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September 2007 Archives |
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Notes from afar |
September 26, 2007 |
So says my newly created Facebook account, its been "a weird, weird week" thus far, and its only hump day. It's been raining since, well, I don't remember the sunlight, which is pretty insane for Miami. On Monday, 2 was the magic number... as in the number of times I was threatened with legal action, as well as the number of jobs that were suddenly cancelled. With all of this in mind, here are some notes: • Migrating from the G5 to the new Mac Pro system ended up being more pain free than I expected, though it still took me the better part of last week to finish. For starters, my hope that software RAID'd drives would remain intact and connected, even when inserted into an entirely new system was correct (thank god). The MP is a beast and the dual screen set-up is so money; and is so money... my AMEX bill is looming. • One of the things the switch has enabled me to do is a real comparison of Aperture and Lightroom (which I had been happily using before). They are pretty different and so far the results are inconclusive for my personal workflow, but if you have the horsepower I will say that Aperture is pretty fucking impressive. I was smart to read up on some of the key factors in getting the best results before ordering the MP, and installing a bitchin' video card was critical, way more so than extra RAM. • In regards to the legal "action: -- basically there will always be people who don't understand how copyright (especially in regards to editorial resales) works. Their first reaction, even when you've been extremely up front about everything and helpful, is to be a total fucking pain in the ass. I understand that, and it's part of doing business, but the 2nd of the threats was very, very ugly and really didn't have to be. I haven't been verbally assailed that much since, uh, ever. Obviously folks, I'm only in it for the big, big bucks. Fuck off lawyer: never, ever contact me again for anything. • Even though the 2nd job that was cancelled was worth about 6x as much as the first, I was much more bummed that I didn't end up getting to do my first ever gig with W Magazine. Hopefully "next time" will be sooner, rather than later. • The worst consequence of the computer switch is that I hadn't anticipated that the software which powers my old Epson flatbed will not run on any Intel OS Mac. Fuck! I was hoping to wait longer before buying more shit. Maybe I can hook that up with my upcoming birthday (Oct. 26). • In addition to my recent hop along the Facebook express, I've also been playing around with Twitter. Honestly, I have no idea why. Thus far there is only 1 person "following" me (no clue who they are), and I'm only "following" 3 others, 1 of which has never posted and another who is actually a live NYTimes feed. What's the point of Twitter, again? • Last week I posted one of my new promo cards (they went out on Monday!), which was 1 of 2 this month. Yesterday I got a copy of the 2nd one in the mail and I was relieved to find it looking pretty good. I had been worried because Modern Postcard gives you these "end of the world" type of warnings in their proofing section of the ordering process, and this time it had read "image appears very grainy." Turns out "very grainy" means "image might have been shot on (gasp!) film". Whew... • The consistent, pissing, disgusting rain over the last several days in Miami reminds me of this Missouri football game that I traveled to shoot during college in Texas. It had been raining for 2 weeks straight in College Station and it continued during the days we were there and throughout the entire game. Horrible, slanting, stinging, rain (god bless Gore-Tex). That shit is supposed to stay in Texas, not wander on down to South Florida. At the beginning of this rain Judy and I both welcomed the change to our normal low-90's sweat box, but now its just depressing, especially considering my shoot tomorrow (which is of course outside). • The experience of putting my initial images online to The PhotoShelter Collection has been so time-consuming that I'm not looking forward to the next 500 at all. I was going to say something pithy about waiting for a rainy day, but... • There is a growing corner in my office filled with new portfolios, extra pages, screwpost packs, and a couple of new portfolio shipping cases: all meant to be motivation to help me begin creating my new JLPFL advertising promotion. The only thing that is actually motivating about the pile is when I remember how friggin' much it all cost. • My buddy Eric turned me onto this shit-hot album that we listened to several times during our Bourbon trip: Florida Funk 1968-1975. So, so, so awesome. • My upswing of energy after the bourbon trip was good news for Blueeyes Magazine, and the staff has put a lot of effort over the last several days towards getting the new issue ready for publication. There are just a few more loose ends, and #16 will be pushed out into the world. Spoilers: expect to find a new project from a favorite contributor, and a couple of excellent new contributors as well. #17 is looking pretty damn sweet as well! • I'm convinced that Jörg Colberg and I have almost completely opposite sensibilities. Holy shit some of the recent picks have been B-oring, though I love how everything is "quite" this or "quite" that. Jörg, you stick your pinky up when drinking tea, don't you?! Come on, admit it... • Wow, I love watching Notre Dame lose. • I spent a good deal of my time in Kentucky trying to do some cool shit with my least used camera: da Holga. Yet again I've proven that I just don't get that toy aesthetic. How can something so easy be so hard for me? That's enough for now. Good to download though. Lastly, the above portrait is retiree Don Warner who it was a pleasure to meet and shoot for a Newsweek "rising cost of retirement" story a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm going to get right on back to sleeping far too much... for once. Posted to Misc., Photographs |
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Travel promo |
September 21, 2007 |
September '07 travel promo, 8x6.5": The sun sets over the Western edge of Holy Island in Northern Wales as a boy climbs up the steep sea cliffs. Coming soon to an office mail cubby hole near you! -- I've spent most of the day slapping some addresses on a fresh batch of travel promos (while listening to the excellent new Beirut album) which will go out Monday. And as is usually the case (though not with this month's editorial promo, which I had exactly the right number printed, including one for mom), I have a whole bunch of extras (150-ish) left over. So if you want one just send me a note with your mailing address, et voila. Pictured in the promo (above) is my little brother Michael who, whoop whoop!, is celebrating his 17th birthday today (talk about timing!). Happy birthday Mikey! We (and I'm speaking in the Royal we here) all love you very much. Posted to Misc., Photographs |
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Who it be |
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For almost a month old now, the anonymous NYC photography director of a national magazine writing aphotoeditor.com has stirred up a lot of interest and speculation. I think I started reading just after the first post (funny how every single write up in Pop Photo or PDN mentions this editor's love of Seal) and have been excited to see it grow. A couple of bloggers have gone ahead and declared the writer a female (many others are not so sure). My buddy Andrew made the keen observation that both in voice and perspective, plus the link to veteran Kurt Markus, seems to point to the editor being a veteran themselves (which could make the creation of a blog all the more noteworthy). One of the things that I find interesting is that it seems obvious that the blogger is not trying to write anonymously for personal reasons, but instead are trying to break through all of the bullshit of the publishing world and photography industry and speak candidly and directly to their opposites, which sadly means that this writer needs to (or feels they must) remain professionally unknown. Even as they talk about office visits with prominent photographers and leave little other clues (which means that certainly there is a growing community of people who know the true identity), they seem to be more focused on the exchange than the personal thrill. I'm reminded of a photo editor I met recently who was pretty excited to tell me again and again about a couple of the very popular photographers who they really hated and thought were completely overrated. Ultimately we are all much rewarded by the class of this blogger, whomever they are. And I don't really want to know. Gay guy or woman (the leading guesses from my research, though you don't have to be a brain surgeon to realize that the majority of photo editors are women), whatever the case may be, I hope that those who do know don't cut the conversation short. Unmediated, honest, and open discussions between creatives and editors are far too uncommon to turn this into an unveiling campaign a la the Steve Jobs impostor blog. Posted to Misc. |
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Why not |
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As previously reported, I was able to catch the 2nd leg of the still under way PhotoShelter city tour/marketing event (check out a nice summary of the NYC stop here from Andrew). In all fairness to Allen & Grover, they repeatedly tried to steer the conversation away from a product launch and onto a broader city hall style open forum about photography and the Future (now everyone sing together: In the year 2000...!). But that wasn't happening, especially with the recent Getty $.49 stock brouhaha still circulating heavy. In general I think we are all in agreement that one more tool for photographers to promote their work is a good thing, especially when its not the normal reaching, rights-compromising bullshit. I got an announcement from PhotoShelter a few weeks ago about the launch of The Collection and though I didn't feel any great urgency to sign up right then I knew that sooner or later (or last night) I'd throw my hat into the ring as well. Why? Well, why not? And to that end, Photoshelter's Collection is not really a solution... but it is another avenue, and a very clean tidy one at that, for photographers to make some money without doing much (which is incredibly important in a long-term view of staying alive in this industry). The only negative reaction that I had at the Atlanta event was the way in which the terminology being used to describe the new venture (fresh, 2.0, different, new paradigm, etc.) was annoyingly inane. And to that end Allen did make the mistake at the Atlanta event of telling me during a response to a question (below) that The Collection was not going to be a "stock agency." Well, yeah, it is. I raised my hands a couple of times during the event (the Atlanta leg was MUCH smaller than you cool kids up in NYC rocking out the Irving Plaza digs), and one of them was somewhere between a question and a comment (awkwardly). "Are you at all concerned about the idea that by going after Getty and the other big bad stock archives that you are basically trying to become them?" The response from Allen and Grover was something about their fresh approach, but we are different, we have a better split, new keywording, transparency, etc., and that's cool (I was sort of just hoping to plant that in their head, if it wasn't already there). But I think my bigger point was that its very easy for the small guy to throw rocks at the giant and get the crowd excited... but nearly impossible for the small guy to keep that sense of fighting for the little dudes (photographers) once they are getting to be giant-sized themselves. And I was also referring to the way that a lot of things (like, oh say, my former agency) starts as this "boutique" nice little size and markets itself in that unique way, but then one day you realize that they are just as big as everywhere else. Regardless, Allen and Grover both swore to me and the crowd that they will never sell to Getty. None of that conversation is actually important on any practical level. What is is that applying to PS's Collection is free and easy and even if you are not a stock photographer (check) its potentially another good way to bring a new revenue stream into your business (so that you don't have to constantly hustle). It was sort of ironic that the art buyers on the panel later in the event (which was basically aimed at empowering independent photographers, etc.) said that the best way to get noticed by art buyers was to be repped. Ha ha. Anyway, in summary... welcome to the block and god speed, Collection! Posted to Misc. |
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Road trip |
September 19, 2007 |
Light streams in to one of the Maker's Mark bonded warehouses, where their bourbon is aged for about six years. Below, cypress fermentation tanks bubble with their special strand of yeast that survived prohibition. I'm back home after a short but very sweet road trip up to Kentucky bourbon country with good friends Eric Larson and Travis Dove (along with several others we saw along the way). We had a great time touring around the beautiful Bardstown area, visiting distilleries and conducting many important scientific taste tests of their amber goodness. On the way back through we managed to stick around Atlanta long enough to check out the PhotoShelter city tour event, where it was fun to hang out with Grover, Allen, and Meagan (plus local shooter David Banks) after the show over a few beers. Giant props go out to photo stud Mark Adams and his wife Erin, who were kind enough to put us up in da ATL. The house is currently under siege from shipping containers filled with a bunch of new crap I bought (horrible timing: buy and then leave town!) and I'll likely be busy completely geeking out over the next few days trying to get everything moved over to the new Mac Pro system. (If anyone is interested or knows someone who is looking: I'm selling my great condition G5 tower - email for info). Luckily the girlfriend is so busy on her new med school rotation that she barely notices. I'll post a more proper write-up of the bourbon festival and a few very cool discoveries we made sometime soon. Until then enjoy these snaps from Loretto, KY, home of the Maker's Mark distillery.
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Represent |
September 11, 2007 |
The reactions have been just about what I expected to the not-so-dramatic news of my leaving the agency. Mostly there has been support and well wishes, with a couple of the "you just made the best move of your career!" and "oh, wow, are you ok?!" thrown in for good measure. The handful of my clients, probably the most important category of individuals to measure against, who I've had the "Redux conversation" with over the last two weeks have uniformly not really cared at all. I'm sure there are a couple of others who will, but its ultimately business as usual at JLPFL, for which I'm thankful. So it's late, I have a glass of bourbon at my side (I'm in training for this weekend's road trip to Bardstown), and though I'm not wearing sunglasses, smoking cigarettes, or driving to Chicago, I think I'm ready to try and dig into a little bit of discussion on agencies, being repped, and all of that mythical stuff. As follows are a few bullet points from a certain non-expert. Use them wisely. * Becoming a fully represented photographer will not begin, end, save, or otherwise critically explode your career as a freelance editorial photographer. I know, it's very sad to hear, but is nonetheless true. There are no agencies out there that will be able to absolutely guarantee you work, and the top groups, to their credit, are extremely 100% up front about this fact. * There are several other agencies out there who will use you and take advantage of your passion and hope for the future until you finally wake up and realize that it must stop. Do not work with people who do not respect photography. It will not lead you anywhere, especially when you don't own any of the work you've been making for peanuts. * Technology and that Internet thing with the tubes, plus the shrinking budget of most major magazines, have changed the editorial game, which has changed the representation game. Agencies used to be much more important for the simple reason that it was more difficult for a New York picture editor to stay in touch with a Dallas-based photographer. * Despite its philosophical possibilities, the Internet is still not a dire threat to agencies because a lot of photo editors are understandably dependent on hearing from someone they trust that a photographer is good enough to be given an assignment. And because the budgets are smaller, there is more pressure to ensure that jobs do not need to be completely reshot. And even if reshoots weren't a problem, there is just so much information to sort through and so many friggin' photographers out there that its hard to see through all of the shit and find good people to work with. * Love or hate a giant agency like Getty, you have got to understand that using them can be an incredibly efficient way for an art director or picture editor to get a job assigned to a decent photographer in some location outside of the major media markets. Tight deadlines and massive marketing from the largest agencies make this all the more tantalizing for an editor. * Great photographers are not enough to make an agency successful, especially in a declining editorial market. To compete with giants Getty and Corbis, an agency must make money on its archive. Even the small, cooperatives have got to make money somehow, which is to say that a photographer must understand that agencies are above-all businesses. * Agencies with good reps are very good at getting your foot in the door with new clients which is one of the most important pros to being repped. Real, in-person relationships are what everything is about. * Whether you are repped or not, you are still basically on your own to guide and promote your career. An agency can help and give you support, but you have got to understand that if you really want to grow then you have got to have a plan and stay focused. * Just because you are lazy and hate to do your own promoting and invoicing is not really a good enough reason to give away 30-50% of your income to an agency. * Agencies with large rosters of clients can not possibly support and promote all of them with the same enthusiasm and reliability. If you are thinking about joining an agency you want to know what the rep to photographer ratio is. Even the best reps can not handle dozens of semi-busy photographers at one time, and if you are in a large agency then you might want to think about trying to promote yourself within that firm to try and get better response from your reps. "Promote myself to my own agency? Are you crazy?" Yes, I am, and some of your colleagues are doing just that, staying in close touch with the reps. * Photographers with a large and active existing roster of editorial clients have the most to lose when choosing to become fully repped. And you definitely do not need to be repped to have someone agree to add your images to their archive to boost resale potential. I'm sure that I'll continue to have relationships, full or in part, in the future with agencies and my time with Redux has certainly taught me a lot. This small list is just the tip of the iceberg, but the night has finally caught up to me and I've said enough. Posted to Misc., Photographs |
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Touch-ed |
September 5, 2007 |
Nerds everywhere (yes, I'm included) had their afternoon caffeine withdrawal interrupted by news from Apple Inc. via their "Beat Goes On" event. The iPod lineup just got much bigger, badder, and broader... with a new addition of the iPod touch, a.k.a. the much anticipated widescreen version of the iPhone. Additionally, said iPhone (here's an earlier recap) got a brand new price tag: the 8GB version (the 4GB is being scrapped) is now $399 instead of $599 (OUCH, that must h-u-r-t!). So its immediately apparent that the Touch is bad-ass. Just like its brother/sister iPhone, the device is beautiful, sleek, and simple, with the added benefit that it doesn't put you in bed with AT&T. Unlike the iPhone, the new Touch does seem to add the obvious (and insanely missing) feature of using the flash USB drive for data storage, but that is overshadowed by Touch's weak capacity of 16 GBs (does this foreshadow a weaker than expected bump for the iPhone 2.0?). A couple of other announcements make the iPhone/Touch even more interesting, namely custom ringtones, a Sbux partnership, and a Wi-fi version of the iTunes store. Ultimately, the only thing that Apple has really done today was to muddy up their lineup of music devices. Instead of 3 versions of the iPod that were different enough to satisfy a range of needs and tastes, now you have basically 5 that all have serious drawbacks. Having seen or held a iPhone/Touch, it would be hard to want to purchase the "classic" (was 5G video iPod), even though it now boasts an impressive 160 GBs of storage. Same goes with the Nano, though my money is on this model to be the real Touch killer (the new chunky size and screen are pretty sweet, if also skewed girly) even with its tiny screen. I'm also befuddled as to why the Touch doesn't seem to include Mail (wtf?!), which makes you wonder if the only reason Apple thinks anyone should go online is to buy iTunes music? And with the overall improvements found in the Shuffle, Nano, and Classic, the iPhone's key downfalls (no tethered internet connection, no data storage, no 3G network, bad headphone jack, AT&T, and only 8 GBs) seem all the more odious, even though the price is getting better. Ultimately the iPod/Phone lineup is right in the middle of a big changing phase (can you hear the voice cracking a bit?), and a lot of us will continue to wait on the improved versions that must be on the horizon (especially considering the increasing coverage of unlocked iPhones). Ed note: There was an expected "outrage" over the significantly dropped price on the iPhone, and not 24 hours later Jobs/Apple responded in a very classy way. Posted to Misc. |
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Monday poem: Larry Levis |
September 3, 2007 |
Larry Levis | "For Zbigniew Herbert, Summer, 1971, Los Angeles" No matter how hard I listen, the wind speaks * Once a poet told me of his friend who was torn apart Then there was probably a point at which the man * And though I don't know much about madness, * Maybe this wind was what he heard in 1941. But some things are not possible on the earth. |
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Churchill |
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I finished off a week of quasi-celebration and work late last night out on our mini-patio, watching the clouds sweep between the stars and alternately taking long pulls on (several) glasses of "Extra Old" Barbadan rum and a nice Romeo y Julieta Cuban. I'm not sure I really deserved such a divine finish, but I was feeling good after transmitting the final shoot of a portrait series of Miami art collectors that I shot for Lufthansa Exclusive. It was a great assignment and the collectors were cool to meet and work with, but the real pleasure was just having the access to wander around their giant collections filled with some of my favorite artists. The Marguilles Warehouse (which houses Marty Marguilles' insanely rich holdings of sculpture, installations, and photography) was a particular high point of the week, as the warehouse is way under construction currently as they set up their fall sculpture exhibit, and there was a magical chaos to the art placed this way and that, which felt almost more honest than the pretension and sterility that we normally see art presented in (backed into corners and surrounded by asshats holding plastic cups filled with white wine). Even though the warehouse is only blocks from our former loft, it was my first trip and I can't wait to get back again soon. I'm hoping to get a ton done this week towards stepping out on my own and moving forward. As per my usual fair warning: I'll be sending out the Sept. edition of JLPFL's newsletter this week. Please sign up here if you are interested! As upcoming will be some tweaking to my website, adding new work and reorganizing, as well as a new print promo coming to an office near you soon. The 4 collector shoots ended up being very flash-heavy in a way that was fun and interesting to produce. I was able to create some really nice frames (though I certainly had it easy as far as locations go), and it felt really solid to put in that practice in a craft vs. art way. I prefer keeping photography on the job level, and not elevating it to some elusive "art" classification. And when you are sweating your ass off after a 6 or 7 set-up shoot in the Miami summer, art certainly doesn't seem to fit either. Posted to Misc. |
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