writer, photographer, web person from Washington, DC.
This photo appeared in America at Work in The Atlantic. It’s a fascinating gallery of the diverse range of professions in this country. I love how The Atlantic does photojournalism so was delighted that they chose my picture for inclusion.
The photo is from an OccupyDC protest. Living in Washington, I see a lot of protests. But what’s interesting to me is how these events are covered by the media.
It doesn’t matter what your business model is as a photographer. It matters what the customer’s buying model is.
The above bit of wisdom is by Guy Kawasaki, who is quoted in an interesting article on rethinking photography business models.
These days, just about the only way photographers can make a living is by shooting weddings. But brides are creatures of our modern age too and are balking at some of the more old-fashioned elements of the business. Scott Bourne writes:
Gone are the days when we can just send some negatives to the lab, order some cheap 8×10 prints, put them in a black folder, mark them up 400 percent and call it a day.
Instead, brides want everything done digitally. They want all the pictures taken during the ceremony burned onto a CD. They even want the unprocessed files so that they can Photoshop them on their own.
Photographers must adapt to what customers want in order to survive.
I see the same thing in the book publishing business. Customers have e-readers, wonderful devices that allow them to buy books instantly. They don’t believe that e-books should be as expensive as print. While publishers may resist, customers believe that e-books should be priced somewhere between free and $9.99. Continue reading “Adapt to Customers or Perish”
I’m quoted in this article on AOL Government about using internal social networks. Imagine a company-wide version of Twitter or Facebook and you’ll have a good idea of how an internal social network works. They’re non-hierarchical, open environments where employees can share information.
Perhaps the best known of these systems is Yammer. It’s billed as an “enterprise social networks” but looks and operates so much like Facebook that people can start using it immediately. If you know how to post updates and respond to friends on Facebook, then they you quickly figure out Yammer. Continue reading “Should You Yammer?”
Booksellers and publishers criticize Amazon for destroying the clubby old world of publishing. Yet, for readers and writers, the online retailer is constantly rolling out new features to expand the reach of books and the power of authors.
Case in point: Amazon’s Lending Library. Amazon Prime members can borrow one book a month for their Kindles with no due date. And unlike your library and its e-book service, thousands of books are available now and you don’t need to download complicated software to read them. All you need is Amazon Prime and a Kindle (or the Kindle app on an iPad). This is a tremendous service for readers around the country, who now have access to a vast library of books.
How this works for authors – I’m an Amazon author, having used their Kindle Direct Publishing service for Murder in Ocean Hall. When the lending program rolled out, I was given the option of enrolling my book. I did. As incentive, Amazon set aside a $6 million pool in 2012 to be divided up by authors who participate. So, if there are six million borrowed books in the year and a hundred of those borrows are Murder in Ocean Hall, then I get $100.
There’s a lot of experimentation going on in the e-book space, as the market adjusts to this new world of publishing. But what I like about these changes is that more power has been given to writers, and more choice is available to readers. That’s something to cheer about.
Execution trumps strategy, according to Rachel Tipograph, social media director for the Gap. She was a very wise speaker on the “how” of actually getting things done in large organizations. Creating meaningful experiences online is more important than endless rounds of strategy and planning. As I listened to her speak at What’s Next DC, I watched heads bobbing in agreement around the room.
Execution > Strategy. Which is how I feel about conferences devoted to social media. How can you develop the perfect social media strategy in an ever-changing environment, especially when success is determined by the audience? It’s better to dive in, create something, and see what works.
I was at What’s Next DC thanks to my own bit of execution – I made a pithy comment on the importance of storytelling on GovLoop and won a free ticket to this conference on digital marketing. Continue reading “Execution Trumps Strategy at What's Next DC”
I heard about Slow Shutter from James Campbell, an iPhoneographer who I’m pretty sure has every iPhone photo app ever created. I was fascinated by the blurry, abstract long exposures that he had created with it.
I have a “real” camera, a Canon DSLR, that I could use to get long exposures. I’ve done so before, but it’s always a bit of trial and error, since I don’t create long exposures that often.
Slow Shutter has enabled me to get long exposures just with a click – the app is that easy. I downloaded it, played it with a bit (the controls are little cryptic), then went out into the street. I wanted a photo of cabs going by.
But the cabs weren’t going fast enough – they didn’t have the long lines I wanted. So, I went to another corner and waited for the stoplight to change. Taxis took off and I got my shot.
I ran the photo through Slow Shutter, adjusting the “freeze” until it was dreamy, blurry and ghostlike while still retaining enough of the scene to make it identifiable.
Then I used Instagram (best iPhone photo app ever) to crop it to a square, Polaroid format using the X-Pro II filter. The filter also vignetted the photo, something I always like.
My dreamy cab shot made the DCist Photo of the Day. It’s one of those common urban scenes but with a slightly different, mysterious perspective.
Some photographers might look at Slow Shutter and say, “That’s cheating.”
My knowledge of f-stops and exposure times is, at best, limited. Just a few years ago you’d need fancy equipment, technical knowhow and darkroom experience to get such a shot. Now it can be done with just a click.
But what can’t be duplicated by technology is a good eye. Apps like Slow Shutter just make it easier for photographers to achieve their vision.
And like a good iPhone app, it’s also a lot of fun.
This is a photo of the Sears Tower from the LEGO Architecture: Towering Ambition at the National Building Museum. It’s a small exhibit but strangely fascinating, with iconic buildings reproduced in LEGOS.
A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for.
– John A. Shedd
2011 was the year I decided that a camera in a bag was a dead camera. Our photographic tools (DSLRs, point-and-shoots, iPhones) are designed to be used. That’s where they’re built for.
I’m also fortunate/cursed to live in interesting times, as protests descend upon Washington. I know the city well and can get just about anywhere quickly by walking or biking.
So, I decided that I would use my Canon T2i and iPhone 4 to document political protests, art events, food and just interesting things I saw in the city.
One of my favorite photos of the year was from an OccupyDC protest:
Continue reading “Art, Food and Protest: My Year in Photos”
This is from the Audio Warhol concert at the National Gallery of Art. It was a beautiful and weirdly moving, as the strings played with a DJ accompaniment of sound clips from the 1980s.
Washington in 1979 was a scarred metropolis just ten years removed from riots that had hollowed out the city. It was a grim time, with hundreds of buildings boarded up just blocks from the White House.
1979 was a tough year for the county too, as the Carter presidency ended in economic malaise and the humiliation of the Iran hostage crisis.
In these dark times, however, some people saw opportunity. Artists and musicians saw empty houses that they could turn into art galleries and practice spaces. Rents were cheap because few people wanted to live in neighborhoods filled with junkies and prostitutes.
HARD ART DC 1979 by Lucian Perkins documents some of this fascinating story. It chronicles the nascent punk rock scene in Washington, featuring seminal bands such as Bad Brains. Continue reading “HARD ART DC 1979 and the Art of Possibility”