Promo Afternoon #2

Spent another afternoon in the magazine section, hunting down photo editors, art directors and creative directors whose work I love and admire. It's a painstaking process, and I hope at least some of the recipients understand how much work went into getting my postcard to their desks.

After a lot of consideration and conversations with others of my ilk, I've decided to target only publications that I really think would be a great fit for my work. I don't have an AdBase account, so I end up having to do a lot of homework to find names and addresses. I'm also hand-writing the recipients info on each card. My intention is to add a little personal touch to the whole process, and I'm praying it doesn't backfire and simply look unprofessional.

It's funny. There's no way to track the success or failure of a mail campaign. I won't know who looked at it for two seconds, who threw it away immediately, or who put it up on the wall of their office or cubicle. You put all this work and time into these things, then you send 'em out into the ether.

Then you wait for the phone to ring. And - as always - you keep shooting.

Ambling Alp

As the photography and video industries seem inevitably headed toward codependence, I have been viewing a ton of video content.

There is a lot of really interesting and creative work in music videos right now. I wanted to share this excellent (but NSFW) video by directing team Radical Friend for the band Yeasayer.

SOLID: James M Johnston

My great friend, ex-roommate, co-conspirator, filmmaker, vegan chef and (in many circles) semi-celebrity James M Johnston has a blog that he wanted to promote. Somehow, we came up with the idea to lampoon the American Apparel advertising campaign. This series was a blast to shoot. The copy - based entirely on the early American Apparel ads that read like Playboy Playmate bios - was a lot of fun to write.

Self Improvement

I'm ready to learn!

This Week In Snapshots

Art, Fear, and Friends

My job as a photographer has changed a lot in the last year. It changed a lot in the year before that, and before that... If you go back ten years, the industry would be unrecognizable. Film to digital. Digital to recession. Recession to video. Every change costs the photographer money, and with every change (at least for the foreseeable future) comes less money.

It's tough...

and it's going to keep changing...

and it's going to keep costing more money...

and there will be more fish in the pond.

But in a way, what else is new?

When I was in college, the Mamiya 67 kit was financially out of reach. But the kids slightly older than me got a credit card, bought it and started shooting.

When I started assisting, the digital backs my employers had seemed impossible to afford, plus there was the software. But the kids slightly older than me bought DSLRs and started shooting.

Now that I'm starting to shoot, the industry is leaning toward a video/photo mix. It's a new way of seeing things, a tool so new that most clients know they want it, but don't know if they want to invest the money to pay for it.

Unlike last time, however, I'm adopting a decidedly optimistic outlook. I know video. I think in narrative story lines and in moving pictures. It's new for us as photographers, but it's certainly not new for us as consumers, critics, historians, or fans of cinema.

I was talking with some very good friends in the business, friends facing the same changes/obstacles/opportunities that I am. And it's through talking with them that I've decided to adopt this positive outlook.

I didn't choose photography because it was going to be easy. I didn't choose it to get rich fast or to become famous. Come to think of it, I didn't really choose photography at all. As cheesy as it may sound, I do believe photography chose me.

I'm willing and excited to go along for the ride.