Gail Mooney

December 10, 2013December 10, 2013

The Advantages of a Disadvantage

My gang of friends. I'm on the top step. — One of my early childhood tribes, Rochester, NY (I’m on top step)

I re-connected with an old friend last week. We hadn’t seen each other in 43 years! Other than my family members, I have known this friend longer than anyone else in my life, except for one other. But we hadn’t been in contact with each other, until a few months ago. We’ve had a wonderful exchange of emails and a bit of serendipity that led to an in person reunion. It’s been a cathartic experience for both of us.

We were teenagers, who used to “hang out” together. We went to different schools and we lived in different neighborhoods but for a couple of quick years, he, I and a few other friends, hung out together, on the warm spring and summer evenings of our youth. Until I moved…..again. It was probably the tenth time that I had moved and changed schools, and I was only 16 years old and mid-way through my junior year of high school. I suppose you could say that I had lived the life of a rolling stone. But it was what I knew. In one of our dialogs, I reminded him about that move, and he looked at it, as tragic.

In a way, I suppose growing up in a transient lifestyle was a bit tragic. Just when I would make friends, and feel like I was part of my “new school”, we would move again, to a new community. My dad was climbing the “corporate ladder” and with each promotion came a series of moves. I was the perpetual “new kid” and I guess I was always in search of a “new tribe”. I grew up, a product of change.

I recently finished reading Malcom Gladwell’s new book, “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants”. He talks about people who have turned the disadvantages that they’ve had in their lives, into advantages. Each chapter unfolds into a story about a highly successful person who had to overcome obstacles or disadvantages in their lives – everything from losing a parent to being dyslexic. One example Gladwell cites is about a high profile Hollywood producer who had worked his way from his impoverished beginnings to fame and fortune. His children had everything, but he was worried about their future. He knew that if they didn’t have to “work” for something, they wouldn’t know the feeling of accomplishment and success. They would not have the “advantage” that he had growing up, the advantage of being poor.

I realized after reading Gladwell’s book that what I might have looked at as a disadvantage, my nomadic life, was probably the biggest advantage I had. It has made me take chances in my life and not be afraid to initiate an interaction. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have made friends. It made me love school because I knew that was where I would connect to people in my new community. I learned to adapt to change. If I didn’t I would have been miserable all the time or afraid – or both. Instead, I have lived my life, continually exploring my curiosities, whether it is visiting a foreign country, embarking on a new creative project or expanding my craft.

Would I have wished my nomadic life on my daughter? Probably not, it wasn’t easy. But it certainly had its rewards.

November 21, 2013

Being Thankful

Next week is Thanksgiving. Call me corny but I’m one of those people that like to think about the real meaning behind the holidays that we celebrate. So today I’m taking pause to think about all the things that I’m thankful for this year. Sure there’s plenty of angst, jobs are less and money is tight but I have a lot to give thanks for.

• My health – for this I am most grateful.
• My family – both my immediate family and my far-flung relatives who I don’t get to see often but are always in my thoughts and I know are always there for me.
• My freedom – I think about this a lot. No matter how many times I feel that things have gotten off track in my country – I have the freedom to speak my mind, pursue my dreams and to change the things that I don’t like.
• My home – I’m lucky to have a home where I feel safe because I know there are so many who aren’t as fortunate these days. I never take this for granted.
• My passion – Sure I have my down days, but I’m thankful that I have an inner spirit that won’t let me give up on my pursuits.
• My friends and my peers – Because of my career and my collaborations with others, I have good friends – some I’ve recently gotten to know and others I’ve known for a long time. And some who I’ve recently reconnected with.
• My sharing of knowledge and making a difference. My husband and I trained a small army of volunteers in our town to shoot our town meetings and get them broadcast on our public access station. And I can see it has made a difference – people have become more civic minded and taken more of an interest in their community.
• I’m thankful that I am able to use my craft and create awareness through my personal projects in both stills and video. I’m thankful they can be seen globally, via the Internet and the power that has.
• I’m thankful for the many volunteers everywhere who give their time generously to others who are in need.
• I’m thankful for all the little things that are so precious – the sun that warms me on a cold day, the rain that nourishes the land, the colors and calm of a beautiful dawn and the thousands of stars on a clear night.

I’d love to hear what others are thankful for. I have found many times that those who seem to be less fortunate are also the ones who are the most thankful for what they have.

November 13, 2013

New Business Models in Photography and Motion – in a Global Economy

This topic comes up a lot these days. You could apply “new business models” to just about any business – not just photography and video. Photography and video, in and of themselves are not business models at all, but rather they are mediums that are used commercially, non-commercially and personally. The business end of photography and video comes when you determine how you want to apply them in terms of today’s markets.

Today’s markets are global. That’s good news and bad news, depending on the type of work you do. If you are a stock photographer or even if you have expanded that into also shooting stock motion footage – your inventory or your content must be unique in some way in order to sustain that type of business model in our global economy. You will need to stand out and offer something unique, if you pursue this type of market.

If you are a commissioned commercial or editorial photographer, cinematographer, or director, the competition is fierce and once again, if you don’t have a unique style or vision, most likely you will end up playing by others’ rules or signing “their” lopsided contracts. It comes down to supply and demand of talent and work, and you will either compete with price or offer something that you do better than your competition.

The good news is, if you are willing to do the work, the world is your stage. The portals for distribution of your “content” are open to all and as “creatives” we are no longer dependent on middlemen. When I get asked to talk about “new business models”, I always look for where the new opportunities are. Where will I be able to carve out my own “new business model”, rather than having to adapt others’ ideas of what that may be. There is a big difference in those two approaches.

I am carving out a business model for who I am creatively, and where I see the most opportunities for what I do well. When I am authentic to who I am and apply this to my work, I am able to deliver my own unique vision and reach the right audience, while maintaining ownership and control over the licensing of my work. I am able to do that not only because technology has enabled me to do that, but more importantly because I have set myself apart from everyone else who has a camera.

Think about it. What are your strengths? What are your passions? Now imagine a business model based on your answers. The world is our stage.

November 4, 2013

What Makes a Professional (Photographer)?

I heard a remark made recently, by a colleague of mine. I was with a group of photographers and we were discussing what makes a photographer, professional. At a time when it seems like just about everybody is a photographer, and we are bombarded with thousands of images on a daily basis, what separates a “pro” from an amateur? My colleague stated, “A pro “makes” photographs – an amateur “takes” them”. While that sounded like a reasonable distinction, it implied that photographers who shot “found moments” were not “professionals”. What about photojournalists then, who are bound by ethics not to contrive an image? So, I started thinking, “What set of criteria is used to determine what makes a photographer, a professional?”

Inspired by Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art, I will paraphrase, some of the qualities that Pressfield points out that define us as professionals:

“We show up every day” – no matter what.
We are committed for the long haul and the stakes are high. We need to feed our families and survive.
“We accept remuneration for our labor.” (I’ll add, we expect remuneration) We love what we do but we work for the money.
We master our craft. This doesn’t stop. A professional is always trying to master their technique.
We act in the face of fear. This is certainly applicable to a “war photographer”, but I would go further and say that it takes courage to follow a career path of photography. Courage and commitment.
“A professional self-validates.” We don’t need others to commission us, in order for us to work. We are passionate about what we do and we will create regardless if we are commissioned or not.
“A professional reinvents himself. “ If you aren’t reinventing yourself, then you probably aren’t taking enough risks. A professional knows not to play it safe – not in a creative profession.
A professional doesn’t take rejection or failure personally. I have learned first hand, that whenever I have taken a leap and challenged myself, it has always come with rejection or some may say, failure. Personally, I don’t equate rejection with failure. Failure implies it’s the end of the story. Rejection needs to take place, in order to get to the next chapter of the story.

I would highly recommend reading, The War of Art. It’s a must for anyone contemplating a creative career. As far as my thoughts about using the criteria, “making” or “taking” a photo to determine who is a professional photographer – let’s just say that a professional photographer is always “making” a photograph, regardless if it is contrived or not. It is a conscious decision of a professional photographer, when and which “moments” to capture. We show up every day, to do our job, whether it’s in a studio or a war zone. We are consistent, responsible and accountable. We are in it for the long haul. It’s our passion. It’s our life. It’s our craft and our gift to the world, a legacy of images that define the time we live in.

October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

The Value of Photography

The who’s who of photography gathered last night, at Carnegie Hall to honor the “masters” of their trade at the Lucie Awards. The Lucies are like the Oscars of the “photographic industry”.

2013 Lucie Awards, Carnegie Hall ©Thomas Kelly — 2013 Lucie Awards, Carnegie Hall
©Thomas Kelly

I had been asked to step in to present the “2013 Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year Award”. on behalf of the ASMP when Executive Director, Gene Mopsik and President, Ed McDonald couldn’t attend.

I don’t usually get nervous about things like this, but I was last night. As I stood in the wings with photographer John H. White, who was waiting to go on stage to accept his Lucie, for Achievement in Photojournalism, I was mesmerized as I watched John. He seemed to glow and I felt his grace, his humility and his gratitude. It was a moment in my life that will stay with me forever. It was calming. I watched and listened to his acceptance speech on the monitor backstage, and I was deeply touched. So was the audience, as evidenced in their standing ovation.

John H. White is not a “rock star” type of photographer. His images don’t “shock and awe”, not in the way a war photographer’s images do. John’s photographs capture the subtle moments of the human experience. His legacy of images show us life as it really is.

This past spring, after 35 years with the Chicago Sun Times, John and the rest of the newspaper’s photographic staff were fired. It was a huge blow to the photographic community, magnified by the fact that even John H. White, the “chairman” was “let go”, without even as much as a thank you. John wasn’t bitter about it though. Michelle Agins wrote a wonderful article for the New York Times where she quoted John: “A job’s not a job because of labor law,” he said. “It’s just something you love. It’s something you do because it gives you a mission, a life, a purpose, and you do it for the service of others.”

All he had wanted to hear from the executives who let him go was two words that never came: thank you. But even then, he did not respond with anger.

John spoke more about the Sun Times’ firings in an interview with NPR where he said: “I will not curse the darkness. I will light candles. I will live by my three “F” words: faith, focus and flight. I’ll be faithful to life, my purpose in life, my assignment from life. Stay focused on what’s really important, what counts.” He repeated those three “F” words last night as he accepted his award. The audience was humbled. John had shed his light.

I have been thinking a lot lately, about the value of photography and the value that a professional brings to this craft. John H. White and his archive of work is a stellar example. His images, capturing the subtleties of life stand out amongst the noise. They make us take notice of what is often over looked – the quieter moments of life.

As far as what a professional photographer brings to the world, I think John stated it best: “Every day, a baby is born. Every day, someone dies. Every single day. And we capture everything in between. You think of this thing called life and how it’s preserved. It’s preserved through vision, through photographs.”

As John walked off the stage and back into the wings, I felt enveloped by his glow that had seemed to magnify. I caught his eye for a moment and said “thank you”. He nodded, and flashed his wonderful smile and in that moment, we connected and shared our understanding, of the “value” of photography.

October 21, 2013October 22, 2013

The Past Always Seems Better…….But Was It?

Chris Guillebeau struck a chord with his blog today ,“ The Past Wasn’t Better. Choose the Present Instead”, . He relayed a story about a time his friends got together for a “gaming session”. They had ordered an emulator, which allowed them to play the games of their youth on the modern gaming console of the time. They realized after a couple of hours of playing the “old games” that the games weren’t as fun as what they remembered. They were very simplistic and hard – dying over and over again and not advancing to the next level wasn’t fun – it was frustrating.

Chris made the point that it’s easy to look back with fondness on the good ole days, but our memories get distorted as time passes and sometimes what we looked back on with fondness, never happened.

I had an interesting and somewhat similar experience this past weekend. I had been invited to speak and coach at the 2013 Syracuse University Fall Workshops, which ASMP had contributed to as a sponsor. It was an intensely creative 3-day workshop where journalism students from the Newhouse School, came together with some of the best editors, designers, photographers and multimedia producers working in journalism. It was a hands-on workshop, where students worked with their coaches, to produce their projects (stories), under a tight 3-day deadline. What stood out to me this weekend, was that the “learning” wasn’t a one-way experience. I learned as much as I shared – from the other coaches, as well as from the students. I’m sure I’m not the only coach, who picked up some tips from their students this weekend. I was also inspired and amazed at what is possible now, in terms of new ways to tell a story.

Sure, there are days when I’m simply overwhelmed by technology and the continued learning curve that comes with it. And sometimes, I look back and fantasize how much better it was in the past. At the workshop, one of my students had more than her share of technology mishaps. At one point after losing hours of work, due to a software glitch along with not being able to access her audio files, somewhere in “the cloud”, she remarked with exasperation “ I wish things were like they used to be”. She meant when things were tangible and analog. I quickly replied, “No you don’t because this 3 day workshop would have taken 3 months”. It was a moment when we both had the same realization that Chris Guillebeau had – our memories and perceptions of the old days are sometimes blurred and over glorified.

As much as we remember and long for the old days, the fact is we have it pretty good now. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t remind myself of that. I choose to focus on what I am able to do in the present rather than look back at what was. If we choose to stay in the past and remember things being better then they are now, we’ll miss out on a whole lot of possibilities. As Chris beautifully sums it up: “Let go of the glory days. Live in the present and build for the future.”

October 7, 2013October 7, 2013

What Happened to Attribution?

English: Logo of LIFE magazine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We lost one of the icons of photojournalism last week, Bill Eppridge. If you haven’t heard of his name, then surely you have seen his photographs. One of his photographs, a black & white image of the lifeless body of Senator Robert Kennedy on the floor of a hotel kitchen after he had been murdered, has become one of the signature images of the 1960’s. It has been etched into my memory since the first time I saw it in 1968.

Bill was one of his generation’s greatest photojournalists. His images graced the pages of Life Magazine, documenting the tumultuous decade of the ‘60’s. His colleagues at Life at that time included notables such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, George Silk, Paul Schutzer, Eve Arnold and Bob Gomel. I know that because I used to pour over our weekly copy of Life Magazine and I saw their names printed under their photographs.

Imagine that, a photographer’s credit appearing under their image. I say that sarcastically because nowadays photographers’ credits seem to have all but disappeared. If an image (especially a stock image) is credited in a magazine, many times it will only say “Getty Images” or “AP”. Why is that? It doesn’t cost the magazine any more money to credit the photographer who shot it – nor does it take anything away from Getty or AP. Why not credit an image ie: photographer name/Getty Images? When and why did someone somewhere at Getty or a publishing house decide to omit a photographer’s name?

It seems to me, that in the virtual world we live in, where trust and authenticity has given way to blurred or hidden identities, we would want to know who the person was that took the picture we are looking at. We all know a corporation didn’t go out and shoot it – sometimes putting their life on the line.

As a photographer, I insert a clause in my contracts that states that a penalty will be charged if my credit is omitted. That is if it’s my contract, but too many times stock photo agencies don’t require a photographer’s credit and in fact don’t seem to want it. Why? I would love to know why. I also wonder if this new precedent will affect our future photographic archives by making them less tangible, less personal. That would be a tragedy. What makes an image linger in our minds, decades after a picture is taken is that it makes the captured moment – real. I can assure you that when a photographer decides which moment to capture, it’s about as real and personal as it gets. Why not give credit to that moment and that photographer who captured it? Don’t you think that future generations will appreciate it if we do?

October 3, 2013October 4, 2013

Don’t Let Resistance Win

“Resistance is fueled by fear. Resistance has no strength of its own. Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.”

Steven Pressfield, “The War of Art”

Resistance manifests itself in many ways. Most of us do everything we can, not to recognize the “resistance” in our own lives. We plod along through life, just trying to maintain the status quo of our daily existence and habits, that we never “see” the sharp reefs buried beneath the surface of our relationships, our careers or how we are living our life. We don’t see the reefs, because we don’t want to. We think it’s easier to live a life of denial and that’s exactly what resistance wants.

Misery loves company. Somehow, it makes us feel better about ourselves, when we compare ourselves to other under achievers, procrastinators, people down on their luck or just ordinary people who are extremely unhappy. Essentially, people who don’t take control of their lives, but rather blame circumstances or others. These people are victims of resistance.

There’s a saying “When a door closes – a window opens”. I’ve always been one to focus on the “open window”, rather than the “closed door” but it’s not easy. Any time I’ve had a shift in my life, or a “door closed”, my first instincts are to curl up in a ball, bury my head in the covers, admit failure and give up – or give in to resistance. But I know that if I succumb to those instincts, I won’t even notice the windows that have opened. The funny thing is, most times, those windows were always open – I just never saw them.

I try to recognize those open windows in my life, but in order to do that, I need to battle resistance. That may mean, closing some doors myself.

September 17, 2013September 17, 2013

Past Predictions of the Future Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

One of the blogs that I regularly read is Copyblogger, which provides a lot of great information and insights into content marketing. This past week, Brian Clark wrote a post entitled, The Future of Content Marketing. He writes:

“A bunch of really smart people got together in 1880 to predict the future, according to Jeff Stibel in his intriguing book Breakpoint. These experts were called on to predict how the rapidly growing Gotham would manage into the next century and beyond.

The prognosis was not positive.

NYC was a major source of American innovation in 1880. Skyscrapers, subways, stock exchanges — and it was doubling in size every 10 years. The experts were concerned by this growth, because they projected by 1980, you’d need six million horses to transport all the people who would live there.”

Folks were predicting the future of New York City, looking at it through the eyes of what was technologically possible then. They were more concerned about all the horses and the “crap” that would be produced, than they were about greenhouse gases, because nobody knew what that was.

When I re-ran a blog post How Motion is Changing the Future of Photography, I used a similar analogy, that Ray Kurzweil had given when I heard him speak at NAB. Ray said that, at the turn of the century (the beginning of the 1900’s), if you thought of yourself as being in the “horse and buggy business”, you were doomed to fail because of advent of the automobile. But if you saw yourself in the “transportation business”, you thrived, no doubt because you broadened your view to include the automobile. In my blog, I compared that analogy to what is happening in the still photography business, as the mediums of still imagery and video converge. I received a lot of responses from that post, mostly from people who argued that still photographs would always be around. I don’t disagree with them. I do think there will still be still images in the future – however, I think the still photography business will drastically change from how it is now.

Interestingly enough, every year I’m asked to bid on a still photography assignment for a tourism client. Yesterday, I received the bid packet and there was a profound change. They were not asking for a quote for still photography. They were asking for a quote for video – and not just video – but video shot on a RED camera so that they could pull frame grabs from the footage and use those “still images” in their ads. Now, that’s a game changer.

There’s always a danger in predicting the future and that’s because we tend to use and be influenced by the information and the knowledge that we have now – in the present. What I’ve learned in my many years on this Earth is that the future will be nothing like how we imagine it will be. I know that because what I imagined the future to be, some 35 years ago when I set out to make a career as a still photographer, was very limited in terms of how technology has changed things.

The human need to create will continue to mold a future that is way beyond what most of us could ever imagine.

September 9, 2013

What’s Next for Still Photography? Things We Could Never Begin to Imagine.

One of the only good things about getting older is that I have gained a lot of perspective. I never speculate what the future will hold by limiting it to what’s possible now because…..

When I began studying photography at Brooks Institute in the early 1970’s

I never would have imagined:

That I would own a personal computer that would change the way I communicated with people and ran my business.
There would be the Internet, email and mobile phones.
There would be auto-focus cameras and lenses.
Cameras would be fully automated – if you so choose to use them that way. When I began my career as a photographer, I needed to be a technician, and that meant understanding aperture and shutter speed and a lot of other things that went into making a still image.
I would be shooting still images without film.
I wouldn’t be limited to 36 frames on a roll of film.
I could change the ISO on my camera, as need be.
I could change the white balance on my camera, as need be. (No need for different types of film)
I wouldn’t need to “get it right” in the camera because I could “fix it later in post” with Photoshop or hundreds of other apps.
I could see what I shot – right after I shot it. Without waiting for the film to come back from the lab or taking Polaroids.
There would be data cards and hard drives able to store thousands of images at affordable prices.
I could transmit my images digitally and globally with ease and speed.
I could share my portfolio electronically with virtually anyone, anywhere in the world.
That still cameras would be able to shoot video.
That video cameras would be able to shoot at high resolution with fast shutter speeds – good enough to take still images from the frame grabs.
My mobile phone would be able to shoot high res still images and video.
Magazines and newspapers would publish electronically, running stories online with static and moving imagery – and sound.
I would be able to watch a movie in my own home. (without being wealthy enough to build a home theater with analog projector and sound system). This was before the VCR and DVR were invented.
That feature movies and TV shows (other than soap operas) would be shot in video.
I would be able to make a feature length film without a Hollywood budget and big crew.
I could self-publish and distribute a book or a movie without a publisher or movie studio.
My TV would have access to the Internet (I couldn’t even imagine the Internet)
The Internet would give birth to “new networks” producing original content.
I would be competing and doing business on a global scale – as a small business owner.

A lot of the things I listed seem commonplace or even old technology nowadays. But, I when I first began my career as a photographer, I never would have imagined any of them – not in my wildest dreams.

What do you imagine the future will bring? There’s one thing for certain, if you limit your imagination to what’s possible now – you probably won’t even come close to what’s in store in the future.