Read this article

... and then go here to download the PDF... if you don't already have it.

USATODAY.com - New digital camera? Know how, where you can use it: "Digital cameras were one of the hot gifts these holidays — the first one for some people, an upgrade for others. Cell-phone cameras are everywhere too, and sites like Flickr and Buzznet — not to mention photoblogs — make it easy for anyone to share the zillions of photos they're taking.

With all these cameras snapping around us, I started to wonder about the laws regarding using them. Where can you shoot? What can you shoot?"

Things Change (2)

...but a subtle in some situations. Question... do you think that with all the challenges facing Kodak that spending big bucks on changing their logo will help? No? Me neither.

On second thought, maybe it is symptomatic of why they are having probl..., err, challenges.

Kodak's new logo - The Design Weblog: "I like the typeface, but can't say I'm feeling the yellow bars bounding the name. I also miss the suggested 'K' in the old logo. And lastly, though I hate the colors, I guess it's such a big part of the brand that they couldn't really get rid of it. The colors make work in different hues (Burger King, McDonald's) for other companies but even though it's been Kodak's official color scheme for so long, I still don't think it fits... and it's just plain ugly."

A Complete Alphabet...

...of Eine's Shopfront Shutter Graffiti Letters
Fun project!!!

A Complete Alphabet of Eine's Shopfront Shutter Graffiti Letters on Flickr - Photo Sharing!: "It only took three trips over two nights to get a complete alphabet of these. They're by a graffiti artist called Eine apparently."

Things Change...

One of the most enduring print campaigns of all time goes the way of the vinyl recording.

USATODAY.com - Absolut gets into spirit of name play with new ads: "After 25 years and 1,500 versions of print ads built around the shape of its bottle, Absolut vodka is shelving the campaign that made it famous."

E-Books in our Future?

I personally think the E-book will become as popular as regular books, probably having a longer reach. However, my wife teaches secondary education and listening to her stories I find myself just hoping for the continuing art of reading. I have lots of CD's with E-books on them. I also have shelves of printed work that I cannot imagine living without. I guess I like both... for different reasons.

ArtsJournal: About Last Night: "Some of you may have read my Wall Street Journal column about the return of the e-book, in which I reported on the Sony Reader and speculated on the possible effects of the e-book on the culture of reading and writing. (If you didn’t see the column, it’s here.) In that column I made a point of saying that eventual popular acceptance of the e-book was inevitable:

So will it fly? I don't know. Still, I'm certain that something like the Sony Reader will catch on, if not this year then in a short time. The phenomenal success of the iPod strongly suggests that many, perhaps most, consumers are ready to start buying digital books on the Web and storing and reading them electronically.

I did this for three reasons. One was rhetorical: I thought it would make the column more effective to take the coming of the e-book for granted. One was practical: my “Sightings” columns are only 850 words long, and I preferred to devote my space to speculating on the long-term effects of the e-book rather than taking the time to explain why I thought it would become popular. And one was a simple matter of honesty: that’s really what I think."

OK... I',m hooked..

Maybe it is my lifelong love of Jazz and music that kicked in here, but I just love this. And the interesting thing about this fan-produced music... the first release earned a Grammy. No record stores, no lable, no fat-cat executives... just an artist, her fans and the shared love of music. This sort of thing will continue to inspire other mediums to come together for publishing poser. Fans, readership and loyalty will spark communities of content providers (blogs?) that will be funded by the fans. Not advertising, not donation driven, not subscription... more an 'involvement and ownership model.

Photographers should start to look at this model for funding projects near and dear to them... and a fan base willing to pay for the art once it is produced.

:|: ArtistShare :|:: "'I got to thinking: what's the one thing you can't download, the one thing that the artist can hold on to? The answer: the creative process. That's the product I'm offering: the creative process.' - Brian Camelio

ArtistShare is a powerful software solution combined with a unique business model that empowers the creative artist. ArtistShare has proven extremely successful in funding the creation of new music. In 2005, ArtistShare produced the first Grammy-winning recording with internet-only distribution. The ArtistShare software is Project based. Through Projects, Artists are able to monetize their ‘creative process’ rather than simply selling their CDs. The creative process is delivered to the fans through the Participant Offers. These Participant Offers are specifically tailored to the Artist’s fan base and include unique opportunities for the fan to witness the creative process of their favorite artist. This creates a myriad of product possibilities for the Artist as well as a very personal experience for the fan."

Photographic Cheat Sheet

Hat tip to Kevin...

Photographic Cheat Sheet: "
This 'cheat sheet' provides a number of useful tables for any photographer who's interested in planning ahead for prevailing light, enabling the selection of lenses, flashguns, reflectors and associated shutter speeds."

Cool

Cool Hunting: Bottle Cap Tripod: "Well, it's more of a monopod than a tripod, but you get the point. This handy little thing screws on to the mouth of common-sized bottles to offer a stable base for your digital camera. Obviously it works best with smaller, lighter cameras and shorter, fatter bottles—regardless, it's better than the balancing act I've resorted to on numerous occasions."

Check this out...

Grab your video camera. Shoot some interesting stuff. Publish it online. Get seen. Become known. Shoot more. Gain audience. Cool.

Get FireAnt: Better than Television | Directory

Just don't go up against '24'. Don't.

I'm a Corvette

... and a convertible at that. Gimmee a loud sledgehammer and some rain and I am ready to go. Oooh... i like red

Which Sports Car Are You?

Guy nails this one absolutely...

Absolutely. Nothing to do with marketing or photography or design, but definitely a truth for us all. What a gift... the love of a child.

Let the Good Times Roll by Guy Kawasaki: Hindsights II: the Learning Continues: "You can love an adopted child as much as a biological one. A man's contribution to a pregnancy lasts about ten seconds--five if he told the truth--three if you asked the mother. And yet I've met many men who who were skeptical about adoption because they didn't think they could “bond” with a child that didn't have their DNA--ie, the ten-second commitment. This is simply not true: when you hold your precious jewel for the first time, no one cares if none of those chromosomes came from you. Certainly not the baby. Certainly not your wife. So get over it. Your DNA isn't the Holy Grail--to mix several metaphors."

Doin' What She Loves

If you haven't read Paul Grahams excellent "How to do What You Love" post that I previously linked, please do. It will give you so much to think about as you start your day each morning. Read this thoughtful post over at Crossroads Dispatches then.

Crossroads Dispatches: "'I thought making cakes was hard, but it's not,' she tells me. It dawns on me that she is not a waitress, but the co-owner with her German husband. And more importantly, in her last year in Germany she chose to study baking.

I realize you can flip the question: What am I doing here? A backpack journalist jotting notes in eight-dollar-per-night bungalows while her electrical engineering diploma just rots away."

What Can You Say?

Sheesh... sorry, but this is inexcuseable. Has this person not read anything for 5 years? This kind of 'head-in-the-sand' ignorance is probably why the schools keep churning out "Jay Walking" stars for Leno. Fire this ignorant boob.

Shotgun Marketing BLOG: "You'd think that school administration and those even higher up would be on top of blogging...at the very least to teach the kids how to be safe online. But, according to this Ohio reporter, the president of the National Education Association (NEA) does NOT even know what a blog is."

At Seth's Blog: Fear and Creativity

Seth makes the statement that enemy of creativity is fear. I agree to a point. I think the main enemy of creativity is inaction. Inaction can be caused by fear, of course. But it can also be caused by comfort. The stupid "If it aint broken, don't fix it" mentality. Can you tell me of any breakthrough technology or system or music or whatever that was created by that credo? Nope.

Creativity can only happen with action. Fear can sometimes create a situation where action is the only alternative. Whether the person understands that motivation and acts on it is usually a case by case situation. Some do, and some fold into fetal position. But the only way out of the fetal position is taking action.

Action is the antidote to fear and the parent of creativity. Take action and break something.

Seth's Blog: Fear and Creativity: "The enemy of creativity is fear.

The enemy of fear, in the short run anyway, is not creativity. It's the fetal position."

Michael Fay: Photographer and Artiest

Stay safe Michael and keep shooting these remarkable images.

Fire and Ice: Ar Ramadi Images: "I am the artist in residence for the United States Marine Corps. I'm currently deployed in Iraq creating a body of artwork reflecting the experience of fellow Marines engaged in the War on Terrorism."

Paul Graham on Doing What You Love

I have always envied in a way the folks that can get up and do jobs that are uninspiring simply because they get paid. I tried that route a couple of times and it kills me inside. How nice to meet an accountant from a car dealership who tells me he doesn't think about or even like his job, but he makes mid 6 figures and has a huge retirement and two homes... sheesh. I am sure he has his challenges and such, but at the same time much more security than us in the freelance/entrepreneur world.

I love what I do. I have never done something just for the money. It has to be something I am passionate about. Read this very good essay for Paul's take.

How to Do What You Love: "To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We've got it down to four words: 'Do what you love.' But it's not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated."

Oh, and are you shooting things you love today? Next week? This is a constant problem for many creatives and I believe it is one of the ways that creatives get burned out. They stop 'producing' for themselves, or for the love of the creation. If it doesn't pay, it doesn't get done. Wrong thinking on so many levels.

Another test you can use is: always produce. For example, if you have a day job you don't take seriously because you plan to be a novelist, are you producing? Are you writing pages of fiction, however bad? As long as you're producing, you'll know you're not merely using the hazy vision of the grand novel you plan to write one day as an opiate. The view of it will be obstructed by the all too palpably flawed one you're actually writing.

"Always produce" is also a heuristic for finding the work you love. If you subject yourself to that constraint, it will automatically push you away from things you think you're supposed to work on, toward things you actually like. "Always produce" will discover your life's work the way water, with the aid of gravity, finds the hole in your roof.

Still Lovin' My Job

Richelle
Originally uploaded by Wizwow.

I have been absolutely swamped this week, so blogging has been slow. Lots of neat things going on, and some I will be sharing with you soon. This Friday Richelle came in for a photo shoot. Lovely young lady and she was very good on her first photoshoot.

When experts share their knowledge...

everyone benefits. Fantastic little e-book and it is free.

Web Ink Now: New complimentary e-book - The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly: "The Web has changed the rules for press releases. The thing is, most old-line PR professionals just don’t know it yet. But YOU need to understand the new rules. To help you, I just published a complimentary e-book called: The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly. Please download it and pass it on.

Because the rules for relating to the public have changed so slowly over the past ten years (since the Web has allowed people to read press releases directly), practitioners who learned based on the old rules have been equally slow to change. In fact, most old-school experts have refused to change altogether. It is time to step it up and consider the promise Web 2.0 public relations holds."

Possibilities

'K... What if you told your clients that they could get the links to their images on a simple RSS feed. And they say..."What the heck is an RSS feed." So you send them to this nifty little newly launched site. And they sign up (free) and you start to send 0ut little notes to clients... specials, ideas for shoots, new presentation materials, newly added images, locations you are off to... and they go to read it cause they are interested... Not a Blog, sort of... more like invited messages that can help you keep current clients excited and new clients become steady clients.

FeedXs

David Galertner's Response to Jaron's article

This is really getting fun. Well reasoned article by David Galertner.

Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » Reply to Lanier: "Jaron’s piece is, as usual, a combination of statements that make me want to say 'Hallelujah!' and others that strike me as dead wrong. Which explains why he remains, as far as I’m concerned, one of the few cyberintellectuals who is always worth reading. First I’ll comment on areas of disagreement, then on points where I think he’s exactly right."

Yep... we call this...

Marketing. Easy, inexpensive, global reaching painted roofs. Sheesh... what a good idea. I think there are lessons learned here. Can you think of any? (Hat tip: Kevin)

Adrants » Google Maps Super Charges Rooftop Advertising: "Boing Boing digs into digg and finds MIT Advertising Lab talking about advertisers discovering the value of Google Maps and placing large ads of rooftops for those using Google Maps to see. Target's done it. Realtors are using Google Maps to their benefit as well by letting home buyers examine maps, zoom in on house and view selling details. Yes, Google does rule the world."

Yes, in case you are wondering

Headshot in fur
Originally uploaded by Wizwow.

... I love my job.
Deena in the studio Tuesday. She has lots of energy and you can book her at the Leighton Agency (www.leightonagency.com).

"Neo-Jeffersonian hifalutination" and more...

Another response to the Lanier Article (and to Instapundit's response as to the original article as well). This is kinda fun for me. I love reading really smart guys... epecially when they get to doin' some serious "neo-Jeffersonian hifalutination". Ya know.

Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » Reply to Lanier: "Aside from ruing the neo-Jeffersonian hifalutination of its rhetoric as well as techno-utopian 'they just don’t get it' arrogance of its style, there is not much of substance in it I feel compelled to retract now. The Internet continues to be an anti-sovereign social space, endowing billions with capacities for free expression that would have been unthinkable a generation ago."

Happy 300, Ben

Along with Jefferson, one of my great heroes. I wish more Americans knew how cool this guy was. Read it all.

Poor Richard's Redemption - New York Times: "His curiosity was matched by the suppleness of his mind, one singularly free of hobgoblins. (His ability to argue either side of an issue with equal vigor drove Adams to distraction.) Nor was there anything orthodox or evangelical about Franklin, who took his Puritanism as he took his Enlightenment ideals: with a splash of water, hold the doctrine. His religion was tolerance, his sect pragmatism."

Stephanie's Shoot

I recently had the opportunity to shoot some images with a model from the Leighton Agency here in Phoenix. I thought I would share the take with you. This is a Flickr slide show. Enjoy.

I know this may be insensitive...

But this really is the best Blonde Joke Ever...

If a tree falls...

... now I can get a zillion answers. Interesting and I think this type of thing may become quite popular... However, I am troubled by all of the stupid answers, opinion answers and simply wrong answers I read on some of the questions I reviewed. It will be interesting to see how this progresses. Let's hope that we see some serious inquiries and thoughtful responses.
Yahoo! Answers - Home

If you aren't reading Guy Kawasaki...

... you should be. This is a funny, insightful and poignant list of things I wish I had heard back in '67. I don't remember our graduation speaker, but I do remember thinking that most of what I was hearing that hot June night was pure bullshit.

Turned out I was right.

Let the Good Times Roll by Guy Kawasaki: Hindsights: "Let me tell you, it was hard. Very hard. Every step of the process was hard: figuring out who to interview, getting the interviews, doing the interviews, and editing the interviews. It was much harder than writing a book where you just sit there and make things up. :-)

I also wrote a speech based on the book, and I have given it six times at commencements, graduations and baccalaureates: Palo Alto High (three times), DeAnza College, High Tech High, and Harker School. Giving these speeches brought me some of the greatest moments of joy in my life. And, unlike the Kurt Vonnegut hoax, these were for real.
"

I am loving this

As a wannabe writer, gathering notes and links and pics and such used to be kinda disjointed. Bookmarking, cutting/pasting, opening notepad... As a designer, I want to keep notes on development, keys, logins... Now I have been using this for a week and it is simply astounding. I will upgrade to the full version for sure.

EverNote - EverNote Product Overview: "All Your Notes in One Place
With EverNote, all your notes are stored in one convenient place: an endless digital roll of paper. No need to search through folders, files, bookmarked web pages or scraps of paper."

Jeff makes some good points here

It isn't that Google is such a 'bad guy', but that they are a no frills search place that does what the user wants it to. And it does it fairly well (I do think that tags will become more useful than keywords soon, and in some instances Google searches can really suck... but I digress). There will be some diverse players coming into this space and it will be interesting to see what they bring to the consumer searcher.

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Beware the Googeyman: "Meanwhile, the smart guys are hiring search-engine-optimization experts and trying to figure out how to get more people to their stuff thanks to Google. See the post below: Walled gardens are no more. Or, if they do exist, they are lonely places populated only by their few, cranky proprietors."

And this comment about Jakob Nielson is right on. This 'guru' is sounding more and more irrelevant as he goes off with these astoundingly stupid attacks. He doesn't seem to have even the simplest clue about how the market works and how searches add value to consumer actions. I particularly love the "self-annointed' description. Right on.

: At the same time, we have the self-annointed usability “expert” Jakob Nielsen (didn’t anybody ever tell him that reading lines of text three feet long isn’t very usable?!?) also goes after Google and search engines, calling them leeches because they create an open marketplace that suck more profit out of transactions as they get bigger and more efficient. His sequence sounds right but not his solutions. What we need is competition. What we need is an open ad marketplace. More on that in time….

I think you need a good Google strategy. Ignoring it or fearing it shouldn't be on your list of choices.

Reply to Lanier by Glenn Reynolds

...is up at Cato Unbound. This thread is very interesting, I hope you are following along.

Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » Reply to Lanier: "Eric's also right that only a highly productive economy can support a gift economy across large numbers of people, and that echoes a theme that I've sounded in An Army of Davids: We may achieve the worker's paradise, but it will be through the interplay of technology and markets, rather than via the mechanisms favored by 20 th Century advocates of socialism."

Just for fun...

Stephanie in Jean Skirt
Originally uploaded by Wizwow.

I am working on a new portfolio. Planning on doing more shooting this year and this necessitates some new imagery. I have created a plan for shooting new images every week, and twice per week on alternating weeks... Did you get that?

Anyway, the only way I can work this into my schedule is to treat it exactly as a job. I have booked and planned my shoots throughout January and should have the new book ready for viewing by mid February.

Every once in a while I will share an image or two here on the 'ol blog.

Reply to Lanier by Eric Raymond

I linked the Lanier article a few days ago. I said you would be thinking about it for a while. Eric Raymond read it too, thought about it and wrote this reply. This is fascinating stuff from some very smart fellows.

Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » Reply to Lanier: "Jaron then takes a swing at the computer-science concept of a 'file' without acknowledging a simple fact — information has to be transported. It's all very well to speak of linked digital content and seamless webs of information, but at some point, these lovely ramified entities have to be moved between the hothouse environments in which they can flourish. At which point, willy-nilly, you will find yourself packing all their manifold complexities into a block of data with a name that you can push around as a unit. In other words, a file."

Dang do I need to read this book

Getting started with “Getting Things Done” | 43 Folders: "The Problem with “stuff”

Getting Things Done succeeds because it first addresses a critical barrier to completing the atomic tasks that we want to accomplish in a given day. That’s “stuff.” Amorphous, unactionable, flop-sweat-inducing stuff. David says:

Here’s how I define “stuff:” anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step. [pg. 17]

Stuff is bouncing around in our heads and causing untold stress and anxiety. Evaluation meetings, bar mitzvahs, empty rolls of toilet paper, broken lawn mowers, college applications, your big gut, tooth decay, dirty underwear and imminent jury duty all compete for prime attention in our poor, addled brains. Stuff has no “home” and, consequently, no place to go, so it just keeps rattling around.

Worst off, we’re too neurotic to stop thinking about it, and we certainly don’t have time to actually do everything in one day. Jeez Louise, what the hell am I, Superman?"

This is a long and excellent post...

Take the time to read this, print it out... I am going to study this and take a look at some of the things I have been working on and compare. I really enjoy Scoble's blog... and this is truly a gift to his readers.

Creating Passionate Users: Crash course in learning theory: "One formula (of many) for a successful blog is to create a 'learning blog'. A blog that shares what you know, to help others. Even--or especially--if that means giving away your 'secrets'. Teaching people to do what you do is one of the best ways we know to grow an audience--an audience of users you want to help."

This is a nice feature...

David Galbraith: "'Gmail makes it easy for you to keep track of your packages, and map out directions to your destinations; when you open a message that lists an address or package tracking number, Gmail shows you handy links to maps and directions, or your package's delivery status.'"

I knew it was coming... but it kinda sucks

I fell in love with Nikon the moment I held my first F2. I had wanted a Canon but decided to attend a seminar at a photo store to learn a bit about shooting landscapes. It was presented by Nikon and they showed us some cool things that it did.

I picked up the F2 and it was a moment of joy. I bought it on the spot. Over the years I ended up with 4 F3's with motors, 2FM's with motors, an old Photomic F (very cool) and my trusty F2.

When auto focus came in to its own I ended up with Canon for a lot of reasons I wont go into, but I fell in love with the EOS and never bonded with the F4... don't know why, didn't like it.

I have since sold most of my Nikon equipment, but I still have a little bag with my F3 motorized, my original F2, the 180mm f2.8 (best lens ever made) and 24mm f2, 105mm 2.5 and 85mm 1.4. I even shoot them every once in a while. Will probably shoot them a little more in the near future... still love the look of some film.

Truly could mark the end of an era... a very important era in the history of photography.

Nikon kills (almost all) analog cameras in 2006 - Engadget: "Nikon has been seeing some success in the ultra-competitive digital camera market, and now that those sales account for more than 95% of their business, they're ready to go all the way (almost) and are ditching their existing film cameras and lenses -- except for their flagship F6 line and its relevant glass."

AHAA.. This explains it...

Steve's keynote secrets...

The Joy of Tech comic... laughter is the best tech support.

We're not there yet, Bill

I am needing another computer for home. I have a mac G4 here and a PC. I have been considering and now I am leaning more toward another mac. I have been an evangelist for mac in the past, then got somewhat disillusioned with company policies and the way the mac was going. I still think that mac should be more open, web-centric and such, I am probably going to get a G5 or Powerbook 17". After getting adware, malware and more for the last 2 months, I am literally sick of it.

Microsoft vs. Computer Security - Why the software giant still can't get it right. By Adam L. Penenberg: "Four years ago, Bill Gates dispatched a companywide e-mail promising that security and privacy would be Microsoft's top priorities. Gates urged that new design approaches must 'dramatically reduce' the number of security-related issues as well as make fixes easier to administer. 'Eventually,' he added, 'our software should be so fundamentally secure that customers never even worry about it.'"

Gotta get me one of these

Beautiful design and function. Also one of the sharpest sites I know. Design is the edge.

CR221 Solo: "Say hello to the Solo, Crosley’s first offering in its new Audiophile line of high-end audio products. The Solo is a little different than anything that you have ever seen, or heard, before. Start with the clean, “new-stalgic” look. Taking design cues from modern art, the corners are gently rounded to create the Solo effect. This “today” look is nicely complemented by the airplane tuning dial. The true magic of this little wonder lies in its ability to produce the cleanest, most consistent sound of any radio on the market."

Lightroom...

Adobe releases Lightroom in Beta. Adobe does not usually release a public beta of the tools, so this is interesting. The tools look very useful. This is a short review.

Digital Grin - powered by smugmug: "Adobe hopes this will be what pros and serious amateurs have been waiting for - an application that will allow them to easily sort, cull, rate, keyword, caption, show, print and edit large volumes of photos. What's that you say? You already have that with CS2 and Bridge? For some folks, this application will replace them - for others, it will augment - used as the first step in the post-processing workflow."

A Fascinating Article

This long article has a lot of well thought out ideas and examples of how the web, and software, are changing lives on a large scale. We tend to think of the macro when we work on it daily, Lanier takes us on a structured journey through the big picture effects of what we consider almost mundane concerning software design and the structures that are digital economics.

Read every word. You'll be thinking about this article for quite awhile.

Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » The Gory Antigora: Illusions of Capitalism and Computers: "There is an important Thoreau-like question that inevitably comes up: What's the point? The common illusion that digital bits are free-standing entities, that would exist and remain functional even if there were no people around to use them, is unfortunate. It means that people are denied the epiphany that the edifice of the Net is precisely the generosity and warmth of humanity connecting with itself.

The most technically realistic appraisal of the Internet is also the most humanistic one. The Web is neither an emergent intelligence that transcends humanity, as some (like George Dyson) have claimed, nor a lifeless industrial machine. It is a conduit of expression between people.

This perception seems to me not only beautiful, but necessary. Any idea of the human future based only on amplifying some parameter or other of human capability inevitably leads to disaster or, at best, disappointment."

Something I am exploring

I am looking into this little community thing. Seems promizing and could be a cool way to show "loop-folios" to prospective clients. Not sure about the download app thing though. I'll keep you apprized on what I find.

FilmLoop, Inc. Home Page: "he FilmLoop™ Network opens the door to a vast library of free photo-rich Loops. Get Loops on news, art, entertainment, sports, and humor as well as Public Loops submitted by other FilmLoop users — there's bound to be something in the FilmLoop™ Network you love."

Got "Got"

LOL... the macarena. Indeed.

Shotgun Marketing BLOG: "... You might as well be using the Macarena in your ads.

Stop. Please stop. You're hurting the children."

Audio: Powerful tool

In the previous post I talked about tools to get your clients excited about your work or service. Here is a short post about using audio to help sell on E-Bay. I am looking at ODEO very closely and plan on starting some podcasting myself.

To-Done: "Enter audio. With the debut of services like Odeo, it’s easier than ever to publish audio content on the web. So what is being suggested here? Podcast your eBay auction! Simply record your product description and then link to the audio on your eBay auction. You’d still want to include a written description for obvious reasons, but using an audio description sure would set your auction apart."

Create Advocates

Interesting thing: create enough folks that love you and your work and you will have more work than you can imagine. Having people talking about your product will make more people want to see it. There are ways to create that buzz, to help your clients get excited about working with you. Some of the newest, and more interesting tools are blogs, podcasts and video casts. Getting the word out should be job one for you and your team.

Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing: Create Advocates - Word of Mouth Marketing - Business Blog: "Here is a list of ways to recruit advocates:

* Help other people be successful
* Superior Customer Service
* Superior Product with unexpected benefits
* Do the unexpected and make someone's day
* Publicly recognize other people
* Introduce people that you know that should know each other
* Be open, honest and human
* Ask people what it would take to have them recommend you or introduce you to their friends
* Constantly perfect your networking and communication efforts"

Seth's Blog: How to be lied to

Seth points to a very sensible idea. Reframe the question to get a result that is worth something. Too many times we have written the script, poorly, and then attempt to play it out. Asking questions that can result in pain. introspection and change can be difficult. They are, however, the only questions that are worth asking.

Then listen.

Seth's Blog: How to be lied to: "Every question represents a choice for the person you are asking. She can choose to take a risk and tell you truth, or she can dissemble, fib or outright lie, and save your feelings or avoid an awkward situation.

The way you ask the question, then, matters.

The easy answer to, 'Can I help you?' is, 'I'm just looking.' On the other hand, the easy answer to, 'Do you want to see what's on sale?' is, 'yes.'"

Are You Saying the Right Things?

One of my favorite stories is one of a photographer who woke up one day and realized that he had a simple way of increasing his portrait and wedding closes by simply changing how he described an aspect of his business that we all deal with. He changed the 'frame' of how he presented it and watched his sales increase 30% or more. The client 'got it' and the photogapher was amazed that a simple little switch of how he presented something got such a huge response. (Note: sorry, I cannot reveal the specifics. I do not have his permission.)

Read the whole thing.

Touch Points: Monday Morning Memo for November 28, 2005 by Roy H. Williams: "Businesses don't fail due to reaching the wrong people.

Businesses fail when they say the wrong things.

And they say the wrong things when they believe what the public tells them.

Conduct a survey. Ask the public to describe in detail the kind of place they'd like to shop. Then build that place, exactly as described, and see if they ever show up.

Experience tells us they won't."

All 12 are good...

... this one is my favorite. It can be a powerful choice to stop doing what everyone else is doing. Especially competitors who are doing the same thing as their competitors... Hey, what if you are doing what they are doing and they are doing it because they are watching you? Scary.

Decker Marketing: "5. What competitors will you not follow?

Most companies should only pay close attention to a couple of competitors. If you try to pay attention to the entire set of competitors in a large industry, you spend too little time focusing on the customer.

By choosing what competitors not to follow, you can better understand primary competitors who are rallying for your best customers’ attention. Also, it affords you time to pay attention to the customer…which is the primary focus necessary to succeed over all competitors!"

Good Inertia - Bad Inertia...

Overcoming inertia and then sustaining it... Sounds like an oxymoronic thing to say, but it is true. Here is a definition of inertia I just Googled; "The tendency of an object at rest to remain at rest, and of an object in motion to remain in motion."

So let's look at the bad inertia. An object at rest, stuck, static, un-moving. That is something I come up against from time to time. Inertia. It is what keeps consumers buying inferior products and not trying new ones... that would require motion and the stuck inertia keeps them doing the same thing over and over again. I gave up land line phones long ago, preferring to have a couple of cells (one with unlimited local and long distance calls and one with some 'roaming' ability). It has been liberating as well as cost effective.

That move to cells only became good inertia. Moving forward. Trying new things, eliminating what doesn't work, and replicating what does. It is interesting what happens when you get started on something new, a kind of energy takes over and the next steps become easier.

It's like that with your marketing. If you get started with a simple blog, it becomes easier and easier to keep it up. It's that damn inertia thing that keeps you sitting back and waiting for it to happen on its own.

Of course, you are blog readers and probably have your own. You are on the good inertia track.

How do we motivate others to fight the bad inertia and begin the momentum of good inertia?

A Good Story

About a restaurant that has a good "story." Wishing them great success. I will stop by next time I am in the city.

NY1: Top Stories: "It's been more than four years since the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11th terror attacks, but surviving employees of Windows on the World are now opening a new restaurant in Greenwich Village.

The upscale restaurant “Colors” is set to open on Lafayette Street Thursday and is co-owned by the workers. It offers a diverse menu with offerings from their 22 native countries. "

I love these guys

I love these guys. I finally am seeing a really fantastic alternative to traditional "interruption" marketing, and this new marketing system isn't really anything like Seth's "storytelling." Nosireebob, these guys have a whole new, customer centric way of marketing.

Stay with me now. You are visiting a website that has kids games on it (my eight year old) and are prompted on screen that your machine has detected a dangerous virus and you "MUST CLICK HERE!". So the dutiful 8 year old clicks. (giggling: this is just so cooooool).

Now, you infect, er..., uh, discreetly install... yeah, that's it... discreetly install some tricky software that now puts a PORN feed right on your desktop. Now some stupid, luddite folks may not understand how cool that is, so you make it non-removeable. That is sheer genius.

But... it get's better. You infe.., discreetly install, some software that makes it entirely impossible to use the computer. You can't use the internet or any applications because of this clever marketing masterpiece.

Now, damn almighty, I can't wait to buy stuff from the folks who did this to my computer. I am nearly chomping on the bit to buy stuff from them. As a matter of fact I would like to meet them in person to tell them exactly what I think of their incredibly thoughtful marketing strategy... taking down my PC that I need to actually do work. Gets me all tingly.

So, hey... any hackers out there wanna meet me? You wanna? Come on, don't be scared. Come on down, boys. I just wanna have a chat with you.

And yes, I will gladly do the time.

The "Top 10" list is available in PDF

Please feel free to download it, print it, send it to friends, link it or whatever. I hope everyone who reads it benefits in some way. I was talking to a reader at an event last night and he told me he was finally able to understand the importance of getting a blog and a Flickr account. That's what I am excited about. Even if you can't do everything on the list, doing a few will make a difference. Here is the link to the PDF.

"Duh...

Guy Kawasaki has a Blog... This should be good, really good.

“Let the Good Times Roll” by Guy Kawasaki: Guy’s Golden Touch: "This is a duhism if I’ve ever heard one: “I guess we should create a great product.” Duh! As opposed to a crappy one? The salient question, however, becomes, “What are the characteristics of a great product?” Here is the answer."

Read this today... and tomorrow...

... read it again. (hat tip: Seth)

unNotified Bodies - Stubborn Resistance to Change: "I can't think of anything the human brain is better at than this: inventing reasons NOT to do new things. Please don't tell me that modern psychology has shown that continuous learning makes you happier and healthier and delays senility and so on. Right. And eating a diet high in leafy greens and low in carbohydrates will help you stay skinny, which is why everyone at the mall is so fit and trim. So here's a parable drawn from my life, to support my claim that the natural state of the human mind is sloth, followed by a short sermon."

Brand Autopsy: 25 of 05

Thanks to Kevin for this great link. I almost missed it. Gonna settle in and read all 25...

Brand Autopsy: My Top Twenty-Five of Ohh-Five

How could anyone forget this face?

Andrea left a comment on my "Looking forward - looking back" that said "I don't know if you remember me..." It was a lovely post, and thank you Andrea. Yes. I remember you. How could anyone forget? Thank you for a very nice comment. It made me smile and that makes it a great day. Good luck and, btw, go ahead and chase every dream you have. In the long run, it's the only chase that makes sense.

Damn - I hate these guys

Yes... hate is a strong word, but I do. This kind of sophomoric crap is getting way out of hand. Find em, jail em, hell - kill em, I don't care. (sheesh, you're a bit testy tonite aren't you -- ed.) Yep. I am.

Security Watch: The next Sober virus attack - CNET reviews: "Imagine sending a very large and sophisticated virus over e-mail--your ISP or company would certainly stop it dead at the gateway. So, virus writers have started sending out smaller versions that merely infect. Once installed, the small virus then opens a backdoor to call out to the predetermined Web server IP address from which it then loads a more sophisticated version of itself (or it transforms the infected PC into a conduit for spam, pornography, or a host of other malicious uses). If the small virus downloaded the larger code upon infection, there would be a collision of newly infected machines and second-wave infections, so virus writers have started delaying the second wave by several days or even several weeks."

Looking forward - looking back (1)

Well, as some of you know, I used to be a full-time commercial photographer. I shot all over the country for fashion and beauty clients. When my first daughter was born, I found it hard to leave to go on long shoots and be away from watching her grow up. I then refocused my work on commercial and ended up in a big studio (5ooo sq feet) shooting garage openers, chrome wheels, food, jewelry... just a mish-mash of high end advertsing and design photographs. I was slowly going back to my roots as an AD, designing the ads and shooting them as well. Then annual reports and then designing the ads and hiring photographers. A particularly bad decision in becoming partners with a louse caused great financial harm and I pretty much stopped shooting for a while.

I decided over the last year that I missed shooting, so I have been doing more and more stuff to get my skills back. However I wont be doing much 'commercial' work, nor will I be leaving my consulting business and doing it full time. I am going to shoot what I want and keep it fun. My new markets are fine weddings and portraiture.

I have neighbors, friends and clients who are always telling me how much they love the shots I have done of their kids, families and such because they are so different. They love the images and that makes it even more fun for me. That kind of feedback is rare in the commercial world.

I have launched my new wedding and portrait site. Because I am an owner of Total-Control-Site.com, I of course used one of our products, the WebFolio, to build the foundation. So it will serve two purposes; to show my work and to show a site built out fully on our simple template. (BTW... I didn't do anything "special"... this is a WebFolio "straight from the box" as they say.

My PDF, I guess it is an EBook, containing all 10 Action Plans for 2006 is ready for you today at my SteelID site (and it too will be launching a new and improved version this month). Anyway, here is the total link set to all 10 Action Plans. I will post this link set on the right column when I get a chance.

Happiest of New Years to all my readers. I hope to have even more for you this year.

Be Found on the Search Engines. (DAP 1)
Show More Pictures (DAP2)
Flickr… more than just a photoblog. (DAP3)
Web Design Options (DAP4)
Taking Stock of Your Stock (DAP5)
Selling Prints and Fine Art (DAP6)
Get Inspired (DAP7)
Web Marketing Tips (DAP8)
Move to the Web for Increased Productivity (DAP9)
Creating a More Profitable Year (DAP10)

Top Ten Action Plans for 2006 (10)

Creating a more profitable year.

In the previous nine posts I have covered a lot of things. Pay-per-click advertising, site design, search engine strategies, marketing tips, where to get inspiration and more. Many of you may be thinking that this is impossible to do in a short amount of time. You may be right, and that’s ok. Take some time to make plans for developing the tools and strategies that make sense for you.

One of the things that I keep in mind is the incremental approach to improving success. Most of us aren’t starting at zero. We have some good clients, a good portfolio, decent web site and at least some sort of marketing plan. We don’t have to chuck it all; we have to make it incrementally better. Let’s take a look at just a few things that can make a big difference.

Make a list of what has to be done to increase your revenue. Then make a list of what revenue streams you have and what you currently do to maintain them. For instance, say you currently shoot about a dozen corporate portraits a month. And to make it easy to figure, lets say you profit $100 per. That’s $1000 or so per month. It takes you on average 10 marketing calls per week to keep those clients and fill in for attrition.

So let’s just take a look at how we can incrementally increase these figures. Let’s add 10% to the profit you are making. So we raise rates a little bit. Now you are making $110 per shoot.

Now we increase our phone calls 10%… making 2 more calls per week. If we keep our rate of 10 customers for 10 calls per week, adding 10% more calls could get us an additional 2 clients. And if the referral rate is one per 10 clients, then we may get an additional client every month. This isn’t guaranteed stuff, but it does make sense.

10 shoots at an additional $10 profit is $100 more ($1100).

But we have also added a few extra calls so this month we have 2 additional client shoots. So we will add an additional 220 dollars to the month.

Incrementally we have added 10% to a couple of our identified items, but the result is more than 10%. We are now at $1320 per month, which is substantially larger than 10%.

My point is that if you look across all the things you are doing, add a 10% increase, or 5%… whatever makes sense. The cumulative results can certainly add up to serious increases in revenue, clients and more.

Another approach is to take some of the ideas and plan to implement one of them each month. That way costs, if any, are controlled and time commitments are not so demanding as to cause interest fatigue.

Competition is fierce, but I also see a grinding away of some of our basic expectations as photographers. Some things like Royalty Free images have been a thorn for lots of shooters, but now the Internet, affordable high-quality digital cameras, and lots of part-time photographers are taking a toll. 2006 will be a pivotal year for many photographers.

The tips and ideas I have presented are just a sample of the things you should be thinking about. I hope you found it helpful. And I hope you continue to look for additional streams of income to make your next year a wonderful, and profitable one.

Update: It came to my attention that I left out an important note. If you are currently doing something that is not working, please don't add 10% to that to see if it makes a difference. It wont. Measuring is important, and it can also be truamatizing. Sometimes we don't want to hear that what we are doing is not working, but that knowledge can also be very liberating. Move to try some different ways, measure them and refine the approach so that real numbers can be applied to the strategies.

And that is DAP10... work smarter.

Cheers. (I will make this 10 post item a PDF for free downloading. See my site at www.dongiannatti.com on January 3, 2006.)

Previous:
Move to the Web for Increased Productivity (DAP9)
Web Marketing Tips (DAP8)
Get Inspired (DAP7)
Selling Prints and Fine Art (DAP6)
Taking Stock of Your Stock (DAP5)
Web Design Options (DAP4)
Flickr… more than just a photoblog. (DAP3)
Show More Pictures (DAP2)
Be Found on the Search Engines. (DAP 1

A short post on how I shoot

Shot a few of Christina yesterday. I like working with talent that enjoys the work as much as I do. Let me take a few graphs here and tell you how I shoot.

I am digital at this point, preferring Canon cameras. The shots below were done with an 80 - 200 f2.8 at about 6.7. I use a very large soft-box as my main light and flats / umbrellas for fill.
Post processing is done in Photoshop and every image is carefully processed from minimal touch-up to full blown illustrative techniques.

I like to think of my pictures as capturing a moment in time where the camera becomes invisible and the woman is looking directly into your soul. I also try to capture those moments that are not 'staged' but real. I shoot while the model is 'composing' herself for a moment, I shoot when they are resting... I want to capture something that most don't see. And then share it.

Digital gives me the ability to shoot as many exposures as I want and then go through them with careful attention to what I was trying to achieve as well as what the woman would want to show.

Anyway, here are a few more reasons why I love my job.

Christina wears jeans very well, don't ya think?

Simple headshot with minimal post-processing.

Major post-processing using an action to make the shot look like a "TinType" photo complete with stains. I love images that are illustrative and these types of tools make it possible to do it digitally without gettin' all them smelly chemicals on my hands. (I used to print Cibachromes... Dang, wonder how many years I shaved off smelling and handling that chemistry?)

Digital Camera Carnival

Hey... maybe it was the holidays. Small collection of posts here today. Happy New Year and on with the mini-carnival. (Welcome Instapundit readers. This blog is mostly about marketing and such for photographers. Lots of digital photography info as well. Look around, but don't trip over anything... my office is such a mess...)

Eric (The Good Lieutenant) is taking pics with his new Nikon 4600.

Kevin weighs in on why iPod's are 'cooler' than digital cameras.

Right at the Left Beach asks:
How Will You Use Your Digital Camera?

"Digital cameras proliferate and jump into the hands of consumers at an astounding rate. Who are the buyers of the amazing technology? What do all these buyers want to do with their little photon recorders?"

I will post #10 in my series on what photographers should be doing next - er - this year to build their business. See below for the last 9 (DAP) entries.

Here's a horror story about buying a digital camera online.

Rick Lee keeps us humble by shooting everything he sees... well!

A good read on EXIF data at DigitalPhotographyWeblog.

Digital Camera Tracker tries to help sort the proliferation of new cameras.

Photography Blog on hidden costs: It’s long been an accepted fact in the digital camera industry that you don’t necessarily get everything that you need in the box. You almost always get a memory card that’s far too small, or in the case of digital SLRs, no memory card at all.

Casio Exilim Zoom Ex-Z750 is reviewed at Picture Correct.

Interesting article on a cheap digital camera at Woot.

"Looking through the (metaphoric) pile of downloaded pics this morning, I found myself struggling to remember where some of the scenic and people shots were actually taken. So in a couple of years I can guarantee I will definitely have no clue as to where I have taken the majority of my photograph collection!" Interesting suggestion from Peter Cochrane (a bit older post, but still interesting)

Well, that's the carnival as it stands. I added a few posts that I had found to round it out. I hope you all enjoy, stick around and read some of my photo-centric posts and have a wonderful New Year.

Top Ten Action Plans for 2006 (9)

Here is a quick list of things to use online to make you more productive, informed and focused. These are my picks, you can look for others and you may be very surprised by the cool stuff you will find. Note: these are all web-based and mostly free tools… not software.

Move to the Web for increased productivity. (DAP 9)

1.Get your documents online with Writely. This online word processing tool will allow you to manage your writing from a browser-based platform. Never be away from your writing projects, contracts or project notes. If you have access to the internet, you have your documents and your word processor.

2.Social bookmarking is the sharing of bookmarks and information. Visit and use del.icio.us to learn and share knowledge. Tonight I found a fantastic list of Photoshop actions and filters there. What a great resource.

3.Voo2do will make your tasks and to-do management nearly effortless. Web-based tools make sense when you can share your tasks and lists with team members and whoever you want. “Remember the Milk” is a good list and task manager too.

4.At Digg you can read articles written on subjects of a wide variety. There is a place to share information and articles and learn as well. Digg for knowledge and you will find it.

5.You need a start page that makes sense. When you launch your browser you want all of the information and tools you need right there at your fingertips. Now you could buy Dreamweaver and build your own, or you can simply make a very cool one at netvibes – free. Another contender if you like is Protopage.

6.How about a calendar for booking shoots and meetings? Have it at your fingertips at anytime and let your studio manager make changes when you are shooting. CalendarHub is my favorite.

7.We all would like the ability to store some large files online and make it easy for clients and partners to retrieve them. With openomy it is simple and free… up to a gig!

8.We’ve talked about image sharing… I still think you should have a Flickr account… and keep it fresh.

9.Need a search tool that brings you really relevant links, maybe even links from an expert in the field? Squidoo will give you a ‘lens’ created by experts in their fields… they’ve done some heavy lifting for you and now you can research what you need with more focus. It’s a lens… get it? Create one too and share your expertise.

10.Jotlive makes OnLine meetings and note sharing a breeze. Great for out-of-town client meetings over the phone and PC…

11.ODEO make online recording simple. Try it for making notes, podcasts and brainstorming.

12.Sometimes you come across a very cool web page. Wouldn’t it be nice to save it somewhere where you can access it again, send someone to it, make special categories… and then access it from anywhere… Furl… that’s the ticket.

Baker's dozen update: Just found a cool little time tracking / billing tool to add to your arsenal... SidejobTrack. Check it out.

Another update for personal time tracking try TimeTracker.

There are many more online tools that can help you stay organized, on schedule, informed, linked in, focused and productive. Try these and see what you think. By the way, did you notice they are all free... and online!

Cheers and Happy New Year.

Tomorrow: Creating a More Profitable Year

Previous:
Web Marketing Tips (DAP8)
Get Inspired (DAP7)
Selling Prints and Fine Art (DAP6)
Taking Stock of Your Stock (DAP5)
Web Design Options (DAP4)
Flickr… more than just a photoblog. (DAP3)
Show More Pictures (DAP2)
Be Found on the Search Engines. (DAP 1