PixelatedImage Blog

Sometime in the middle of this month my new book, VisionMongers, will hit shelves and the mailboxes of those that pre-ordered them on Amazon.com. So to make a splash, and to tell the world, I decided to up the ante on the whole “give away some free books” thing. So here’s more details on the BIG FAT Business Card Giveaway Thing.

What’s In It For Me?

Well, all I want is to tell the world about the book. The more people that know about the book, the more potential buyers, the greater the chance I can take my wife to dinner on Friday nights. That’s it.

What’s In It For You?

The winner of this Giveaway Thing, and there will be only one, will get a prize package of goodies that anyone wanting to make a life and a living in photography will make good use of. That package includes:

A Copy of Within The Frame, signed by me, Joe McNally, and Vincent Versace

A Copy of VisionMongers, signed.

PDF copies of all my current eBooks - Ten, Ten More, Drawing The Eye, and by the time we draw for this, Chasing The Look will also be out.

A signed copy of Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, mandatory and inspiring reading for VisionMongers.

A copy of Selina Maitreya‘s Mp3 series, The View From Here - a fantastic resource on entering, and staying in, the world of commercial photography.

A $200 credit with Peachit Press, to stock your shelf with learning resources.

A 1-year subscription to Kelby Training online resources. Some of the best teachers on the planet, all available 24/7 on your browser.

An Evrium Software FLUID GALLERIES PROFESSIONAL package. Show your work to the world.This is the software that drives my portfolio and I love it.

A full OnOne Software PlugIn Suite 4.5 package, courtesy of the fine folks at OnOne Software.

So, How Do You Enter to Win All This Prizey Goodness?

I’ve created a Flickr group HERE. You go there and post one image of your business card. It could be a scan or a photograph, it could be a drawing on a napkin that you photographed then scanned. Don’t have a business card? Carve one into a gourd or draw one in the sand. The top ten most creative images will get bonus points and entered twice, doubling your chances.

Don’t enter here.

Don’t email me your cards.

Just go to the Flickr group and post your image.

Your business card will have your phone number or email on it, and it’ll be clear, right? That’s how I’ll notify the winner. If the name, number, or email are illegible I’ll draw someone else’s name. The draw will take place at the end of November. Also, you should know that karmically you have a better chance of winning if you also buy my book which is available here on Amazon.com. Hey, I’m just saying… Good luck!

Last week my new book got rolled out on Amazon.com, which means two things. Thing One: I can now talk about it. Thing Two: I guess I need to start writing this sucker now. Just kidding. Almost done, promise.

VisionMongers: Making A Life and a Living in Photography is due out in November/December. Amazon lists it at December 25 just to be safe but it’ll be out before then.

If you were asking me about it, and I know you want to, I’d tell you it’s a sketchbook of ideas about the pursuit of professional photography. But it’s more than that. See, I think the lines between so-called professional and so-called amateur are getting so blurred as to be almost meaningless. Same with the actual definitions of those words, so I approach this from a different angle; that of vocation and the notion that some of us do this not to make a million but because we simply can’t not do it. We feel called to it; by God, or our talent, our need to express ourselves, or just that persistent voice inside our heads that we can no longer ignore. So this is a book about following that call – it begins with passion and vision, taking inventory of ourselves, picking a niche, familiarizing ourselves with our market, and then taking our vision to market with the best marketing savvy and business acumen that we can. Within The Frame talked a lot about the balance between the artist and the geek, VisionMongers discusses the balance between craft and commerce.

Throughout the book are stories about other photographers from other niche markets, people like Chase Jarvis, Zack Arias, Gavin Gough, and Ami Vitale. These case studies look at the unique journeys each of us have taken to pursue our calling as photographers, and the commonalities among them.

I’m writing it, and nearly done, because I love what I do and can’t imagine doing anything else with my life. Every day I get emails from people who want to do this, make a living with their vision and their cameras, and wanting some advice. The thing is we all have a different journey, different passion and vision, and a different path to get here. So this is no road map, no book of secrets – because there are none -  just a book of solid ideas about how to make a life and a living in photography, though specifically for the freelancer/entrepreneur, which these days is the bulk of us. I wrote this book to help others find the same joy and purpose in vocational photography as I’ve found, whether that’s full-time, part-time, or as a moonlighter.

The book is available for pre-order now, out in November. You can find it HERE on Amazon.com. Most importantly, the book will be the same size as Within The Frame, so they’ll be symmetrical on your shelf, which is in itself a great reason for buying the books. 

Earlier today I reacted to a quote someone posted on Twitter, and though perhaps I should have known better was shocked at the responses. So, because 140 characters is a perilously constraining means by which to either have a conversation or preach a sermon, I eventually turned off my Tweetdeck and will make my case more clearly here. I’ll leave comments open but for the record I will delete harsh or beligerent comments without hesitation. No one comes here to see a fight.

The exact quote isn’t even relevant, though it went something like this: ” To be a real photographer you also need to be a business.” Like all quotes there’s the fact that this quote is completely without context, so forget for a minute what the original author meant, because that’s not really what I’m reacting to. What I’m reacting to is the notion that to be a “real” photographer you need to be a so-called professional. The comments that came back to me, most of them in some form of accord with my plea for a more inclusive definition, also contained some pretty strongly worded objections to this.

So let me be clear, because this is going to be a sermon from which I do not back off or repent. The idea that the only people who should be called “photographers” are those making money at it, is total horse shit. Yes, to be a professional photographer you need to be a business person and you need to do it well. How many articles have I written about this very thing? I am a full-time vocational photographer, I make my living from this craft. I love and admire and encourage photographers who do this for a living. But so as not to be ambiguous, it needs to be understood that your art is not legitimized by how much money you make at it, if any. There are plenty of photographers of mediocre ability who make a living at this. There are many photographers who pay to do it, and subsidize their art by working as dentists, doctors, janitors, teachers, who are exceptional. To deny that they too are photographers merely because they choose not to sell their work, is not only ridiculous it’s offensive.

I suspect the reason people defend this particular rampart is that they do, in fact, legitimize their work by what it earns and when a talented so-called amateur (one who does something for the love of it) creates something beautiful without price or fee, it calls into question their whole evaluation mechanism.

To reduce our art or craft to legitimacy only when it’s kissed on the brow by the mighty dollar is perverse, bordering on creative prostitution. By all means, make a living at it. I do. I love it so much I finally – after years and years as an amateur – took the leap and began doing this full time. But that in no way made me a “photographer.” It made me a professional, vocational, photographer, but not a better one. I am on no higher plane and neither are those who presume to be.

No working photographer I know and respect would have the audacity to suggest that only the professionals can be “photographers”, but it’s not them I’m concerned about. It’s the amateurs I am concerned about. I worry that any of them would buy into this garbage and be discouraged from creating, expressing, pursuing this craft with passion and creating art for the love of it. A photographic world in which the first question people ask is “what does the market want?” is not a world I want to be a part of. Do we eventually ask the question? Maybe. Maybe not. But it sure as hell isn’t the primal question. Furthermore, art created from passion and not from greed is art that will more powerfully resonate with people, and is therefore more commercially viable, so even on a pragmatic level passion pays. I don’t want to look at the work created by a photographer who creates only what I want to see or pay for. I want to look at the work of an artist who cares enough to create something that comes from deep within.

Can you create great work and charge for it? Of course. But it’s not the right question. My next book is about the fusion of craft and commerce. I believe you can make a living – even a good living – at doing this. It’s not easy, but you can do it. I believe a working photographer is worth his wage and is probably charging too little. But not every photographer wants to complicate their art with the demands and liabilities of professionalism and there’s no reason they should. There are photographers who by profession are accountants and teachers and taxi drivers and they may enjoy their work and find inspiration there. What matters is that you create, you express, you share, and you find a way to sustain that. How you sustain it is up to you.

This has nothing to do with romanticizing the starving artist thing, nor a denial that this is an expensive craft. It’s merely this; a denial of the elitist, exclusionist assertion that you can not be a photographer, let alone a brilliant one, unless money changes hands. I’m not looking to define the word “photographer”, I’m looking to allow people to define, or not define, themselves as they like. At the end of the day I am not just a photographer. I am a photographer, a writer, a husband, a son, a humanitarian, and a dozen other things. None of them negate the other, they contribute, make me who I am. But money or no money I am a photographer because I am passionate about it, it’s the medium I love and through which I express myself.

If you’ve made it this far and you’re an amateur, keep at it. Live your creative life on your terms. Doing this professionally is a thrill, and I love it. But there are as many liabilities as there are benefits and the same applies to remaining a hobbyist – there are advantages and disadvantages. What matters is that you love and practice your craft without ever feeling the condescension of a so-called professional who doesn’t want you in the club. That kind of exclusivism is a harm to the craft and a denial of the prime mover in art: passion.

Comments are open, but again, this is not a fight. If you feel strongly enough about this that you want to write an impassioned response and/or start a bar fight over it, then I welcome you to do so. On your own blog. The photography community is one I love deeply, it’s filled with people – amateurs, professionals, and those that defy categorization – that I’d go to the mat for, but in the end this is not a topic over which we’ll achieve accord if you feel that your business card alone makes you a “photographer.” If this topic raises your blood pressure, that’s probably a good thing – it’s good that we are passionate about these things and ask the questions, even if we don’t agree. I’m not for a moment denying that the pros are photographers, just asking that as a professional community we open the doors, be more inclusive and maybe check under the hood to see where our art comes from. I suspect it’ll be better if it comes from passion.

So if I didn’t dissuade you from blogging yesterday, and the lame photo above doesn’t turn you off, here’s a few suggestions for plunging headlong into blogging. Taylor Davidson left a comment on Tuesday’s post citing anecdotal evidence that many blogs don’t make it past the 3 month mark. Don’t let this happen to you. This is a short list, and it applies to long-term bloggers looking to breathe new life into their blog with an overhaul as much as it does to new bloggers.

1. Don’t let the name fool you, blogging is just writing. You are self-publishing a daily or weekly column, nothing more. So unless you’ve got a photoblog with no words, bone up on your writing skills.

2. Content Is King. Seriously. In fact it’s more like Grand Emperor. Unless you are a celebrity to whom people are drawn like desperate flies, people will come for what you write. If you’re hysterically funny, many will overlook what you write and come for how you write it. But most of you will draw an audience based purely on content. You must have something to say. And unless you lead a profoundly interesting life, or a boring one about which you write incredibly well, people simply won’t show up to read it. Unless it’s your mother and I’m betting even she has limits.

3. Skip the freebie webhosts, like Blogger, and go straight to WordPress.com or WordPress.org. Just save yourself the grief and do it right the first time. I wish I had. I reserve a special place of loathing for Blogger. Typepad is fine, but you pay for it so might as well go straight to WordPress. WordPress.com is a paid and hosted kind of deal, WordPress.org is free for the downloading, but you need to install it on your server and update yourself, so there’s a certain degree of geekdom required. If you’re looking for great hosting, I can’t recommend ETWebHosting strongly enough. Sure, you can get free hosting out there but you get what you pay for. I’ve been using ETWebHosting for years and their reliability and customer service is fantastic. If all you want to do is get a blog up and running, then spend the few dollars/month and get a WordPress.com blog.

4. Find a name you can live with for a long time. Getting the word out and the momentum going is tough work and will take you time to build a readership. Blogs are spread virally, so once your URL is out there it’s best if you can let it do its thing without changing it up.

5. Find a niche. Not everyone needs one, but it helps. Strobist is a great example. Another way of looking at it: play to your strengths. If what you most want to do is post a combination of images and narratives and leave off with the gear talk, do it. If you want to focus solely on macro photography, do it. Follow your expertise or your passion.

6. Don’t take it too seriously. It’s just a blog for gosh sakes. Enjoy it. Know your audience but write what you want to write – it’s your blog, not theirs.

7. Be consistent. If you want consistent and growing readership, and not all people have that as a goal, then writing consistently is important. Doesn’t have to be everyday, but if you decide to post every Wednesday, make sure you show up or your readers won’t. But make sure you have something to say. Better to post actual content people care about and only post once a week, than to post junk every day.

8. Use social media to support your blog. If you’re already on Facebook or Twitter, be sure to let those people know when you post to your blog. This draws in people from that outer circle of your immediate circle of friends, people that otherwise wouldn’t know about your blog.

9. Interact. Part of the payoff of blogging is meeting new people, making connections, and expanding your world. Reply to comments, link to others, and in general keep the love flowing.

10. This one’s yours. Got a suggestion for successful blogging, specifically for photographers, then this is your spot. Actually the comments are your spot, so consider this symbolic.

For tomorrow’s post I’d love to assemble a list of photographers who are blogging and really doing it well. Could be a blog like mine with lots of words and opinion, could be strictly a photoblog like David Nightingale’s Chromasia, but if you’ve got a favourite, throw it into the comments and I’ll compile them.

Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of blogging, and while I gave you three pretty compelling reasons, I’m pretty sure that what I gave you was a short list. But given all these benefits, is blogging a tool you should be spending time on?

I think so. But what shape that takes is different for everyone. I love to write. It’s not usually a chore for me to sit down and communicate. If anything I tend to over-communicate at times. But some of you don’t like writing. Perhaps with time you’ll get better at it and grow to love it. But some of you, well ya know I love you and so this might be hard for you to hear – heck, it’s hard for me to say-  well, you just might want to do a photo blog and speak through your images instead. Look, if you stink at writing in the same way I stink at math, why put yourself – and your readers – through it? Do what you love and do what you’re good at and if writing ain’t either, find something that is. Or don’t, that’s just my two cents worth. But if you’re an exceptional photographer and your writing is simply lousy, then you’re doing a disservice to you work and misrepresenting yourself. If you insist on writing, then find an editor to work with, someone who will respect your voice and polish your writing so it is aligned with the quality of your work. By the way, if this is the route you choose, I have more respect for you than you know, because this is not the path of least resistance and it shows real commitment. Good on ya.

Writing is not the only way to create content on a blog. You could do audio or video podcasts, or simply post an image daily. But closing your eyes to the fact that your work and your words are at odds with each other isn’t going to make that go away. Again, fine if you’re a hobbyist, I suppose, but if you’re a working pro, or aspire to be, then your words and your work need to compliment and support each other and, ultimately, support the goals you have for your blog.

What is missing in the discussion of photographers and blogging is often a rationale. Doing it because everyone else is doing it is a rationale but not one that’s very helpful. So many blogging photographers have no intended audience whatsoever. None. Their design, content, and writing style suggests strongly that they’re just puttin’ it out there in hopes the someone, anyone, will read it. If you’re a hobbyist, then more power to ya, an unfocused blog is groovy. But for aspiring professionals the very first questions you must ask and from which all your content decisions must be made are Why am I doing this? Who am I writing this for?

If you know the answer to that, then you can make sound choices about what should and should not be part of your blog. If your audience is potential clients then long Photoshop tutorials and discussions about your last assignment that blew up in your face and left you frustrated are probably poor content choices. They won’t read them. They shouldn’t read them. If your audience is other photographers because you’re a trainer, lecturer, author, workshop leader, etc, then these are exactly the things your intended audience might get strong value from.

I know I beat this horse so much there ain’t much left of him, but what you do – particularily in the professional arena – will be better served if it is informed first by why you do it. The Why will determine the What and the How. Oddly, so many people seem to be asking “Should I blog?” and fewer are asking “Why should I blog?” Both good questions, but the second one interests me much more.

Wow, what a week. Ok, first, be sure to keep reading today, there’s a post under this one welcoming a new sponsor. Other than that, a few things to go into the long weekend with. I’m taking Monday off, so this has got to last you.

Yesterday was the soft-launch of my book, pictured left. My publisher, Peachpit, has released a sample of my book and it’s available for download. Go HERE for that announcement and to see what Scott Kelby, who is one of the few to have read the book, has to say about it. I’d post it again here, but it makes me blush. If you missed that post, please do read it – it’s about the biggest thing to happen in these here parts since, well, ever. The reactions to the sample chapter have been overwhelming – the comments and the emails, the tweets, all so encouraging – thank you! Just want to go to Amazon and pre-order it, here’s the link: Within the Frame on Amazon.com And HERE’s the B&N link too.

Second, Drobo has just released the DROBO Pro. It’s all the Drobo goodness, but with 8 bays and a triple interface. Drobo just left the home and into the business world. I want one of these so bad it hurts. For more information, look HERE. Gear is Good, Vision is Better, Backup is Mandatory.

Third, one of the most popular posts I’ve ever done – no, THE most popular post – was last weeks bit about the things comedians can teach photographers. You can read that post HERE and the follow up post, which got overshadowed by the  book announcement yesterday, HERE.

Fourth, fellow Canadian and wildlife photographer Paul Burwell has a fantastic post on his blog about the top 10 mistakes that aspiring freelance photographers make, and that’s available HERE and worth a read.

Fifth, THIS makes me laugh. Math and I don’t get along. But photographers math? I wish I’d thought of this.

Sixth, keep reading, there’s one more post under this one, which due to the vagaries of the way articles get published, will actually publish first. Hmmm, so the first WILL be last… have a great weekend, y’all.

Some of you know my story. Here’s the short form for those that don’t. Been a photographer since I was 14, wanted to be Steve McCurry. Who didn’t? Life zagged and I went to college, a theology school, after a summer on the Amazon River. Kept shooting as a hobby. 5 years later life zagged again and I became a comedian for 12 years. Still shooting as a hobby. Went to Haiti. Zag #3, retired from comedy and finally came back to my first passion. I learned a lot along the way, and many of those lessons have stood me in good stead.  I loved that gig, got where I wanted to go, but this one’s more…me.

I can juggle flaming torches on a 6ft unicycle; my mother bought me my first unicycle for Christmas. The next year she bought me a straitjacket. Christmas around our place was a little weird for a few years there. I think they’re all pretty relieved to be buying me camera gear again. And while I doubt I’ll ever be called on to juggle or do a 2-hour stage show again, my diversion into show-biz, specifically comedy, taught me much that’s transferable. Here’s a few things professional comedy taught me about being a vocational photographer.

1. Show Biz is 10% show, 90% biz. Now I’m not sure about the math on this but it’s the same for photographers who shoot professionally. You need to hone those photography skills all the time. But you also need to hone the professional skills. When’s the last time you bought a book about trends in viral marketing or learned how to keep better financial records?

2. That’s Hack, Man! There are few insults in the comedy world that’ll strip a man of his pride like telling him his routine is hack. Cliche. Already Been Done. It pushes the best comics to make their routines as unique to them as humanly possible. Just because it’s original doesn’t necessarily make it funny, but it’s part of guarding your artistic integrity, and for a group of people who seem to be all funny all the time, the best of them can be very neurotic about this. The best comics don’t try to be someone else. Neither do the best photographers. Annie Liebovitz isn’t where she is today because she tried to be Cartier-Bresson.

3. The best comedy is tight, intentionally edited stuff. There’s not much room in comedy for extraneous bits. If you want to keep you LPM (laughs per minute) up you need to trim the fat. Set it up, get to the punchline, and then call back. Seinfeld is the king of the call-back. I’ve counted his LPM as high as 11, a good comedian will get 5-7. Comedians know how to get to the good stuff faster. Photographers need to hone their editing skills, both within the image – there’s a reason Capa said “if your photographs aren’t good enough you aren’t close enough” – and in their portfolios. Tighten it up, it makes for stronger communication.

4. Comedians understand what makes people laugh and they craft their routines accordingly. Do you know how people read your images? If not, how do you expect to lead their eye to what you consider important? Photographers must be visually literate. I preach this all the time, but the WHY is important, it informs the HOW. As in HOW you make an image depends on WHY you’re making it, where you want them to look, and what you want to say. Only visual literacy gets you there.

5. Performers understand what it takes to create and leverage celebrity. Their careers survive on the strength of their fan base, which of course is only partly dependent on the strength of their talent. Photographers who understand marketing, branding, positioning, and how to honestly leverage these things within their intended market, have a better chance of making it, than a photographer with the same talent who does not. Uncomfortable with the word “celebrity”? Don’t think you need it. What if you use “word of mouth” instead? Seems pretty important now, doesn’t it.

6. Comedians – the very best ones – know from whence they came. They know the heritage of their art. They can tell you who did the first bit about airplane food, where Cosby paid his dues, and when Vaudeville died. They know that to understand the present and future of their craft they need to understand the historical trajectory of the craft, where’s it been, where’s it going. Not all of them do, but the best ones seem to.

7. They take their craft very seriously. Ever been to a convention of comedians? You’d think it would be all laughter all the time. And it is. Sort of. But sit in on a conversation with six comics discussing the craft and you’ll think you just dropped in on a planning session with the mafia. They get very serious, and very articulate in between the fart gags. They know that the more seriously they take their craft offstage, the better it will be on stage when the house lights dim.

My time in comedy taught me much more than this. I don’t do comedy anymore, but when I am shooting in Africa, surrounded by 300 villagers laughing at me wiggling my butt or butchering the swahili word for “smile” I’m right back where I started. Ain’t no business like show business, but the similarities, to me, are striking.

Have a great weekend , y’all.

If you’ve been around these bloggy parts for even a few weeks you’ll know that I’ve been wrestling with the whole 2.0 world. The social networking world which these days revolves around Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc. At times this wrestling has been more like a death match and more than once I’ve been left gasping for air and ready to give in. I haven’t because I think it’s worth the trouble to figure this stuff out.

Right now I am up to my neck in social networking, affiliate accounts, and things like AmazonConnect. My book comes out in 6 weeks and I want to get things in place to really do a proper job of promoting it. So I have a reason for all this frantic social networking stuff. But so do many of you.

Social networking, Web 2.0, whatever you call it, is nothing more than a set of tools. For some of you it’s a set of toys and you’re content to litter the information superhighway with details about your cat or your breakfast. I guess that’s ok, too. But the business applications for these tools are immense if you (1) use them with intent and (2) use them well. Not easy.

So, let’s talk Twitter. I use it because it can be whatever you want it to be. It can be a chat room, a newswire, a polling service, a micro-blog. It can be a tool to connect you to more people faster, and give you opportunities to go deeper. But it’s not magic. You gotta learn to use it. Here’s what I’ve learned after a couple weeks of living and breathing this stuff.

1. Be Relevant. For the love of all things good, PLEASE ask yourself this one question before tweeting: Who Cares? Seriously. If the answer is limited to you and your cat, keep it to yourself. If you’re micro-blogging as a professional then stupid tweets about absolutely nothing will only dilute the way I think about you. Perception is reality and if you’re Twittering makes you look vapid and silly, sorry, you’ve just become vapid and silly.

2. Know Your Audience. Who are you talking to? Professional photographers? Amateurs? All photographers? This guides what you say and how you say it.

3. Be Yourself. But be a carefully edited version of yourself. What you say on the Twittersphere and the rest of the internet ripples a long way. You can’t control where it goes or how it gets used, only what you say. So be mindful. Careers have crashed and burned.

4. Be Community-Minded. If you are looking to be a leader within a community you have to interact with, and serve, that community. Web 2.0 is fueled by reciprocity. For every person that follows you, follow them (unless numbers don’t matter to you). For every tweet you throw out to the Twittersphere, comment or respond to another. Re-Tweet.

5. Know The Limits And Move Past Them. Twitter can only do so much. It’s like an internet dating site. You find the girl, you chat with the girl, but if you don’t graduate from the online service to a face-to-face encounter, y’ain’t dating. Twitter is great for meeting and chatting, but you can’t live life at 140 characters all the time. Don’t be afraid to take it further. I’ve already had coffee with folks I’ve met on Twitter, in fact I have one tomorrow morning. And the more conversations you have, the more opportunities you find.

6. Get a Reader, like TweetDeck, to make heads or tails of Twitter and keep your head above water. What it took me a while to understand is that Twitter is a reciprocal numbers thing. If part of your goal is more followers, then you need to follow more people. But no one can keep track of all this noise, so Tweetdeck allows you to create columns for favourites, and groups. So I’ve got one just for photography in which I place the folks who generate actual content. Keeps me sane. Not everyone wants numbers, but I’m experimenting with something so that’s part of my goal. Tweetdeck allows me to do that and remain sane. Without Tweetdeck I’d have jumped ship.

7. Repeat The Tweet. I don’t do this, but probably should. If you want your tweets to reach the most peeps (what the heck kind of language is this new technology encouraging?) then you need to repeat your tweets a few times a day. I guess I’m I just don’t care that much because this seems like too much work. But if you’ve got something important to say repeat it, and ask people to RT.

8. Remember Your Purpose. If your purpose is to direct people to your blog, then do that – intentionally point people to new posts, but consider this: if you come off as too self-promotional, as more of a taker than a giver, the community to which you appeal is likely to be smaller than if you also point to great related content on other blogs. If your purpose is just to make a name for yourself then the usual rules of celebrity management/leverage apply, but here’s another: be a fan, not just a celebrity. The more you point people to others, the more valuable you are to others. People like folks who are givers.

9. Extend Your Brand. If I go to your Twitter page will I find your logo? Do you have a great avatar? Your web 2.0 activities are marketing activities, little chances to say Here’s Who I Am! The usual rules apply – be creative, consistent, and congruent with your brand and core values.

10. Please Control Yourself. You need to update Twitter a dozen times every hour? Seriously? Do you know that makes me want to poke my eye out with a fork? Remember tip #1 – Be Relevant – but please, be relevant IN MODERATION. The more you say the less impact each thing you say will have. More signal, less noise. Please.

Got a great tip for using Twitter as a photographer? Comments are open.

I know the title of this post is lame. Sorry. And the photograph has nothing whatsoever to do with the post. Them’s the breaks. Lamayuru, Ladakh, India, 2008.

I sat with two friends yesterday for lunch. Hamburgers at the Red Onion in Vancouver.

One of these friends is easily one of the most accomplished magicians on the planet. What he can with his hands and a deck of cards would amaze the most cynical. He’s the magician other magicians look up to. No cheesy Vegas act, this man is a craftsman and he entertains a client list that he can’t show anyone because it’s attached to an equally long list of Non-Disclosure Agreements. The other is easily one of the best variety acts on the planet. I was the odd man out, having retired from comedy 5 years ago. But we spent a couple hours sharing stories, talking about business and marketing and doing a lot of laughing.

2 hours, I hamburger and milkshake later, I came away with three distinct thoughts.

1. There is absolutely no substitute for being awesome.
Being the best you can possibly be, committed to your craft and putting the hours in bring you closer to mastery, is – hands down – the best way to get where you are going as a creative person. It is said that you need 10,000 hours at something before you can master it. In my showbiz days it gave me unending amusement to see 18 year old kids calling themselves Master Magicians. It becomes a cheap, meaningless moniker and it reeks of amateurism. If you have to say you’re a master, you aren’t. Let others, and your work, do that for you. Put in the hours. If you put in 8-hour chunks, that’s still 1,250 chunks to get behind you. That’s 3 and a half years of practicing your craft for 8 hours a day every day, no days off. Wanna be awesome? Put in the time.

2. We all fake it till we make it. All of us.
One of my buddies tells me that at the end of every gig he goes home and tells his wife he didn’t get the knock. You know, the knock. The one where they finally discover you have no talent, that all along they’ve mistaken you for someone else with a similar name, and they’ve come to tell you to pack your bags. Almost every one I know in the creative arts has a similar fear. It’s not a bad thing. I think it comes from the way we do things in the west. There’s a sense that there’s a right way to do things, a well-beaten path that we should be following, and when we don’t – because we’re artists, dammit! – we feel like we’re thrashing about, trying to discover our own path, and so sure that other creatives are all on a nicely paved path of gold. How did we miss that path? Are we less talented? Less motivated? Nope. We just haven’t discovered the secret: There is no such golden path. You make your own, and it’s only as others look at your path once it’s been blazed and bushwhacked, that it looks easy.

3. Shift Happens.
The creative arts – when we make a living from them – exist rather painfully and in fragile tension within the world of business. We’re never sure if we’re artists or just sell-outs. The needs of the market and the needs of our souls to create are often at loggerheads. So the usual rules don’t apply. Many of those rules revolve around the whole concept of competition. We compete for business and for the praise of others, desperate to be among the best. Oh, if only someone would recognize me as “one of the best photographers in the world!” Whatever that means.

Competition among creatives is cannibalistic, it feeds on the soul and excretes arrogance and, ahem, crappy art, pardon the pun. Ever notice something about the guys that are really making it? They give and give and give. They aren’t slickster salesmen, they’re the ones who are excited about the work of others with no need to put it down in order to maintain the equilibrium of their fragile ego. They teach, they mentor, they know that the craft is bigger than they. They’ve learned that when you give, it comes back to you, and it’s good for the soul, and when the soul is healthy, our work is better and our vision clearer.

If you’re still bound by the old competition paradigm, let me encourage you to join many of us in the Cooperation and Collaboration paradigm instead. Make the shift. The water’s warmer here, the ideas flow better, and we know there’s enough work out there for everyone. It’s not a normal pool; the more of us there are, the more the pool expands to accommodate us. It’s scary, sure. Paradigm shifts always are. But it’s less scary than trying to live the creative life as a lone wolf fighting his way to the top of the pack. Let it go, man. Work, and work hard, but leave the fighting to others. We have 10,000 hours to put in, if you’ve got time to fight and compete you don’t want it badly enough.

Have a great weekend. Go shoot something you love. See you next week.

PS -  45 days until the release of Within The Frame

I got this in an email from one of my students recently and it gave me a chuckle:

“You know you’re an amateur when you get your first email from a stranger who wants you to do business  portraits, and your flip your lid- I’m getting paid for this?! SWEET!   Then you promptly head to the local  camera store to purchase the gear you will need to do the shoot,  which of course is more than you’re getting paid.”

Oh to return to those heady, carefree days of total financial irresponsibility in the name of art.

In my past life I went bankrupt. Actual legal bankruptcy. It was not one of my shining moments. The months leading up to the bankruptcy were pretty dehumanizing and I realized very quickly I had never taken the How Not To Be a Moron class that others seem to have taken. I comforted myself with the oft-quoted fact that many successful business people have declared bankruptcy at least once before they found success, when in fact they had been risk-takers and I’d just been an idiot. Oh the list of things I didn’t know then. Well I know them now.

If I were doing the curriculum for the course Finances: How Not To Be A Moron, here’s some of the classes that would make it into the syllabus:

1. Basic Math. If you spend more than you make, you’re operating at a loss. This is not usually good. Since money doesn’t grow on trees some people use credit cards. This also is not good. Spend less than you make. Seriously.

2. Buy Low. Your business is not a game and it’s not about ego. If you don’t need a top o’ the line Hasselblad, but just really, really want one so you can say you have one, that’s heading into Moron territory and your accountant or spouse needs to open a can of Dumb-Ass on you.

Rent gear you won’t use much and charge it to the client. If you don’t need cutting edge gear, buy trailing edge gear. If you don’t need new Pocket Wizards, buy used ones when someone less savvy than you buys the shiny new ones. That’s the thing about photography – some people buy new gear the moment it comes out just because it’s new. And then they sell the old stuff, which is probably in pretty good shape since they obviously aren’t buying this stuff to make actual photographs. In fact, if you tell them how awesome they are for having the latest and greatest, they might give you a deal.

3. Sell High. Price your services accordingly. You can’t compete solely on price. Don’t believe me, try competing with Wal Mart and get back to me in a year if you’re still solvent. Set your prices appropriately high.

4. Assets and Liabilities – If it makes you money, it’s an asset. If it doesn’t – even if you bought it pretending hoping really, really hard that it would – it’s a liability. Liabilities are bad for the bottom line. Avoid them if you can, sell them if you already have them and put that money into assets. Like a savings account. Or better marketing materials. Or a professionally designed logo. Already have assets? Keep them around as long as it makes sense. I like to keep my computers for 3 years, wouldn’t make sense to replace them every year. Sure, it’s an asset, but only once it has made more than it costs.

5. Taxes. If you follow these tidbits you’ll eventually hear your accountant (tell me you have an accountant…) at year end say “Well, I have good news and I have bad news.” The good news will be that you made money. The bad news will be that the Fed wants a piece of the action. Make this as painless as possible:

• Put something into a savings account with every invoice that gets paid, and leave it there specifically for taxes. No, you can’t dip into it because Nikon just released the D4x and it has HD video AND makes fruit smoothies.
• Know what you can and can’t write off and jealously keep track of expenses and receipts. If you can write off a portion of your home rent, do so. If you can be writing off automotive expenses, make sure you’re tracking mileage and keeping receipts.
• Put something away against retirement; it’s a write-off. In Canada it’s an RRSP, in the U.S. I believe it’s a 401K. If you’re going to give money to the government why not put a chunk of it into a savings account instead? Ask your accountant how much you can sensibly contribute and consider making it an automatic monthly debit.

6. Make A Plan, Stan. It’s not rare that anyone goes into business with a vague plan like, “Hey! I know; I’ll get a camera and take pictures for a living!” but it’s very rare that these people actually see that plan bear any fruit. Not without learning some hard lessons first, anyways. Sit down and take a hard look at how much money – actual dollars – you need to make a living. Rent, heat, internet, phones, groceries, taxes, every penny that you need to spend on a monthly basis. If it’s a big number, you need to make an even bigger number every month. How are you going to do this? How much do you need to charge? Sticking your head under the covers and hoping the monster magically goes away is not going to help. Make an actual plan, with real numbers and stuff.

Those are the first five classes I’d put on offer. They’re the ones I’ve learned the hard way.  Why do I keep going on about this stuff? It’s not because I’m obsessed with money. In fact few things drive me up the wall like MLM people with “opportunities” to discuss with me while talking non-stop about money. Money is a means to an end, and not the end in itself. If I could do what I do without ever thinking of money again, I would. But going through a bankruptcy is a fast way of snapping back to this hard reality: if you aren’t wise about this money stuff you won’t have a fighting chance of doing what you love. That’s all I’m sayin’.

Feel like sharing your own nuggets of hard-learned financial wisdom? Comments are open.