Check out my newest project on my site “COUNTRY”. 

Here is a preview…

(coincidentally, this shot marked the official “break in” point – 1000th shot –  on my newest 1DsMKIII)

In addition to the e-mail I received reminding me that my choice in career direciton, I often recieve a number of e-mails expressing well wishes and concern from my former colleages at P&G.

Most of them center around the theme “Hope all is going well…with the economy and all.”

While I really appreciate that folks are thinking of me, I received one shortly after reading a post on Rob Haggart’s blog.  Needless to say, I got a little fired up.  With the economy talk and some of it’s realities, I’m sick of people using this as an excuse to look for their own Bail Out or making excuses for their lack of success.  Below is my umm….well response to Rob’s letter he posted from a reader…

OK, I AM SOOOO SICK OF THE WHINING!

Get off your a$$ and do something about your situation. I am a young photographer and I hear this all the time. In fact, I left a great gig at Procter & Gamble, a fortune 500 company.
-People ask me all the time if I was “nuts”. NO – I had a vision of what I wanted to do and followed it. -People ask me well what about your security….I respond, you don’t have it at a fortune 500 company either. How many times have you heard about cutbacks/layoffs/etc. What makes you think that you won’t be part of the cutbacks in the rat race that IS “The Office”. (Love that show by the way, more truisms there than I care to comment on) Read more about false senses of security here on Dan Miller’s blog here.

Here’s how I got started, I read a book, I found my passion, I read A LOT more, I mad a business plan, & I created my destiny. Is there as much work as there once was in this industry…maybe not. Is there as much money as there was in the 80’s & 90’s – NOPE, but let me tell you – no career is ALWAYS gonna be a rosegarden. If you want “steady”, start flippin burgers or something. If you want a career in photography, you better realize this is YOUR business and YOU are in charge of making it happen.  

I hear it at least once a month from an art school student or intern – “…well I wish my guidance counselor would have told me “-this- about the photo industry…” or “…if I knew I wasn’t going to be out shooting every day, I would have taken a degree in business”  BS, SUCK-IT-UP!

You are not likely to succeed at photography if you think all there is to it is going out, shooting stuff and reeling in the big bucks!

You have to market yourself, hone your trade, work on relationships, build a business plan, figure out your CODB (if you don’t know what that is, you better figure it out NOW). Because in order to make it as a photographer you have to do be able to do something more than just “take cool snaps” and that something is be a businessperson with a level head and realistic expectations.

ANY business, self driven or small company takes time to get moving. You’re not going to step out of art school and become Annie Leibovitz. You’re not going to get paid 1-2-3-4K + a day until you show people why you are worth that.

And oh while I’m on a roll, you’re not going to be shooting for Nike or GAP on every gig. There’s gonna be stuff that you have to shoot because it’s good money but the creative side is crap. So what, you’re behind the lens and you are doing what you love…right? If this isn’t all your bag, then AGAIN, go flip some burgers, cause I’m sick of hearing others in the photography industry whine! Go whine with the peeps asking “would you like fries with that” we don’t need any more negativity here.

Lets get POSITIVE and be happy for what we are able to do! 

Sorry for the rant.    

“Let me tell you, every day when I wake up 6:10, put my tie on, leave my house at 7:20 so I can battle traffic to get to work by 8:00, sit in a cube with walls 3′6″ tall, work on spreadsheets all day, answer phone calls from idiots and pray for 4:58 so I can start shutting down my coputer so I don’t have to be here 1 minute past 5:00…I wish I knew how to take pictures!

The good news is that I am making good money and investing it. Those investments may not look good now, but I’m either good to be broke or retired by the age of 40.  Hopefully I can find a way out of the rat race in the mean time.  I guess it is time to break out No More Mondays and the other book by that guy….”

Above is an e-mail I received from a good friend whom I’ve worked with over the years and coincidentally exactly one year to the week after I moved into the studio where I am now.

A little over a year ago I was making the decision whether or not to make a full time go of commercial photography and leave my corporate job as product designer at P&G.  While it was probably one of the scariest choices of my life, it has been one of the best moves I’ve ever made.  Buddy, I gotta say “Thanks for reminding me why I made the jump!”

While yes, I still deal with the day to day workings of my business and the studio, in the end I am responsible for my own destiny, I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!  Good and bad…although bad is now very relative   I am in charge of what I want to do today.

To paraphrase Dave Ramsey – “I am in charge of killing things and dragging them home to eat.”  I get to chose how to do that…while that may be very scary to some, I find it absolutely liberating now having now done it.  Thanks again for the e-mail bro.  I might just print it and put it up in my office for reference.

Speaking of putting things up in my office…while I’m pretty much a neat freak, a few things sit prominently on my walls.  A photo of my son & wife, a photo of my parents & grandparents and this article.

A lot played into my decision last year to make a go at this and you may have read my post on 48 Days about that process.  However this small article played just as weighty into my decision to follow my dream.  I’m not sure exactly when it surfaced or where it came from…probably from my 10′ stack of magazines I can’t seem to part with at home.  Anyhow, Men’s Health writer Mike Zimmerman interviews Robert Rodriguez (Director of Desperado ~1995) and centers in on career independence and attitude. Long story short, step up to the plate and have a set of cojones to do what you love to do.

I had that article posted up for almost a year in my office at P&G to remind me of what I was doing.  I think in all that time only one person who passed by actually it, read it including my boss.  Most just walked by and said “Who’s the mexican with the hat?”

Under my breath I mumbled at least a hundred times “My flippin hero!”

So I’ve been toying with the idea of working my way into a RED camera instead of sporting for a new Hasseblad H3DII as my new big boy. There is clear reason now to move to a RED versus another mega pixel monster from Hassy.
SUPER DUPER VIDEO. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing I love more than a super rich gi-normous Hassy shot, but to be able to hit a motion image as well in the same housing….OH BOY!

While I know the 5DII and Nikon D90 DSLR’s are finding themselves very welcome in the prosumer HD videomarkets…I venture to guess that RED has been the first to make the Pro world take serious notice of the imminent convergence of still and motion photography. DSMC’s (Digital Still & Motion Camera) are where the world of photography and video are headed. A quick glance at the RED lineups makes most commercial and editorial photogs salivate. Super high quality motion photography as well as stills in the megapixel range offered has looked like a price tag upwards of $100K….until now. Add to that the two additional line extensions that RED has recently announced as of late ‘08.

I’m not saying all photographers will start producing motion pictures…however there have been several of my colleagues lately who have begun to dabble…Chase Jarvis and David Bean have both worked on Music videos within the last several months as DoP’s (& Directors…sorry Chase). The biggest part of this equation is noting where things are headed. If you want to stay behind the curve fair enough, but it’s fair warning that those who are early adopters will benefit by getting the jump start on the trend.

Again, motion vs still are still two completely different markets when it comes to commercial advertising. There will always be the need for still images, but if you’ve got the means to move in on a segment of the market you’ve not had available prior, why not jump now!

I’ve made RED aware of my particular interest and have already tried to spur for an early beta test at my studio of the Scarlet or RED One. We’ll see if they’re game for it. If they are, you’ll be the first to know.

Either way, I’m super anxious to get in on the first wave of this new frontier!