my name is Thomas and I am a professional photographer because I bought a digital camera.
Found a great blog about the wacky business I've chosen... thanks to Kerry M.
In most fields, there's an awful lot of work put into the last ten percent of quality.
Getting your golf score from 77 to 70 is far more difficult than getting it from 120 to 113 or even from 84 to 77.
Answering the phone on the first ring costs twice as much as letting it go into the queue.
Making pastries the way they do at a fancy restaurant is a lot more work than making brownies at home.
Laying out the design of a page or a flyer so it looks like a pro did it takes about ten times as much work as merely using the template Microsoft builds in for free, and the message is almost the same...
Except it's not. Of course not. The message is not the same.
The last ten percent is the signal we look for, the way we communicate care and expertise and professionalism. If all you're doing is the standard amount, all you're going to get is the standard compensation. The hard part is the last ten percent, sure, or even the last one percent, but it's the hard part because everyone is busy doing the easy part already.
The secret is to seek out the work that most people believe isn't worth the effort. That's what you get paid for.
Do you think print is dying?
No, I think it is EVOLVING. We have to stop thinking of photography in terms of Print and instead think if IMAGES in terms of ASSETS. Those assets can be still or moving and can be used across a variety of media.
great insight on the CHANGING landscape
March First Friday at KRZYZ PHOTO
Hey all !Any body seen Spring??? I thought it was around here somewhere? This month we'll be prodding it along by opening the studio for the year and March First Friday with a photographic show featuring the work of Morgan Miller entitled Departure.Departure : a Photographic exhibition by
Morgan Miller
March 5th, 2010. one night only
7 -9 p.m.
Looking for a warm First Friday in the east Crossroads!
Random rules for ideas worth spreading
If you've got an idea worth spreading, I hope you'll consider this random assortment of rules. Like all rules, some are made to be broken, but still...
- You can name your idea anything you like, but a google-friendly name is always better than one that isn't.
- Don't plan on appearing on a reality show as the best way to launch your idea.
- Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you're stalling. You don't wait for inspiration, you command it to appear.
- Don't poll your friends. It's your art, not an election.
- Never pay a non-lawyer who promises to get you a patent.
- Avoid powerful people. Great ideas aren't anointed, they spread through a groundswell of support.
- Spamming strangers doesn't work. Spamming friends doesn't work so well either, but it's certainly better than spamming strangers.
- The hard part is finishing, so enjoy the starting part.
- Powerful organizations adore the status quo, so expect no help from them if your idea challenges the very thing they adore.
- Figure out how long your idea will take to spread, and multiply by 4.
- Be prepared for the Dip.
- Seek out apostles, not partners. People who benefit from spreading your idea, not people who need to own it.
- Keep your overhead low and don't quit your day job until your idea can absorb your time.
- Think big. Bigger than that.
- Are you a serial idea-starting person? If so, what can you change to end that cycle? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person.
- Try not to confuse confidence with delusion.
- Prefer dry, useful but dull ideas to consumer-friendly 'I would buy that' sort of things. A lot less competition and a lot more upside in the long run.
- Pick a budget. Pick a ship date. Honor both. Don't ignore either. No slippage, no overruns.
- Surround yourself with encouraging voices and incisive critics. It's okay if they're not the same people. Ignore both camps on occasion.
- Be grateful.
- Rise up to the opportunity, and do the idea justice.
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Posted by Seth Godin on January 31, 2010 | Permalink
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another great post from Seth Godin
Every Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: 12 tips for reading more.Of my hundreds of happiness-project resolutions, one of my very favorite resolutions is to Read more.
Reading is an essential part of my work. It forms an important part to my social life. And far more important, reading is my favorite thing to do, by a long shot. I’m not a well-rounded person.
But reading takes time, and there aren’t many days when I can read as much as I’d like. Here are some strategies I use to help me get more good reading done.
1. Quit reading. I used to pride myself on finishing every book I started. No more. Life is short. There are too many wonderful books to read.
2. Read books you enjoy. When I’m reading a book I love—for example, I’m now reading A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book—I’m astonished by how much time I find to read during my day. Which is another reason to stop reading a book I don’t enjoy.
3. Use TiVO. It’s much more efficient to watch shows on TiVO, because you skip the commercials and control when you watch. Then you have more time to read.
4. Skim. Especially when reading newspapers and magazines, often I get as much from skimming as I do by a leisurely reading. I have to remind myself to skim, but when I do, I get through material much faster.
5. Get calm. I have a sticky note posted in our bedroom that says, “Quiet mind.” It’s sometimes hard for me to settle down with a book; I keep wanting to jump up and take care of some nagging task. But that’s no way to read. Incidentally, one of the main reasons I exercise is to help me sit still for reading and writing -- if I don't exercise, I'm too jumpy.
6. Don’t fight my inclinations. Sometimes I feel like I should be reading one book when I actually feel like reading something entirely different. Now I let myself read what I want, because otherwise I end up reading much less.
7. Always have something to read. Never go anywhere empty-handed. I almost always read actual “books,” but I carry my Kindle with me everywhere, so that I know I’ll never be caught without something to read. It’s a great comfort.
8. Maintain a big stack. I find that I read much more when I have a pile waiting for me. Right now, I have to admit, my stack is so big that it’s a bit alarming, but I’ll get it down to a more reasonable size before too long.
9. Choose my own books. Books make wonderful gifts – both to receive and to give – but I try not to let myself feel pressured to read a book just because someone has given it to me. I always give a gift book a try, but I no longer keep reading if I don’t want to.
And some tips from great writers and readers:10. Randall Jarrell: “Read at whim! Read at whim!”
11. Henry David Thoreau: “Read the best books first, otherwise you’ll find you do not have time.”
12. Samuel Johnson: “What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.”Maybe you don’t love to read, so finding more time to read isn’t a happiness challenge for you. The larger point is to make sure you’re finding time to do whatever it is that you find fun. Having fun is important to having a happy life, yet it’s all too easy for fun to get pushed aside by other priorities. I have to be careful to make time for reading, or, even though I love to read, I might neglect it.
Have you found any good strategies to find more time to read – or to do whatever it is you find fun?
* It’s Word-of-Mouth Day, when I gently encourage (or, you might think, pester) you to spread the word about the Happiness Project. You might:
-- Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
-- Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @gretchenrubin)
-- Sign up for my free monthly newsletter (about 33,000 people get it)
-- Buy the book
-- Join the 2010 Happiness Challenge to make 2010 a happier year
-- Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
-- Watch the one-minute book video
Thanks! I really appreciate any help. Word of mouth is the BEST.
…interesting
Tammy Smith: Homemade Circus
A special Gallery feature and interview.
Published: Monday, September 28, 2009
Our October First Friday artist got a nice article by Pam Taylor on Presentmagazine.com
