Author: Leslie

Just a reminder that the BAP Super Premium Assignment No. 2 is due in the near future… just over one week. Are you working on it?

Don’t forget to tell your friends and get them to participate as well.

Can’t wait to see what you all come up with.

Stop what you are doing and watch this. Wired has this great video about their new iPad version. Note that this vid shows actual code, not CGI.

More importantly, note how they talk about this change is (very possibly) the one that will result in an experience users will want to pay for. Wired isn’t going to be giving their work away for free, it sounds like, even though there will be plenty of ads in the iPad edition.

Also note how they are encouraging sharing the content via social media tools. I’m assuming this means clips and links, not wholesale shifting of the content, but whatever it is, it means that your images will be seen by more and more people.

This change in publishing, what I think may indeed be THE change we’ve been hoping for, requires photographers to reconsider their pricing models. What used to be okay for print editorial should not be for this expansive use. And when it comes to the ads that will be in pubs like this, the game is also changed. How will the pricing work? That is something that needs to be worked out.

But I can tell you this: if photographers give it away now, in these early days, they will be setting a bar they will never be able to raise later.

We need metrics and an understanding of how the pubs will be billing advertisers to understand the relative value of images in both the editorial content and the ads in these new iPad-ish pubs. Now is the time to be open and to work WITH publishers, but that doesn’t mean rolling over on the numbers. Respect can and must go both ways on this. Photographers (and illustrators) are going to be more important to grabbing content consumers’ attention– the pubs know this. We need to figure out a fair and equitable way to help these pubs succeed and for creative content providers to get paid for their work.

Ideas?

Here are a couple of links to keep you busy today.

The first is Andrew Hetherington’s knock-off of the Dinner for Five idea– a roundtable (in this case literally) of photographers.

The second is a new photo industry info aggregator: The PhotographyPost.

Me, I’m going to be in bed, nursing a wicked cold and reading for law school. Lucky for me we didn’t have classes yesterday or today so I’m not missing anything for being sick… except my only break for the term. Poo.

I wish I had written this. Bravo.

If I weren’t going to be in the middle of my finals, I would absolutely be at this…

ASMP presents Copyright and the New Economy: Issues & Trends Facing Visual Artists

April 21 in NYC.

Damn. Should be great. Looks like the speakers and panelists are really knowledgeable people in these areas, including Prof. Lessig of Harvard, whom I have historically loathed for creating Creative Commons but who recently has begun to shift his views some. I’d love to hear what he has to say at this event.

So, I can’t go, but if there is any way you can, get yourself there. This is all about the legal and economic foundation of your livelihood!

Because I am a full-time law student, I simply cannot do a lot of what I would like to do for the industry these days. For example, I have to take a pass on working with many individual clients, and that hurts financially, of course. But also, I can’t follow up on many of the important news stories that affect the community– at least not anywhere near as much as I like. And that is frustrating. There are things happening of which I am aware, but I don’t have the time to research them as I would normally. Gaaah!

But this is necessary. Not doing now is what I must do in order later to do more and better. I focus now on my legal studies so that after I graduate and (please o please) pass the bar, I can really serve my clients well.

This is true for all of us. We have to make sacrifices now to get something better later. But sometimes I think we forget that. Sure, the culture these days is one of immediate gratification and that is a contributing factor, but I think as mostly individual businesspeople we feel the obsessive need to do everything and to do it right now. Once we start working for ourselves, somehow, not doing doesn’t seem like an option any more.

But it is.

Here are 10 reasons to not do:

1. You cannot do everything. It’s impossible, so give it up.
2. The more you do, the greater the probability (not “possibility” even) that you will suck at it. You won’t be giving anything the attention it requires.
3. Multitasking is the worst way to work. (see #2)
4. Trying to be all things for all possible clients dilutes your message so that in the buyer’s mind you are nothing special.
5. Delayed gratification makes you more grateful.
6. Taking the time to cultivate your vision means less $$ now but more in the long run, like over the course of your career.
7. Investments of time are at least as valuable as investments in money (or, increased skills = increased rates).
8. Focusing on doing the work that you love (and not doing the crap work) and building a business based on that may mean a business that starts more slowly, but it will have better legs.
9. Taking the time off to regenerate yourself will make you more productive.
10. Taking time to be with people you love, without the phone or work distractions, will improve your relationships resulting in a better mental state for you and more productivity overall.

Here we go. Assignment No. 2:

Concept/theme: The NYTimes has called (not really, of course, but play along) and they want you to produce an image to run with this story on the mortgage crisis (which I have made into a PDF because that way there are no images to lead you).

Now, some of you have never had to approach a problem like this so I’ll give you a big hint: pick one concept or point in the story and try to show/illustrate that. You cannot possibly show everything so don’t even try to.

Oh, and try not to cheat: that is, don’t go researching other similar stories to see what others have done. Read the article, think on it, think about what images pop into your own head as you read it, and go on that instead.

There’s much more room to interpret here than may first appear. (sounds like something you’d see in a creative’s car’s side mirror…)

Remember, you need to make a new image for this– not find something in your files. The whole idea is to create.

Due Date: 27 February 2010, by 11:59PM (PT)

Email your jpegs (no larger than 1200px on largest dimension, 72ppi) and please include your last name in the file name.

One last thing: please share this with others. Let’s get more photographers (and illustrators or other creative pros, sure!) to participate. Thanks.

Can’t wait to see what you come up with!!

Note: By submitting, you are granting me a license to post the image to this blog; I will not use the image in any other way.

Okay people, no excuses… the newest Creative Lube is available and, for this episode only, it is free to everyone for the next week. After 8am PT, Feb 4, you’ll only be able to get it via subscription or individual purchase.

You can get the podcast here for now.

I hope you find it informative and valuable, and that you will subscribe for future episodes. Thanks!

I wrote a little something on fear and how to get past it for ASMP. You can read it here.

First, thank you to those few of you who submitted. I have to say that I am really disappointed that so few people participated, but I’m hoping that is just a function of people not knowing/forgetting/and the crappy weather out here that made lots of lives difficult.

Below are each submission and a few comments by me. I encourage everyone, not just those who made these images but everyone, to think about the work and to comment. One rule: don’t be a jerk. If you have negative criticism, be kind with it. While it is important for artists to be able to hear the bad as well as the good, it doesn’t do anyone any good to say things like “Well he obviously sucks” or whatever. I want cogent, thought out comments. Be precise and informative. Offer ideas and solutions when you find problems.

As for the photographers whose work is below, be open to everything you get from others. Some may be hard to hear, some may be great to hear, but try to hear all of it and learn from it. And again, thank you all for putting your work, and yourselves, out to the world like this. Takes guts, and I admire that.

Oh, and there is no ranking of the images below–just because your pic is first or last in order doesn’t mean anything. Just random placement. And each image is larger if clicked on, btw.

Keith Barraclough made our first image. This is a “caught” image rather than a “manufactured” one– that is, I’m sure he didn’t set these people up but rather made the image as he saw the scene unfolding. Though with Keith, it’s sometimes hard to tell–lots of his advertising images really have that “honest” feel about them. I like the juxtaposition in this image and find it really interesting that the monks are the ones in the shadows. What does it mean for peace? It evoked questions in me, so yeah, it works.

Kathryn Wagner (please ignore the file name where I got her name wrong, bad me!) made this image of a great old Nash… one of my favorite old cars, so I have a natural soft spot for this  image. It’s a bit of a different interpretation of the peace theme, but it still works with the clouds, sky, and soft light. It could be read a bit darkly, if one was in that kind of mood, but does that preclude the “peace” part? I don’t think so. Ever hear of the calm before the storm? I get that kind of peace from it.

Ken Wilder takes a darker turn with his image. Honestly, though, I had mentioned to a friend something about a grave and this theme, so I wasn’t shocked that someone went this way. Ken submitted a small image, so I can’t tell for sure but I think it’s a new grave, which adds to the slightly disturbing and yet still peaceful-ness of this image. It definitely has the light of someplace with a winter, even if there is no snow on the ground, and that light quality works here, at least for me. It’s a colder light, and breaking through the trees adds to the slight “disturbing” feel of this. But unquestioningly peaceful at the same time. I like that it walks that line.

This image by Ryan McGehee I think almost needs its title to make clear its connection to the theme: Angel. The ethereal feeling could definitely be read as peaceful without the words, but I think it could also be read as sci-fi creepy too. Of course, that is because of what I bring to the read– a long history of sci-fi movies in my brain.

This is an important thing to remember when creating an image for others: what you have in your brain and what the viewer has in theirs may not result in the same reading of the image. Neither one is right or wrong, but if you can keep that in mind then the next time a client “doesn’t get it” you can be more understanding and less defensive. You just have different brains.

I love visual puns and visual wordplay of any kind. It’s just one of my natural likes. We all have those tendencies. For example, I’m the perfect person to edit a book of kid images because I am not kid-friendly, so the image has to work for itself. On the other hand, when someone does something like this image made by Kelly Ng, I have to pay close attention to my inherent liking to be fair to the image as a whole.

Kelly is a wedding and portrait photographer so this is not her usual kind of work, but I think she did a good job particularly because of that background. So much of her “normal” work would have fit the theme, but instead she pushed herself to find a different solution and I really respect her for taking that risk. And, yes, it works. The only thing I would have done differently is entitled it “give peas a chance.” But I like bad jokes, did I mention that? 😉

Rodney Yardley (for whom I can’t find a site, I’m sorry) went more traditional with this image of dogs. That is, I assume it is more than one dog or it is very curled up. Dogs, cats, and kids are popular solutions for a theme like “peace” but there is a reason for that: humans (mostly) respond to the work in exactly the way the photographer intends. A viewer can’t look at an image like this without at least a hint of the warm fuzzies, even if later the cynical brain kicks in and says “too easy” or “too soft” or whatever. Technically, the image is fine (and the beast is darn adorable and it definitely is peaceful), but I do have a more cynical brain and I’d like to see Rodney take a bigger risk with the next assignment. At the same time, many clients, especially the smaller and less creative ones, would definitely respond well to this. This is a good example of thinking about your goal– if Ryan wanted to get local clients, this would probably work, but for advertising targets, it wouldn’t.

Ryan Gibson definitely took a non-traditional read on the theme, no question. Honestly, when I opened his email, I laughed. Now, not every client is going to want a solution like this so Ryan took a risk in his interpretation, but for the right client, it totally works.

Generally speaking, this image is is a good example of evoking an immediate, positive emotional response, which means it would be good for a promo (as long as the work on the photog’s site matches in vision–that’s important). You’ve got about 2 seconds to connect with your targets– if I were Ryan’s target, I would totally have clicked through to his site.

David Zaitz provides us the last of our entries. Now, full disclosure, David is a friend and I’ve been a fan of his work for a while. He definitely plays with the visual/verbal in his own work and whenever he can for clients.  That being said, he like others above took an individual turn on the theme and this is a Zaitzian image. If I got this image without identifying info, I would probably know it was his work– there are only a couple of photographers who might make something like this of their own accord. That means David has carved out his vision in my mind, and likely has done the same for his targets.

While this image’s impact isn’t as immediate as the Peace BBQ above, as soon as the viewer gets it, it works. I think that buyers would react well to this image on a website but maybe not as an email promo because of that slight delay in “get it” time (depends on how the image is used, too).

This is something everyone should think about when selecting images for different marketing purposes: for email promos or even print postcards, you need something that will smack the viewer immediately. You’ve got a very brief window to grab ’em so test your images to see what people think immediately upon viewing. Ask a few people “what did you feel when you saw this pic?” for example, before deciding to use it in your marketing.

Relatedly, if your portfolio images require you explaining them, they aren’t doing you any good. This is different than the images invoking questions in the viewer (that’s good when they ask questions, usually). But if people are just looking silently at your book and you chatter to fill the void, you need to rethink your selections. They may be too flat, average, blah and not showing the real thinking you.

Okay, enough of my babbling… your turn. What do you think?