November 9th, 2011 by Kris
It’s that time again. Actually, I’m long overdue. It’s been over 2 years since I’ve really updated my web site and I’m not even sure where my printed book is. And that’s a little sad. We all get busy, but this is something that we all need to put on our calendars at least once every six months. Take a day or two and go thru the work that we’ve been slaving over for the last 2 months! Regardless of medium, if you’re freelancing in the current economy you either have lots of little jobs mixed in with a few big ones. I bring this up to say this, don’t over look the little gigs, there are jewels in there that you’ll want to show off. Especially if you can tell a narrative that is loaded with drama, everyone loves a good story. Well, I found this article, “Editing Your Portfolio” by Zack Arias out of Atlanta. Cutting my teeth in the Atlanta market admittedly gives me a bit of a soft spot for any shooter carving out a niche there, but it’s a solid article with some great tips. Here’s an excerpt:
“The BIG Edit :: Brew 10 pots of coffee, grab all of your archive drives, kiss the wife and kids goodnight and start harvesting every photo that you like from all of your jobs. Grab the RAW untouched files where possible. Don’t get the processed JPGs. Get the originals whenever you can. You may think your post production skills three years ago were awesome but as you put your work together today you may not like those 14 crappy actions you dumped on your work back then. Trust me on this… harvest the RAW files every chance you can. Don’t think “is this going to be in my portfolio?” while you do this first step. You’re just looking for photos you like. Like you really like them. Maybe you shot five consecutive frames of someone laughing and you like all five. Copy all five of them to a BIG edit folder. Notice I said “copy” your photos into the BIG edit folder. Don’t move them out of their home in the job folder where they lived. Make a copy. You want ONE folder holding all of the images. You can then copy specific images into genre folders if you want but the main folder holds all of them.
Go through your edits and any other RAW files you may have from the job that you did not deliver to the client. It’s always amazing to go back into a shoot and find a gem of a shot that didn’t make the edit when you first shot and delivered that job. You not only grow as a photographer but you grow as a photo editor in your life. A shot you may have passed up three years ago suddenly jumps out at you now. That is why I never delete my unpicked files. I always keep them. I go through these old folders a few times a year.”
Alright, to read more click here. I’d love to see what you end up with! Alright off to go start my “big edit” folder!
KD
June 27th, 2011 by Kris
Let’s start at the top, what is a “mentor”? Well, the term actually comes from Greek Mythology, Mentor was a character in the Odyssey and to some extent the Iliad. I won’t get into the gritty details but the over simplified version is simply that he was put in charge of the estate when Odysseus went off to war and subsequently like a father to Odysseus’ son. That’s where we get the term mentor, someone who is not related by blood but who is “father like” and passes wisdom to us like a father would.
I think in modern times it’s not such a weighty term but the roots are similar, after all, how many TV personalities tear up when talking about their mentors? We all have people in our lives that rise up and teach us things about life. I recently have been reflecting on some of those people in my life.
{Take your time, wait for the shot. Above image (c) Brian Robbins}
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March 15th, 2011 by Kris
We’ll I’d start by taking a cue from designer/developer Matt Reed. All joking aside this guy’s a good friend and a great mind who’s always thinking outside of the box. Check out this video for his latest project, the Like Light:
Remember kids, this guy’s not a professional, so you need to try this at home.
March 13th, 2011 by Kris
We’ve been sick over here and had some pretty tight deadlines, I’ll post up some of the work we’ve been doing this past few weeks here soon. I did run across this and decided to jump on this thought and post this up tonight. Once again, this was inspired by Seth Godin’s post this evening, you can read it here. But, not the it’s long but there was one thing that jumped out at me glancing at it.
He asks, “If someone else can get us there faster, are you willing to let them?” It’s a difficult question to answer. But I think it’s an essential, dare I say fundamental principal of being a commercial artist. So often we are tied up in “get the gig, whatever it takes get the gig.” But I wonder if that mentality has hurt the industry as a whole. As artist are we not called to inspire, to create? When was the last time you partnered with another designer, another photographer, not to run lead, but as a partner in business?
I guess my core question comes from the idea that are we better together? Each creative partner playing to their strength, not clawing to get the gig, but creating a temporary team of superstars to knock it out. Have a great week and here’s to a little collaboration!!
February 24th, 2011 by Kris
I got this post off of entrepreneur and funny enough it’s not a brief article… So here’s the reader digest version, hit the “more” for the full article:
- Write in short, strait forward sentences.
- Only use 110 of your 140 character limit.
- E-mail’s need to be 200 words or less; action point at the top and bottom.
- YouTube videos 2 minutes or less.
- Keep your phone calls brief, remember to be polite and get right to the point. Same with voicemail, leave your number at the beginning and end of the message.
There we go. The full article is here and reposted below – have a good one!
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February 22nd, 2011 by Kris
I pulled this off VPS this morning. It’s got some great tips for young warriors and it’s a good reminder for those of us who have been shooting for a few years to keep it simple and stick to the basics.
10. It always takes a plan.
I talk to photographers all the time who started a business because they love photography. So they create a simple business card, and start offering their services without any thought to the business. No matter what type of business you are trying to build, you have to start with a plan. Is your goal to bring in a part time income every month? Or do you want this to become a six figure business? By setting up goals and tasks that you can see, it’s easier to find a way to make it more successful. It also gives you something to strive for each month.
9. Understand how you will ultimately make a profit.
Even if you have a camera in place, it won’t last forever. And chances are you’ll need more equipment along the way. How about advertising and marketing costs? Insurance to protect you against damages if something doesn’t go right with a client? There are many things to think of when you run a business – not just showing up and shooting, and collecting a few dollars on the side. By putting everything on paper, you can start to see how your prices will ultimately have to cover your overall expenses.
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October 26th, 2010 by Kris
From A Photo Editor’s RSS feed this morning.
- Before proceeding with photography, make sure that’s your thing.
- Test your brain out by exposing it to a ton of photographs as well as real scenes.
- Choose good friends, not for networking but for honest critique of your work.
- Borrow from any time period and any predecessor, then build on them to create your own vision.
via B, aka Blake Andrews.
So, what do you think?
September 6th, 2010 by Kris
My good friend Chad McClarnon always says the same thing when you ask him his lighting technique, “I want a window there, so I put one there.” What a great simple straight forward technique! Sometimes there is a bit more to it than that, but often times not. Just think about that the next time you are stumped on how to light something.
So here’s a little example of this technique at work:
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August 30th, 2010 by Kris
Just quick post today, I’ve got several deadlines this week and of course I’m already behind. I did want to post up so advice that I’ve gotten from the collective wisdom of Google and the interwebs. When I started this photography business ten years ago, I started it with $450 and no real direction, so it was essential that learned how to buck up and make the few deadlines I did have as perfect as possible. As you freelancers and Sole Props know, when you’re the boss, you kind of have to be a jerk to yourself. Anyway, here are a few things that I do to stay on track.
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August 24th, 2010 by Kris
Now, we all know how tricky it is to shoot black on black and I get a lot of questions about how I manage to shoot black on black and white on white. My answer is simple, hire a great retoucher. ONLY KIDDING, but seriously a great retoucher will make your life easier. We all know though that I am a huge fan of shoot it right the first time and will make post easier, your retoucher will thank you. Even if your retoucher is you… but I digress, here’s the shot that I’m going to talk about.
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