I was recently interviewed by Marc Silber on the topic of Landscape & Nature photography for his online video series Advancing Your Photography! Marc has talked with some truly amazing photographers who I greatly respect and I was humbled to be asked to take part in his great video series. The video is only 9 minutes long and full of tips. I hope you find it informative and entertaining. If you enjoy it be sure to let Marc know by commenting on his blog to encourage him to invite other great nature, landscape and travel photographers.
The past few years online have been an interesting ride and things are only going to get more interesting thanks to Social Media. We are all consumers and now through Social Media the strength of our voice and influence is amplified by the size of our networks (see my previous post 4 Metrics of Social Media Impact). On the other side of the coin many of us are also our own company and brand, this is particularly true for photographers.
Social Media is both loved and feared. How you feel about Social Media for one depends on how much knowledge you have about it and secondly how you use it. Do you use it as a consumer or a company? More times than not we use it as both but with a tendency of one versus the other. Social Media is very easy to fear and several businesses small and large fear it to the bone. Sometimes this fear is warranted and other times its not.
I had an interesting experience with my wife just the other day. We had her car in the shop for some repairs. We were on our 4th visit bringing the car back in a two week time-frame for the same problem. My wife was extremely frustrated with the auto repair shop. Promises had been made and various employees were giving her different information about cost. Did we owe another $700 on top of the initial $500 spent even though they had told us it was guaranteed work? A communication breakdown happened, but by the time we talked to the manager in person we were told that there would be no cost to our most recent repair. The manager stated to us more than once, “Customer Service is important to us and we want you to be happy.”
I did not envy the manager of this shop eating $700 in parts and labor. He seemed like a sincere guy, but his statement and delivery were different than times past. In the age of Yelp neighborhood repair shops live and die by customer reviews. Did he look up that my wife is active in rating neighborhood shops? Did he know that my wife had been relaying her displeasure through sites like Facebook? Check out this video on the relevance of Social Media and read on…
If you’re into photo contests these three might just be right up your alley. Â For each I leave it to you to review terms and rules. In my initial pass I see nothing that should warrant anyones concern. Below are the contests for your consideration:
LLTL Monthly Photo Contest – Summer Contest by Darwin Wiggett’s “Life and Learning Through the Lens” blog This is a friendly contest among readers of Darwin Wiggett’s blog. If you’re unfamiliar with Darwin Wiggett he’s an amazing photographer on two levels. First he’s a super talented and second he’s a great writer who is always sharing great knowledge. I’ve learned alot from Darwin over the years and he continues to be an inspiration. Whether you enter his friendly summer photo contest or not I highly recommend reading his blog. Â
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 Lens Culture International Exposure Awards
by Lens Culture and sponsored by Blurb & LiveBooks
I’m new to Lens Culture, but the concept of the contest and photographer friendly terms make this worthy of passing along. The listed judges are an impressive lot and the cash prizes are certainly an attention getter as well. This contest is definitely one to have on your radar.
An often unspoken component of photography is image selection. How and why are certain photos chosen over others when reviewing results of a photo shoot? I’ve received questions on this in the past and D. Travis North (Self-Editing to Concentrate Your Workflow – Part 1) has asked me to share my insight to this topic with Kevin Oki (Editing and Workflow – Part 2) as part of a multiple-blogger series.
There are three primary areas of evaluation that factor into my image selection process: Creative Execution, Sharpness and Comparison & Selection. Below are examples and detailed thought surrounding each: Read more…
In the event you haven’t had enough of the discussion around Free here are some interesting links that I’ve found or have been pointed out to me by my blog readers. With all the “free” information out there its time for you to determine if Chris Anderson is selling the Emperor’s new clothes or not.
The most amazing aspect of today’s transforming photography world is that it is so easy to find inspiration. The digitization of photography has placed inspiration a Google search away or even a Tweet away. While I certainly don’t have time to list a 1,000 points of inspiration I will share with you a few that I recommend checking out and I’d like to invite you to fill out the other 9,997 whether still photography, photo books, ebooks, music, video, etc. Up to the challenge? I hope so. Add your points of inspiration in the comments below.
1. Chase Jarvis CURRENT: The Consequences of Creativity For some a photo alone can be inspiration and for some a video that clubs you over the head with great ideas will do the trick. Chase wields his club with caveman like surgical precision. What the hell does that mean?! It means no matter who you are, what your photographic skill level is, or background this video is sure to get you off your butt to do something creative this weekend.
2. William Neill’s Meditation in Monochrome eBook
The digital edition of Meditation in Monochrome has stuck with me after several viewings challenging my artistic view of the world. By no means has it converted me to a B&W photographer, as color photography resonates with me far too much. What it has done with its high quality presentation, ease of access & review via PDF format and masterful photographs has challenged me to view my photographic subjects differently. It has reinforced my deep appreciation of how other nature photographers to see our world in Black & White. It also has inspired me to take a closer look at electronic publishing. William Neill’s life long efforts have been inspiring enough, but this particular project has given me a source of inspiration that is only a click away on my computer.
3. Playing with Time (via John Nack’s blog)
I’ll cheat on this counting a couple of photo/video artists under this one entry:
Andrew Curtis’s Cinco De Mayo Carnival timelapses and David Coiffier super slow motion video rugby, fire-breathing and more. For me these videos are visually engaging, they get my creative juices flowing analyzing the visual and logistical components of such a capture and change my mindset in how I evaluate photographic or video opportunities.
Now it’s your turn… add a comment and help me fill out a list of 1,000 Points of Inspiration no matter how small or large the inspiration might be.
Reputation management is the monitoring of how an individual, company or other entities are perceived online. Online reputation is centered on trust. The greater the trust with in an online community around an individual, company, etc. the more often their content is to be referenced online, the more business that they’re likely to acquire and the more likely they’ll develop a following.
If you’re reading this consider yourself ahead of the curve. Reputation & Brand management online is just now starting to hit the mainstream. For old pros this is nothing new, but if you’re just now diving into Social Media Marketing or just aiming to take part online more, then the following information is essential to your success online. Read more…
The past couple of weeks I’ve enjoyed the following articles, blog posts, podcasts and videos. I thought I’d pass them on to be enjoyed by those who check in to my blog regularly. Enjoy!
Earth Hour
This past Saturday was Earth Hour, an event to highlight the worldwide need to address global warming. Landmarks, city skylines, local communities and individuals dimmed non-essential lights or turned them out completely from 8:30-9:30PM to “vote Earth”. The video below documents many of the landmarks world-wide that went dark this past weekend. If you missed this event put it on your calendar for next year.
PhotoNetCast: Going Beyond your Comfort Zone in Photography
A great discussion on improving ones photography by pushing oneself beyond your perceived comfort zone. If that weren’t enough there is an announcement regarding a new aspect to the podcast centering around photo critiques of listener submitted images.
Congress Passes Wilderness Bill to Protect 2 Million Acres Across 9 States
A landmark piece of legislation, Omnibus Public Land Management Act containing 16 wilderness bills, passed the U.S. House of Representatives this past week. The impact of this legislation extends protection to 2 million acres of land across 9 states. The map of impacted areas can be seen in the following map (2.7MB PDF)
Tax Tips for Part-Time Photographers
Ivan Makarov, a part-time photographer and accountant, shares some tips and answers some frequently asked questions regarding the intricacies of the U.S. tax code for those who are part-time photographers.
Creating the Night Fisherman – Art Wolfe Blog
Art Wolfe has added a great video to his blog detailing the process that went into capturing his iconic photo “The Night Fisherman”. I’ve talked to him about this and other photos in a past podcast of mine for EXIF and Beyond “Art Wolfe Interview Part II” (at roughly the 1/2 way point). In Art’s video he goes into greater detail with alternate photos detailing his progression to the final photograph.
Stack the Odds in your Favor – Guy Tal Blog
I missed this when it came out a couple weeks ago, but its well worth passing on even if I’m a little late in reading it. Guy provides a very eloquent reminder to take the time to view and appreciate the beauty around us rather than getting caught up in maintaining our way of life. A great read.
Killer whales roam Gulf of Mexico
Who would believe it. Confirmation that a large pod of Killer Whales calls the Gulf of Mexico home feeding on dolphins and tuna.
4AM Project
April 4th at 4am capture your neck of the woods on film or digitally and share it with a growing community of photographers taking part in this photo project.
Jim Goldstein’s Tips on Landscape & Nature Photography
