Your mom hates this

I came across an awesome marketing tool today:

Do you remember when you would just love a movie or video game and your mom thought it was gross, disgusting, inappropriate, etc? The idea that your mom hated it made you want it more, love it more, experience it more... Well, apparently someone is capitalizing on that.

Love you, ma.....

Enjoy.

Vivian Maier

It's amazing to me that photographers leave so many unanswered questions behind.



I hope to God that I don't have to die to become famous.

The Black Hills

I'm speechless.

Making Prints

Hey Everyone (or all 3 of you... whatever. I still like you.)

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and New Year.

Sometimes when I'm surfing the net or reading my twitter feed I come across and article, that leads me to another one or five and I get caught up reading. I always forget who sent me the original message that sent me down the proverbial rabbit hole, but this particular article caught my eye and really hit home.

I've only done what the this article tells us not to do once, but I regretted it right after I did it. I still have issues with it because it's always in high demand, but now that I know that I'm hurting my client more than helping them, I won't do it anymore. My client is the most important thing I have going for me: If I don't have clients I keep happy, than I won't be getting any more of them.

Anyway, read the article. Give me your feedback, but this thing hit home.

http://tiffinbox.org/please-dont-just-give-your-clients-the-cd-or-dvd/

Wanting

So I've been thinking a lot about this life I'm trying to lead. I kept thinking about what my goals were, and what I wanted to be. I wanted to wake up every morning for the rest of my life and say to myself,"Self: You're a photographer" instead of what I've been saying for months,"Self: You're a hack."

Then it hit me.

What I want means very little if I don't know why.

Do I dream of having a photo shoot with famous stars? Sure. Do I dream that I can be so in demand that I actually need to hire an assistant and get a studio space? Hells Ya. But what I really want is something far more simple, but very elusive...

Simply put: I want to be able to spend time with my family whenever the hell I want. I never want to hear the words,"Daddy, why are you home?" EVER again. That's the best part about wanting a dream to come true: It's my dream, and that means it's malleable. If that means that I become a great photographer that gets just enough work to keep the family afloat so that I can be home when I need to be: so be it.

Working 9-5

Hey Everyone,

Some of you might know I dig hip-hop. Not the crap you hear on the radio, but REAL hip-hop. I'm by-no-means an expert on hip-hop, but I know what I like when I hear it.

This song hit me while listening to last.fm so I thought I'd share it. I'm sorry if they cuss more thank I do.... (publicly anyway...)

Enjoy

Blogging

Hi.

I'm having a hard time writing blogs. Let me rephrase that.... I'm having a hard time posting blogs. I've written a few in the past weeks, and I can't seem to post them. Not a technical inability, but more of a "man, I shouldn't say that" type of inability.

I keep writing my feelings and opinions on how I view the photography industry, particularly the box-photo-studios found where you buy your noodles and toilet paper. I keep telling myself that they're not my competition, but for some odd reason, they're getting business. Why? It's not like they really advertise... I think it might be that everyone knows that they're there. They're not very good, but they're there. How do I get the word out that I'm here and I can do better?

I made up my first ad to put up at local grocery stores where I live, work, and play. It didn't take long to design (kung fu college taught me that already), but I need to just print them out and drive places with ads and thumbtacks. I'm thinking about post cards to leave at high schools too.

Why am I telling you this? I dunno. Transparency maybe. I'm a photographer, not a business major. I'll have to just see what works in my area and trial and error it to death.

I hope I post this entry... I really want to get my work/word/existence out there.