Inspirational – Page 8 – Journeys of a Hybrid

February 18, 2013February 19, 2013

It’s All About the Story

I’ve said it a million times “It’s all about the story”. If you don’t have a good story to tell – and tell it – you’ve got nothing.

Last night I watched the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” and all I can say is WOW – it is probably the most incredible story I have ever heard in my life. It’s the kind of story that’s almost to good to be true and yet it is.

It’s a story about Sixto Rodriguez, a Detroit folksinger who in the early 1970’s recorded a couple of records that were brilliant and “well received” but – they didn’t sell. Rodriguez went on to live a simple life as a laborer, spending his time demolishing abandoned buildings in a city wracked by ruin and hard times. Little did he know that on the other side of the world, in South Africa, he was a legendary music icon and an inspiration for generations who grew up with Apartheid.

Back in the early ‘70’s, a young American woman went to South Africa to visit a friend and took with her one of Rodriguez’s records. At that time, in South Africa, you could be put in jail for just listening to records like Rodriguez’s. It was a heavily censored society and ripe for rebellion. He became a cult hero, bigger than Elvis. Rumors grew up around this legend where it was said he committed suicide in front of his audience, at the end of a concert. No one could find any information about him at all, because nothing had been written about him, unlike many of the popular rock musicians of his day.

Meanwhile, back in Detroit, Rodriguez had no idea his music had touched millions. It wasn’t until the 1990’s, that a few die-hard fans tracked him down using cryptic clues from his lyrics and the Internet. They finally found Rodriguez alive and well in the city of Detroit and brought him to South Africa. What transpired was a series of concerts to sold out stadiums for this folksinger who had lost sight of his musical dreams.

It’s one of the most powerful inspiring stories I have ever heard. Almost like parallel universes colliding to complete dreams across the divide. Of course it took another 10 years for a filmmaker to bring awareness of this story in this incredible film.

When I was at the Traverse City Film Festival, I saw and met Rodriguez at the opening night outdoor party. I couldn’t get into the screening because it was sold out and I had to wait until it was available on DVD. It was worth the wait and it’s a film that you shouldn’t miss.

If you want to know what Rodriguez is doing now – well you’ll have to watch the movie.

PS I just bought his CD that was released in ’71. You couldn’t find in America before this film was released. Like Orson Welles said “If you want a happy ending that it depends on where you stop the story”.

February 3, 2013February 3, 2013

What Still Photographers Need to Know About Convergence

We should not think in terms of how we can apply the newest tools of the trade to what how we are shooting today, but rather think about how these tools and future versions may be applied to what we will be doing in the years to come. We also need to remember that it is not just creatives that are determining what we shoot with, how we shoot it and where the imagery will be used, it’s the top executives and money folks from the camera manufacturers, the advertising executives, broadcast networks, movie studios and magazine and newspaper publishers. They set the stage and the content creators and receivers of the content or the “audience” react.

We as creatives have a choice of what tools to use – everything from an iPhone to a camera like the

RED, able to produce 5k resolution stills shooting at 96 frames a second at a 200^th of a second. We make our decisions when choosing which tools to use based on a number of factors – affordability and determining which tool or camera is the best one for a particular job. Many times, it’s the end use that is the deciding factor. We need to remember that not only our tools are changing, but so is the way the information or content is delivered as we rapidly move away from print to electronic delivery. Simply put, mobile devices have dramatically changed the way consumers are receiving content and information.

Who could have imagined just a few years ago that a phone could take photographs that weren’t just “good enough” but really good in terms of resolution and delivery? We need to keep in mind that the limitations of today will most likely not be there in the future. Technology is changing our lives and our businesses in an exponential way and will continue to do so. If we are smart and want to stay in business, we need to look forward and imagine what’s next, rather than look at what is or what was.

When I started my still photography business more than 30 years ago, a photographer needed certain technical skills. We needed to be able to focus a camera and that was tough if you were shooting fast moving action subjects and we needed to know how to get an accurate exposure. The cameras of today have pretty much eliminated those skills with auto focus and exposure. Still photographers still need to know how to light but as software becomes more sophisticated will that be a necessary skill set of the future?

When I’m giving a seminar to still photographers who are thinking of moving into motion, I start out by explaining the differences of the two mediums. Still images are moments in time and video is time in motion. That explanation sounds simple but it’s quite profound when you think in terms of convergence. While today’s cameras have pretty much eliminated the skill sets of knowing how to properly focus and expose an image, a photographer or camera operator still has to be able to capture the “decisive moment” – that is where the skill set comes to play. But is that still true today and will it remain so in the future with motion cameras able to shoot at 96 frames a second at a fast shutter speed with 5K resolution? Why would a client need a photographer to shoot still images when they can pull frames from a motion shoot? They wouldn’t, especially when most camera operators in the motion sector are working under “work for hire” contracts and they don’t hold the copyright to the footage and/or still images or frame grabs from that footage. That’s a game changer for the still photography business and licensing of images.

I read an interview once with Vincent LaForet and he was telling a story about having a discussion with a DP at a Red event shortly after the Red One came out. He asked, “Who in the world would want to shoot a still image with this huge Red camera with a Cine lens? It’s insane. Why wouldn’t I go out with my 5D Mark II that shoots RAW?” The DP answered “We want to take your still jobs away from you, just like you want to take our video jobs away from us with your HD SLR’s.”

That was a few years ago. Now I know a lot of high end still photographers who are shooting with smaller, more affordable and high-resolution motion cameras to shoot still photography jobs and so are DP’s. That’s convergence and who knows what the future may bring, but one thing is for sure – it’s best to be knowledgeable in both.

January 21, 2013January 21, 2013

Photographers – Grow or Die

I’ve been a professional photographer for over 35 years. While some may look at that sentence and think I must surely be “over the hill” – others may look at that and say “wow, she must have been doing something right, to stay in business that long”. I suppose, it all depends on the outlook of the person.

Personally, I truly believe that the secret to longevity in any career field is to be open-minded as to how they define themselves. One thing I have never done is define myself by the tools I use. Just because one has expensive camera gear, it doesn’t make them a “professional photographer”. If that was the case, then who are you if you have a camera that happens to shoot both still images and video?

I’m really amazed when photographers define themselves by the tools of their trade. I think with the way things are going in terms of how technology continues to affect our industry, if a photographer defines him/herself in such narrow terms – it’s the kiss of death.

When technology enabled me to explore video production without having to make a prohibitively investment in expensive “tools”, the creative part of me wanted to take full advantage of those new opportunities that were coming my way. After all, I’m a storyteller and I shouldn’t have to limit myself to one medium, but rather choose the

Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of ph... — (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

right tool (camera) to use that best tells the story that I need to tell. Sometimes that means delivering the message in video and sometimes the story is better told with still images.

Because I was an early adaptor of video (at least from a still photographer’s point of view), many of my peers equate me with just shooting video. Many assume I’ve abandoned still photography, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The real truth is, my clients see me as an imaging professional, who is able to deliver their message with the medium(s) that is best suited for the job. These days with print publication giving way to electronic delivery, clients are delighted that I am able to fulfill their needs because I am proficient in both video and stills and most times they need both.

My curiosity for exploring a variety of mediums and tools has not only kept me in business – it’s kept me from getting jaded and stale. I am a photographer. I am a director of photography. I am an imaging professional and am thrilled to still be in business at a time when we have so many tools and options in how we are able to deliver a visual message.

January 12, 2013

I’m Not Cut Out For That

Anyone who has been reading my blog knows that I’m not the sort of person who would think or say “I’m not cut out for that”. Most times, I tell myself that anything is possible and set out to face my fears. But, there have been times when I’ve had to question taking on an assignment or assuming a role and ask myself, if in fact, I’m cut out for it.

There are generally two types of scenarios that mandate a decision to be made:

When I am listening to my inner voice that is prompting me to do something.

When I am listening to family, friends or colleagues who are encouraging me to do something

I’ve learned the best thing for me to do in either scenario, in order to make the right decision is to think of it in terms of what is the right fit for me. Is it in harmony with who I am?

Right now, I am working on a marketing plan so I am not only looking at what markets to target in terms of where there is a demand but also in terms of which markets I am suited for. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m thinking of what’s in my comfort zone, it means that I am thinking about which markets I can provide the most value to. If I do it right, everybody wins.

January 5, 2013

10 Ways Photographers are Their Own Worst Enemies

They talk themselves out of things. – Telling themselves that it wouldn’t matter if they learned new skills or shot new images or whatever they didn’t want to make the effort to do.
They try to “educate” their clients (sometimes a bit too much) instead of collaborating and possibly learning from them. A lot of “older” photographers are like this when they are working with younger art buyers or directors. I think the energy needs to work both ways.
They give themselves an A for effort for starting something but too many times their starts lead to nowhere if they don’t have an end goal in mind.
They don’t open themselves up to networking with others by attending industry meetings or events.
They treat their clients like their enemies where one needs to win instead working toward a positive outcome for both.
They make the mistake of creating for an audience, instead of creating for them selves. (Thanks to Seth Godin for that thought)
They take workshops or pay for a service and then don’t utilize them. I’ve been guilty of this too many times.
They don’t shoot for the pleasure of it.
They rely too much on commissioned work instead of taking advantage of new opportunities and ways in which to market and sell their own projects.
They don’t stay true to themselves.

December 29, 2012December 29, 2012

Ten Things Photographers Should do in 2013

Be optimistic – I’m going to start with the hardest one of all, because it’s really difficult to be optimistic these days. But I find that if I can maintain a positive attitude and turn my thoughts to what is possible, I actually open myself up to more opportunities in my life, instead of creating more roadblocks.

Be open to possibilities. – Be more flexible in how you perceive things and who you are. Change is always happening, but it’s usually gradual. Most people don’t take notice until “change” forces their hand to act. It’s always better to be proactive than reactive so embrace “change” as an ever-present fact of life that creates opportunities for those who are open to seeing them.

Collaborate – Photographers are very independent creatures and collaboration is not part of their norm. As the “photography” business continues to change, photographers will find that collaborating with other artists will make their own businesses stronger.

Diversify – I’m not quite so sure why so many photographers are so rigid in how they define who they are and what they do. Having a “style” is great, but the trick is to not to be so narrowly defined by that style, so that when styles change, you don’t find yourself obsolete by your own design. It’s kind of like being type cast, where your audience or your clients can only see you in one way.

Concentrate more on “the story”– I had the opportunity to speak with a lot of still photographers and filmmakers this past year and I began to notice a difference in the conversations I was having with each. Most times, filmmakers would be telling me a story, whereas still photographers would be telling me how they executed a photograph, or essentially telling me the “back story” of the creation of the image. It’s all interesting but “the story” is the bottom line – if that doesn’t come through to the viewer – the rest doesn’t matter – including how it was executed.

Be authentic – be true to yourself. That means that you have to trust your gut instead of second guessing it. This is hard, especially when things don’t always work out the way you had hoped. Step away from the “noise” and listen to the voice inside.

Fail more. – Rejection is a tough pill to swallow but it usually means that you are either pushing yourself to try new things, you are too far ahead of your time or it just wasn’t meant to be. If you look at successful people you’ll see that most have had failures and rejections in their lives but they stuck with it – instead of letting failure defeat them.

Self-Initiate more projects. – I don’t like to call non-commissioned work, “personal projects”. That co notates that there is no monetary value and these days, just the opposite could be true. With more and more lopsided contracts being presented to photographers for commissioned work, a photographer has a better chance to make more money and keep ownership of their work by creating self-initiated projects. But they need to be prepared to work hard.

Forget about the past except to learn from mistakes. – You can’t change the past but you can learn from it and then, move on. Look toward the future but make sure you take time to enjoy the “now”.

Realize that in the scheme of things, you are just one small speck in the universe. – I think we all get way too stressed about things that really don’t matter and we let those things control our life. When we become more conscious of that, we really begin to live life.

December 12, 2012December 14, 2012

10 Ways I’m Making the New Year More Analog

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I miss from my “analog” days. I’m far from being a Luddite; in fact if anything I’m just the opposite, continually embracing technology and using it to grow creatively. I’m having the time of my life right now exploring a variety of mediums and I’m amazed at the global reach that I have as an artist and a member of the human race.

It’s a powerful time to be alive, because the world is literally at our fingertips. But I’m finding that as much as technology has “connected” more of us together, these “viral connections” are vastly different than our “analog” connections. I’m not just referring to how we connect with each another, but also how we connect to ourselves and figure that out amongst all the noise.

So, I got to thinking about how I could be more “analog” in the New Year. Here’s some things I came up with:

Cut in half, the amount of time I spend interacting with people on social media platforms, and spend that time instead on personal interactions.

Get together more, face-to-face with clients, colleagues and friends. Gosh, I think this is what I miss the most – people just don’t make the time for this anymore. And chatting via text, email and FB isn’t the same.

Write more letters, and send printed invitations and cards in the mail rather than always electronically.

Go online less often and have a specific purpose or task in mind when I do.

Make images the best I can in camera. Just because I can change an image digitally in post – doesn’t mean that I always need to do that.

Create something printed – a photograph, a portfolio, an exhibition or a book.

Read more printed books on the couch, the porch, the beach or in bed.

Read a printed newspaper on a Sunday morning. ( If I can find one.)

Walk more in nature instead of on the treadmill.

Stare at a fire and look up at the sky more often.

Anyone else have suggestions on how to live more analog?

December 7, 2012December 7, 2012

The Difference Between Photographers & Filmmakers

Red carpet of the Palais des Festivals et des ... — Red carpet of the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès during the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am winding down after a couple of intense months, traveling the film festival circuit with my documentary Opening Our Eyes. I have enjoyed every bit of it, but it wore me out – in a good way.

I find that when I am “out there”, I get richly rewarded in many ways. I think what I enjoyed the most about the film festivals, and what was the most beneficial to me, was the opportunity to dialog with other filmmakers. I learned a lot in the process. But what stood out to me was how different these conversations were from conversations that I have with my still photographer colleagues.

Many times the conversations I was having with other filmmakers were centered on a story. That should come as no surprise because that’s what filmmakers do – they tell stories. But filmmakers tell stories “cinematically”, so when they are talking about the story that they are currently working, or a story idea they want to pursue, they speak in great visual detail so I see a very clear picture in my head.

My conversations with my still photographer peers, in terms of craft, are more apt to be about how they created an image. Photographers generally talk more about the role they played in making the photo, like how they lit it or the gear they used. Sometimes, photographers will tell me a story about what they went through to make a photograph and those stories can be very interesting and entertaining, but again the conversation is more about the execution of the image – than the story of the image.

Lately I’ve been trying to figure out how and where I fit into the mix. The truth is, I remain in the middle – a true hybrid. I realize that ever since I can remember, I have always seen stories playing out cinematically in my head, so I guess I have always had a filmmaker’s mind even though it lay dormant for most of my professional career. On the other hand, as a still photographer and one who has been an observer of life through my camera I see things like light and composition.

So, I am a true hybrid and I can see my still photographic “eye” in the motion work I create. Others who have seen my film have remarked about the composition and lighting, because it does look different and stands out from other documentaries. Sometimes that has been a good thing and sometimes not. Regardless, it is what it is – a creation from a still photographer’s eye applied to motion.

Embrace the differences – see what happens.

November 7, 2012

“Old Enough to Know Better but Still Too Young to Care”

I was talking to a friend recently about getting “older” and how it really sucks on the one hand but on the flip side, I’ve never felt more liberated in my life. He laughed and said that I reminded him of a line in an old country/western song – depicted in the title of this post.

Gail_MG_1137 — On the Amazon River, Peru

It’s pretty accurate, at least in terms of who I am.

I have never been one for “labels” of any kind. I’m much more interested in what’s going on in the “inside” opposed to what someone is displaying on the outside. So much so that when my daughter was younger, if she didn’t come home from school right away, I would worry and think that I wouldn’t be able to describe what she was wearing if the police should come asking.

Our American culture seems to be obsessed with labels, more interested in the packaging and fizz than the substance. “Older” people are invisible, dismissed and ignored as being too set in their ways, dated, and useless, when in fact some of the most interesting people I have ever taken the time to talk to, were ones that most folks seemed to overlook, simply because of their “packaging”. I was lucky that I came to that realization at a very young age, when an art director, who was a great mentor to me in my early years, introduced me to the legends of photography. They were all “old”, at least to my young eyes, but I quickly realized that age had nothing to do with how they saw the world.

It amazes me when seemingly intelligent people use catch phrases to describe others and don’t even realize that in the process that they are the ones with “narrow” sights and they would do better to open their eyes and see beyond. My eyesight has gotten worse as I have aged, but at the same time, my vision has gotten so much better.

When I was younger, there was a popular saying “don’t trust anyone over 30”. I’m glad I never really bought into that notion, because I would have been the one who was shortchanged. Don’t judge people because of gender, color or age or the type of car they drive. Take the time and the energy to look past the packaging and really see. You’ll probably be surprised that ignorance, narrow mindedness, fear, and pessimism comes in all sexes, shapes, sizes and ages.

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?”

Satchel Paige (1906-1982) Baseball legend who continued his successful career well into his 60’s.

November 1, 2012

The Power of Film in Making a Difference

When I set out to make a film about individuals on six continents who were making a positive difference on our planet, I didn’t set out to save the world.

That would not only be something impossible to achieve, but it would diminish what I could do. And in fact, if I had set out to attain such an overwhelming feat of saving the world, I may have quit before I even got started – out of pure frustration.

But I do know the power of what a film can do. I know I can use my craft and my tools in my own small way to make a difference. And I know that by breaking down tasks into small actions; they add up to some very big accomplishments. Even with no backing, little funds and virtually no help, my daughter and I created a film that is doing exactly what we set out to do – inspire and move people to action to do what they can do to make our planet a better place.

All too often, we over think things. Big productions, big money, celebrities and everything else that shouts out to us on the airwaves and the Internet dazzle us. We start to believe that anything that isn’t grandiose isn’t worthy at all. It’s a pity because in our attempt to gain perfection or notoriety – we shortchange ourselves and everyone else on what we could have accomplished.

I’ve seen a lot of “small” films over the last few months as I travel from festival to festival with my documentary, Opening Our Eyes. While many of these films are “small” – or at least deemed small by some – they are powerful in every way. Sometimes, there may be only 10 people in the audience and I think what a shame, that these powerful films won’t be seen by the masses. That is changing though, as filmmakers have access to new tools and platforms that can take their small films global. I’ve witnessed that first hand.

As consumers we need to start taking notice of films, books and photographs that don’t have millions of dollars or stars behind them.

As filmmakers we need to stay true to ourselves, believe in our dreams and take advantage of the power of the age we live in to not only make films that create awareness but to get them seen on a global scale.

I hope I never lose sight of what’s possible through the power of film and how photographers and filmmakers can use their craft to create awareness and make our world a better place. These days, with a lot of hard work and determination, the individual has the power to make a difference globally. We live in an amazing time – take advantage of it.

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