Mini Rolleiflex

From Shoot! TheBlog, Urban Outfitters (since when do they sell anything other than overpriced pseudo-Bohemian frocks from India?) is now offering a Rolleiflex Mini Digital camera.

5 Mega Pixel camera with autofocus technology, the Rollei Mini allows you to shoot from a distance of 4 inches to infinity, saving each image to a Mini SD Card. Still the undisputed choice for portraits, the camera features an up-facing 1.1" square display for waist level shooting, which encourages your subjects to go on looking and acting naturally instead of posing for the camera. Crank lever 'film advance"; JPEG image format; 4.9mm F2.8 Lens; 1/15-1/2500s Shutter Speed; Automatic While Balance and Exposure Control; Auto power-off. Imported. Wipe clean.

Unbelievable. It's so tiny and lovely.

NYC Gathering schedule

Photoshelter has posted the schedule for the NYC Gathering on Sunday, July 20th. There's a panel on editorial photo editors moderated by none other than Rob Haggart of APE. I'm really looking forward to hearing him speak, he strikes me as a relentless advocate for photographers.

ASMP New York event

ASMPNY is pleased to announce the opening of the image 08 winners show tomorrow on Thursday July 17th at Fast back creative! Open and free to all, refreshments and drinks will be served.

Ira Glass

There's a great series on YouTube about storytelling. Even though Ira Glass is speaking about broadcasting and television, the advice he gives on doing creative work is apt.

Bad contracts

At one of my group meetings, a fellow photographer asked me about a contract he had been asked to sign. He was concerned about some sections of the document, two in particular, where one referred to copyright and the other to damages to a third party. In my opinion it was a bad contract (i.e. highly disadvantageous to the photographer) but unfortunately in these cases of an adhesion contract (a contract that does not allow for negotiation) the only choice we have as a freelancer is to say "no" to such contracts.

Leslie, at Burns Auto Parts, has a related post.

The Awareness Test

I've recently started cycling and have been reading many bicycling blogs. I came across this video which is a great example of being aware/paying attention.

The story of stuff

Very interesting presentation on consumption here.

"From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever."

5 heads are better than 1

I think the first group meeting went very well. The first thing I noticed that was common to us all as we tried to formulate individual goals, was how challenging it was to edit it down to only one manageable objective. We all had so many ideas and ambitions, especially as creatives where the lines between personal and professional goals blurred very easily.

My hope is that this sense of community and accountability will encourage us all to overcome those common creative fears and inertia and push forward. My recent posts make me sound like a cross between a career self-help book and motivational speaker. Ha.

First group meeting

Tonight is the first meeting of my Photography Business Support Group (the capitals make it sound more official, don't they?) and I'm very excited about it. Basically, the group will meet once a week, for the next ten weeks, to work towards their individual main goal. Each week each person will present the challenges they faced and receive suggestions and advice from the group.

ETA: So far the biggest challenge will be time and how much of it people have to dedicate to something that is purely voluntary with optimistic but uncertain results. I'm getting discouraged as already people are unable to attend. It's difficult to organize people who, in general, do not think or act in a linear and analytical fashion. One friend reminded me that even if only a few people show up, I can still gain a lot from the process. Either way I've made the commitment to myself to focus on my short-terms goals once a week.

Lesson learned

Time is valuable. It's something we all know to be true and yet this lesson was reinforced recently. I had been in contact with someone trying to set up an appointment and, for various reasons, I delayed on two separate occasions. These delays obviously frustrated the other individual to the point that they are now ready to forget the whole endeavour. I had inadvertently sent them the message that I didn't value their time and that was disrespectful. Thus I apologized and took this to be a good reminder that people's time is valuable. When we're late or when we don't return a phone call or email, we are not respecting the relationship we have with that person. Thankfully this will be an isolated incident as my father trained me to be chronically early.