If I hear one more person or read one more camera ad that tells me to SHOOT LIKE A PRO! I swear to god I’ll start drinking gin from the cat bowl and Fluffy can go drink out of the toilet. What is this obsession with being a so-called pro as if it’s the highest calling of the photographer and …
How to Get Known: Part Two
Last week I started a conversation about “getting known”, or finding an audience for your work and if you didn’t see read that post – or see that episode, you might want to take a couple minutes to do that first because those ideas are foundational this article will be more helpful to you if we’re on the same page. …
A Failure to Communicate
A recent article on F-Stoppers, written by a wedding photographer, starts with the title, Why I Can’t Use a Mirrorless Camera Professionally. Anytime an article starts with “Why I Can’t…” I prepare myself for a personal defence of a position that should otherwise be titled, “Why I Won’t…” and I brace myself for a list of limiting beliefs. Now I …
Vision Is Better, Ep. 38
This week I indulge in a passionate rant about what it takes to be a so-called Professional Photographer. Join me as I discuss value and the need to serve an audience. Is it realistic to expect to make a living as a professional photographer? It is. But you better enjoy the struggle and you better be willing to become an …
What’s Your Potato?
It’s a slow Sunday afternoon. Coffee’s on. Van Morrison is mumbling his way through The Healing Game album. I head to Africa (finally!) at the end of this week after a three week delay. I’m restless. When I’m restless I write. And I’m hoping this time it sticks because I’ve written and re-written this article several times now, unable to …
Commodity Failure: A Rant
Oh, am I going to catch shit for this one… Every once in a while, despite my best efforts to keep my head down and avoid this stuff, I hear someone complain again about “amateur” photographers (don’t even get me started on the term faux-tographer, I’ll have an aneurism) cannibalising the photography market because they work for less than industry …
Talking Money with Zack Arias
Months ago I wrote a post called Photographers and Money, We Should Talk. The blog post seemed to get a lot of traction and generated a lot of comments and questions. Since then I’ve wanted to get my friend Zack Arias on the line and record a conversation about this stuff, because Zack’s made almost as many mistakes as I …
Be Your Own Patron
Remember those days of old when creative people did what they did because some guy with money paid them to do it, all for the privilege of calling themselves a patron? Well those days are over. Unless you get smart – and creative – with your money and become your own patron, in which case the time has never been …
Find an Itch
Since writing VisionMongers, I talk to a lot of photographers every year about business stuff. The frustrations, fears, and struggles are all similar. No one said this would be easy. As I recall, and it’s been a while since I wrote the book, I spent time trying to convince people not to go down this path, so when they inevitably …
Stop Waiting.
Marshall Eagle, Kenya, 2012 Perhaps because I spend so much time with creatives I spend more time with frustrated people who feel like they were meant for something more. Perhaps if the default in this culture was to make a living in the arts, we’d be seeing plumbers that just wanted to quit their job painting so they could …