January 30th, 2012 by Kris
Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Seattle for a few days. We drank some great coffee, ate some amazing cheese, and talked with a 30 year veteran of the chocolate business about all things sweet. On this trip we had the chance to sit and talk with James Beard Award winner, Tom Douglas. This guy actually beat Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef. For you non-foodies, it just means he’s a ridiculous culinary bad ass. His strong feelings about sustainability and a number or restaurants that walk that talk make him one of the best chefs out there. Durring our interview, I asked him what was the single best piece of advice he had ever received. He said that no one had ever given it to him, but that to him, it was innate.
“Get your ass out of bed, promote your business, work hard… treat your employees like kings and they in turn will treat our customers like kings. It’s not so much advice as it is a standard.” -Tom Douglas
December 5th, 2011 by Kris
From Seth Godin’s blog Thursday, I think these are especially true when running your own shop. Enjoy.
“You don’t even realize there’s a game. (And any contest, market, project or engagement is at some level a game).
- You start getting involved and it feels like a matter of life or death. Every slight cuts deeply, every win feels permanent. “This is the most important meeting of my life…”
- You realize that it’s a game and you play it with strategy. There’s enough remove for you to realize that winning is important but that continuing to play is more important than that. And playing well is most important.
- You get bored with the game, because you’ve seen it before. Sometimes people at this stage quit, other times they sabotage their work merely to make the game feel the way it used to.
- And then a new, different game begins.”
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
October 11th, 2011 by Kris
Recently, I read a quote from a photographer that I don’t know that said something to the extent of “I stopped making formal images, and just started shooting what’s infront of me.” This has been in the back of mind for the last 2 weeks and I’m still not sure what to do with it. What did he mean by formal? For me, someone who came up thru the “studio” track, it means white cards, seamless sheets of paper, big softboxes, you know what I’m talking about, the “studio” thing. What would it look like if I stopped worrying about incident angles, perfectly exposed mid-tone with a 95% white point? I shot something the other day and got some pretty cool stuff, but I’m not convinced that it’s “better” or “worse.” It’s different. I’ve got a few more shoots coming up where I think I’m just going to try to not be so formal, still not sure what that means for me, but I hope it will come to me as I shoot.
August 29th, 2011 by Kris
Quick post today about exclusivity.
What do you do well? Where are your weak spots?
I believe strongly that we should all play to our strengths, not our weaknesses. In your brain, you are literally “hard wired” to do somethings better than others. The more that we push into our areas of strength, the more that area of our brain grows. Guess what? When we work on our weak spots, there is still growth, but not the exponential growth that happens with strengths.
Now, I’m not saying abandon your weaknesses. I still need to work on my timeliness, I still need to work on fiscal fastidiousness. But, where I excel, now that’s where I can expect real growth. Keep this in mind this week as you run into your daily challenges!
With this in mind, think about that one thing that you shoot, that one thing that you design, that one thing that’s not work, it just flows out of you. Is your business built on this? Can it be? It probably should be. It might be something completely esoteric.
Meditate on the things that bring you joy and the things you look forward to and your gifts will shine thru. Try working on something where you are already a rock star and see what happens! Good luck! We’re all looking forward to the results.
KD
August 22nd, 2011 by Kris
Repost from Seth Godin’s Blog last week.
“Not just the first one.
And not all three.
But you really need at least one.
1. Results. If you can offer a return on investment, an engineering solution, more sales, no tax audits, a cute haircut, the fastest rollercoaster, a pristine beach, reliable insurance payouts at the best price, peace of mind, productive consulting or any other measurable result, this is a great place to start.
2. Thrills. More difficult to quantify but often as important, partners and customers respond to heroism. We are amazed and drawn to over the top effort, incredible risk taking on our behalf, the blood, sweat and tears that (rarely) comes from a great partner. A smart person working harder on your behalf than you’d be willing to work–that’s pretty compelling.
3. Ego. Is it nice to feel important? You bet. When you greet us at the door with a glass of white wine, put our name in the lobby of the hotel, actually treat us better than anyone else does (not just promise it, but do it)… This can get old really fast if you industrialize and systemize it, though. Read the rest of this entry »
August 15th, 2011 by Kris
This weekend I spent a little time in the Great Smokey Mountains. Now, if you’ve never been, it’s worth seeing. It’s truly a remarkable place. We went with some friends who are big conservationists and they shared with us that around 90% of the people that visit the national park never get out of their cars. This got me thinking about perceived value vs intrinsic value. These travelers decided to go see the beauty, appreciate the scenery but for some reason, are just passing thru. Are they are missing something? Is there intrinsic value of getting out of your car, even for a few minutes into the park, walking the trails, breathing the air, that intrinsic value of being in nature?
What if we look at this as it reflects on our business lives? I think we all recognize that ”je ne sais quois” that a large client can bring. The platform that hitting that benchmark number of followers on twitter can give you. Even just landing a gig at some big studio can change so much. But, I wonder if we are missing some aspect of intrinsic value here? With that large client, are we leveraging that relationship against other clients to just get more work, or are we using those new resources to push forward into new relationships? Are we just happy to have 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 followers on twitter, or are we engaging in conversations that elevate our art and enrich the short amount of time we have on this planet? These are daily struggles for me, and I know it’s a very individual thing. Maybe it’s something completely different for you.
This week I challenge you to find something in your life that you take for granted and dig in, find some of that intrinsic value and get out of your car, even just for a few minutes.
-KD
July 20th, 2011 by Kris
So, last time I talked about Brain and Franklin, if you missed it, you can read it here. Today I’m going to focus on two gents that in many ways shaped (and are still shaping) some of my core business principals.
The first is Chris Blanz. Chris has been in the interactive community in Nashville for several years now. He’s been head of his own shop Cabedge.com for the past 8 or 9 years and he is an amazing aggregator of talent. I shared space with Cabedge for a few years and was their “director of all things Photo” for about a year. Although this whole experience changed the way I looked at the creative business, I did have some pretty major take aways from this relationship.
- Sometimes it’s ok to take the long odds.
- If you are going to add a team member find someone who fill that gap at something that you suck at or hate doing.
- Don’t be afraid to get excited about an idea. Even infront of a client.
- Sell with a narrative; Pitch your idea with a story, it goes a long way.
- Strong process and procedure will save your ass in a pinch. If you have none, email me and I’ll send you a few of my docs.
The other gent I’d like to mention I will not post his name here, but I’ve learned more about how to be fair and honest in a very dishonest and cut throat industry than anyone else. So, I have one major take away from this relationship; Be transparent in your business dealings, it’s amazing how many people will respect and respond positively. If you’re new at something, tell it, own it, and then explain why you’re the long shot who’s going to make the project sing.
That’s all for this morning. Have a great week and don’t forget to appreciate the people in your life who help you along the way.
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}
Read the rest of this entry »
June 8th, 2011 by Kris
From Seth Godin’s Blog last week, a good read:
“The media tries to report on the world economy or the national economy, or even the economy in Detroit or LA. This is easy to talk about, statistically driven and apparently important to everyone.
Alas, this has virtually nothing to do with your day, your job and your approach to the market. That’s because geography isn’t as important as it used to be, but more than that, it has to do with the fact that you don’t sell to everyone, and the economy is unevenly distributed.
If the unemployment rate in your industry doesn’t match the national numbers, the national numbers don’t matter so much.
At the largest Lexus dealer in New Jersey, they’re sold out of many models, with a waiting list. In some towns in Missouri, the unemployment rate is twice what it is in your town. In the tech industry, the rate you can charge for developing killer social apps on a tablet is high and going up.
Economics used to be stuck in town. Now, as markets and industries transcend location, useful economic stats describe the state of the people you’re working with and selling to.
If your segment is stuck, it might make sense to stick it out. It also might be worth thinking about the cost of moving to a different economy.”
Link to the original article on Seth’s blog.
