Lynne in Red

Lynne in Red
Originally uploaded by Wizwow.

I love my job.

Christina downtown

Christina downtown
Originally uploaded by Wizwow.

Well, with so much good news these days, just thought I would start the week out with a photo of one of my friends. Christina and I spent some time downtown this weekend, shooting some "workout" images for my stock collection. Great week coming up.

Perspective: What you see is what you get...

... especially in the game of life.

Perspectives: "If your sense of security lies in your reputation or the things you have, your life will be in a constant state of threat and jeopardy because possessions may be lost, stolen or devalued. If your self worth constantly fluctuates, you don’t have any sense of consistency or anchorage or selfhood. You are constantly trying to protect and ensure your assets, properties, securities, position or reputation.

What you believe you are you are. How you perceive yourself becomes yourself. If you are your job and you aren’t successful at it, you equate yourself with failure. If you equate happiness and/or success with material possessions and you lose them for some reason, is there nothing left of you? Is that all you are?"

Flickr adds new feature...

This is what happens when you think outside the prevailing stream, and find partners in channels that never existed even a few years ago. I predict a big hit with this. Plus, my wife loves Target - and pictures. Hey, you think they knew that?

Flickr clicks with Target for photo printing Tech News on ZDNet: "Yahoo has teamed up with Target to offer image printing to members of its online photo-sharing service, Flickr.
The new printing service, which Yahoo launched on Wednesday, will allow Flickr users in the United States to order prints online and pick them up at Target stores nationwide or have them home-delivered. The company notified Flickr members of the service on its blog."

Be honest about your ideas...

...or you will get slammed. The new media simply wont let the lies stand. That is an important part of the new marketing trend... honesty will win out over hype in a world where everyone has a chance to fight the hype with facts. (NOTE: I found this at Instapundit, one of the most popular blogs on the net. It will be seen hundreds of thousands of times more cause of the Blogosphere. That is important to consider.)

Wal-Mart Facts - News Desk: "“We at Wal-Mart welcome a fair and honest discussion,” said Wal-Mart Vice President for Corporate Affairs Bob McAdam. “But what Mr. Greenwald has done in his latest trailer is neither fair nor honest to his audience or the American people. He should fix these errors or take down the trailer altogether.”"

The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect...

...and Start Being Remarkable
New book from Seth Godin. This is a must read for small businesses struggling for a voice in a changing economy. Think about it.

Amazon.com: Books: The Big Moo : Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable: "But how do you create a big moo—an insight so astounding that people can’t help but remark on it, like digital TV recording (TiVo) or overnight shipping (FedEx), or the world’s best vacuum cleaner (Dyson)? Godin worked with thirty-two of the world’s smartest thinkers to answer this critical question. And the team—with the likes of Tom Peters, Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki, Mark Cuban, Robyn Waters, Dave Balter, Red Maxwell, and Randall Rothenberg on board— created an incredibly useful book that’s fun to read and perfect for groups to share, discuss, and apply."

Bartender... rounds for everyone!!!

This seems like very good news. Very good. For everyone.

Fotolia Blog US - Graphic Design Salaries Going Up?: "According to a recent AIGA (The American Institute of Graphic Arts) survey of 3600 designers it seems like there is hope in the future for designers. This graph shows the 5-year salary trends for graphic designers and many predict these numbers will increase slightly in 2006."

Peter Sealeys Ten Trends

They wouldn't all be my Top Ten... but he hits some solid points here. This is a long article, and full of well-researched information. This is the kind of meta-change that moves through our world, leaving confusion for those who don't understand it and success for those who do.

Read the whole thing and make notes.

iMedia Connection: Peter Sealeys Ten Trends: "The big issue we face here is that it is extraordinarily difficult to get a company to destroy its present business model. But, it simply has to happen, and the reason that it has to happen breaks down into my --

Ten Trends that are going to change our professional and personal lives

1. Three Mega-Trends -- bandwidth, the cost of storage and processing power
2. Three Media Sub-Trends -- media is becoming digital, personal, and controllable
3. A revolution in the motion picture, television, and recorded music industries
4. IPTV: Internet Protocol Television
5. Performance based marketing
6. The demise of ad-supported TV
7. The rise of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
8. New and accurate ratings system
9. Ad-ID and RFID
10. A Marketing Renaissance

Each of these ten trends is already here in one form or another. They are not fully developed, but they are here and they are going to change the world."

She shoulda had a bat hersel

Hey look... a rare sports post.
I think this lady is cool. Good for her. (Don't send me shit about being for the Astros or the Whitsox... I really couldn't care less.)
If it is about being remarkable and doing something unexpected, this gal is a winner. But she shoulda had a bat herself and then she could have performed a lateral bluntforce-instrument ballectomy... ya know.

HoustonChronicle.com - Biggio's wife slapped by fan in Chicago: "The incident occurred onSunday night during Game 2 of the 101st World Series at Chicago's ballpark, where several members of the Astros' traveling party were harassed.

'He slapped her and ran,' Biggio said of the fan who struck his wife, Patty. 'She ran after him. My brother-in-law ended up putting him against the wall. That's pretty sorry.'

Asked if Patty had been hurt, Biggio said his New Jersey-raised wife held her own.

'You don't slap a New Jersey girl and get away with it,' he said. 'That happens sometimes. It's terrible. It's over.'"

RIP Rosa Parks

A truly brave woman and leader. Inspiring me to challenge my life choices so long ago.

Rosa Parks, civil rights heroine, is dead: "When Rosa Parks refused to get up, an entire race of people began to stand up for their rights as human beings."

A good read...

... for all of us... web designers, graphic designers and photographers (should I read it three times?)
Read the whole thing.

A List Apart: Articles: Cheaper Over Better: Why Web Clients Settle for Less: "We’ve all been there. A client comes to you looking for a website. They know what they want and you know what you can deliver. You work on a proposal. You spend a few late nights and several pots of coffee writing the bid and designing what you think is a great website. You proudly fax off your proposal (w/ screenshots of the design) and settle down to wait for the inevitable phone call.

But it never comes.

Several weeks go by until, out of curiosity, you look up their domain name. To your horrified surprise, an ugly, cheap website slowly forms on your monitor. The alert icon flashes in the lower left as JavaScript errors compound on each other. The chunky, hard-edged banner GIF painfully loads on the top of the page as the multi-colored navigation buttons pop into view one by one on the side of the page. Quickly you scroll to the bottom of the page, hoping that this is their old site and they are still looking for a new design. Your fears come to a head when it says the most recent update was last week!

But why? Your page was beautiful! It was functional! It had everything they wanted and more! What could have driven them to settle on this monstrosity of a website? Why?"

Gotta get me one of these...

I always carry a Swiss knife with me and it has bailed me out more times than I can count. This iteration is just too cool.

Swissbit.com offers a complete line of Memory&flash Products, Memory Module sol.: "Our own, powerful SecureLOCK software will allow you to protect your data, be it some files, a partition or your whole Victorinox.
SecureLOCK also verifies your device’s integrity and lets you permanently erase data stored on the Victorinox. After all, this is your personal, mobile storage device and we make sure your data stays truly yours"

Adobe adds new Camera RAW Plug-in for 14 new cameras

Good news at Fotolia blog

Fotolia Blog US - Adobe updates DNG converter and adds new Camera RAW Plug-in for 14 new cameras: "Adobe gathers support for the DNG format from Camera manufactures. Ricoh is the latest to join the Adobe format supporters. Photographers who use a camera that is supported by the Adobe format can shoot in RAW mode and directly import the files into Adobe Photoshop and other Adobe products. In addition Adobe has updated the Camera Raw and DNG Converter to version 3.2.

Evolution

...of sorts.

Best Ads On TV

Kevin on Photographers as Collaborators...

Well...

Organized Individualists: "We suck at collaboration.

Quick: Name me a successful photography team.

*crickets*"

...Yeah!

How long is the worlds longest....

The longest list of the longest stuff at the longest domain name: " You've come to the right place, the website with the longest name.
THE LONGEST LIST OF THE LONGEST STUFF AT THE LONGEST DOMAIN NAME AT LONG LAST

All I can say is that this is really entertaining.

Some interesting things at Jewelboxing's Blog

Scroll down...

Jewelboxing - Super Jewel Box Packaging System - CD and DVD Cases: "It's always amazing to see what people wind up doing with Jewelboxing. We've seen users put pieces of wood in the case spine, things carved into the cover, and everything you can imagine in between. When we got in a sample of 451's new design portfolio, that's when we knew we'd seen one of the best off-the-beaten-path uses ever. Inside a beautifully designed, single color sleeve you find a gorgeous booklet, featuring some of the highlights of 451's work (if you want to get to it right away). The Jewelboxing case features the same, less-is-more aesthetic, with nothing but the most fitting word imaginable, 'Simple,' on the cover. And if you haven't fallen in love with 451 by this point, once you pop the CD in and use the fantastic interface, we can almost guarantee you'd be utterly smitten. It's a thing of beauty, their work, so we decided it was only fitting to have our next Case Study be about them. And as luck would have it, we were fortunate enough to be able to talk a bit with Ernesto Rinaldi, 451's founder and head honcho:"

Read the interview as well...

New Product Coming...

It has been a very hectic couple of weeks for me. I have been working on a business plan and presentation for a client in CA (and if that project comes to fruition, Daniel and I will be involoved in a huge undertaking... exciting) and developing a new product for photogs and illustrators. In between, I am creating print ads for ACE4VB, Dr Ciresi and myself, shooting for a local magazine, scanning old images from my father and... whew. Not complaining, though. I love to be busy.

Coming soon is the exciting new product for photographers. We know that there are many photographers who don't want to write anything. They don't want to do a "news" column, or update their home page... They just don't want to do it. We know how important it is to do those things for Google, but we cannot force people to do things they have a total aversion to.

Enter our newest product: webfolio by Total Control Site.

Simple, concise and devoted to totally showing images... big images. We still provide the TCS tools for managing the pages, page names, meta content and keywords, layout and more... but in a very simple format that makes it more a web portfolio than a web 'site'. There will be home, client, about and contact pages and the rest of it is images... did I tell you they would be big images? They will be.

We are finishing up the beta1 now, and we should have the sites ready for market by November 1. Oh, and they are quite affordable, with kick-ass designs and very easy site management tools. If you are interested in seeing it right away, let me know and I will let you get a peek.

Off to LA later today, so blogging will be very light, unless I can duck into an iCafe in LA. I am going over with my friend Barry to look at merchandise for his new venture... fun!

Indie Music gets a Boost

What if an entrepreneur got together a million or so images from lesser known photographers, put them on a huge drive and delivered that drive (Kiosk?) to major ad agencies with a subscription / use fee. Not "Stock" as we know it, and not "RF" either... different. What if the same thing happened to video producers. What if you could create simple 30 second video spots on your iBook, and make them available through an agent/agents at a subscription/fee model. What if...? (hat tip: Seth)

Wired News: Pumping Indies on MTV: "Steve Ellis, Pump Audio's CEO, started the company in 2001, after a development deal as a musician with Columbia Records convinced him he would never make enough money to raise a family.

After he licensed one of his band's songs for a commercial and made 'a couple grand,' Ellis began representing friends who had music but mostly weren't signed to labels."

I want to go to Spain...

I have a very short travel list for places I want to go out of the country, but Spain and Italy are at the top. Barcelona... what a fantastic place for photography. Over at iStock there's a great article that has pictures too!

iStockphoto.com : Articles - iStock Airport: Barcelona: "has been said that Barcelona is Antoni Gaud�and his fantastically exuberant architecture, but we believe it is also the Latin and cosmopolitan character found in its everyday life. Barcelona’s passion for art and the avant-garde, the old world flavor of the narrow streets of the Barri G�tic (Gothic Quarter), the elegance of the stately promenades and avenues of L’Eixample—these combined ingredients yield a concoction that is equal parts sophistication, simplicity, antiquity, and modernity. From its super sleek designer bars to its more humble taverns and restaurants, Barcelona is a noisy, bustling, ethnically diverse city that remains steadfastly tied to its traditions and customs, its own language, and to a philosophy of life that is refreshingly tolerant and open-minded.

"

GiddyupGuy.com: The Pendulum Has Swung Back. Finally

A very good friend of mine has a blog about men, what it means to be a man... good stuff for all of us. And, not surprising to me, he has many women readers who are enthusiastic about his work. Full disclosure: Barry and I are working on a new project that will be focused on a very different set of products and services for men. Look for more soon.

GiddyupGuy.com: The Pendulum Has Swung Back. Finally.: "I recall my first few jobs, in a field dominated by women, to be difficult at the outset. Women couldn't just 'be themselves,' they had to be more abrasive, stubborn, difficult - and ironically lost their most endearing, supportive qualities in the process.

As women found themselves, men sort of got lost. Men compensated by pulling a role-reversal. Starting men's support groups, discussing how their inner-child needed healing. Woody Allen was voted the sexiest man in the world by People Magazine shortly after the release of 'Annie Hall.' (I love bringing this fact up to women today - always good for a laugh)"

Viral Marketing... No Pun Intended

Ricola has announced a very fascinating campaign here in Phoenix. I believe it is national, but I am still looking for more information on it.

Works like this: Ricola has people out in the public who will be in public places and cough. If you offer them a Ricola Cough Drop, you will instantly win a grand (I believe) and be in the drawing for lots more.

So, this is what I see. People will buy Ricola with their own money and offer them to people who actually need them (coughers). The coughers will, in the vast majority of cases, NOT be the Ricola folks, but simply folks with a cough. They will then 'test' the product given to them by a stranger. The stranger's gift is actually an endorsement of the product. Word of mouth.

When the cougher reveals that they are not the Ricola company-cougher, some folks will reveal the reason for giving the cough drop. Some of the coughers will purchase the drops and offer them forward as well. Viral.

Geeeezzzz.... this is really a great idea.

Cost to the company for product = $0
Cost to the company for endorsement = $0
Cost for viral campaign = $0

Only cost is the radio campaign, which they do anyway. This is a powerful way to get buzz and viral endorsements into the hands (er, mouths) of people who are actually needing the product (coughers).

Cool.

The proximity effect

This is a great little post on how important it is to be unique, or at least appear to be unique, better, special... purchase-worthy. If you think about how huge the 'proximity effect' can be in a niche market or service industry, when you are presenting to a client who is actively looking to buy... it becomes vitally important to stand out. Unlike trying to catch the eye of a shopper, you must catch the eye of an active shopper with criteria that is known, and unknown, to you.

So damn important to be aggressively unique.

Seth's Blog: The proximity effect: "In fact, the proximity effect can work in your favor. It usually does if your product or service is special. The proximity effect gives the consumer confidence. It creates a category where no category existed before. It lets you sell the difference, as opposed to the whole thing.

At a bar, you don't have to sell vodka. You should have to sell why your vodka tells a better story than the other guy's vodka."

Phoenician Cover

Phoenician Cover
Originally uploaded by Wizwow.

Coni Bourin over at Glacier Design asked me to shoot some images for this up and coming magazine. One of the perks was meeting a local guy that I listen to frequently on the radio. Tim is a radio guy here in the valley and it was really fun to work with him. We had a short window of time and we ended up shooting in his home near some large open windows with direct light. Fun time was had by all.

Clouds over Monument Valley

Clouds over Monument Valley
Originally uploaded by Wizwow.

Sometimes you get lucky with the clouds, light - all of it. These days I long to be out there shooting more of the natural world. Places I want to shoot: Northern Nevada, Kansas and Montana, Texas border areas.... Anyway, just sharing a shot.

1 Down...

...couple of hundred more to go.

FBI puts stop to spam king - 10/16/05: "Warrants unsealed last week revealed that agents in September seized computers, laptops, financial records and disks from the 8,000-square-foot home of Alan M. Ralsky. The $750,000 West Bloomfield mini-mansion was built off profits from the 100 million electronic offers for everything from Botox to mortgages that Ralsky sends every day."

This seems like really good news

It has always been my contention that my computer is something I own and when someone puts something on it, messes with its internal workings or changes my system for any reason, I should be given the ability to consent. If not.... it is trespassing at least and malicious interference with my business for sure.

USATODAY.com - Spyware can constitute illegal trespass on home computers: "First, the court found that this type of trespass cause action does not require loss of personal property. Instead, 'interference' is sufficient. The court then took the leap to hold that interference with the use of a home computer is enough to maintain a claim for trespass to chattels.

Because the plaintiff's complaint alleged that computer use had been hindered, slowed down and bombarded with pop-up advertisements, enough interference had been asserted for the case to proceed on this cause of action.

In sum, and in the words of the court: 'Simply put, plaintiff alleges that Spyware interfered with and damaged his personal property, namely his computer and Internet connection, by over-burdening their resources and diminishing their functioning. Accordingly, the court denies (the) motion to dismiss (the) trespass to chattels cause of action.'"

Hey... Read this.

Right now.
Waddaya you lookin' at?

BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "Americans' fast-paced, high-tech existence has taken a toll on civility. From road rage in the morning commute to high decibel cell- phone conversations that ruin dinner out, men and women behaving badly has become the hallmark of a hurry-up world.

An increasing informality _ flip-flops at the White House, even _ combined with self-absorbed communication gadgets and a demand for instant gratification have strained common courtesies to the breaking point.

'All of these things lead to a world with more stress, more chances for people to be rude to each other,' said Peter Post, a descendent of etiquette expert Emily Post and an instructor on business manners through the Emily Post Institute in Burlington, Vt."

Now get outta my face.
(smiling)

Nice. Really Nice.

Enjoy some wonderful images.

Keiji Iwai Photography Home

Some Things That I Am Excited About

Everyone it seems is talking about Web 2.0. Whether it is really a new way of thinking/working on the web or a new Buzzword-of-the-moment is still to be seen. I have my view of what is changing and where we are going.

I think the hottest thing going is collaboration. Collaboration between peers. Collaboration with clients. Collaboration with visitors and searchers.

Some of the coolest things I like right now:
Backpack from 37 Signals
Writeboard from the same guys
Flickr to share images
Picasa (Wow, and it's Free. Find images wherever you have them stored)
Google Desktop: Find everything on your desktop and your email. right on your desktop.
GMail: Hey, I like it.
Blogger: Easy and quick.
My-Expressions: Easy to use Photoblogging App
thePHOTOtool: to Manage and Sell Images and Prints online

There are lots more things that will make the new web (2.0, 3.0...) an even more powerful technology, that will feel less technical. RSS, Wiki's and the like, Tag based searching... all will make the experience so much more collaborative and personal.

Will you be ready to take advantage of this power? Take a tour of these tools and see if there is something there for you to use to increase your productivity.

Winning The Project...

... Can Be More Art Than Science
A thoughtful look at presentations and the reality behind why so many proposals go unanswered, or un-won. Some things to think about when putting together your next proposal or RFP package.

About Design | Winning The Project Can Be More Art Than Science:
"Winning The Project Can Be More Art Than Science

'You can't win 'em all.' In fact, we'd be in trouble if we did.

Being on the losing end of a decision is always disappointing. Sometimes there are forces at work beyond your control:

* The Real Decision Maker(s) are protected
* The Real Criteria on which the decision is finally made is not in the brief, and
* Creativity, Process, and Experience may not be among them."

Focused Site: Cool Stuff

A Blog about stuff that you can buy. Stuff chosen by the folks who run the blog, so it has a 'viewpoint'... not just a store full of stuff that 'corporate' got a good deal on. This blog is sheer fun to go through. Find some interesting gadgets you may need / want / love... I did.

Laptop in colors:
TV B Gone (heh heh)
Motor on a Shirt

Mighty Goods: Shopping Blog: "Mighty Goods is a shopping weblog. We look for things we really like, and then we put them here, right where you can find them."

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II Review: and it's a good one...

For all of us dreamers. This is the camera for kicking some serious boootay... as they say. And if the $11,000 price tag scares you off,they are nearly 40% off at Amazon.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II Review: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review: "The EOS-1Ds Mark II is the sixteen (point seven) megapixel successor to the EOS-1Ds which was announced almost exactly two years earlier. Carrying on from the EOS-1Ds the Mark II has a full size 35 mm (36 x 24 mm) sensor which means it introduces no field-of-view crop, an 18 mm lens on this camera will provide exactly the same field-of-view as it would on a 35 mm film camera. At first glance it's clear to see that Canon has stuck (as they did with the EOS-1D Mark II) with the same body and control layout. The timing of the EOS-1Ds Mark II's announcement was interesting if not totally surprising coming just five days after Nikon announced the twelve (point four) megapixel D2X, the megapixel one-up-man-ship continues."

I wonder if the 1DS will drop down to around 3K now? Just wondering, ya know.

Well Done Blog by a Photographer

I love this. Here is a guy who really gets it. Has a studio site, and this wonderful blog. He is positioned as a fantastic shooter, with a love of what he does. People visiting this blog will get the impression that he is totally involved with his clients, revelling in the creation of images for them.

Boutwell Studio Blog

And while I do not care much for pure Flash sites, this one is very well done. With the blog driving dynamic content, the flash site can stand alone. Wonderful images as well. Boutwell Studio

Thinking about how people use things..

and you get something like this.

Vestal Design: "You'll never sit and cook at the same time"

Printing at Home?

Should I say, err... Still printing at home?
Interesting data that backs up a lot of what Daniel and I are seeing in the marketplace.

Slashdot | Why Do-It-Yourself Photo Printing Doesn't Add Up: "For the 12 months ended in July, home printing accounted for just 48 percent of the 7.7 billion digital prints made, down sharply from 64 percent in the previous 12 months, according to the Photo Marketing Association International, a trade group for retailers and camera makers. The number of photos spewing out of home printers is up quite handsomely, however, because of the overall growth of digital photo printing--up about 68 percent from the year-earlier period - but retail labs clearly have the advantage...'"

More at CNet:
Cool Graph too.

Printers return relatively low profit margins. But the ink, ounce for ounce, is four times the cost of Krug Clos du Mesnil Champagne, which sells for around $425 a bottle. Ink is about the same price as Joy perfume, considered to be one of the more pricey fragrances, at $158 for a 2.5-ounce bottle
...

The shallowness of the trend line also suggests that a new culture of photographs has been created. Consumers print their photos, but moreover, they share their photos more often and technology allows them to do it without printing. Cameras now come with liquid-crystal-display screens of 2.5 or 3 inches designed just for that purpose.

From the New York Times: (no registration req'd)

Prints made at home will certainly last a long time. That's certainly one good reason that these printers are popular with hobbyists and professionals. Independent studies say that home printers produce copies that should last 80 to 100 years without fading or yellowing, assuming you used leading inks and recommended photo paper. Marketers at Canon and Hewlett like to point out that those studies also show that prints made by photo processors decades ago now show signs of fading. (Today's photo processing machines are supposed to produce prints that will last as long as the home-printed versions.)

Noise or Signal... You decide

I use BackPack, Writeboard and TaDa. These guys are quite sharp.

A design and usability blog: Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals): "This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, customer experience, entertainment, politics, Basecamp, Backpack, products we like, small business, ourselves, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago."

Marketing Comet - bookmark this site

Lots, and I mean LOTS of great information, well presented, at this site.

Marketing Comet - Small Business Marketing Secrets: "One of the salespeople that worked for me approached a small business owner. He was very rude to her. Now I don't acre if people don't decide to do business with me, but there is no reason to be rude to my employees. A few weeks later - this same business owner contacts me to try to get me to do press for an event he is promoting. No way. And I remember every single person who has been rude to one of our reps.

I don't care how big a market you live in - don't be rude to people, it will come back to haunt you.

Look hard at how you are serving your customers. Always under-promise and over-deliver. Never, ever be indifferent to your customers complaints. Turn your customers into trusted allies who will do business with you for life, and send all their friends to you too."

This is a great read

Extrapolate. These are ideas that can be applied to many, MANY, types of organizations, and services.
Less. Focus closer. Trim the message. Get granular.

Less as a competitive advantage: My 10 minutes at Web 2.0 - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals): "I was invited to present a 10 minute "High Order Bit" at the Web 2.0 Conference. I decided to talk about the concept of less as a competitive advantage. Here's the rough text (from memory) of my presentation.
Less.

I want to talk about the concept of less. And more specifically the idea of using less as a competitive advantage.

Conventional wisdom says to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have 4 features, you need 5. Or 15. Or 25. If they're spending X, you need to spend XX. If they have 20, you need 30.

While this strategy may still work for some, it's expensive, resource intensive, difficult, defensive, and not very satisfying. And I don't think it's good for customers either. It's a very Cold War mentality - always trying to one-up. When everyone tries to one-up, we all end up with too much. There's already too much - more - what we need are simple solutions to simple, common problems, not huger solutions to huger problems."

Good copyright Info:

PhotoAttorney: "Registering Your Published Photos As a Group? There Is A Limit!
Copyright law changed in 2001 to allow you to group register images published in the same year (if they were made by the same photographer who also owns the copyrights to them) on one Form VA and for one registration fee. You also can include Form GR/PPh/Con (�Group Registration of Published Photographs Continuation Form�) with your registration to list each photograph by its title, date of publication, nation of publication, and description (optional). "

Well, Thanks for the Info

You gotta be kidding. She's what... 20? Gimme a break.
Great marketing team behind this. Who would ever have thought? Probably the same folks who give out the Nobels.

FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Esquire: Biel Sexiest Woman Alive: "'It seemed like it would be great -- having named Anglina Jolie (search) sexiest woman of the year last year -- to try to come up with somebody who was on everyone's radar screen, but who was also fresh,' said Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger. 'It just seemed like Jessica Biel's moment.'"

Well, it gives new meaning to the word 'vacuous'. You wonder if these guys even hear themselves speak like this. Geez, Mr. Granger, grow a brain. Maybe he's, like, you know, 20 too, and oh so "Fresh".

25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself

At Change This... a whitepaper on being remarkable. Download it and read daily.

ChangeThis :: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself: "About the author:
Rajesh Setty is currently the chairman of CIGNEX Technologies, Inc (which he co-founded in late 2000.) Rajesh wrote his first novel when he was nine years old and got it published by the time he was thirteen. His upcoming book 'Beyond Code' is being published in US and India simultaneously"

Where we have been...

...where we are going. Good article on the history of the web.

Wired 13.08: We Are the Web: "1995
Before the Netscape browser illuminated the Web, the Internet did not exist for most people. If it was acknowledged at all, it was mischaracterized as either corporate email (as exciting as a necktie) or a clubhouse for adolescent males (read: pimply nerds). It was hard to use. On the Internet, even dogs had to type. Who wanted to waste time on something so boring?"

Tracey

Tracey
Originally uploaded by Wizwow.

Added some new images to the Flickr pages. Take a look if you have a minute.


This image:
A few from the archives. This image was shot on Polaroid BW slide film then printed on Cibachrome with slight color filtration. Pshopped the eyes lighter, otherwise same as print. (F3, 180mm). This image was shot on location with my white studio van as fill.

Some Outstanding Photographers

Just got back from the rink. My daughter skated beautifully. Personal best. Very proud. However, we were there since a little before 5am so I am going to relax a bit and do some viewing of fascinating photographs. Care to join me?

Don't forget to leave a nice comment or two.

Photos - Judith Polakoff
No Traces
Dead Time
Joe Photos
Gray Scale Gorilla
Twinlens
Stranger a Day
Chromasia
Tracey
A Walk Through Durham Township
Mute
Round Here
Heather Champ
Brown Glasses
Rick Lee
Nude: Chris Hopkins "Oksana"
Nude: Jan Van Hove
Jerry Avenaim
Nude: Tom Photo
Jamey Stillings
My Set of Lynne

Assuming It's You...

... may not be the best assumption.

Recently I spoke with a potential client that informed me that he was extremely picky and had spent nearly a year and over $25,000 on development... of his logo.

He then carefully walked me through why the letters had the little shadow, and the meaning of the three 'swooshes'. He then showed me a terrible little site that was boring as hell. It was totally devoted to him and what he thought about things.

Sheesh.

He was concerned because he could not get any interest in his site. Even though I knew it was hopeless, and that there was no way in hell I was going to work for this guy, I patiently explained that the point of offering something was to make available something they needed. In this case, the site was totally devoted to his views on things. Nowhere was there any thought to what the visitor was looking for.

Instantly he turned angry and defensive. Of course. He wants everything to be focused on him. After all, he spent 25k for a logo design that he has to explain to people. No one looking for what he was offering would give a rats rear about the logo. They need help, they get pontification.

It isn't about your logo. It isn't about your graphics on the home page, or the hopelessly lame Flash animation (Ya know, flying type was silly and boring in PowerPoint back in 95... it still is.) It isn't about what you think the problem is.

It is about what the visitor and client think the problem is. You are the solution to the problem, challenge, need... show them that you understand.

Pontication Marketing: Lame and Old Business
Collaboration Marketing: New Business and Forward Thinking

acleareye.com: Alan Alda on assumptions: "There are two types of change: change within a system of beliefs; beliefs that stay the same. And change in your system of beliefs; e.g. your assumptions about the marketplace, customers, and your role. If you want to change, you have to change twice. Yes, you must change the reality of the situation. But you must also change how you view that reality."

On Being Remarkable

Here is a reveiw of "The Big Moo", a collection of writing assembled by Seth Godin and partners. I haven't read the book as it isn't quite ready for distribution. I have read parts, posts and other pieces of it and cannot wait till it gets released.

(BTW... here is Seth's new FREE e-book: "Everyone's and Expert").

I love the points about becoming 'remarkable'. It was one of the main points of Seth's book, "Free Prize Inside." (It most certainly should be one of your Must-Reads.)

At the PHOTOtool and Total Control Sites, Daniel and I struggle with achieving 'remarkable' everyday. We want to make sure that our sites help photographers achieve goals set, increase visibility and get more work. We want their success to help drive ours. That's why we do free seminars, inexpensive consulting, answer our phones nearly 90% of the time, and have an open-door policy at the studio for our clients to drop in with suggestions, ideas, challenges...

I am working on a list of "remarkable" things you can do to stay on top, in the fray... active. I will post a few of them soon, but there are some in my archives as well.

Have you sat down with a pencil and paper and asked yourself "What makes me / my work remarkable?" Ask some friends. Ask some strangers. Ask some clients. Write down their answers and compare. Is there a trend that can be improved upon? Is there an area that needs work? Can you create remarkability in what you do?

Check out these books for some great ideas:
Art and Attitude of Commercial Photography
Portfolios that Sell
Free Prize Inside
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

Fresh Glue: Good enough...or remarkable?: "Enough already! If your customers don’t leave an interaction with your company/product/service and rave to others about it, you won’t last. If your customers aren’t talking about you, no one else will. To get them to talk about you, you have to wow them…you have to be remarkable."

Updates:
Here's an older review of "Purple Cow". Still timely though.
Fast Company article f

Web 2.0

Daniel, my highly technical partner, and I just met over some cool new additions on our PHOTOtool. What we are working toward is a more Web 2.0 experience. The abilities to Tag, modify, alter and congregate content and information is huge on our radar.

If you aren't familiar with the concept of Web 2.0, start at this post and then start looking around. I think you will be amazed at what is coming down the pike... soon.

Related: Digital Web
Related: Dion Hinchcliffe
Related: Read/WriteWeb

netgeek.com : Web 2.0 Buzz: "Love it or hate it, -Web 2.0? buzz continues and if you've been following along, you've probably developed your own opinion of what the term means.
Tim O'Reilly has posted a Web 2.0 meme map, illustrating his points in an essay he wrote for the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Conference. Reading through the comments, you'll see what I mean about the wide range of opinions on the topic."

Got some time to have FUN!

Here's a list of photo related blogs, sites, portfolios, images... just start at the top and have fun. Note: this may require a comfortable space, a few hours and a new bookmark folder. Oh, and a cold adult beverage wouldn't be a bad idea on a warm afternoon.

Coudal Partners

Could be a nice blogging camera...

And no worries if you see a shot you want to keep. Medium size for throwing on the car seat and 8MP image... for $600? Movies too!

Megapixel.net: "The Panasonic DMC-FZ30 is a large camera, one of a group that have been dubbed 'bridge' cameras as their characteristics overlap those of both digital SLR cameras and Compact cameras. With its large 12X stabilized zoom... "

Purchasing

Recently overheard a conversation.
Went something like this.

"I need a sink for the kitchen so I go down to the Home repair store. I talked with a store rep there and he wanted to know what I needed the sink for. I told him my old sink was bad and I needed a new one. He asked what size my kitchen was. I thought that was odd, but I told him that the kitchen was 12 feet by 8 feet."

"Ahh, then the cost of that sink is $2000."

"Geeeez... I can't afford that. Why is it so much?"

"It's based on the size of the kitchen," he says.

"That's doesn't make any sense", I say, "and I can't afford that much."

"OK, he says... how about $500?"

"Well", I say, "OK, but what was the $2000 price about?"

"That's what the pricing structure calls for, but since you can't afford it, we just lower it to the price you can afford," he said with a smile.

I was stunned. "Don't you have prices for these that are based on cost of materials, cost of delivery, overhead, profit, loss, supply, demand...?" I could see he was totally lost.

"Nope, we just charge whatever the heck we want and hope that we can make some money."

Sounds incredibly stupid to me.

However, this conversation is actually based upon one between an art buyer and a photographer.

Still sounds stupid to me.

Abundance or Meeting the Specs

Seth's point is well taken. In the world of design and photography there seems to be a great deal of TBR thinking. Seth's TBR stands for "Technically Beyond Reproach". It means the brochure was good enough... met the specs... what the client expected. As a photographer I was never happy with TBR. I, for the most part, always wanted to push the envelope a little further. Make the image far better than the client wanted - expected - needed. Not everytime, unfortunately, but most times for sure.

TBR is sure easy. Meet the spec. Cover your ass with layers of paper. It's as good as it needs to be. Done....

Abundance work is delivering more than what was expected. More than the client needed...even paid for. Going the extra distance to achieve something special... even if the budget couldn' totally cover it. Stretching.

Daniel and I do that with our Web sites. We are constantly looking for new ideas and stronger, more powerful ways to make the sites perform for their owners. We find it tough sometimes, fighting the "Flash" crowd and the web-clueless designers who create sites that can't help the photographer do anything but passively wait for calls to come. Been there... it doesn't work.

TBR portfolios are safe, predictable. They are 'finished'
Abundance portfolios are edgy, wild, arty and unique... and never finished.

TBR meetings deliver a smattering of information while making sure that no one is offended.
Abundance meetings mean confrontation and allegations and negotiated agreements where both sides are unhappy.

TBR is safe and secure... ass covered.
Abundance is scary and ass on the line stuff.

TBR thinking extends to the way we do marketing as well. So many photographers we talk to are still doing the 'marketing' that they did 10 years ago.
1. Buy a Sourcebook Ad
2. Send out postcards
3. Do a bit of cold-calling
4. Wait for phone to ring

Yawn.

Abundance is adding new areas of revenue, trying new things, shooting subjects you have never shot before. Ruthless editing. Showing the unexpected... while discovering the undefineable. It is creating a new portfolio of images every quarter, month... couple of weeks. It may mean redefining your portfolio...

Ass on the line stuff. That's where the wins come though... right there on the line.

Seth's Blog: "Abundance means that you spend a lot of time imagining how you will overdeliver.
TBR means you start from the beginning making sure that the work you do will either meet spec or you'll have a really good excuse.

Entrepeneurs have a hard time with the TBR approach, because it has never ever worked for them. VCs and customers and competitors give few bonus points for excuses, even really good ones, so the only approach that wins is the abundance one."

Ooooh... this is really special...

This is what everyone will want to be wearing soon. Well, maybe not everyone. Geeeeezzzzz. This is just amazing.

Note to my assistants... don't even think about it.

"Terror fashion" is about to invade cities. The new French brand Anticon is launching a new concept of hooded sweatshirts. Graffiti artists, people with acne, snowboarders or simply superheroes would certainly be into them. "

I love the connection of "Terror Fashion" with superheroes. Yeah. Morons.

Next up: The Jeffrey Daumer Cookbook.

Mystery #45

Rick is having a ball with these mysteries. Check 'em out.

On Location With Rick Lee: Mystery #45: "Another mystery from the shelves of Target. "

Personal Brilliance Blog

I will spend some time here. Great stuff.

Personal Brilliance: "Personal Brilliance is the result of mastering the everyday habits that create a lifetime of success. Personal Brilliance is the sum of what you’ve learned, experienced, and practiced. Awareness, curiosity, focus, and initiative are the catalysts that spark innovative thinking and light the way to brilliant thinking and brilliant action. These four catalysts are innate abilities – natural gifts – possessed by each of us and they can be just as useful at home as they are at work."

All in all...

...it was a very expensive little film... at least to her. Hard to feel too sorry for her. Yo, Kate... that's a V I D E O camera. Helllloooooo....

Adrants � Marketing and Advertising News With Attitude: "Our tipsters are telling us cosmetics company Rimmel, the last Kate Moss holdout, may, after all, drop Moss as spokesmodel. The company is getting pressure form number two distributor Walgreens who, apparently, has said 'She goes or we go.' Not wanting to risk a serious distribution channel, Rimmel is seriously considering eradicating themselves from association with Moss. "

Gonna have to look into these things

You know, for a guy that loves music as much as I do, you would think I would have an IPod or something similar. Nope... not yet. My kids do. My wife and I still carry around the big 'ol CD players, having not nearly enough time for putting together all of the music we want to listen to. IPods seem a bit hypy to me, and I have always had great luck with Dell. Who knows, 20GIGs of music!? That would be awesome.

I just got a tool that will allow me to record my vast vinyl library on to CD, so I may need 20GIGs soon. Three of my most cherished albums have never been re-released on CD and I miss the music desperately. I am holding off playing them until I can record them on to a digital media.

Some of my most loved items are old-tech. My 8x10 Deardorff, Nikon F3, F2, Nikkor 180mm 2.8 lens, my Rogers Londoner drum set and a wonderful old Tenor Sax that has the most mellow tone... all old tech. All still perform flawlessly.

And I will continue to use them even as I continue to explore the newest of the technology. To me, it's the continuity of the experience that makes it so fun to work. Always keeping in mind that the results are not necessarily contingent upon the tools.

Oh, and I still think that Freehand 3.0 was one of the most awesome software programs ever released.

A good, long post to make you think

Does taking a photograph create a power inside you? Is it a postive power? Does it satisfy a need you have to record what you see, provoke emotions or just save it for some deep-seated reason?

I often wonder why I love to design and shoot and play music. What 'need' does it truly answer? I don't know. I just can remember being totally enamored of the still image from my earliest childhood memories. Still am.

Crossroads Dispatches: "I know this blog skews towards those in self-actualization and self-transcendance camps (transcendence is often inadvertently left off as Maslow revised his pyramid of needs later on) of the pyramid, and I'm also certain it's higher these days than 2% of the total population, so I'd like to conduct a survey. (And I don't abide that there's really a 'ladder' or pyramid we're climbing much myself either, but I don't throw out all of what Maslow says either.)

I have no clue what the answers will reveal. If you'd like to chip in on questions or help me shape the questions in the survey, let me know within the next week. I'm not a prototypical example of a consumer, but neither am I opposed to buying things, experiences, or services. Go figure, a self-actualizing friend whom is in many categories a spendthrift just dropped $500 the other day on a new digital camera."

Rick Lee is having fun with Target

On Location With Rick Lee: "Do you know what this is? Another mystery from the shelves of Target. Post your guesses in the comments."

Yeay!!! Here is a HERO I can really applaud

Go get 'em Ms Andersen.

I hate copyright violation. I really do. I hate the arrogance of people who think they can go onto my computer and look around even more. I really, really hate the fools that get it wrong, after snooping where they shouldn't be, and then file suit indescriminately and in a fashion that decimates the intent of the legal system and produces a huge burden on a regular law-abiding person. If you are going to do that crap, you better damn sure you are right. Absolutely right. Not kind-of right. Not shoddily, stupidly wrong.

Crush the arrogant bastards, Ms Andersen.

Fools.

Recording Industry vs The People: Oregon RIAA Victim Fights Back; Sues RIAA for Electronic Trespass, Violations of Computer Fraud & Abuse, Invasion of Privacy, RICO, Fraud: "This is the case peer-to-peer file sharers have been waiting for. Tanya Andersen, a 41 year old disabled single mother living in Oregon, has countersued the RIAA for Oregon RICO violations, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligent misrepresentation, the tort of 'outrage', and deceptive business practices."

iMedia Connection: Why Your Site Doesn't Need to be Pretty

An interesting article on making a page work for the intended visitor. While this article is focused on consumer type sites, the fact that users (most all users) prefer functionality to beauty is not a surprise. It is one onf the reasons I find so many Flash-only sites tedious.

I absolutely hate 'splash' screens (and - yes, I always click 'skip intro') cause they slow me up from getting to what I wanted to see... images, bios, clients etc... I am firmly not interested in some version of a 'commercial' playing for 45 seconds before I get in.

Time is so valuable that slowing the visitor down is costly... to her and you. The visitor bails. You can lose a potential client.

Of course to those who design with no apparent awareness of the web, its delicate balances of utilitarian/visual appeal, and the basic functions of web systems for creating relationships... that is a small price to pay to look really, uh... cool.

iMedia Connection: Why Your Site Doesn't Need to be Pretty: "This is a real story: A supermodel, who will remain unnamed, works as a spokesmodel for a consumer brand company. The consumer brand creates a website to promote and sell her product using the best practices learned from (literally) years of A/B testing. To put it bluntly, these guys test everything. Following the presentation to the supermodel, she tells the manufacturer that she hates the website that is promoting the product. It isn't pretty, she feels, and it doesn't match her idea of what customers expect from a product associated with her. She has her design person completely rework the site, costing time and money, and she comes up with a more attractive version. The company, which, as I mentioned, then tests just about everything that they do, tests her version of the site versus their original version.

Guess what? The poor supermodel's version gets crushed."

Editing... So Important

See what careful editing can do.

Eery, freaky happenings in New York around 1961.

A sensitive and touching film about a boy and his Dad.

A frightening, scary movie about a doomed ship.

Kind of like photoshopping out the graffiti to produce a clean shot of the building for sale... kinda. Maybe not.