ellipsis…

back a couple of years ago, when i was a designer not a photographer, i decided that i would put together a book of my photos for people as gifts. i didn’t know then that a book like this is what got you jobs, i thought it would be a nice thing for people. it was a time when pictures were just plain fun, and the worries of marketing myself were no where to be found.

so i embarked on a project to hand build a limited edition run of books. as usual my dreams were bigger than what reality held, but i made it through. i designed the pages of the book to be one long 88 inch sheet that used an accordion fold to separate the pages. the accordion fold was held together by a hand stitched binding. then i wrapped a cover around the two end pages to hold everything together. a local shop printed the 88″ long sheets for me, and i printed the covers. each cover was hand scored and folded as well. the back cover was hand stamped with my chinese name and numbered. it think it took over two hours to assemble each book. the limited run was 15, but i think i actually only ever made 12.

books have now changed for me. 11×14 hard plastic pina zangaro books with plastic sleeves to hold the pictures. the real personal feel has left the creation of the book itself. maybe some new marketing will come from me looking at this crazy book i put together. or maybe it’ll inspire you to start thinking of a new and different to set you apart from everyone else. happy day dreaming!

my buddy justin la favor, who is also a fantastic realtor in edmonton (plug plug plug), is huge into marketing. he’s probably read, bought and watched almost every new marketing strategy in the last two years. that said he’s in the know on who’s the top guys out there. when it comes to the marketing industry it’s directly linked to the photography industry. on first thought it’s because the marketers are the guys who find the ad firms, who find us so that we can make some money and eat. on second thought, it’s because we need to also market ourselves as photographers, which directly links us back to the former point. i digress.

in my search for a latter rung to get me out of my creative gap, i realized after tonight’s little webinar (web-seminar. didn’t even know that was a word), that i’m bored. i really am. and i’ve known it all along, but it really hasn’t slapped me in the face until tonight. on justin’s blog he links everyone to a webinar from one of the top copywriters in the states, John Carlton, who interviews his good friend, and guru marketer, Eben Pagan. If you have an hour i would recommend a listen. right at the beginning of the interview Eben quotes John, he actually used this point as a building block for his multi-million dollar productivity program.

“people are bored out of our minds. people are bored. they live boring lives. they wake up, they have a boring morning routine, they have a boring breakfast, get in a boring car, and take a boring commute, to a boring job, that is boring, with a boring boss. and then they have a boring commute home, and watch boring television, and they go to sleep bored… not only are they boring and not exciting, but they don’t know anyone that’s even interesting or exciting, they don’t even know anyone who knows anyone that’s interesting and exciting. they just kind of live in a boring bubble for most of their lives. and if a little excitement comes into their life, it’s really amazing.”

that kinda hit me pretty hard. and maybe not everything there describes me. i know interesting and exciting people. and i watch interesting tv. since cutting my hours at the store, i still haven’t been able to shake the boring routine. working at a camera store for the last couple of years has really put a damper on my life, almost sucked me dry. you’d think it would be an easy job, ironically that is what killed me. i found that i became less and less motivated to do anything. – boring morning routine, boring breakfast, boring job… – i’d get home and just not want to do anything.

i need to bring some excitement into my life. it’s a bit harder now, most of my friends (come to think of it, all of my friends) are married, everyone has careers, and people just don’t have as much free time. not that any of that is bad, just not a easy as say 5 years ago when most of us just finished school and were single.

so let’s unbore myself. tonight is the first A Photo Evening i’m hosting. a bunch of friends and fellow photogs gathering to enjoys some wine and chat about photography. should be interesting, more on that after the evening. i’m also hoping to join the subcommittee for the ACE Awards, an award show for the best and brightest of advertising in edmonton. a good way to meet some new people, network and have some fun putting on a show (it’s been a while since i’ve done that). i think that’s a fairly good start. the theory behind unboring myself is that it will motivate me to be more productive, give me more energy and creativity. i want that.

are you bored?… if you are, let’s get you unbored. you might have to get a little creative and look outside of your circle of friends. meet exciting new people who are doing big things. join a club. or maybe start one. a lot of this isn’t new information, it just is a matter of having it put in a way that will hit you aside the head. most of what Eben and John say in the webinar is exactly the same as what Keith Ferrazzi says in his book Never Eat Alone. get motivated not by sitting at your desk plotting new deadlines or warming up that microwave dinner. let other people inject some excitement into your life, so that you can start feeling more alive, and inturn become more productive. turn down the suck, turn up the good.

here’s the link to John Carlton’s interview with Eben Pagan.
http://www.simplewritingsystem.com/blog/2008/10/16/eben-pagans-million-dollar-writing-insights/

a buddy from twitter pointed me towards Melissa Rodwell’s blog, and what a blog it is. melissa is a crazy good fashion photographer out of LA, and she has a brand spanking new blog that is a fantastic resource for fashion photographers out there. since september she already has a post on beauty lighting, creating the perfect crew, and a video tutorial on how to shoot a model test. just awesome stuff! i’ve been looking for a blog specifically devoted to fashion photography. best advice i’ve read so far from melissa;

“One thing that is SO important when you are beginning your career as a fashion photographer is for you to understand the history of fashion.” (makes sense…)

check her out www.fashionphotographyblog.com

i’ve worked and attended more weddings then most. i’ve seen it all, well i thought i’d seen it all. a buddy threw me an email that said “check it!” Cabel Sasser, co-founder of Panic.com, recently got married and he totally designed his entire wedding! mac users will recognize Panic.com, they make some awesome software that makes using a mac even better. i can say that i haven’t seen anything like it yet. the amount of design detail he put into his wedding is just amazing. and i totally love the fact that he printed his invitations on a letterpress. SO GOOD! he goes through the entire process here.

1. always ask for more. not more money, more direction. ask for clear direction of a project before you get into it. and definitely before you arrive on location. if you don’t get an answer that you are satisfied with ask again, and then again, until you get the information that you need. it is a hard place to get caught trying to work with a vague idea of what a AD wants, even if they have no idea what they want. “i’ll know it when i see it” is not good enough. push them for direction, it is their job to direct the overall look and feel of the images. if they are doing their job properly, you should have a good idea of what the end product should be.

2. if you don’t think it’s going to work, it’s probably not going to work. photographers are visual people, seems pretty obvious, right. for the most part we know what will work or not work when we see it. though for some reason when we have others on set we will tend to shoot ideas or at locations that just don’t cut it. express your thoughts to the client or AD on set and tell them that you don’t think a specific idea will work.

2.1 (cuz it goes with 2, but is different) if the job is rushed, still take the time to plan. sit down with the AD or client, even if it’s for a couple of minutes, and run through what each of you are thinking. sketch out the lighting setup, and the composition. this way you have a visual reference of what you need to accomplish, and you won’t get caught in #1.

3. stand by your work. at the end of the day, those are the images that you made, and like it or not, those are the images that you will have to stand by. be honest about them, but defend them. you made decisions during the course of the project that resulted in the images that you shot. even if your client doesn’t like them, there is a reason why you shot them. maybe you took a risk on something, maybe you composed something too conservative; whatever you did, there were reasons and/or influences (either yours or someone else’s on set) that made you choose that decision. back them up and stand by them.

those are the things i learnt today. i have unfortunately learned them the hard way, and will definitely be changing my mental check list for jobs. to be honest they seem rather common sense, but i’m amazed at what gets overlooked when you’re in the heat of things.

James Natchwey unveiled his TEDPrize Wish today. he had TED help him document the spread of Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in a multiple countries. click the image to go to the XDR-TB.ORG.

Nick Onken wrote a really interesting piece on expanding your creative arsenal over on his blog. he talks about expanding your default, your go-to-style, as a photographer. it’s been something that i’ve been thinking about lately, how to push your creative self. what am i doing to make my image better? how am i growing as a photographer? i’ve had people ask me how to become a better photographer, and i’ve always said shoot lots. and yet, i’ve not taken my own advise. lately the only time i’ve picked up a camera is to do client work. as much as that’s good, it really doesn’t push my creative self.

in some ways that’s why i’ve cut my hours at my day job to part-time. i need the time to just go out and shoot. to sit in a café and think up tests and plan them out. who knew this photography thing could take over your life!

read Nick’s post on Expanding Your Default. it’s full of good knowledge and experience. i can’t wait till i’m where he is in my photography career.