New Work....Finally!

The holidays have been keeping me incredibly busy....go figure. But I did manage to shoot something new. The image to the left is a preview of what I have been playing with the past two days. You can view the final image after the jump below.

I have been working more on the re-launch of the site a lot and have been trying to shoot some new content for it.


More after the jump

The Experiment

So...this past Saturday my house was invaded by a total of 7 kids. All but one were family. I am OK when it is just our kids at the house. I tend to freak out and get really stressed once more and more children arrive and overtake the house some kind of plague.

As the day progressed, I became more and more stressed out and aggravated. The better half came up with an idea that was inspired by this video:

So, off to the store we go to track down as much sour candy as humanly possible. After all the lighting was set up, we decided to tell the kids what we were going to do. And we were immediately rewarded with smiles, laughter, and an all around want to be a participant.

More after the jump

ASMP testifies in court today

Today begins the long road to making sure that we as photographers are treated fairly in the ever changing market. Licensing and usage is the standard that we all live by and it seems like not every one is on the same page. Maybe after reading THIS, we might actually be able to start on the same page.

more busy days are upon me

It has been a little while since the last time I wrote. The past two months have been really busy and hectic. But, that is when life is usually the most exciting.

I have been taking some classes this semester to keep things fresh and new for me. Plus, it doesn't hurt to learn something new and grow the box that you live in. One of the classes I am taking at ACC this semester is Studio Management. Despite the course name, this is actually a class focusing on the business side of photography. We have had lecturers of all types come in...bankers, lawyers, insurance agents and may different photographers. The photographers that we have had come visit us range from portrait and wedding photographers through commercial and editorial photographers. Recently, we had Kirk Tuck come in and speak to us. This man has and continues to have a great career in commercial photography. He had some amazing things to share with us about running a business and how to remain successful in the current trying times. Keep an eye on his blog, Visual Science Lab. Kirk updates this blog daily with some great material that everyone should read.

On a side note, I just returned from a job shooting a ton of new images for a local Texas busines, G and S Fish Market. I am finishing up the images for delivery as we speak. This was, in my head, going to be a fairly easy, but fun, assignment. So of course there were some slight issues to overcome. Remember, shooting shiny and reflective items will require you to think a little outside the box and challenge you to work harder.

Enjoy your week!

I Have Something Great to Reveal!

I will apologize ahead of time for how long this video takes to load. But it is definitely worth the wait.



This is a viral video that I stumbled across this evening. It was created by DRAFTFCB out of Stockholm. And the best part of all....its 100% interactive. You can make one for yourself or for friends and family.

Jonyrose Filip

i am unsure who took this image at this time

and i add more to this again today

today i learned that i lost a really good and close friend
Jonyrose Filip

Why does Photography cost so much?

I have been working on a post in regards to the of good photography cost and dealing with educating our clients about it for a couple days now. This morning while reading and catching up on blogs I follow, I stumbled across this gem written by Marianne Drenthe. Its a great read and written in the context of a portrait photographer, but the principles and concepts still apply no matter what aspect of the industry you are involved in. So, I have temporarily put my own post about this topic on the back burner and have presented what I found for you in its entirety (and with permission even)here.

This is a great read from Joe McNally.....even for you non-photographers out there....thanks to my buddy, Stephen Hooker for pointing out this gem that I managed to overlook on part of daily reading.

What to do when it snows in Austin, TX?

So, I am going to start this off with a bit of history. Sunday afternoon was in the low 80s. By Monday morning, the weather had dipped back down to about 50 or so. This morning I awoke to it snowing. Yes. Snowing. In Austin, TX. So what did I decide to do with the opportunity? I went and took pictures.

Last Thursday, I got my hands on a Cambo large format view camera. I didn't get much opportunity to play with it and shoot until Sunday afternoon. And even then, I only shot 2 sheets of film. I forgot how much I loved working with the view camera. There is something magical in the tilts, shifts and swings of the standards. It is a very organic and slow process. You bring out the legs and then set up either the short or long rail, then the standards and bellows. And then you start framing your image. By the time you have framed and composed your shot, you can easily have spent 30 minutes before you are even ready to contemplate loading the film and setting the aperture and shutter speed. That process alone is an art form; ie. bellows extension factor.

Accidents do happen.......

like this one on my personal vehicle this morning.

So, today we will talk about insurance I guess.

Do not skip this important step. Insuring yourself, any one you bring in for a shoot and your equipment is a necessity. It covers your butt if an accident were to occur. There are many choices out there as far as carriers go. This link will help you compare rates from different carriers. The good news is that these types of policies are a lot cheaper than one would expect. Call your agent that handles your vehicles and your homeowners policies. Find out if a general business policy suits your needs or if you need to look at also carrying an inland/marine policy.

These links should also help answer some questions and point you in the right direction:
Camera and Equipment Insurance
Business Insurance Primer for Photographers
Protecting Your Business with Insurance


The biggest suggestion I can offer in regards to insurance is make sure deductible is one that you can afford to pay in the event an accident does occur. And always go with replacement cost for all equipment.

Quick Update and other tidbits

I figured I would take advantage of the brief amount of downtime I had before I ran the last of the house to school.

This year has taken off with a bang. And hasn't let up at all.

I am enrolled in a couple classes that have re-arranged my schedule some so there has been a slight learning curve, to both mind and body. The classes I am taking this semesters are definitely some interesting eye-openers and I am sure more than a couple will spark some new posts. One of which is in draft form as we speak.

On a side note, I tweeted about this yesterday. It appears that the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, TX will now be the press photo archive for Magnum Photos.

Magnum Photos has sold its archive of more than 185,000 press prints to Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computer, and two other investors for an undisclosed amount, the agency announced today. Under the terms of the sale, the prints were moved in December 2009 from Magnum's New York office to the Harry Ransom Center, the humanities library at the University of Texas in Austin.

The full details of the sale and how this is going to work can be found here on Magnum Photos or through PDN Online.

Computer graphic have and continue to astound me

This video is taken from a recent post on PetaPixel.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

The Third and The Seventh by Alex Roman is an amazing testament to the abilities of the full potential of CG animation. The video focus on architecture and photography, and even utilizes many different camera techniques throughout the film. Alex even includes a link to a behind the scenes look at the "making" of the film.

i was recently talking to my better half and some friends about the level of CG animation. I give it about a decade before actors start licensing their likeness and voices to be completely animated. Look at Avatar. Some of the character are complete CG animation and if you look at the pore texture, you would have to question if its real or not.

Make Your Personal Projects Write Checks for You

I am a huge advocate for personal projects. I have been working on one for the past 5 years now that I am still unsure as to when it will be "complete"...if ever. I have a very long list of ideas for more personal projects i want to....and must explore. But I don't want to take on too many at one time and end up watering down the images. I am a firm believer that one should not overwhelm themselves with too many projects at one time.

And at the sake of sounding a bit silly, why don't you make that personal project you are working on into a paying job? It isn't as far fetched as it may sound. Many of the guys (and ladies) we look up to and respect got their start in a very similar way. They dove into their personal work and honed their skills and the craft. They produced consistent and solid images....just like you are doing. So, why not turn that project into something more....something that you will be able to market and pitch to a variety of potential clients?

A former instructor of mine, Sean Perry, was the one who put this concept and idea in my head. (Before I go to far along, don't forget to vote for Sean while you have time.....he is one of the finalist this year for the Hasselblad Masters.) Sean and I were going over some of the images on one of my drives and he kept asking me about what this image was for, who i shot it for, etc. When I told him they were mostly from personal projects and one off ideas, he just smiled at me. And then over the next 12 weeks he pumped my brain full of ideas and concepts that had never crossed my mind before.

What follows after the jump, is a mixture of his pure advice and some of my own advice and experience.

Why Some People Almost Always Take Awesome Photographs

This is a must read. So what are you waiting for....click on the link.Why Some People Almost Always Take Awesome Photographs

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How to Make 2010 Work for You

Now that the holidays are finally over and the new year is upon us, its time to get back to business as usual. Wait. Maybe it should be business as "un-usual". 2009 was by far a less than typical year. The economy struggled, many business closed doors…..but at the same time, many businesses thrived and even new ones took firm root in the unstable soil of our economy. Makes you wonder what it was that these people did that made things work so well for them, doesn’t it? It got me thinking about what can I do to re-define my work and my business.

More after the jump

A New Year...What is in store for us now?

I had a couple other blogs I had been working on to publish right before the new year and after. The holidays kept me quite busy with family and the kids, so many of my unfinished thoughts are swimming around in half full bottles on the windowsill.

Its 2010. Its amazing how much has happned in the past year. Let alone the past 9 years of this decade and the millenium. I wont bore you with a top 10 list of things that happened last year. There are plenty of those floating around the internet as it is. And I'm not going to make a list of predictions of what I think is to come (even though i will go on a tangent or two before I am done).

We are entering the last year of the first decade of the millenium. So much has happened and changed the world we live in. Technology and the internet has put the world at our finger tips and its hard to stay afloat of all the information we have available at times. Cameras have changed. Computers are faster. The internet has become this huge and vast library of so much information and misinformation. But is all this technology and the advancements a good or bad thing?

more after the jump