PixelatedImage Blog

Quick snapshot by Corwin, one morning this spring in Death Valley. The over-zealous use of the high-pass filter can only be blamed on me though.

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Keep reading, I did the draw for the Artist Print of Twilight I, Tahoe this morning and I’ll announce the winner  at the end of this post.

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Another idealistic post this morning, I’m afraid. I blame Gary Vaynerchuk. Once in a while I re-read his book Crush-It! or watch a podcast and he fires me up, reminds me that even the sermons I preach myself could be preached with greater conviction. Two nights ago I watched this video and since then have re-watched it at least a half-dozen times: Watch it on YouTube HERE or click the graphic below.

You should watch it. It’s 15 minutes of ranting by a very passionate and intelligent man that has the chops and credibility to back up what he says.

Last week I did a podcast with Martin Bailey, a photographer I both like and respect. He recently discovered he had a brain tumour. My massage therapist just buried his mother. Others that I know have lost and are losing loved ones. Life is short. And as Gary says, we have one chance at this. One. And if you thought I was on a tear about how short life is and how intentionally we need to live it, with every word and breath and waking moment, it’s going to get worse.

Here’s some soundbites from Gary (warning, the language gets a little rough) Some of these bites will apply to everyone, some are more specific to the VisionMongers in the crowd. But if you get nothing else from the video, ask yourself – what am I that passionate about.

“Let’s start with passion. There is [sic] way too many people in this room right now, that are doing stuff they hate. PLEASE STOP DOING THAT. There is no reason in 2008 to do shit you hate. None. Promise me you won’t. Because you can lose just as much money being happy as hell.”

“Let’s talk about community. Listen to your users, absolutely. But giving a shit about your users is WAY BETTER. People listen but they don’t do anything. Doing something, answering those emails, giving a crap, caring about your user base – that’s what you need to do.”

“You need to care about everything, and it starts with yourself. Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, What do I want to do everyday for the rest of my life? DO THAT…whatever you need to do, DO IT.”

“Stop crying and just keep hustling. Hustle is the most important word ever. And that’s what you need to do. You need to work so hard.”

“Legacy is greater than currency.”

“If you for a second – a half a second – don’t believe in what you’re doing, whether it’s your personal brand or the product you represent, GET OUT NOW. We only get to play this game once. One Life.”

“The only way to succeed now is to be completely transparent. Completely. Everything is exposed. Everything you do. So your legacy is your ultimate life. It’s all you’ve got. And you can build so much on that. When you have brand equity so much can happen.”

“I don’t want to hear about this nine to five bullshit. I don’t want to hear about this 2 job thing, 9-5, I don’t have time. If you want this, if you’re miserable, or if you don’t like it, or you want to do something else, and you have a passion somewhere else. Work 9 to 5, spend a couple hours with your family. 7 to 2 in the morning is plenty of time to do damage. But that’s it. It’s not going to happen any other way.”

“If you’re doing something else and you want to do this thing you love, you do it after hours. You work 9-6, you get home, you kiss the dog, and you go to town. You start building your equity in your brand after hours. Everybody has time. STOP WATCHING F*CKING “LOST”!”

The reason this hit me so hard recently is I keep putting out these thoughts, and I get pushback – reasons people can’t do what they want to do. But you know what most of it is? It’s reasons they won’t even try. And if I can push just one person over the edge to travel the world, to build an amazing business, to pursue a personal project, then it’s worth it. Because you’ve got one crack at and your kids aren’t an excuse. Don’t you dare use your children as a reason not to pursue something you think you were made for, or called to. Telling your kids they can do anything then leaving them with a legacy of safety and risk-aversion and mediocrity is no way to love your kids. Yes, you’ll do things differently, but do them all the same. If it’s travel, and so many on this blog are travelers, then sell your second car, forget the big-screen TV. Scrimp and save and hustle and do whatever it takes to do that thing you lie awake at night thinking about. Clear your debt, work your ass off, but there is no excuse not to do what you love. Don’t have enough time? I love that last line from Gary. Stop watching f*cking LOST. Turn the TV off. Sell it. Use your time for something that will really and truly make a difference in your life. Or at very least stop telling people you’d conquer the world if only you had time.

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After 760 comments on the post about Twilight I, Tahoe, we used the Random Number Generator to bypass the desire to pick someone cute and single, and instead are happy to announce that this print will be shipped out to Steve Scherbinski. Congrats Steve. Please treat it well. We’ll send you an email and get you particulars.

When, earlier this year, I started looking for a new way to present my online work, Livebooks really hooked me. When I bit the bullet I was really impressed with their service and the quality of people there. I won’t do a sales job on Livebooks, because I think we all want different things. But, I do want to say using Livebooks was everything I wanted – clean, professional, and customizable design, easy to use, and cheaper than it once was. I also wanted the sites to work on the iPad, and Livebooks has built-in HTML companion sites as a standard feature. Most important to me was that my photographs were large and looked great and stood on their own. The Livebooks template I chose does that for me. Anyways, I’m a fan and as I was having coffee with a friend last night I was reminded that when Livebooks said, How can we help you? I said, how’d you like to give a 1 year subscriptions to me and someone in my community, they said absolutely. I asked for one, they gave me 5. I have 3 of them to give away right now.

Want a year of Livebooks?  All I want you to do is go to their site – LIVEBOOKS.COM – and poke around. look at the available templates and leave a comment here telling me which one you like best.  In roughly a week-ish, I’ll announce three, randomly chosen winners. Good luck. And huge thanks to Livebooks for being so cool about this.

**January 14, 12:38 pm PST, the giveaway is now closed and winners -  and a limited time 20% discount – have been announced HERE.

A moral and an update this evening.

A year ago I said I was going to re-do my online portfolios. Promised myself an overhaul. I was going to give some thought to an updated logo and a website overhaul. And then Craft & Vision exploded all over me and it’s taken this long to clean it up. But you know what they say, planning is really only guessing, and you can never anticipate the road ahead or the things that will come your way as a result. So it’s now over a year later, and the cobbler’s children still have no shoes. But they have something much better. A year ago I could never have anticipated the route this would all take and if I had stuck to the plan I might now have a very snazzy website but not being doing some of the projects I am most enjoying right now.Craft & Vision is one of those. So are some of the recent personal trips. In December I’m going to Jamaica and bringing a housing and learning to do some underwater stuff. All things I never planned.

The moral of the story is to hold things lightly, plans included. Be open and receptive. Same thing happened two years ago. I was looking to fill gaps in my schedule, and started a small brand called RedCollar, a studio devoted to photographing pets and their owners. I was pretty excited about it. And then I got a book deal. What to do, what to do. Sticking to the plan would have me knee deep in drool and hair balls; being receptive to things not going to plan has given me something much, much better.

The update is that I’m now on track with a new portfolio site – replacing Evrium’s Fluid Galleries with LiveBooks and a companion site for the iPhone/iPad, as well as splitting things out from PixelatedImage which will soon only be this blog and related community. My own work will wind up at DavidduChemin.com and will have my more recent work, all in much larger images. I’m pumped by how beautiful it’s going to look. In addition to that I’m unveiling my new logo. With the changes over the last few years, and a move towards including fine art and landscape photography, and in the near future a little more adventure photography, I needed something new and more representative of where I am going. I wanted something retro, something a little timeless and classy and clean. I kind of wanted the graphic lovechild of deco and swiss inspired design. And I wanted a DC-03 airplane. So there may be tweaks, but the artwork at the top of this post is the new look for the new brand that will represent my personal work. It’s small, I know, but you’ll have to wait for the whole thing to be unveiled.

Sorry this one’s a little detail-y and completely free from rants. Getting home is always a mixed bag – nice to be home but digging through the pile is tiring. And then there’s the jet lag. It’s not even 6pm and I doubt I’m going to make it past 6:15pm. Today was exhausting, but exhilarating. Got so much done, including placing orders for new gear (remember the post I promised about adding Nikon to my toolbox? It’s coming) and dealing with paperwork for an Antarctica trip I’m taking next December (2011) with Andy Biggs, John Paul Caponigro, and Seth Resnick – but I’m wiped. More to come, but not tonight. Goodnight, friends.

Bonus: My partner-in-crime, Jeffrey Chapman has posted a photograph of me skinny dipping with my Gitzo and Canon 1DsMkIII in Kho Samet. Anything to get the shot. Don’t worry, it’s suitable for work (depending on where you work!) See Jeffrey’s blog HERE.

I’m really excited to be announcing the release of the first collaborative book to come out of Craft & Vision. Hot on the heels of VisionMongers, my manager Corwin Hiebert has written Growing The VisionMonger, 10 Things a Manager Can Teach You About Running & Growing Your Business.

If you want to learn about f-stops and focal lengths, ask a photographer. If you want to learn about managing your business, ask a manager, and Corwin is a great manager. He’s not only the guy holding my own little world together but he performs management tasks for my friends Kevin Clark and Dave Delnea. He’s freaking great at what he does and he’s  neurotic about doing thing excellently and with efficiency. In short, he’s my secret weapon, and while not everyone needs or wants a manager in their back-pocket, using a the expertise of a manager is a sure way to grow your business.

Whether you’re a Weekend Warrior or a Working Stiff, there’s solid meat in here for you. And there’s action points with each of the 10 topics for both. If you made a New Year’s resolution to get serious about your photography business, this is a solid place to start. And for $5, it’ll leave you plenty of budget for that new logo and a retainer for your new accountant.

Still only $5, Growing The VisionMonger is available on the Craft & Vision website HERE or for immediate download with the fancy buttons below.

A Happy New Year from all of us at Pixelated Image Communications and Craft & Vision. May this year be the year you chase down your dreams.

A short post this morning as I’m swimming (drowning?) in the business and task-management end of things. Consider the brevity a chance to catch up on other reading

My learning curve feels endless and steep these days. New software, new business models, new cameras, shooting film and remembering what it’s like to get a bunch of crap back from the lab. I spent yesterday morning at my lawyers signing final incorporation documents and spent this evening with my accountant trying to not be a knucklehead about all the changes that incorporation means. It just doesn’t end and I feel like I’m drowning in it. But oddly it’s energized me. I’m busy but I’m reading, playing, and learning in the small gaps my schedule allows me.

I am also up to my neck in Vision & Voice, and writing the draft of Volume II of The Inspired Eye. But in all the stuff I’ve been thinking and writing about re. the creative process, I should add this: learn something new. When the rut starts feeling too deep, or the inspiration seems more like boredom, learn something new – anything, just make it new. If all you have is 20 minutes, sit down with Lightroom and try duplicating an effect you saw earlier today, or learn one of the plug-ins you haven’t had time to sit down and figure out. Don’t have time to learn? Then play. Just mess around with it. You’ll be surprised how well we learn when we’re actively trying to avoid learning and are just playing. Find 10 minute blocks to play.

Whatever you do, one thing is sure either as a creative, a business person, or a creative business person – to sit still is to stagnate, to not move forward is to move backwards, and the antidote to both is simply to learn something new daily. Make it intentional, carve out the time somehow, but learn.

This is a picture of my cat, Brie, on my – excuse me, on HER – office chair. Because nothing sets up a discussion of professionalism like a cat on a chair.

Ok, so you know I’ve got my reservations about the word “professional” when it’s set up against the word amateur. But the word “professionalism” where it applies to a high standard of excellence, that I can get on board with. In fact I’m constantly amazed at the lack of professionalism in creative industries. And I know I’m not the only one. I had an editor at a major photography magazine recently bemoan the fact that the photographers she works with can’t get things in on time. I’ve had other editors express total shock when I’ve replied to emails within an hour or two. Still others yet are amazed that I’ve replied to an image request on time and with well-delivered, clearly marked files that were to spec.

Seriously?

Frederick Van Johnson recently asked me why I feel like vocational photography is hard. One of the reasons I gave is that the point where craft and commerce meet is not an easy one to balance. I don’t even recall if I put it this way in VisionMongers or not, but if I didn’t, I should have. So in case I missed it, a recap: being a successful working photographer means far more than making photographs. I’ve barely shot a frame since the end of September – almost two months ago. We have times when it’s more important to stock the shelves, and this is one of those times for me. And then January will come and I’ll be shooting almost everyday for a couple months. But in the in-between times it’s not photography, it’s business. Consider these, among a great many other things, as a place to begin with a self-audit. Do you:

You reply to clients on time every time? If you’re too busy to do that, you’re too busy. If you wait 24 hours to reply to an email you’ve waited too long. If you only answer the “important” ones within 24 hours then you’ve made progress but are making assumptions about which ones are important. I’ve had many a client come from “unimportant” emails. They are all important. This is top of my list because I’m struggling with this now that the books are out. I lose track of the odd bit of fan mail, but even those are important. Don’t neglect your audience, whomever they are.

You meet client needs to the letter, then give them more? Files on time, well delivered, to spec.

You never, ever depart from the core of your brand? Know who you are, what you stand for, and never deviate.

Your outgoing emails, invoices, and every piece of collateral, is well-designed, consistent with each other and with the visual conventions of your brand, not just a logo?

You begin every day assuming your service or product can always be better and you take every opportunity to make it so?

You approach your market with the aim to serve them not exploit them?

That’s a short list. Be the best photographer you can be, and getting better. But you also need to be the best business-person you can be. Don’t like it? That’s one of the benefits of not bringing your craft to the world of commerce.

I’m not even sure who I’m talking to out there. If it’s you, it’s not too late. I do know why I’m telling you this – because it doesn’t take much for me to wow clients. And while that’s good for me, it bodes very badly for those among us who are setting the standard of mediocrity so low. I mean, c’mon, it’s hard enough to do this and keep your head above water, I know it is. I get emails all the time about these challenges. Don’t mulitply it with customer service that makes you look ragged around the edges and drives customers to someone else – who might be “less talented” but is more inclined to serve the customers you don’t have time to serve well.

Here’s one more that my manager made me change for this very reason: my invoicing. He literally forced me to sign up for Freshbooks and it’s changed the way I do invoicing. It’s amazing, and it’s very professional in the way it looks, and makes your business look. It’s also easier for your clients. Take one small step today, and everyday. Today, consider cleaning up your invoicing. Next week clean out your inbox – by replying to them or deleting them and starting fresh, but an inbox with 1000 emails, that’s only going to intimidate you and you’ll never, EVER, empty it. Clear it, create some rules to keep it ordered and end every day with it clear. Then standardize your letterheads and all outgoing email signatures – do one thing every day that begins with the assumption that your service needs work. A complete overhaul is intimidating, few of us have time for it, but one action-item a day gets the job done. Set the time aside. Raise the bar.

Last call on the BIG FAT BUSINESS CARD GIVEAWAY THING. I draw a name this evening sometime, so now’s your last time to get in on it.

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. 

This is my friend Eileen. We shot these to meet her need for new headshots and my need to play with my 5D Mk2 back in December. When it comes to undeniable awesomeness and perseverance, this chick’s got it in spades.

Monday’s post got me to thinking about the whole “becoming a professional photographer” thing and the strange way in which this stuff is really all so elementary and simple, and yet at the same time so hard and complicated-feeling. I’m 45,000 words into a book on the subject so my mind is filled with this paradox. But at the heart of it one of the questions people seem to be asking, is “Am I good enough?” It’s a good question, even an important one, and one I think we all need to have a long hard look at before we make the transition. But it’s not the most important one. Because talent alone doesn’t make it. The question is “Do I love it enough?” or, to re-phrase it: “How badly do you want it?”

A while back Chase Jarvis said something like this – there are two things you need to succeed: to be undeniably awesome at what you do, and to persevere. He’s bang on about that.

But for those of you dogged by the constant doubts about whether you are good enough, let me remind you of something – we’re all getting better, day by day if you work on your craft you are getting better, closer to being “good enough” which is a standard most artists always feel they fall just short of. Why? Because as our vision slightly outpaces our ability to express it, we’re always following the carrot, always feeling that our best shot is our next one, not our last one. Furthermore, and this is going to sound so cynical, the industry is full of mediocre talents who are making a solid career out of this. Why? Perseverance. I don’t say that to encourage the mediocrity, but to encourage you that if they can do it, so can you and I. And if you add “undeniable awesomeness” at whatever level you define that, to perseverance, then you can make it.

You may never be able to answer the question “Am I good enough?” to your own satisfaction, but one client at a time you’ll begin to hear the answer. Keep at it. Don’t let fear hold you back.

Whatever the next step for you is, take it boldly. These are not times for the timid; there’s no reward in tiptoeing through life only to make it safely to death.

A quick shot taken with my iPhone on the way to Tampa last week to spend time with Scott Kelby and the gang – a trip which in fact would also brilliantly illustrate the sermon below. Mostly I just included it to make up for some of the posts with no images from last week.

I spent the weekend with one of my closest friends and his family; a rare chance to see them afforded me by a speaking gig for the government. And there’s a lesson or two in here that I think are worth unpacking, if only for myself. So let me set the stage for you and tell you this was a great gig. I flew an hour to get there, presented 2 ninety minute presentations for 2 wonderful crowds, was paid very well, and then had a nice chat with my client about doing it a couple more times before the year is over. I really enjoyed myself, enjoyed this client more than most, and got paid – did I mention this? – very well compared to a day of shooting.

How did this come about? Glad you asked. My friend is as close to me as a brother. He’s a fan too. And when one of his co-workers told him she was going to Kathmandu during a period I would be there, Troy told me I should connect. We did, had a lovely afternoon and some chai overlooking the Boudha stupa in Kathmandu and we parted ways, she to the orphanage she was volunteering at, and I to my work. A couple months later we both returned to our lives in Canada and she put me in touch with a friend of hers who uses speakers a couple times a year. It was a good fit and one thing led to another. I spoke about my journey and told my story. I showed a lot of photographs.

The lessons?

Lesson A
Conversations Lead To Opportunities. For all the clever talk about marketing and positioning and branding and quarterly mailers, hands down the most powerful marketing tool I have is one fan or friend telling another person about me and seeing where the connections occur. It’s not magic and it isn’t leveraging friendships to make a buck. It’s genuine connections and openness to every opportunity that comes your way. You can’t control it, and have no idea where it will lead, but at the risk of sounding repetitive – the single best thing I ever do for my business is to love, respect, and make time for people.

Lesson B
Explore your full set of skills and passions. These days many journalists are finding that they need to diversify into multi-media to keep working, but they aren’t the only ones. Making a life in photography isn’t just taking photographs. Selling prints isn’t taking photographs, but many photographers make money that way. Teaching technique or writing articles isn’t making images but it’s a good way to remain in the community and industry you love while still making a living. And public speaking, in my case to government employees about my unique journey and the power of vision to change a life, isn’t making images either – but I love it. I’m good at it. It pays bills. And it – here’s where it loops around – introduces me to more people and more opportunities. Sure, you’ll wear a number of hats – that’s a given – but the more intentionally you wear those hats and don’t ignore any of them, the more intentionally you can find work that only a photographer with that combination of hats can do.

Within a few months I’ll be announcing my next book, and without giving it all away it’s a book that discusses making a life and a living in photography – this stuff is at the heart of it. People want steps and formulas, checklists for success, but those don’t exist because at the beginning and end of it all is one person talking to, and serving, another person. The ways in which we find each other and connect are endless. But it begins with knowing what you love and what you’re good at, then opening yourself to every opportunity that comes your way and seeing where it leads.

Sunset on the Malecon, Havana, Cuba.

Hey, folks. Hope you’re having – or had – a great long-weekend. I’ve got a real grab-bag for you this morning before I fade off into a couple days of potentially inconsistent presence here again.

I had a nice exchange with one of my readers this past week about the Photographer and The Blog series I did a while back. She asked if content was still king in light of competing claims that relationships were king. Good question, indeed, and as I’m a fan of good questions, I took some time to let the whole issue percolate, and it raised a more fundamental question:

King of What? No doubt about it, the internet is full of some potentially powerful tools for the photographer – both to create an audience for our work and to find clients, build community and participate in a culture of learning. So, is content the king of the whole darn thing? Or just one piece of it? The more I thought about it the more sure I became that while  – to really belabour the metaphor – there can only be one king per kingdom, there might be multiple kingdoms, and I think it looks like this:

Relevant Content is King of the Pull. Great content is still the king of the castle when it comes to pulling people to your blog. People that don’t know you and have no reason to come to you will come for great content. And great content will keep them there too – so long as it remains relevant. But is that all you want? You’ve attracted people but in order to engage them and build a community, you need something more.

Relationship is King of the Keep. Relationships and a growing community will keep people, and engage them on deeper levels in ways content alone can’t do. Pulling people in to your blog with content is fine, but connecting with them will turn them into fans, and a growing community to which they feel connected in some way will mobilize them become part of the effort to build and grow that community.

If you are looking to merely draw people in, content still works. But if you want to build something bigger (and, I would say, better) then you need to connect with people, engage them with your heart as well as your mind. Why does this matter? It might not, depends on your goals. But most people want to draw readers to a blog for a reason and more often than not I think that same reason might be better served by great content and a level of connection and relationship with the reader.  Not unlike a great photograph, in fact.

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In other news. By the time you read this I’ll be up and heading to the airport en route to Tampa to spend a couple days working and playing with Scott Kelby, RC Concepcion, Brad Moore, Scriv, and the rest of the gang down at the intergalactic HQ of NAPP. Very excited to be back down there among some of my all-time, no-holds-barred, favourite people. They have this great culture of creativity down there, one that just seems full of energy and laughter. And some great restaurants too. Sun. Food. Friends. Could you ask for more? I think not. So, things’ll be light around here.

The Within The Frame Podcast, Peachpit TV. I’m hoping the first of the Within The Frame Podcasts is out by then, and I can point you to that. The podcast is a critique-based opportunity for me to discuss some of the concepts in the book; if you want in on the action, join the Within The Frame group in Flickr HERE, and be sure you also go HERE to give us consent on your images.

Amazon.com Reviews. Hey, do me a favour? My book, Within The Frame, is really gaining momentum and I’m getting some truly gracious emails about it. If you’ve read it, please don’t stop sending the emails – they’re really encouraging – but if you could take a moment to post a comment or two on Amazon.com, I’d be super-grateful.

Within The Frame, Downloadable Bonus Chapter. Also, be sure not to miss the downloadable bonus chapter of Within The Frame. It’s called The Travel of Art, and it’s a gear-focused, geek-out-on-travel-stuff look at my process for traveling – everything from what I take, to how I take it and keep my gear and me safe and healthy. Read the last two pages of the book, the details are in there on how to access that bonus material..