Arrested Development

I just read of another photographer arrested by police. It seems as if this happens more often than I've noticed it in the past and, while it's entirely possible some photographers may have brought in on themselves, the quantity of these confrontations and arrests, lead me to believe that not all arrests are justified.

The last eight years of the present Republican administration brought forth new policies and laws that have, as a consequence, reduced the rights of this government's citizens. From the formation of Homeland Security (which sounds Orwellian in its context), to the government's obsession with eavesdropping on, what used to be, innocent communications, we've found ourselves looking over our shoulder and shuddering at the thought of a tipping point, into a type of big brother government.

I posit the aggressive tactics of the police, over the last few years, are a part of a shift away from a citizen government (...by the people, for the people...) towards one where we not only have to look out for the criminals, but also keep one eye out for municipal government police, hiding behind their shields, to thwart any repercussions for their questionable behavior.

Last week, with the election of a new President, one who, at least outwardly, talks of "change", a movement towards civility, and, as in his election evening speech, wants to make the his new administration inclusive, rather than the us vs. them approach of the current, may, by it's very nature, should it come to pass, return to a time when parents, even those that are photographers, can see these protectors of society as heroes and not possible adversaries.

If, in fact, the aggressive nature of some of the police today is a part of the Bush administration's constant erosion of citizen's rights, then I can only hope the new Obama administration works to restore them, thereby helping to build mutual trust between law enforcement and photographers.

Free Money

Yesterday, the United States elected a new President and, from all accounts, he was one of the first to leverage the full power of the Internet to capture the votes needed.

The use of Internet social engineering is not new, but it is new for national election campaigns. Barack Obama's team created a means to raise money, far above the Federal funding, devised new means of communications to not only direct the volunteers, but also to motivate them and made certain everybody was speaking the same language.

Photography has been gently stepping into the social networking pool with blogs and Flickr (the Yahoo owned image posting site). There are some web sites using Twitter, a kind of group messaging service where anything up 140 words per individual Twitter can be shoved onto the Internet. Followers have the ability to see your Twitter entries in real time--almost as soon as they are sent. My news site, Photo News Today, uses Twitter to send notices of each entry, sometimes up to 50 or 60 per day (look at the top right of the main page where it says "Click Here to Follow Me..."). The people and companies following my entries, therefore, have the most up to date photographic industry news on their desktop, throughout the day.

I'm sure there are others doing the same, but where the industry misses this social networking phenomenon is with the manufacturers and distributors. There are few even offering a blog from either management or marketing. Updates to products, new products, and tips can be leveraged, at no real cost to these companies.

What they reap is attention. The more a product or brand is in front of a prospective customer's eyes, the better the odds the customer will purchase that brand.

Now, there are companies advertising on photographic blogs, for instance Strobist (David Hobby), but these are used as everyday ads, requiring the blog visitor to see and act upon the ad.

Let's look at the possibility of this in reverse. What if, and I'm just asking here; what if a major company, such as Canon used a blog to announce instances of Canon mentions on other blogs or even, heaven forbid, have someone in marketing Twitter these mentions everyday, throughout the day.

Here, a potential customer can subscribe to the Twitter service and follow Canon. As mention of Canon products reach the Internet, customers can click on the Twitter, go to the mentioned web site, and read about the products use in the field.

If word-of-mouth is one of the best advertising mediums, then think of how this approach could affect the bottom line. Low cost (employees time), high return.

One of the arguments I would expect to hear is the lack of audience. Yes, this is a new medium and if will take some time to mature. However, what better way to get the word out about new technologies, than by having it freely available on major company web sites.

This is just one of the emerging technologies currently available, there are others: Facebook, MySpace, instant messaging, and so forth.

I believe the time is ripe to start investigating and adopting these services, especially in the light of the dawn of the Obama Presidency. He has shown it works quite well.

Photo Industry Editorial

I've been posting news about the photographic industry for over three years now and, during that time, have been fortunate to communicate with photographers, developers and other industry veterans.

The game has changed over the past few years, both with the growth of digital cameras and the plethora of new products. Today, photographers, from novice to professional, have a marketplace rich with opportunity to further their craft and gain new skills.

While the megapixel race has slowed, what we do with those megapixels has diversified exponentially. I believe the reason for the slowness is due to hitting a sweet spot, where the current amount is enough to provide quality enlargements for a core group of photographers. This is not to say that cameras, now hitting the 20 megapixel mark are not selling; they are, but to really advanced amateurs and professionals needing the higher resolution.

The core group, hobbyists and pros (wedding, editorial, etc.) have no need of the upper megapixel count, as they get what they need with eight to 14, or so, megapixels. While I thought, at one time, when full-frame sensor cameras came down in price, they would supplant the APS-C cameras, this has not happened. Now, I'm seeing room for both formats to coexist.

The APS-C sensor offers considerable quality and also an advantage for some photographers--the magnification ratio. The 1.5/1.6 magnification factor allows a photographer to get more throw from their lens kit. While there is some trade-off in the wide-angle range, the telephoto lenses become longer. For the average consumer, this is the baker's dozen concept; purchase a 70 to 300mm lens and get a 112 to 480mm.

As more SLR cameras enter the marketplace, with prices just north of $500.00, increasing numbers of consumers are leaving the point-and-shoot models behind. This leads to additional accessory sales and opens a window for quality third-party lenses at reachable prices. I see this market exploding over the next few years.

Not to leave the P&S cameras out of discussion here, as manufacturers replace models with increasing frequency and have added additional features. The only downside to this is the confusion, by the consumer, as to which one fits their needs.

The photographic software market has matured considerably this past year. Management software (single function), such as ACDSee and Thumbsplus, is now being consolidated into image editing; Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture and Bridge, for instance.

There is still room, however, for management software, especially for the non-professional photographers, who are amassing prodigious amounts of images on their computers. Where the proverbial shoebox was the catch-all for prints and negatives, the home computer and CD-ROM/DVD house increasing collections of pictures.

The second generation of photo editing software, beyond Photoshop, offers the working pro more options than ever before. The Aperture/Lightroom work flows, incorporating image management, noise reduction, sophisticated lighting alterations and more, have become, in some instances, a one-stop interface for advanced hobbyists and working professionals.

Although the world economy has slowed, photography, as a hobby, has always been supported by discretionary income. As money tightens, we may see less purchases overall of the higher end cameras and accessories, but not a real slow-down of picture taking. People still get married, have babies, celebrate events, such as birthdays and Christmas. While some will vacation at home, they will mark day-trips and their experiences with pictures.

Professional photographers may see some rough times ahead as more and more companies, the mainstay for professional income, fall by the wayside or reduce their budgets. This, of course, impacts new purchases of cameras, lenses and high-end accessories, but most photographers should be able to weather this storm.

The Monochrome Christmas Card

Another Halloween has gone, which means the Christmas season is close. If I remember, from my years in the photo finishing industry, this is the time of the year when more images are captured than at any other time. We would get bags of film delivered right after the new year and the plant operated at top volume for most of the month.

Now, in the digital age, some of us print everything at home or we use mini-labs and mail order for processing. Now is the time to stock up on paper and ink so you're ready for the rush, if you do everything at home.

For the past, I don't know, five years, at least, I have created the family Christmas/Holiday card. One season I designed a black & white image on light-grey card stock--about 100lb weight or index weight.

My family loved the idea and some congratulated me on going against the grain, by not doing color. They said the cards were easily noticeable amongst the glitter and foil of the others.

Now, for a confession. I didn't have a color printer at that time. My Epson 1280, which had been giving me trouble for many months, finally sucked its last picolitre of ink (1 thousand cubic micrometres) and, no matter how much I cajoled (read: cursed), nothing was going to bring it back. The last few months, when it was on life support, I had to clean the pick-up rollers almost daily; they were so slick they would grab more than one sheet or, most of the time, nothing. I had to hand feed the printer. So, the death of the 1280, while immediately disconcerting, put me in the market for a new printer.

However, I couldn't afford to lay out the money at this critical time, as Christmas was near and my wife, Allison, was begging (read: nagging) me for the cards, so she could get them in the mail.

There are times when lady fortune smiles, but sometimes it's just gas. I was caught in a dilemma. I had to produce a self-designed card, but felt I didn't have any way to print them. I could, I thought, send them out, but that would mean giving up control of the entire process--sometimes a mistake or flaw works its way into the final design and you don't catch it until you see the print. Sending a card outside, for printing, would mean I could get back hundreds of cards with a glaring mistake. Also, there was my ego working. I had tasked myself with the production and just wasn't ready to give it up.

That's when the idea of a B&W Christmas card came to me. I could, I thought, create the entire design and print them on the home-office laser printer, an inexpensive Brother HL-5040. I use that as the family's default printer, on the home network, to keep ink-jet costs down.

I shot the image, designed the card and fed the laser printer sheet by sheet (I used heavy card stock which wouldn't feed by itself). Once I printed a batch of fifty, I'd flip and reverse the paper and feed it through a second time, to print the message on the inside.

That's the story of the monochrome Christmas card. I was able to wink at lady fortune and she winked back. It wasn't gas, but a real smile after all. This year, I'm fully stocked on ink, the printer is new and I have plenty of paper. All I need is an idea...

Smart Pills and Epicurean Knowledge

In running Photo News Today, I see and read what other photographers are doing. What's also fun is to see how many other photographers post information in the form of tutorials and general how-to articles/blogs.

When I was starting, many years ago, in the age of film, we "protected" techniques, including marketing ideas. That was a different time and a different way of working.

At PhotoPlus Expo in New York last week, I had an opportunity to speak with Derrick Story about this very subject. First, I have to tell you that Derrick is a lot taller than I expected; a lanky, well over six feet something (I'm a short 5' 10").

Derrick said he sometimes has to find the time to sit and write or produce podcasts. Any successful professional would be hard-pressed to add new tasks to an already busy schedule and, that they do, bodes well for us; after all, a rising tide lifts all boats.

The global encyclopedia of the Internet has become a master course of photography and imaging--no photographer can afford to be without Internet access.

There are some photo bloggers I need to read everyday, because their content usually contains some nugget worth remembering. David Hobby, with his Strobist blog, who has almost single-handidly bootstrapped using hot-shoe flashes (strobes) off camera. I bet David could teach you how to back-light the sun!

Another is Scott Kelby. How the hell does this guy have the time to blog, I don't know. Scott runs NAPP (National Association for Photoshop Professionals), writes books, teaches, has a band, shoots, and probably has a secret identity, where he saves the world.

Add to the above many more professional photographic bloggers, such as David Tejada, John Harrington, Chase Jarvis, Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski and on and on and you have some high powered talent sharing themselves.

There has never been a better time to be in this industry and never a better time than right now to improve your skill set and then pay it back, by creating your own Internet presence--be sure to include a blog and then let me know where I can find you.

The Doctor Is In

At gatherings, it used to be the doctor getting all the questions and complaints about pain and unease. That has changed over the past years and now it's the digital photographer getting the "house" calls.

Besides the ubiquitous, "What camera should I buy?"; we're getting more substantive questions about printers, lenses and other photographic paraphernalia. And we answer these without a degree!

I've spoken to some photographers that revel in the attention, sometimes holding court as the expert in the house. Others shy from the limelight, unsure about what to say or feeling inadequate about giving advice.

One of the predictions I made a few years ago has come true this past year; digital single-lens reflex cameras coming down in price, well under the magic $1,000.00 barrier. They are now almost to the price point of 35mm cameras, prior to when digital technology made film cameras almost redundant.

Last night a friend called me, ready to purchase a new family camera and wanted some help in making her decision. She has two teenage children, that play soccer, and needs a camera with enough lens to get some images of the kids playing, but also be able to take the regular family vacation and birthday pictures.

The photographic industry has a wide cache of available camera models and the DSLR models span far more manufacturers today than ever before. Most of the time, when I hear others answering a prospective buyer's questions, I sense a bias towards the photographer's current camera model.

I believe I need to remain agnostic to brand and really listen to the questions, before offering opinions and, when I do, have anecdotal evidence handy to back up my claims. Especially in the current economic climate, I think it's important to give a prospective buyer the benefits of practical knowledge encompassing both an entry level expenditure, as well as a road-map for future purchases.

For instance, does a home/hobbyist photographer need $600-$800 zoom lenses, when a less expensive one will suffice, and a road-map which will include the possibility of adding third-party brands, such as Sigma, Tamron, Tokina? What benefit would a family derive from a full-frame sensor over that of an APS-C sensor (wouldn't the magnification factor be an advantage for the soccer-mom)?

It's far easier if you are speaking with other professional photographers, as you can toss around technical terminology, knowing you both are speaking a common language. People just entering the digital camera market usually have a limited vocabulary based on film cameras or just point-and-shoot models.

Last night, Mrs. Soccer-Mom and I had a long conversation about her needs; how she viewed using the camera; and came to some conclusions. She decided to buy a Nikon D40 and an 18-135mm zoom as her starter package.

The Photo Circus

Every year I take a day to myself and travel to New York City to go to the PhotoPlus Expo at the Javits Center. A few years ago, I had to work to get a few meetings with some of the exhibitors. I should say, at this point, that I own and run Photo News Today (http://www.photonewstoday.com) a site reporting on photography news.

As it took many emails and telephone calls to secure these meetings, I have always limited myself to spending just one day at this event. This year, however, I had my day completely booked, except for an hour (which was intentional) by the 2nd week of October.

There were only two "misfires" where the meetings didn't happen. HP compeltely blew me off, the meeting room locked at the appointed time and, when I went out to the exhibit area, all of the HP personnel were too busy talking to one another and some other visitors, to pay me any attention.

The other misfire was with Jason from the PR firm representing Bogen Imaging. However, here the Bogen representatives went out of their way to approach me and assist. Jason was late, because of car parking issues, so I rescheduled it for part of my one hour opening. A little later in the day, I had a few minutes to spare, and went to the Bogen booth to look at a photographer's jacket (somewhat expensive, but really nice - I want one!) and, standing there, just outside the exhibit area I started talking to the gentleman next to me and, looking down at his badge, saw it was Jason. I introduced myself and teased him about the missed appointment, but assured him I would still make our later meeting.

These two companies show a good contrast in support. On one hand, HP which has had customer support problems in the past, seemed aloof and couldn't be bothered to welcome me to their display area and there were plenty of HP-shirted people doing nothing. On the other hand, Bogen Imaging, a distributor of premier photographic equipment (Metz, Manfrotto, and so forth) greeted me warmly and then took my problem upon themselves and worked to rectify it, apologizing all the way.

I have to say, I have had some experience with Bogen Imaging in the past where one of my Metz 54 MZ-3 strobes had to be repaired. The price was nominal and the service exceptional--one week door to door.

Look, we all make mistakes. The problem is not in making them, but in what you do to make it right. This separates great customer service from mediocre. How we treat potential and existing customers can spell the difference between having a growing, viable business and one just barely getting along. This is not to say HP is failing; far from it. I'm just using them as an example because of recent experience.

Sooner or later, if you are selling your photographic services and products, something is going to fall through the cracks. How you face problems like this characterize your business and also show the public the people behind the company; give it personality.

Here is another recent example. I had a canvas-wrap print made for my father-in-law. Upon receipt, I noticed, what was supposed to be a 16x20 was really an 8x10 centered on 16x20 white canvas. Not what I wanted. After a moment of frustration and a flash of anger, I realized the fault was mostly mine. I had sized the image using a program that created a print file and it had done what I asked, create a 16x20 "page" with the image centered. I should have re-sized the image, not the page.

I called Canvas On Demand and spoke to Sheila (she's not customer service, but in production. I met her at PhotoPlus Expo). During our conversation, I explained that I probably caused the problem, but, I continued, I would have thought someone at Canvas On Demand would have questioned the order as, with a canvas wrap, you want the image to wrap around the frame. Sheila agreed to re-print the order for me at no charge and I sent them a properly sized digital file later that day.

Again, when a customer has a problem, the solution determines not only the fix to that problem, but goes a log way to cement the relationship between customer and vendor.

Oh, late in the day at PhotoPlus Expo, when I was wandering around between meetings, Laura Evenson, the Director of Communications for ImageSpan, approached me and let me know, in a kind way, I had dropped the ball on scheduling a meeting with her. I all but groveled by apologizing and scheduled to meet her in 1/2 hour, after my next appointment.

We're going to screw up from time to time, but the screw-ups don't have to spell doom, they can actually be used to further your business, by creating positive relationships. The irony is a negative situation can be a positive influence on your business, if you work at it.