Well, they'll work for what you have now. They won't work for what will make your company viable in the future. With all the Steve Jobs quotes and memories being shared I read one that struck me. It was about why he doesn't use focus groups, and rather than explain it himself he quoted Henry Ford: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” Most people don't see the future, it takes someone with a forward view to change the world. Stop doing focus groups and start changing your mindset.
Would I do it for free?
I've been doing a lot of thinking and research, etc about the future and what's my next moves are going to be. I read about a successful entrepreneur who approaches decisions with a question. He asks "Would I do this for free?" That's a tall question and one I don't know that I've ever asked myself. If money wasn't a concern, would you do it for free? There's a LOT of work that comes through that the answer would absolutely be no for. Would I edit presentations all day for free? No chance. Would I create video content for some of the agency clients I've been working with for free? Sure. Would I travel the world taking photos of bands for free? Absolutely.
Next time you have a work decision you need to ask yourself "Would I do _____ for free?" If you can't quickly say yes than maybe it's time to look at another opportunity.
I made the image above for my computer background to keep me motivated. If you like it, feel free to download it here.
3 tools that have changed the way I work
Dropbox
If you don't know what Dropbox is you're in an alternate universe (click here to sign up or find out). Basically it's cloud based storage that sync's with your desktop on whatever computer you set it up on. Great for having files on multiple computers. The best part, and what I use it for the most, is sharing files with clients. Right click on a dropbox file and you can send a link directly to that file. Have a lot to share? Share an entire folder with them. Out on the road and they "forgot the link", just log in to the iPhone app and resend it. It makes you look like you're running a high end server with web archive or supermail but in reality you're using a free service to make your life easier.
Freshbooks
Yes, I just signed up this week and it's already on my list. It was extremely easy to back fill with invoices. It's got some solid reporting. Expenses are a breeze. It'll time track as well. Everything you could want in book keeping software without the annoyance and complexity of Quickbooks. I did the free, 3 client trial and immediately signed up. Want to check it out? Here you go... Freshbooks
Wordpress
This one is short and sweet... they power my websites and my blog. I've never had an issue and there are tons of great plug ins and themes. I used to try to design and develop my own sites but I had the realization that isn't what I'm good at. I'm good at photo and video so I'll stick to populating the site with great content and let someone else develop it.
Music photography in a social world
Call me crazy (I'm sure someone will) but I have a different feeling about people using my music photography on their social media, blogs, websites, etc than a lot of photographers do. Let me start by saying when it's for commercial use I have a hard line, or if it's a company that pays photogs and just uses my images that's a different beast. But when it comes to blogs, flickr, facebook, google+, twitter, whatever I think photographers, especially music photographers, need to be taking a different approach.
Publicity is good, especially for a photographer specializing in entertainment photography. Now, I don't subscribe to the "shoot for exposure" idea. Or for a show where I think I can license images and the publicist tells me I have to buy my own ticket, no way. My email back for that is "if your artist will come play a private show at my house for free, I'll come shoot your show for free." Needless to say I don't get responses back. But when you shoot something and get paid for it, what's the harm in someone posting your photo on their site as long as it has your tag on it? They're not clients who would pay you to take photos, they're not sending you out to shoot and not paying you. If anything they're raising the awareness of your work. You're fooling yourself if you think that artists and their representatives aren't looking at the images people are posting of them. Those kids are going to post an image either way so it can either be yours or it can be someone else's. I would rather it be mine.
Yesterday I posted a photo I took of Joe Jonas and it got RT'd, posted, emailed, texted all over the place (the image is here). Just from what I found in a one minute search...
http://teamjonasgermany.tumblr.com/post/10230139131/dontbescene-joejonas-rocking-his-new-hat-at
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=582081&l=76b89378e8&id=138566469541382
http://joejonasnews.org/2011/09/14/picture-joe-wearing-a-white-sox-hat/
http://omglikewhoa.com/?p=1935
http://jonasworld.org/?p=26300
Are those huge outlets that are paying for quality photography? No. Could I send DCMA take down notices to all of them and have the images removed? Absolutely. But I would rather have the exposure and spend my time creating new images. If someone likes my stuff enough to post it on their blog or (non commercial) site, so be it. This is the 21st century. News hits twitter before it makes the headlines. It's time to rethink the way you approach those who use your photos and what's worth pursuing and what's wasting your time when you could be out creating new content.
I'm interested to know what other music photogs think... Tweet me: @dontbescene
[about me disclaimer: I am a photographer who makes my living shooting a lot of different things, music included. I'm not a young kid who shoots shows for free because I want to be close to a band. I've toured and done all that stuff. I shoot music photography because I love it.]
It's all about what you can pass on...
I've learned a LOT the past two years about freelancing and business. And one thing I realized is it's about what you can pass on to someone else. What do I mean by that? I mean that it's great to be a freelancer and be getting tons of work and blah blah blah, but you're limited. You're not building equity in something. You have nothing that you can pass on to someone else. Cal Engel photographer could make a great living but at the point I decide to be Cal Engel something else I stop the photographer thing and it ends. Years of hard work, no sleep, blood, sweat, and tears that will come down to nothing if you don't build it right. Instead of being Cal Engel Photographer you need to start a company and not name it after yourself. I could be the greatest wedding/family photographer ever but who's going to want to buy the company from me when it's named after me? Come up with something clever and make that your name. Build a stable of other photographers you can turn to for jobs you don't want to take or don't have time to take and get a percentage off the top. Build a company and you will have something with value. Work for yourself and you'll pay your bills, but you won't have anything to pass on.
Inkling... this is what I've been waiting for
I write in a notebook almost every single day. It's great for brainstorming and quick notes and stuff. It's frustrating when I know I wrote something and now I've got to go find it. I've been looking for a solution that will let me do things digitally and the Wacom Inkling might be it. I've tried iPads and other slate options but nothing feels like I'm actually writing. This might be just the tool to bring those notes to life. It's got 1,024 levels of pressure and will export raster or vector images (vector!). All at $200 when it comes out next month. I'll be picking one up for sure, I'd pre-order today if I could. Scope out the video below and the press release after the jump.
Wacom Has An Inkling
Today, Wacom® introduces Inkling, a new digital sketch pen that captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with its ballpoint tip on any sketchbook or standard piece of paper. Designed for rough concepting and creative brainstorming, Inkling bridges the gap between paper sketching and digital drawing by giving users at the front end of the creative process a way to rough-out ideas with real ink on paper and capture their concepts digitally so that they can be later refined on their computer. Inkling even allows users to create layers in the digital file while sketching on paper in the following creative software applications: Adobe® Photoshop®, Adobe® Illustrator® and Autodesk® Sketchbook® Pro. Spontaneous and Liberating
Virtually anyone who uses sketching to capture their creative ideas and wants to have their drawings in a digital format to e-mail, archive or further refine on their computer can benefit from Inkling. For example, artists, illustrators, or story boarders who appreciate the convenience, speed and spontaneity of loosely sketching their ideas on paper could profit from the capabilities of Wacom's Inkling digital sketch pen. In everyday use, a graphic designer could use Inkling to create rough concepts on paper for a new advertising campaign and then review and share these concepts on the computer with colleagues or clients. The pen and receiver store and recharge in a compact case making it easy to transport Inkling between, home, office, hotel or any typical workspace.
"Inkling's inspiration comes from a desire to give artistic people the freedom to draw on paper and to provide an easy way to transition the drawings to digital media," said Glenn Tsunekawa, Global Product Manager at Wacom. Inkling Specifics
The Inkling digital sketch pen is comprised of both hardware and software components. Hardware includes both the pen and a wireless receiver that captures a likeness of the sketch and stores it digitally. The ballpoint pen uses Wacom's pressure sensing technology (1024 levels of sensitivity) to detect how hard the pen is being pressed to the paper while sketching. These pressure variations will appear in the digital version of your drawing. "Through its pressure sensitivity, Inkling captures the varied line weights created by the ink pen," adds Tsunekawa.
The receiver can be clipped to the edge of standard paper or sketchbooks and the position can be adjusted for left or right handed users to provide the receiver with an uninterrupted line of sight with the pen tip. When sketching is complete, the receiver is connected to the user's computer via USB to transfer the digital files. Files can be opened with the included Inkling Sketch Manager software to edit, delete or add layers as well as to change formats and transfer the files for adjustment and editing in creative software applications.
Inkling can store thousands of sketches and export layered files directly to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (CS3 or newer), as well as Autodesk Sketchbook Pro (2011). Alternatively, files can be saved in JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, SVG and PDF formats for use with other applications. According to Tsunekawa, "Inkling's support of raster based applications such as Adobe Photoshop, as well as vector based applications such as Illustrator and Autodesk Sketchbook Designer, will provide users with options for incorporating their preliminary sketches into further developed work". The Ideal Companion for Intuos® and Cintiq®
Users of Wacom Intuos pen tablets and Cintiq interactive pen displays gain extra benefits by adding an Inkling to their creative toolbox. "For those working with our professional products, the pen is already their input tool of choice," continued Tsunekawa. "Inkling can deliver an immediate ROI to these users by delivering an accelerated and more mobile workflow resulting in digital files that can easily and quickly be transferred to their home or office computer and redrawn using the Intuos or Cintiq pen."
Who cares about QR Codes?
I did a shoot the other day and afterwards we all went out to grab a drink. The menu at the place we were at had a QR code on it and one of the guys said something along the lines of "these QR codes are really catching on and about to blow up." To which those of us who work in the marketing world chuckled and said why's that? He argued that when he starts to hear about something it's starting to get big because he's always the last to know. Not bad logic, but in reality when have you ever seen someone use a QR code? How many people do you even know with the app to read them on their phones? It's an interesting idea but it will not catch on and is just another marketing ploy for agencies to make a couple extra bucks. "Look at this!!!! We can put these sweet QR codes onto stuff and people can just scan them in!!! How digital is this?!" That's how I imagine those sell in meetings going. They leave out the part where they rarely work properly, you have to download something to your phone to even be able to use them, and they're free. You don't need to pay someone to use one or build one.
All that said, there is 1 place where I use QR codes and I think they're actually very helpful... real estate. I'm not buying a house but I like to know what things cost in different areas. Odds that I remember the name of the real estate company to go back and google it is rare. And Red Fin can be hit or miss when I want it to find my location. I will however scan a QR code if the sign has one and get the results I want. But that's it. Anywhere else a QR code is just a sad way to bring something into the digital age that in reality doesn't actually do that.
Diluting your brand
I drive on Ogden Ave West of Chicago every single day. If you've never been there are some good restaurants and TONS of car dealers. I remember being young asking my parents to drive down that street just so I could see all the dealers. Now that I drive on it every day, and I'm in the market for a new car, I pay more attention to what I see there. And what I've discovered is that Auto Manufactures are diluting their brands and I don't understand it. I get that Chevy and Ford are going to put out a ton of stuff and see what sticks. But Porsche and BMW?! There are others (Bentley for example) that are also doing it, but what I've been seeing everywhere are the Porsche Panamera, that weird 4 door thing they put out. The Porsche Cayenne, the SUV crossover deal. And the BMW 1 series, I don't even know how humans fit in something smaller than the 3 series.
[click below for more]
Let's start with Porsche. They put out a line of beautiful sports cars that are extremely fast and handle insane (or so I hear). They're up at the top of the luxury line of sports cars and the things that people dream about. Then someone at the top thinks, "We've been catering to all these performance loving people, let's add some new customers." "How about suburban moms?" Who in their right mind says that and then decides it's a good plan. Take a look at the people driving these cars. The Cayenne is a solid looking car, but who needs a Porsche SUV. But the Panamera looks like something West Coast Customs chopped together. It's one of the ugliest cars I'e seen in a long time, but you can't hook a parent on a car with only two doors.
BMW, oh BMW. I'll spare all the background and just ask why? Why do you need to produce the 128i? Are you really helping your business by putting out more cars? Is someone that goes into a BMW dealer really going to be thrown off by the price and need a more affordable option. Come on! You charge $40 for your specially formulated windshield washer fluid. What does a clown car sized BMW bring to the market?
All these companies are doing is being short sighted. They're looking at the now and not the legacy of their brand. We don't need a family sized Porsche. And we definitely don't need another 13th model line from BWM. These companies need to look at what will build them over the long term and keep them true to what they've been. Maybe Porsche has decided they don't want to be in the performance car devision anymore and they want to be the next grocery getter. And maybe BMW thinks their customers would benefit from seeing their new line in the 3 ring circus with a bunch of painted faces jumping out of it. For me, I hope that they realize it's about what they've built their brand to be and less about making the quick buck.