“One of the toughest things for a photographer to do is to say ‘no’ to new business, even if it’s a bad deal,” writes Aaron Lindberg in his most recent post for “Black Star Rising.” He continues: “Especially in today’s environment, your prospective clients have an arsenal of pick-up lines — ranging from sweet talk to coy bluffs — to make bad deals sound like good ones.”
You probably already know to say “no.” It’s one of the best, most basic pieces of advice for the business of professional photography. However, knowing this doesn’t seem to make saying “no” any easier. Grounded, positive encouragement like Lindberg’s is needed, and often.
There are a lot of reasons that photographers are apt to say “yes,” but let’s not dwell on them. Let’s turn the problem around and considering relishing in the opportunity to say “no.” Continue reading “Just say “No” To No-Good Photo Jobs”
My two posts together might come off as a Luddite, suggesting that old fashioned reporting is better than newer-tech reporting. This is certainly not the case. Just think abut Vietnam. While we might best remember a handful of iconic still photographic images from the Vietnam War, it was the daily TV news coverage that most effectively brought the war into the homes of Americans.
Today 10,000 Words features a great sample of interactive, online media done right. “7 interactive guides to the Gulf Coast oil spill” show that simple, well-conceived multimedia reporting can be far more effective than still images alone, and that they can help put still images (both news and stock) to best use.
Samples include reporting by USA Today, The New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, and the Times-Picayune. All of these are basically the same — showing the progress of the spill over time, using Flash driven graphics.
On the vimeo.compage where the movie is hosted, Laforet explains that part of his motivation in creating “Chapter 1: The Cabbie” was to show off “the many strengths of this new breed of HD DSLR cameras, such as the Canon 7D, which we shot this film with.”
There is no doubt that Laforet has succeeded. The production quality of “Cabbie” is simply outstanding, and it will provide inspiration for any photographer exploring the possibilities of video. Laforet explains that “The camera’s low light capabilities and light weight allow you to do things you’d never think to try with traditional cameras.” Continue reading “Seeing Beyond the Still”
“If you’re not using Twitter yet, you may feel as if you’ve missed out,” writesRafe Needleman at the beginning of his helpful and encouraging Webwarepost, “Newbie’s guide to Twitter.” Personally, I’m still struggling to get a handle on Twitter, and I’d probably find Needleman’s encouraging words more encouraging if he had not posted them on March 15, 2007 – a million years ago in SMT (Social Media Time). Still, there’s no time like the present and luckily. . .
@jessicahische’s insights into the very basics of Twitter protocol is a masterful must-read for all TCT (Totally Confused Twitterers) like me. You’ll also find it useful if you tweet regularly but are not entirely clear on some of the SNI (Surprisingly Not Intuitive) aspects of who receives which tweets and why.
With incredibly clarity in the “who sees what” section of her document, Hische makes it clear that there’s a big difference between whether I put “@jessicahische” at the beginning of a tweet or anywhere else in my tweet. Whether or not @jessicahische is following me (@ethansalwen) will also impact my tweeting, and my tweeting will be affected if others are following the both of us. (Unlikely. @jessicahische has 5,005 followers; I have 12.)
Hische explains the critical fundamentals with no fuss about reasons for tweeting or strategies for doing so. This is refreshing. For all the gobs of Twitter advice I encountered today on the Web, I have found none with the the basic TDI (Twitter Driving Instructions) as clearly presented as those of Hische.
(If your Titter IQ is equal to or — gasp! — lower than mine, check out the “Twitter in Plain English” video at the end of this post.)
Even if this basic information is as old to you as Needleman’s post, like @janelerner, you’ll appreciate the ability to forward this Hische’s “mom resource” to any TCT friends coming to you with a TCC.
The person who shared this OK Go“This Too Shall Pass” music video with me wrote simply, “Someone learned his physics well.” As I watched the video — utterly entranced, wondering where I could get my hands on a few thousand dominoes — I had to agree.
Understanding physics certainly would be important for getting all these gadgets to go off just right, so perfectly. Clearly, this is for real, I was thinking. This is really happening in front of me. This is not a product of postproduction wizardry.
Maybe I was wrong about that, I realized. But then, it really didn’t matter.
The mechanical wonders in this video feel and so they are real. I believe in the magic of a magician who performs wonderfully, even though I know he is just performing a “trick.” The real trick, which is the magic, is that I feel and believe what I am seeing, regardless of what I might be thinking.
“One of the toughest things for a photographer to do is to say ‘no’ to new business, even if it’s a bad deal,” writes Aaron Lindberg in his most recent post for “Black Star Rising.” He continues: “Especially in today’s environment, your prospective clients have an arsenal of pick-up lines — ranging from sweet talk to coy bluffs — to make bad deals sound like good ones.”
