Photographers Getting Arrested

 

I just got an email about another photographer that was arrested in Milwaukee. This is the second photographer in Milwaukee to be arrested for doing their job. You can see video and read the full story here: http://www.wisn.com/news/29677440/detail.html. OK two incidents that happen in one city, a poorly trained pocket of police, no big deal right? Wrong. It looks like it may be becoming a pattern.

 

Other journalists and photographers have been arrested, beaten, and even shot (with “less lethal” rounds such as beanbags and/or rubber bullets) in Oakland. This has happened in Oakland, NY, Chicago, pick a city and it has probably happened. Police are increasingly aggressive towards those with cameras. You may be thinking that well journalists try to cross police lines, they get int he way, they violate this or that when trying to get “the shot.” Well perhaps but then why is a mother of 3 arrested for photographing a tourist attraction?

 

When did I move to a war zone?

Even I have been stopped and asked “who are you shooting for?”, “What are you doing with that camera?” I had a police officer ask to see all my images one when I was photographing a city skyline. At the time I was shooting from the South Street Bridge which, at the time was well traveled and known for the view of the city .

But that isn’t the only time either. Back in 2005 the city of Philadelphia paid a rather large sum of money to have City Hall lit up for the holidays. They hired some European company to measure the building, create a special lighting projector and cast pastel colored lights across City Hall (left image). Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to attract tourists and set this all up and when I go to photograph it, I am questioned by not one, not two, not even three, but five separate officers as to what and I doing and why am I photographing City Hall. Really? You do all this, you project it up there and you expect no one to photograph it? Whatever you are on I want some.

 

The fact is that now that there is the Occupy movement in many cities across our country our police are overreacting and in doing so they just make everyone feel a bit on edge. Whether you agree with the occupy movement or not the tactics of arresting, beating and shooting photographers is something I thought I would only see on the news or if I became a war photographer. These are things I saw early this year at the protests in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Then we heard newscasters, politicians and other officials screaming about how wrong it was and they need freedom of speech! Now they are just a bunch of “jobless hippies.” That is far from the truth. These are working photojournalists and they are being stopped from being able to do their jobs.

 

What is this world coming to when we can’t take an image without being threatened, arrested or worse! It is almost impossible for me to do a photo shoot outside anymore. Will it be a crime when I want to photograph the autumn leaves and all those colors? Or will I just need a special “leaf” permit?

 

 

Virtual vs. Digital

For a while now there has been the discussion that digital photography is cheaper than film and therefore prices that photographers charge should be decreasing and not increasing. In fact the truth of the matter is that the cost for photography has declined dramatically but that has nothing to do with digital vs. film. The major cause of that is that many unknowledgeable people entering the market and not charging properly for their services. These new photographers will learn in time that they are in fact cutting themselves short and they are driving the market down to their own demise. I won’t get into a discussion of what to charge in this article. I will however go into a bit of the cost of digital photography.

 

In the film days there was the visible cost of film, developing, processing, chemicals, paper/media, enlargers, and various other equipment. Today much of that has been replaced by computers, software, multiple hard drives, internet connections, and we still have the cost of media and printers. Cameras have increased in price dramatically for professional level equipment. In fact if you actually do the math it is more expensive today than it was 15 years ago and that is taking inflation into consideration. Again the cost is not a topic for this article. If you want to compare the costs of digital to the cost of film Google it; there are thousands of articles out there.

 

Read more

What Are Your Services Worth?

What is a photoshoot worth? Well it can be worth a lot to me but then again I am a photographer. So how can I work with a client and show value both to my client and to myself? To answer that I can also ask another question, what is my client’s product or service worth to them or their business?

 

The reason I am even posing these questions is because I am in the midst of working out a deal with a potential client that has value for both of us. My client needs images to promote their business (a sort of chamber of commerce) and I need more local business. So what does that mean to both of us? Well it means we both have something of value that is as good as money.

 

I have the desire to do more business locally for a plethora of reasons, the least of which is the cost of gas these days.  Traveling hundreds of miles is getting rather expensive and that means that my client has to pay more for my services. By staying local I can support my neighborhood and hopefully have more of my local investments come back to me as more clients! So how can I get in touch with these potential clients?  I just moved here 15 months ago and in this area, that is very new.

Read more

Are Your Customers The 99%?

For the last week or so I have been following the Occupy Philadelphia protest. It is a fellow movement to Occupy Wall Street that I am sure, or at least hope, you have heard of. The basic premise is that the people occupying Wall Street (self-proclaimed “The 99%”) have had enough of how banks have gotten bailouts and special treatment but still manage to take advantage of the average, middle class person in this country.  This is not all they are protesting but this is a part of their core message. To learn more I would suggest that you look at their website www.occupywallst.org as I don’t want to say something that is not accurate.

Read more

Opportunity In The Streets

This past spring the world was flooded with images, even more images than usual. The protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere filled our inboxes, Facebook pages and news sources. Images and stories filled our eyes and our minds. The shear proliferation of cameras assured that few if any didn’t see some image involving at least one of those events.

But of those images, although almost all were moving, few told the story alone. There was just too much to say and it takes many, many images to tell the whole story. This story isn’t over either, there is much more to tell.

 

This article is not about politics. But it is about the protesters and the stories that can be told and the images that may tell those stories. As I write this thousands are at a rally called Occupy Wall Street and many more occupations are beginning to take place throughout America, Canada, the UK, Australia and many other places. There is now Occupy Wall Street, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Seattle, Fort Lauderdale, and today marchers hit the streets in Greece again as well. These people “are the 99%.”

 

How is this opportunity?  This is opportunity for every person with a camera to tell a story. This is a chance for professional photographers to get in touch with what brought many of us into the industry in the first place, and the chance to tell not only a story but to tell the story in the way that we see it. This is an opportunity to capture history in the making.  It is opportunity in the streets.
[smooth=id: 14; width:956; height:640; timed:true; arrows:true; carousel:false; links:false; info:false; align:center; frames:true; delay:4000; transition:fade;]

What you capture, the story you tell may be from the right or the left, if you are a journalist you will try to tell it from the point of view of an observer. To truly document these occupations you will need to be in the streets, out where the story is, among the people.

 

Tell your side of the story; get out and capture the chance of a lifetime when the story actually comes to you in your home city or town.  Whether you are telling the story of the 1%, the 99% or both this is a chance to make images that will be remembered for a lifetime other than your own.

 

Maybe I will see you out there.

Teamwork

As some of you know I spent last week in New England, mostly Vermont but also New Hampshire and Maine. Many more of you know that the Green Mountains of southern Vermont suffered drastically from Hurricane Irene. The devastation was epic.

 

One thing that I noticed when my wife and I were there was the speed in which these people rebuilt roads, homes and businesses. The outreach to their neighbors was as swift as the waters that swept away bridges, roads and buildings. In our travels we passed one business of some kind that was no longer recognizable; most of the barn like warehouse was gone. On one side the entire first floor was washed down river and the walls of the second floor were torn away to show supplies still stacked neatly on the shelves once attached to those same walls.

 

In Woodstock Vermont the farmers market didn’t even resemble the store that still stands but is covered in river mud and silt. As you drive along the creeks and streams bridges that were once there look as if they are just in the planning stages and roads lead to these empty spaces. In other creeks you may see what remains of a bridge smashed and mangled yet there isn’t a road leading to the creek within sight. Guide rails sit across the streams on the opposite side from the road. In almost every stream huge rocks and boulders replace what was once green with trees and fields. On one mountain road you could see snowboards that were brand new and yet stuck in trees 30-50 feet above where the stream now runs calm again as if nothing had ever happened.

 

Among all this devastation the attitude of the residents is amazing. Smiles on almost every face and calm but reserved words tell the stories of each who experienced the storms and raging waters. Most of the people of Vermont haven’t seen this type of storm in their lifetimes and yet it doesn’t seem to faze them much past a story to tell and some chores to do.

 

The speed with which they recovered is astounding. In three short weeks they have reopened many of the businesses and repaired a majority of the roads. They didn’t sit and wait for the government to rescue them or rebuild their towns. Anyone with equipment started right away on repairing whatever needed repair. In Londonderry a woman who lost her home just weeks before Irene to fire was hard at work cooking for anyone who came in to Stoddord’s café diner. Be prepared to wait though because she has only a small grill to cook on and only enough forks and knives for 3 or 4 of the 5 booths in this small eatery. They still don’t have a fryer or even a prep table to work on and each meal is made one or two at a time. But I have to say it is the best food I have eaten in a long time.

 

My wife and I go to Londonderry every year for vacation and until this year I thought it was the beautiful mountains, the quaint little churches and villages that draw us in each year. The church on the home page of this is not too far north of the Green Mountains and the character in that building doesn’t compare to the character in the people who live in that part of the world.  I have learned again what the human spirit is capable of and how teaming up with your friends and neighbors can help you, and them, overcome almost anything this world can throw at you.

 

These people understand what to means to work together to solve a problem and how to keep their chin high while under pressure. Even the local bar was teaming with stories not about Irene but about how enemies come together and shake hands to put differences aside “because [they] have to live in this town together and want to apologize for any troubles they have caused.” They understand that a community relies on Teamwork and that they need to work together to create great things and to overcome anything that comes their way.

 

I want to take these lessons with me and to work towards building better a better team between my clients and myself. I want to work with my clients like Vermonters work with each other. I know that with teamwork any goal is possible.

Stills As Video

Not much to say on this one, just something to show you. I made this for a client to give a virtual tour of his home. This is an extension of the Estate Legacy Products that I offer on www.estatelegacy.com and I can do this for you and your family too. I also offer leather bound, high end books with both photography and written word to tell the story of your house and home. Contact me and let’s capture the legacy that is yours.

 

Take a look…

 

 

 

Emotion or Passion?

I just read a post from a photography coach that says “the sale of photography is an emotional one” (full article here: http://www.zenologue.com/blog/2011/09/photographers-who-click-connecting-with-your-client/). Well I have to disagree. I will agree with Nigel that there is definitely an emotional element to photography and that the desire of any image is to instill an emotion in the viewer or have them react in some way whether that is to buy the image (portrait, wedding etc.), buy a product, or just support the views and/or opinions of the subject of the image. But to say that all photography sales must be an emotional decision is insulting to you my client.

 

Yes you want any image that I create for you to be one that drives your project towards its goals. We all know that this can be done effectively with emotions. But what about product photography? Does Nike care if you get emotional about images that show the style and design of a pair of sneakers? Does a golf ball manufacturer care if you get emotional about their balls? Yes they want some sort of buzz or excitement but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the marketing department is going to get emotional about the imagery.

 

In business there are needs and some of those needs are not emotional as much as they are practical. When you come to me so that I can create powerful images for your project or campaign I will work with you to generate the end results and those results are carefully calculated to generate success. I know that you are working with me to solve a problem, to fill the need of images. If that is something that generates an emotion then I can do that, I can create an image that moves you or your client to a certain place mentally that supports your message. At the same time if you need to just show the design, size, shape or style of something I can do that too.

 

Words can tell a very good story or we wouldn’t use them. Images tell a good story too and they are more ingrained in all that we do. We see our lives and we translate what we see into words to better help others understand that which we see and feel. Words were invented by humans but we are given the gift of sight and we see long before we speak. So to an extent images do have an emotional meaning but at the same time they are just a part of the overall intake of information and not emotional in and of themselves. The content of an image determines whether the response is emotional or informational. You decide what the story should be and I as the professional photographer, will help you put in the content as well as the create context to drive the reaction you need.

 

How do you want your clients to react to viewing your campaign or project? Let me help you tell that story with images.

Coach or Captain

I recently saw a quote by Albert Gray “Winners have simply formed the habit of doing things losers don’t like to do.” I have an issue with the winners vs. loser scenario in that I don’t believe that there are really losers out there. Sure there are those that are not as successful as others but that doesn’t make them losers. In my opinion there are at least three types of people, Coaches, Captains and players.

 

The players are those people who are all members of the team that do their jobs, some do it well, some don’t, perhaps because they are on the wrong team. In time they either quit the team or they get traded to another team where they have a better chance of being successful in their own right.

 

Read more

Empowerment

So what is empowerment and what does it have to do with photography?  Webster’s dictionary defines empowerment as;

  1. to give official authority or legal power to <empowered her attorney to act on her behalf>
  2. enable
  3. to promote the self-actualization or influence of <women’s movement has been inspiring and empowering women — Ron Hansen>

But what does it really mean to you and your everyday life?

Empowering others means giving them choices, giving them the opportunity to excel and to give back to their community. That community can be the neighborhood, the family, the workplace or just about anywhere they interact with others directly or indirectly. In essence you are giving others the chance to influence their lives and the lives of others.

 

So why is this such an issue? Why is it that we see advertisements for classes, seminars, etc. or the empowerment of others? Isn’t that something that we each do every day? One can only hope. The fact is that many people oppress others but do it in a way where they don’t even know they are doing it. We can get so caught up in trying to advance at work or to become successful that we push others to the side and repress their ability to move forward.

 

As people we are always trying to succeed, to do better, to advance ourselves so we can realize the benefits of success. By doing so we become blinded by our own drive to succeed. We struggle and push to move forward yet we never question what we are pushing against; quite often it is others who are also trying to take the same path. In doing this we tend to remove empowerment, to repress their success to advance our own.

 

By taking time to slow down and take a moment to help each other, to empower our fellows we could actually benefit. By helping others we change the push to a pull; we change from pushing against the flow to going with the flow of success and in doing so reduce the amount of effort we put forth to succeed. You might think that by not struggling, not fighting to move forward that you may get washed away. In fact the opposite is true. By changing the direction of your efforts you have the current of empowered individuals to help you along your path, this in turn helps you grow and succeed more quickly and easily.

 

So what has all this got to do with photography? It is more about giving back, giving to others and empowering people to be their best than it is about photography. However, if you didn’t notice, I am a photographer and I try to give back with the tool of photography.

 

Through photography I make the attempt to empower people by making them feel confident about who they are and what their goals are and I try to help them focus (get the pun there?) on their success. With Free Business Portraits for the Unemployed I have given hundreds of job seekers a moment to think positively, to be happy and smiling and this in turn can turn their attitude more to the positive, away from the “I think I can” and more towards the “Yes I can!” I hope this begins to empower them and gives them a chance to focus on what will be a bright and prosperous future.

 

That isn’t all though. I try to make the images that you, my clients, need to empower you in the project you are working on. I want to capture the images you want and need to project the message you want to send and thus empower you towards your own success.

 

Photography is a powerful tool and it can be used to do more than just make something or someone look good. Photography can send a message of glory, humility, strength, tragedy or success. An image of a person in a meadow of wild flowers sends a different message than one of a battle ridden neighborhood;

 

Who can we empower today with an image that sends your message?