Blue Planet Photography

I’ve posted a new page on my website of some of the editorial and commercial work I’ve done that’s been published in one magazine or another.

Tear sheets are used in professional photography much like the original use, which was for a periodical publisher to “tear out” the page to prove to an advertiser that their ad had been published as specified.

Professional photographers use tear sheets as supplemental material to a portfolio to show to prospective clients where their work has been published and as proof the photographer has actually engaged in commercial work and can back up claims of publication.

Covers are popular tear sheets since shooting covers is relatively rare, especially for recognized and well-known publications.

My tear sheet page is at www.blueplanetphoto.com/tearsheets.htm

Here’s an example:

Art has always been important to societies and cultures, even before the practice of painting, carving, sculpture, writing/mark making were given the term “art”. Ancient humans documented their activities, their surroundings, their triumphs and tragedies on cave walls, on rocks, on objects made from the soil (pottery), on and from wood, metal, plants., shells and other natural materials. It’s as if they were driven to do so by an innate force, a need to tell their story, an outlet of expression not available yet through structured speech or other forms of formal communication.

Plato was the first to philosophize about art and to rationalize its importance to individuals and societies. Plato defined art as “all skills in making or doing”, which included all art forms from tool making and carpentry to music, poetry and dance, among others, classified as “productive” arts, or art practices that result in some form of final product that is sensible by a viewer/reader/listener.

Art is, by many accounts, the basis of a progressive, productive, and stable culture. Art can be therapy. Art can be a bridge between cultures. Art can be a force of change. To be a force for societal improvement, art must first reach the public. It must be available and accessible. The public must also appreciate the value of the art - not its monetary value but its intrinsic value. The viewer/reader/listener should gain a new appreciation for the human experience and be moved to action on a personal or larger scale. It could be as simple as a greater individual appreciation of the small, generally unnoticed things around us or as large as the plight of an entire society or culture. Art appreciation doesn’t necessarily require the viewer/reader/listener to know the historical context of the work, however.

A present concern is how art is perceived in our technological age of instant gratification. How does the flood of electronic devices, the internet, email & text messaging and the instant gratification that engenders affect our perception and sense of the world around us? How much contemplation and critical thinking, deep discussion and debate are taking place now among the next generation?

How is creativity being affected both by the onslaught of technology and its increasing prevalence in our society? I’m not a Luddite, but how do we incorporate technology into the traditional arts? Is it possible to get the same satisfaction from working with your hands through a keyboard or electronic stylus? As a photographer using digital technology, I sometimes look at the convenience of the medium as a positive. Other times, I miss the creation of a photographic print in the “magic” of the darkroom, working my hands under the enlarger to dodge and burn, sloshing the print in the tray of chemicals, wiping the print and hanging it to dry, waiting for the dry-down to see the actual representation of the image. I sometimes think technology, for many artists, is creating a barrier between the artist’s mind and the medium. The important aspect of spontaneity is easily lost when colors, blending, marks, lines and interactions are so rigidly controlled by formulas and pixels. The feel of a brush against canvas or pencil against paper or hands on clay cannot be replicated on a computer or in an imaging device (at least not now).

Creativity is essentially a form of human expression that communicates the emotional and intellectual thoughts and feelings of individuals toward self, dreams and visions, various issues, or relationships. Therefore, all people are creative since a primary aspect of creativity is humanity. Interacting with materials is a human endeavor and not all humans have access to technology. Will art created using natural materials be thought of as inferior at some point in the future? Or will it be more revered as a lost art? Art frees the mind from rigid certainty, allowing us to stretch our minds beyond the boundaries of devices and our own physical limitations.

There are seven primary ways to communicate information:

1. Words

2. Numbers

3. Movement

4. Sounds

5. Images

6. Objects

7. Spaces

At least five of those communication methods are related to art and all can be applied artistically. Art provides the foundation for other skills, such as reasoning, decision making, creative thinking, problem solving, critical thinking, and visualization. The successful use of art in physical and mental therapies is well documented. I was watching a show on television called Bioneers, on Free Speech TV, and a speaker at a conference was saying how art in education (schools) is usually the first program to be cut when budgets are tight. However, studies have shown when art programs are cut due to budget restrictions, schools end up actually spending more money. Every school that eliminated art, in a recent study, showed a decrease in morale and attendance and an increase in vandalism and disruptions. Within 3 years of art programs being cut, most schools in the study had to add disciplinary staff to account for problems presumably caused by the lack of art programs. Art is an outlet for expression (this will be said more than once) and when that avenue of expression is cut off, other expressive activities take their place, such as vandalism, fighting, truancy, drug and alcohol use, drops in grades and interest in school, and other behavioral problems.

Other studies have shown that students who participate in the arts score higher on SAT tests, regardless of socio-economic status, and art programs decrease negative behaviors and increase attention span, commitment, and tolerance. Art encourages understanding as well as exposing misunderstanding. Through art, the individual gains a better understanding about his or her place in society and about societies and the world as a whole. Society profits when the individual puts this new understanding into practice.

Here is a list of benefits art provides to society and to the individual:

Participating in art programs decreases negative behaviors.

Art programs improve academic performance.

Art programs reduce truancy.

Art provides positive outlets.

Art is an effective intervention strategy for troubled youth.

Art is an effective therapy for mental and physical illness.

Art helps develop and improve communication and social skills.

Art improves physical skills.

Art provides an avenue for expression and connection with peers through personal growth and cooperative learning experiences.

Art helps develop self-discipline.

Art encourages self-directed learning, helping to develop the capacity to strive for greater success.

Art encourages critical thinking.

Art programs help transform the school environment to one of discovery and learning.

Art gives students the opportunity to represent what they have learned, achieving greater comprehension and retention.

The arts are essential to understanding, promoting, and sharing of personal, local, national, and international cultures, past and present.

Art helps foster the attitude of life-long learning; that learning is a never-ending process.

Art provides challenges to the individual at all skill levels.

Art enhances cognitive and perceptual skills.

In art there are no barriers of race, religion, culture, geography or socio-economic level.

Art is an essential component to a healthy individual, healthy culture, and healthy planet. It’s unfortunate that art is often politicized and thought of as a luxury or expendable program. Art programs unlock and encourage the creative thinking process that drives innovation, something I don’t think “Grand Theft Auto” or “World of Warcraft” can accomplish on a large scale

“I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him”

– John F. Kennedy

References:

2007. Bioneers: Courage to walk in beauty. Free Speech TV.

2000 Heath, S.B. and M.W. McLaughlin. Community Count: How youth organizations matter for youth development.

1999. President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Champions of Change: The impact of the arts on learning. Arts Education Partnership.

1991. US Dept of Labor. Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills.

1987. Eisner, E. Why the arts are basic. Instructor’s 3R’s Special Issue: 34-35.

Kevan Nitzberg. Arts Advocacy: The importance of a strong arts education in schools. www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/importance.htm

Lately I’ve been too busy and/or not inspired to post anything to the ol’ blog. The holidays, various projects, and life’s intervention conspire to keep me from my fans.

Tonight I happened to be browsing the web, researching one of those projects, and came across a blog that had one of those links you sometimes follow just because you’re a little bored doing what you’re doing and want to take a break. Well, that link was to the Myers Briggs Personality Test.

This is a test so you can understand your personality type, which has as its base either introvert or extrovert and four additional psychoses, I mean, behaviors, such as Intuition, Sensing, Feeling, and Thinking. There’s a free basic test on the website and I guess you can pay for a more in-depth review of your inner brain if you wish.

It’s certainly interesting to find that the behavioral tendencies of the entire human race fall within essentially 8 psychological profiles. Actually, since I read them all, I think most of us straddle maybe 2 of those profiles depending on our mood at any given moment. And, while the descriptions seem to be relatively accurate, how objective is the test, really? I’m not a psychoanalyst, so don’t believe a word I say, but these tests do seem to me to have a bit of the self-fulfilling-prophesy about them. I suppose these profiles are developed after decades of talking with thousands of folks, both normal and wholesome and twisted and demented. That’s not the scientist in me talking, pay no attention.

I wonder what it does for me to find out what I pretty much already know about myself, unless this information is to wake me up to the fact that there are other people out there besides the ones that piss me off. Wait a minute. Maybe there is something there. You mean to tell me that if I knew what a person’s psychobabble profile is I could interact with them better? Employers could respond to the needs of employees in a more satisfying and rewarding manner? Businesses could tailor their customer service to provide the best service to the widest range of clients?

Hmmmm. Maybe it would help if all wore our MBTI code on our clothing. “Hi, I’m INTJ. Oh, I see you’re ENTJ……………………”

I added a new blog link category….business….and its first link. It’s to Seth Godin’s blog, well worth a read, he has some very good views on business that apply to everyone. Check it out.

I’m conducting a short survey to gauge interest among photographers in one or more photography workshops held on the Olympic Peninsula in and around Olympic National Park in Washington state. I would appreciate your input. No personal data other than your city, state, country is collected and the survey is anonymous.

The survey will end at 11:45pm Mountain Time, January 6.

Click Here to take survey

Thank you!

The ASMP (Association of Media Photographers) supports the Writers Guild of America in their efforts to seek fair compensation for the additional distribution made of their work product through new and emerging technologies.This issue will have a profound effect on the ability of all creative professionals to make a living as media distribution methods change. To sustain creativity and maintain authorship as a viable profession, it is essential that creators must be fairly compensated from the revenues generated by the ever-expanding and newly created markets for their works.

ASMP, the premier association for publication photographers, has an over 60-year history of protecting and promoting the interests of independent creators through advocacy, information and education. ASMP, whose members number 6000, believes that it is in the best interests of all parties to resolve this matter equitably so that they can get back to the work that will benefit all the parties, including the public, affected by this strike.

What it all comes down to in the end is being paid a fair wage for fair work. The commercial use of intellectual property is a tough thing to put a price on. It’s done on a case-by-case basis with sometimes an awful lot of negotiating. It is business, after all. But, when a company, or an entire market genre tries to use that [tags]intellectual property[/tags] to make money and not compensate the creator for it, when they do so in other instances, isn’t fair.

A summary of a recent study conducted by InfoTrends of over 1,000 professional photographers has shown the number of professionals using digital capture rose from 82% in 2006 to 89% in 2007. There was also an obvious increase in the number of images captured per week. The study also revealed that over 90% of digital image captures are saved and stored, 83% of professionals use the web for business (website, I suppose, with image portfolio(s)/gallery(ies), contact information, client lists, stock lists, pricing pages, perhaps a shopping cart or other application for stock photo licensing or print purchase, etc.) and only 30% use an online photo service provider (PhotoShelter, Digital Railroad, and LiveBooks are three examples).

These numbers show the increased use of digital in the professional marketplace, but also indicates a growing need for efficient image management and web service applications for the increasingly busy professional who is capturing many more photographs than in past history.

Adobe may currently have the lock on image processing, but the market is essentially wide open for the development of image management applications. Extensis Portfolio is a widely used for image management as is Adobe’s Lightroom or Apple’s Aperture, and integration to image processing applications like Photoshop are beginning to happen, helping to make the workflow process as streamlined as possible. One of the biggest headaches is jumping back and forth between applications to locate, process, estimate/quote, send, invoice, and track. The trend, at least amongst the photographers I know and read about, is all about automation, processing as many photos as possible with as little repetitive and individual image adjustment as possible. This seems to be especially true with wedding and portrait photographers.

The tools we are using now for digital image processing and management are more or less first generation. We’re just getting going on this. Look back 10 years, even 5 years. Don’t go farther back than that because then you’re looking into the stone age in comparison. The applications being used in the next 5 or 10 years will be as different, I think. The bad part is trying to keep up.

The full InfoTrends report can be purchased from InfoTrends for $3,995 here, if you really, really need to have it.

I appreciate receiving information about legitimate computer virus, spamming and phishing threats. I understand, also, that some hoaxes are perpetuated, for whatever reason, by people who take these things at face value, particularly because they either come from friends or relatives (trusted sources) or appeal to a doomsday sentiment. These hoax emails make their way into the mainstream email fodder and get kicked around, despite ardent attempts at education to train people to spot these nuisance jokes and nip them in the bud.

Even though email is more of a daily ritual and no longer thought of as unique, many people still do not understand how email works or that not everything received via email is useful, beneficial, or true, even when received from family members, friends, and other trusted sources. To that end, there are some clues to look for and simple research steps a person can do when receiving email that might also request opening an attached file or forwarding on to your email list:

1. If the email text is written in sensationalistic language. Lots of bold, all-cap sentences and exclamation marks, multi-colored text, and claims of imminent doom or of instant gratification and wealth without really getting to a salient point or providing any real information, such as links to valid information sources, not just claims to have gotten the information from a reliable source.

2. A request to immediately open an attachment accompanying the email. Virus-containing attachments are still the primary delivery mechanism for hackers, spammers, phishers, and dudes that just want to ruin your day. If an email  described above in #1 has an attachment, just delete the whole thing.

3. A request to visit a website and the full link does not appear in the message text. Unfortunately, some viruses are now transmitted via website html code and you only need to visit such a website to become infected. Clicking on an unknown link in an email or from another website can be harmful, so be aware.

4. NEVER click on the “click here to remove me from the mailing list” link. All this does is verify your email address to the spammer as a valid address and they will continue to send email to you, and a valid email address is money in the bank to them because they can sell that address to other spammers at a higher rate.

5. If you do want to check the validity of an email you’ve received, it’s easy. Just Google the subject (”Life is Beautiful”, for example) or some descriptive words in the text. I don’t have specific examples, but when you read the email you should be able to determine the obvious subject words you can search for. Typically, the first couple search results will provide enough information for you to tell if it’s real or a hoax. Sites such as www.snopes.com and www.scambusters.com are repositories you can also search for information on a particular email.

A good site to learn more about urban legends, hoax emails, spamming and phishing, is www.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend.htm. This site describes the history of hoaxes and provides some additional help how to identify these spoofs. From that site, here are some common email hoaxes or urban legends:

1. Various virus warnings, including the Klingerman virus.

2. Anything free (gift certificates for Victoria’s Secret, free Disney trips and Rachel Ray Cookware)

3. A federal tax on email or the internet (though don’t count this one out forever)

4. A FCC surcharge on the use of modems on phone lines.

5. “If you forward this emai:….”

     a. A charity will benefit (the Dalai Lama, PBS, a hunger organization, etc.)

     b. Bill Gates will give money to help sick children

6. The Neiman Marcus cookie recipe (and similar)

7. Nostradamus predictions of current events

8. Kurt Vonnegut’s graduation speech (or the variation, Larry Ellison at Yale)

9. Pearl Harbor photos found in a footlocker

10. HIV-infected needles on movie seats, at pay phones, on gas pumps, at ATMs, etc.

The main pont is to critically read these emails and determine if they sound realistic or sensational. If an email seems over the top, it usually is. Check it out before sending it on. If it is real, but written poorly, I will generally re-write the information in a more realistic and informative way, getting rid of the all-caps, colorful and sensational text. I will also cite the relevant sources and provide useful informational links.

I wonder sometimes where we’re heading in America. What do we, as a country, want to do? I’m not sure we really know. I often think, especially over the past few years, we’ve become too greedy. I suppose Capitalism could do that to a person. We’re all about making money in this country, it’s the American Dream after all, isn’t it? I can’t watch television or open a newspaper or magazine or walk into most any retail store without being inundated with pitches for products I just can’t live without. And, many of us seem to believe it. The ideal situation that companies froth at the mouth over….competition among users….is the pinnacle of consumerism. The Smith vs. Jones struggle for one-upmanship is more ruthless now than it was back in the day. Seems so, anyway. People change $400 phones like they do their $500 pants. But, I digress. What does this have to do with being a good employee?

Used to be, when a person did their time at a company, worked hard, were dedicated, productive, worked their way up, became a team leader, they were rewarded. These individuals are the face of the company, interacting with customers, making angry people smile, getting the job done, greasing the wheels, taking pride in their work and taking up the slack of the slackers.

Rewarding doesn’t happen much anymore. Well, it does to a point. Corporate conglomerates are only interested in the bottom line and when that bottom line begins to creep up, guess who tends to get the heave-ho? Yeah, the productive ones. Why? Because they’ve worked their way into increased bonuses and raises, surpassing their slacker (or less dedicated) brethren to the point that they’ve become not a nuisance but a liability. They are making too much money. When push comes to shove, the best workers get bumped because the bottom line cuts right across their necks. It doesn’t make much sense to me when one person can do the work of three slackers and gets kicked to the curb. But, I suppose I can understand when a company is trying to stay afloat something’s got to give. Slackers are a dime a dozen and most conglomerates just need “butts in chairs” to make the operation work below the executive level (well,…but that’s another story). Eventually, one of those slackers may rise up and at some later date get their legs chopped out from under them as well. But, the conglomerate will go on, customer complaints and downturns in employee moral are but miniscule bumps in the road. I saw it happen in a tech company I worked at. When times got rough, it was the highest paid people who got laid off. The slackers still had jobs while those people that were probably planning to retire with the company got the Big Sayonara.

This was brought to my attention again today when I was reading the December 10 issue of High Country News. In this issue is a great article about Jim Detterline, a 21-year veteran National Park Ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park. Over the years, he’s rescued hundreds of people off the various mountain peaks in the park. He’s an important asset to the visitors of Rocky Mountain National Park, and with his years of mountaineering and rescue experience he is an important asset to the operation of the park as a leader, mentor, and trainer of new generations of park rangers. You don’t get to be where he is overnight.

In 1999, the National Park Service initiated a new set of physical standards for law enforcement park rangers and Mr. Detterline was put on light duty as a result (it’s difficult to be fired in the government, but this is amounts to the same thing). Oh, did I mention that Jim Detterline is hearing impaired? That’s right, he needs to wear a hearing aid. Apparently, years of successful and beneficial service weren’t enough to save him from the wrath of a blanket policy. He fought it (wouldn’t you?) and was granted a waiver to return to ranger duty. But, he has to reapply each year for the waiver, killing his chances for any hope of career advancement. He’s spent $100,000 on his case and continues to battle the Park Service, but despite being disappointed in the way he’s been treated, still has a passion for his job. I wish him luck in his struggle against the government, which can be the absolutely most uncaring employer on the planet. I respect his perseverance and passion. Luckily, for him and park visitors, he didn’t get the boot.

So, what does Jum Detterline’s story have to do with getting fired because you make too much money? Nothing, really. It’s just a story to illustrate my point that in many cases in today’s job market it doesn’t seem to matter how good you are or what benefit you provide to customers and the business as a whole. The respect companies have for employees is almost non-existent and this spills over to employees as well who tend not to respect employers who don’t reward for work well done. In the end, quality and productivity, creativity and innovation suffer. Who wants to put out for someone that’s just going to stab you in the back?

Where do we go from here? How far down the hole does it have to go? There will be a point at which things turn around. The pendulum has to swing all the way over before it can come back. Companies will remember what (and who) keeps them in business and will begin treating employees less like frontline troops and more like money in the bank. I don’t know the statistics for the growth of small businesses, but my inclination is the growth of small businesses is on the rise. People are just tired of being used and and hung out to dry.

Good luck to you all out there struggling to make a difference in corporate land (and on your own). It’s a jungle and the only one looking out for you is you.

What’s the difference between a pro photographer and an amateur photographer? Ask 100 pros and 100 amateurs and you’ll get 500 different answers. Is it quality of images, quantity of images, income, attitude, how many times you’ve been published, in what magazines you’ve been published, what galleries you’ve exhibited in, who you know? This is being brought up more often these days in discussions where amateurs are being blamed for bringing down the prices/license fees achieved in stock, editorial and commercial photography. Is the word “professional” a tired, overused, meaningless term? I don’t think so.

The typical definition that distinguishes a pro from an amateur, which has become a cliche, is what I term the “keeper ratio”. This definition states, simply, that a pro will consistently outperform the output of the amateur on a shot-by-shot basis. That if an amateur shoots 100 images the keepers, those images of publishable quality, would amount to maybe 3 - 5 as a rough estimate and likely less than 10. Whereas, the pro, shooting 100 images, would probably have as high as 50 or more usable images from their take. This is a quantity and quality criteria, but I argue that any photographer, pro or amateur, given enough time in a given place, could produce a significant quantity of quality images.

Another, often used and simple definition is a pro gets paid, an amateur does not. The generally accepted version adds that to be a pro the significant, if not primary, source of income comes from photography services.

I find the keeper ratio definition simplistic and unrealistic. I know several amateur photographers that could shoot rings around other pros I know, so it doesn’t hold any water with me.

I give more credence to the pro-gets-paid definition if the photographer depends on fees generated for their primary income.

A more accurate definition of a pro would be the pro provides value added customer service before, during, and after the sale, with proper invoicing, scouting, behavior on site, ability to be flexible and creative when things don’t go as planned, working with models, assistants, art directors, publishers, editors, and a myriad of other people involved in the project (stock or assignment); the pro strives to develop relationships with their clients for the long term because the pro depends upon these relationships and repeat customers to maintain cash flow and a certain income level. A client hiring a professional will be expecting a certain level of quality and service they might not demand from an amateur. 

The amateur does not pursue an income from photography and is often happy with a one-time “bonus check” or free publication with their image(s) in it and more often than not survives on a primary source of income other than from photography. Amateurs are typically not experienced with dealing with corporations, and are not familiar with typical business practices such as negotiation, fee preparation (the “proper” fee to charge or even where to research fees), invoicing, copyright law, setting terms, follow-up, relationship building, etc. An amateur may not have any knowledge of the photography industry, may not have a desire to learn, or be very knowledgeable or eager to learn, especially if they are interested in “going pro”.

The very high influx of amateur images being licensed as stock one time each (or more, over the very large population of amateurs entering the stock photography market) does seem to be having an impact on low and mid-level pro images. Rarely do amateur stock photo offerings involve serious production work or post production manipulations. Many are travel or landscape related images, though there are exceptions, as with everything. The high end commercial and stock images that represent the upper 10% or so of the highest license fees attained are relatively untouched, however.

Since there are no licensing and certification programs required for a person to be called (or call themselves) a professional photographer, the line may be blurred in places between the pro and amateur. The primary thing is in the intention of the individual. If a person is skilled, knowledgeable, and receives their income primarily or entirely from photography, who’s to say they aren’t a pro?