, Alamogordo, Denver, the Rockies…

Do I believe in working for free… Hell NO. But that wasn’t for free – that was access, and about $12K to take a 2 week vacation in a top of the line RV.

I do hope you can see the difference. If not, no problem.

Then this guy posts a completely silly article on how lame Petapixels article is.

“I think it’s a fine photo. It has cost me quite a bit of money in order to create it. A Canon SLR camera, a high-end lens, my time to take the picture, edit it, publish it. Not including the cost of the computer. Several thousands of Euros overall. But that’s a silly way of looking at things. I have taken literally thousands of pictures with this camera, so the actual cost is under 1 EUR per photograph…

I took the picture because I like taking pictures. I’ve invested into a lot of money into camera gear over the past 27 years or so and never made a dime from it. On the other hand, it has given me a lot of joy and pride. The joy to take beautiful pictures. The pride of building the reputation of being a decent photographer. The pleasure to give away my work and see people smile. The satisfaction coming from the fact that my work is useful, seeing it’s reused by others[1].”

OK… cool. So what? Who cares.

A nice shot of the Eiffel Tower and -It’s free?

Whatever.

He maintains the value of his image is based on how many actuation’s the shutter has had. The more he shoots, the less value his images have.

Really?

That’s your economic plan for – anything?

NOOOO… the value of the image is what YOU say it is. If it has no $ value, but has great sentimental value – COOL.

Then we are told how great it is to take photographs and share them and give them to the world to make the world smile and all sing Kumbaya holding hands buying the world a Coke… or something.

The reason you take a photograph has nothing at all to do with the value of the photograph.

YOU OWN THE DAMN PHOTOGRAPH! IT IS WORTH WHAT YOU SAY IT IS WORTH.

Period.

(Now we get the guy in the back waving his hand… “but if no one will buy it at that price, is it really worth that price?”)

Yes. Of course.

Maybe it never sells. Maybe people laugh. Maybe it is not worth a thing to the rest of the world.

Does the rest of the world get to put a price on OUR ART? Our work. Our photographs?

Of course not.

If it is overpriced, it simply doesn’t sell.

It does NOT become FREE. It is not now on the block of ‘take my ass, cause I was overpriced…’

Where the hell do these people live? In what skool did they learn economics (wait… LOL, what was I thinking… strike that question.)

MY VIEW:

Every image has a value that is both intrinsic and external. When I create it, I can choose what to do with it. Not the gubmunt, not the interwebs, and certainly not someone who wants it, but has no funds for which to purchase it.

What was it the bank robber said… “that’s where the money is…?”

Do what you want with your images.

I. Don’t. Care.

Just don’t tell me what I CAN DO with MY photographs.

So here’s the FREE Pic from Me.

It is free, and it is awesome… just ask me and I will confirm.

What?

Yeah… awesome.

Enjoy.

“As of now, photographers with Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras and Sony NEX-series cameras have the choice to couple a pair of sharp Sigma F2.8 primes to the go-everywhere cameras. These two prime lenses for Micro Four Thirds and Sony E-Mount cameras have been designed from the start for both still and video capture, which, of course, is what makes this camera category so exciting.

The telecentric optical design of these lenses is designed specifically for light transmission to digital sensors for edge to edge image quality, and there’s a new AF system designed for the DN lenses for both still and video capture. On Micro Four Thirds cameras with their 2x lens factor, the 19mm F2.8 EX DN translates to a 38mm F2.8, and the 30mm F2.8 EX DN translates to a 60mm F2.8. On Sony E-Mount NEX cameras with a 1.5x lens factor, the 19mm F2.8 equates to a 28.5mm and the 30mm F2.8 equates to a 45mm F2.8. These are two new serious lenses for a class of cameras that I think are great go-everywhere cameras.”

The Micro 4/3 arena looks pretty interesting, and is something I want to explore more. This kind of gear makes me feel like it is time.

Read more about them at the Sigma Blog

So there’s this photographer on Google +, Colby Brown, and he is writing a book about Google + and photographers. He decided to run a contest or something like a contest, to get some photographers who are actively working on Google + in his book.

This is a very normal, and quite common thing in the publishing industry. Someone is writing a book, finds someone who would help the cause or focus of the book, does an interview and includes some images, illustrations or what have you into the book. There is rarely a change of money in that. Very rarely.

It is usually considered an honor. It is usually considered a wonderful opportunity to discuss your work, and show a lot of people a few of your images. Even as a marketing tool, it is exceptional, as it gives one credibility, gravitas and the appearance of being an ‘expert’.

There is rarely an exchange of money in this relationship. Does it ever happen? Sure. Probably… But that is not the norm.

Magazines, especially photography magazines and design magazines that I get, all have featured articles in them. This great designer from Norway, and that wonderful photographer from Atlanta. Communication Arts does a featured illustrator, photographer, designer, design shop and ad shop in every issue.

Do you think the designer or photographer or shops pay for that?

Do you really?

If you do, you are wrong. And you need to get yourself educated on the business you THINK you are in. Do it now, before you go out and make comments like the ones I read at the G+ thread… “I will never give my work away…” and “…how is that different from being asked to work for free?”… and “…I am tired of being taken advantage of by people who are gonna profit from my work…”

Newsflash: No way in hell any of those comments came from people who are in the business or know any damn thing about this business. Maybe they read a lot of blog posts, and wish the kitty shots on Flickr would be picked up by Getty, or make a sheckle or two from microshitstock… but they are not goddam photographers.

Just imagine: photographer picks up phone:

“Hi, Tony Tog, this is Photo District News and we have been seeing a lot of your work out there. We would like to do a feature on you. It would be a few pages, and we need to set up a writer to come and do the interview. When would be good?”

Tony Tog to caller: “Dude, I don’t give my pictures away. If you want to do an interview with me, you gotta pay. You gotta pay, man. WTF.. you think I do this for f’n fun? I need money, honey… get the hell off my phone.”

Yep. I am sure that happens every day. Youbetcha.

Of course in the real world, not the online-look-i-gotta-pro-flickr-account world, photographers know that it is an honor to be featured, and they also know that it would be something they can use for credibility. (And before you start whining, I know – GAWD do I know – that these things do not necessarily turn directly to dollars. There is no quid-pro-quo relationship between doing the interview and hefty bags of cash. How could there be?)

And, since we are talking about buckets of cash here, go ahead and call PDN and ask them how much it would cost you, Tony Tog, to purchase 4 pages of the magazine to tell people about how cool you are… instead of having someone there, someone with a lot of credibility, tell people how cool you are. Go ahead, I’ll wait right here… hmmmm hmmmm…

Yeah – it costs that much.

Now, how much do you think they would pay you for the interview? Not very much, Bucky – it’s editorial. And if you are really in the business you know that editorial don’t pay crap. It is something that people in the business actually, you know, know.

Deduct what you would have gotten paid for the interview from what the four page insertion would cost (nearly $50K+) and you have the instant dollar amount it was worth to you.

No different in book world.

So maybe I am simply stupid. Or out of it… disconnected from the world of whateverthehell passes for ‘perfeshunul’ photography these days. Maybe all you need is a bunch of HDR shots and a Google + account to be a pro. That’s fine.

Of course the writer, and the photographer who comes along to snap the shot of the featured designer/photographer/ad gal gets paid. It’s editorial. It is a gig to them. Right? You see the difference, right?

Maybe the whole web thing changed it all up. Good is bad, up is down… who the hell even knows anymore.

But I will remain in the perspective of this: You cannot buy credibility. You cannot purchase reputation for any dollar amount on earth. You can only achieve it by being credible and having a great reputation. Editorial features, book features, mentions on blogs of note and on social media is what works toward that end.

I am not disconnected. I know what I know. And the world of professional photography is the same as it always has been. Just a hell of a lot easier to call ones self a pro these days. A HELL of a lot easier.

Maybe that’s a good thing.

And, then again….

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This sort of piggy-backs on my previous article, “Fear and Loathing in Photoville” in which I discuss some of the fear that is prevalent in some circles of photography. “Old guys” sometimes find change hard. They will sometimes hold on to previous patterns too long, after all, they worked for them in the past. And sometimes, they are so set in their ways that they refuse to even consider what is happening around them is real. How could it be changing that fast?

That fast… yes, it is changing that fast. And it shows no sign of slowing down. Not for the short run. Probably not for the long run either.

So we keep on doing what we are doing, and getting praise for it, and expecting it to be ongoing. Like any artist, we feel that what we are doing has merit and value. We keep moving confidently toward completing art that we feel, no, that we KNOW is what our calling creates.

But things are changing everyday. Generations are moving into play, and each has their own value system, their own way of working, their own heroes. And a lifetime of contribution from any artist is no guarantee that the younger demographics will much care about.

In fact, as we older guys hold on to the things that are important to us, the things that we surrounded ourselves with, the contemporaries that MADE us who we are, we move even farther away from the younger groups who have different contemporaries. Different heroes. Different influences.

And sure, we can be considered ‘an influence’ but few of us wake every morning thinking, “well, today I move from being a top-tier artist to someone who “influenced” a top-tier artist.” Few at the top want to be relegated to the “we are so glad you were able to come tonight, does the walker make it harder to drive” group.

I can try as much as I want to embrace hip-hop, or boy bands, or that insipid “Disney kid” singing, but I cannot. It has no relevance to me, or my time, or my experience. I’ll take Mitchell, or Ella, or Benatar, or Battle. (If you don’t know the first names, that is not surprising, and you are probably younger than I am. And that is the point.)

And even those artists had peaks in their own careers. Joni Mitchell has created lots of wonderful albums of music, but none were more revered than “Court and Spark”, “Hissing of Summer Lawns”, and “Hejira”. And none after those three ever achieved the acclaim, or sales of those three. They were nearly perfect, and stand as a tribute to the amazing music that she made.

Keith Jarret has released many solo albums since his first double record “Koln Concert”, yet none have reached nearly the sales of that piece. I listen to all of them, and still the Koln Concert gets play far more than some of the others.

Maybe that is the time that they had to reach their pinnacle? Alec Soth’s blog had a very contentious post on whether photography is a young person’s game.

“Reading this at the age of 40, I began to picture myself as Wile E. Coyote still running after he’s off the cliff. The decline seems inevitable.

But is it? From in-depth quantitative studies, University of Chicago economist David Galenson has proposed two kinds of artist greatness. One he calls Young Geniuses (conceptualists who do their best work early in their careers). The other group he calls Old Masters (those who work by trial and error and improve with age). According to Galenson, Picasso (Young Genius) peaked at age 26 whereas Cezanne (Old Master) peaked at 67.”

Yeah, I get that coyote running around with the dynamite strapped to the tail thing… I do.

But it also shows how we may begin to think about how we fit in, age wise. And how that will affect how we do what we do.

I recently watched Mick Jagger and the guys doing a concert… oh man, I thought they looked terrible… lame and silly. Jumping around like a nut case is a young person’s personae. It looks absolutely stupid on an old guy.

Have you ever watched videos of Peggy Fleming winning the Gold Medal at the Olympics a long time ago. She was beautiful, she was graceful, she was amazing. And she would be a rank amateur in today’s local rinks if she skated that skate today.

The bar moves, and people get better and better and better. It was widely believed at one time that no one could ever run a mile faster than 6 minutes, or that man would never be able to go to the moon, or that we would carry a phone with a camera and be linked to people all over the world to access information in real time.

All silly sounding now, right?

So what does an artist do? Do we try to stay ‘hip’ and ‘young’ and ‘ahead of the game’ and risk looking stupid and out of it? Watching Sammy Davis Jr, one of my most beloved heroes, on old Carson shows wearing Nehru Jackets and “love beads” makes me cringe. But at the same time, I am not gonna wear black socks and sandals while wearing the stupid beach hat.

OK, the beach hat maybe, but not the black socks and sandals.

I can only offer my humble opinion.

We do what we do best, and keep doing what is authentically ours. We find ways to do it that may help cross the gorges of demographics, but we don’t go automatically to change our selves to match their values, we bring our values to them within a context of growth.

When I hear a photographer complaining about the business, I always ask a few questions:

1. What are you doing to get your work out there? How does your marketing plan work?
2. How are you staying current with your work? Is there something you can do to create something new?
3. What is your current plan for changing it up, and creating buzz?

I cannot tell you how many ‘deer in the headlights’ looks I get. I hear about how they will NEVER do a Facebook page, or tweet, or blog or… well, you have heard it all too. Lots of ‘old timers’ and ‘seasoned pros’ react with hostility to things that are new. Different.

While Facebook and Twitter are a very new thing to us older folks, the young people grew up with them. The digital age is NOT new to them, it is THEIR influence, and THEIR normal, and we can either accept and adapt or simply do the ‘old guy’ thing and mumble about ‘kids’ and their toys… < fart, scratch… belch >

But instead of blocking the new, I suggest the acceptance of it. Have fun with it. Embrace it as some new way of working. A way we never have.

And one more thing, and this one is important. And probably the most difficult to do.

Listen to the younger artists. Listen to what they have to say. Listen to how they perceive the world, the art, the business and the technology. Being a master means that you have been a student. Become one again, and embrace the new ways of working – not to try to become somehow ‘young’ and a total phony with hair implants, nipped and tucked into fake youth, and listening to kids music as you spew kid speak.

Listen to them to understand the new world. It is there all around us, and it is never ever going to be 1994 again. Or 1978.

Becoming the student when you are a master is no fail, it is instead an acknowledgment of the true master belief; that all of us have new things to learn, new ideas to think about, and new ways of approaching the work we love.

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And if you like the articles here, LIKE them on FB or click the little G+ thingy. I appreciate your kindness.

(NOTE: I would like to thank those students and alums who helped me become one of the top workshop teachers on Photo District News, Reader’s Poll for September, 2011.)

I was recently asked to discuss what I liked about teaching photography, and why I thought it was important to teach. It made me pause, and I carefully thought about my answer. It is not a simple reason, it is actually sort of complex at the edges, and simple in the core.

I photograph because I must. I teach because I must.

I teach because I think I am good at it. I have always taught at some level… whether it was my assistants, or my younger employees, or even those intrepid souls would make it to my door to ask for some ideas or guidance.

It is a responsibility, I believe, that is carried upon each of us at the varying levels we find ourselves. Teach the ones below and learn from the ones above. Taking and giving workshops makes one have a place in the legacy of the art. It is important work.

When I first started, it was simply a reaction to some situations that I saw within my own area. As a designer/photographer, I was far busier designing and doing ad work for clients than shooting. While I did some work for my clients, I also believe that hiring the right photographer was more important than satisfying my own ego by shooting it ALL myself. I know what I am good at, and I know what areas others do a better job. Reality.

I had a few photographers make appointments to show me their work and I was, to say it simply, appalled. Bad lighting is simply unacceptable, and add that to terrible concepts and presentation and I was artistically grumpy. Sure there were other photographers to hire, but these kids needed some guidance and were not finding it.

I held a mini workshop at the studio and had 6 local photographers come in. We did lighting setups from about 9am to nearly 10 that night. They had never seen lights in that close, or known the difference between shooting thru a scrim and bouncing from a secondary source. They would chimp every shot, and start to shoot before the lighting had even been tweaked.

They were very knocked out by how particular lighting can be made to be. And they were making better pictures that Saturday evening than they had ever made. All of them became pretty good friends, and I watched several of them take their photography to career level within a few years.

I decided the following summer to do it again, but this time put some formality to it. How would I teach how I light… and have it make sense? I wrote a curriculum that was pretty good, and did a free workshop to test it out. It was pretty good – and if I had the students for a week, we could have gotten to about half of it. To say it was ambitious is an understatement.

Back to re-writing and tweaking. And we did a year and a half of one day workshops. Manic? You betcha. We would start at about 7am and finish about 10PM – everyone exhausted. Nothing wrong with being exhausted, though.

I decided to take a few other workshops to see how they were getting the job done.

Workshop One: Two day workshop where the first half of the first day was spent listening to the photographer tell us how cool it was to be him, and how no matter what, we would never be as cool as he was. OK – not really a concern (I stopped being cool when my first kid turned 13 – just ask her), so on to the workshop. He set up the lights, and we took turns taking photos of a semi-clothed woman. Meh…

Workshop Two: Started two hours late, and the photographer was far more interested in taking photographs of his ‘girlfriend/model’ than teaching the students that attended anything. “Put your camera on f-8 and stand here… take a few shots…”

That ain’t teaching.

I did have a good experience with a location shooter who had great materials, a solid plan, and some hands on stuff that the students got into. And that fit with my world view of how to teach.

My Philosophy for Teaching Photography (and really anything):

1. Tell the story. Say what we are going to learn. In detail.

2. Show what we are talking about. See it as well as hear it.

3. Do it. Make it happen… listen, see and do.

I really don’t do much in the way of ‘how cool it is to be me’ cause, well – it really isn’t that cool. I don’t shoot much at the workshop because it is the student who is there to hear/see/do and they NEED to be the center of the workshop. Student Centric Teaching… heh.

I find that this works. I can teach lighting and some advanced photography to even the most basic beginner as well as the already advanced Pro-Am. There is always something for everyone, and I think that is as important as anything. No dumbing anything down, and no lofty, over their heads discussions either.

In the end, the reason I teach is that photography is very, very important to me. I care about it, and the practitioners of this most incredible art. And I think there is a dearth of good education out there. From forums where misguided, and occasionally misleading, information is disseminated, to magazines that paint a rosy picture of easy success in fashion photography, I think there is too much bullshit out there. Too much bullshit.

I don’t have anything to sell at my workshops, I want to focus on teaching. I don’t do any upselling at my workshops (ask those who have attended) and am simply glad to have students learn the concepts I think will help them light better, shoot better and have a better photographic experience.

I rarely do any promotion of my workshops on this space, other than the mentions and links, but the question of why I do it was a good one. And I decided to answer it here, in public, on my favorite site.

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There has been one strong thought in the back of my mind lately. It sort of hangs there like a candle that is almost ready to die, but keeps the flame going for another few seconds. Then it flickers nearly to extinction – and lights up again with the slight change of breeze.

Balance. The balance of the breeze, the tenacity of the fire and the elements all come together to keep the flame from simply dying out.

Balance.

It seems as though it should be a simple thing, easily mastered by children at an early age. What is walking and running and standing if not an incredible display of balance? Kids on monkey bars (those were things kids played on before parents became obsessed with any tiny possibility of injury and had them removed and replaced by Wii controllers) learned to do it. Steel workers in Manhattan and Beijing know it well.

That sort of kinetic balance is easier done than the one inside our heads, the balance we need for our lives, relationships and art. That is not a muscular awareness training – it is life. And the training manual for that sucks.

Balance.

I recently read an article by some dimwitted celebrity (shut up, I was in the dentist office and what else ya gonna read?) and she was bubbling on about achieving balance in her life – I mean with all the nanny’s and the yoga and the nightlife of NY and the reading of scripts and the meetings with her accountants to check her millions – I mean, really. “It’s so hard” she gushed.

Yeah.

It is.

But for most of us it is hard on different levels. Far different.

Most of us wear many hats. From partners in life to dad/mom to business person to artist to… Well, to a lot of things. And while shuffling the kids to the right nanny for a playdate in NY is not a big challenge for most of us, the day to day balancing of what we do is.

“She is spinning a lot of plates”, my friend Bill recently explained as we were talking about an entrepreneur in his town. We had used a space above her store for the workshop and we were marveling at all she was doing: Antique shop, restaurant, interior remodeling of the building, acting and more.

“Spinning a lot of plates” is right. And when one falls, it can tend to take the lot of them with it.

Precarious balance.

I am a designer, a photographer, an educator and a writer. A lot of plates. I also play at the piano and have a few drum sets stashed in the garage. Dad (3 girls), husband (wife 32 yrs), and ‘master’ (2 dogs). We add accountant, office manager, marketer, collections, and janitorial to my own business and you can see where we end up. Lots of ‘plates spinning’ as my friend Bill would say.

Balance.

I am not bragging. I know many of you have that many plates spinning and more. All of us have our set of balance challenges and we start each morning with a nod to the morning and we try to keep the plates spinning as effortlessly as possible.

Disaster lurks at every corner, and many of our ‘friends’, acquaintances, strangers we meet on the street – and that Allstate “mayhem” guy – want to take us down. They want to see the plates fall. Some are unwitting in their hope for our failure, some are indifferent and a few really want to see it happen. They are determined to destroy our balance. Failure is not an option for them, it is their goal.

Beware of those that say they want to help you, but every thing they do seems to hold you back and threaten your spinning ability. They make it harder to balance when they shove and pull you into directions you are not comfortable going. Or they keep you from going where you KNOW you need to go.

Fire ‘em.

Balance takes energy, focus, agility and the reality of long hours of practice. Practicing with measurable results. Fail – and you spend a few hours sweeping up a lot of broken plates. Or worse.

Sometimes much worse.

And that can be OK, it really can. It is in the failing and the sweeping and the recounting of what went wrong that new clarity can be found to try it again. And again. You realize what went wrong, and you fix it. Eventually finding that sweet spot of balance – and again the spinning seems effortless.

In photography, balance may mean effortless conceptualizing. Balance may mean images that seemingly flow from the lens. Lighting that is both technically excellent and emotionally appealing and leads to the images you see in your head becoming a reality. A balance of technique and art. Vision and execution.

And that is great for a time. The plates are spinning and we are making our way with little to no effort.

Then one of the damn things starts to wobble… and off you go to making split second decisions, based on thousands of hours of practice, as to how to handle this impending crash. Tweak here, slide there, dip, swoop… a little more… and there they go spinning effortlessly again.

Balance.

Sometimes we have to encounter an out of balance situation to find new ways to get balance back. And in doing so, we find something new – something unplanned as we were scurrying to prevent having to sweep up a bunch of busted china. Something unexpected. Maybe another plate just got added… and you love it.

Or… not.

It can add to the complexity of the balance, or it may make the balance more easily managed. Or it may be a wash.

Only by challenging the balance will we ever know. We learn more about balance when the plates are spinning and wobbling and we are swooping and dipping in sheer terror in order to save them than we do when they are pleasantly spinning at the top of our poles.

Balance is good. Balance is what we want to achieve.

For a while.

Then we have to disrupt that balance and find out what ways we can use to gain it back. And when we find those ways, it will be easier to handle the next time we feel out of balance. When we feel too safe. Too secure. Or bored.

Challenge your balance every now and then. Take a risk. Move faster than you ever have. Lean over farther and find a way to maintain. And if you fail, and hopefully you will occasionally fail – hell, that’s where you get a whole new set of plates – your balance will be restored with the same method we all use.

One plate at a time. Spin and repeat.

And remember to balance.

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