After almost 2 years of meandering through life, I’m actually putting renewed energy into my photography. Like Arnold said, “I’ll be back!”

In my last post, Who’s in the Driver’s Seat?, I started to explore the conflict between your inner creativity and what of visual style will help create/sustain a viable business. And for 2 years, I racked my brain over that exact dilemma. I debated, in my mind, what kind of photos do I want to create and be happy creating at the same time. Have I come to any strong conclusions? Not really. Nothing that I didn’t already know, at least. I’ve known what I need to do for a long time now, I’ve just had too many things on my plate or just Paralysis by Analysis.

For me, I still want to create beautiful images, but I have to make it a business, if I want to survive (in life). After all, I still have to pay my bills, eat, save for retirement, etc. You know, all those things you need to do if I or you still need to do to maintain a healthy life. So what does that mean for me? First, really start treating it like a business. Creative people have a stigma of being poor business-people. Second, shoot as much as possible and show many respected industry professionals as possible and get their constructive feedback. I sought out some industry feedback last year and while mostly positive, they guided me to fill some holes in my body of work.

So in the coming weeks, my website will be updated with new and old work that you may have already seen.  Please Stay Tuned…

This blog post by Seth Godin poses a classic dilemma:

To what extent does someone tailor their work to their audience VS. Producing according to their own personal tastes.

Do I become the photographer (actor, writer, architect, programmer, musician, etc.) clients want me to be because they pay the bills?  Or do I continue to forge my own path, regardless of external opinions? 

Of course the ideal situation would be if your audience wanted to consume exactly the same things that you want to produce.  But, that perfect world does not exist.

In an industry as inundated as the world of photography, you have to stand out and get noticed. You have to deliver the “wow” factor or risk falling into obscurity. But keep in mind that wow to you, may not be wow to me. Close-up action shots of hockey players losing teeth will not impress the photo editor of Joy of Knitting & Basketweaving* magazine, nor will Political Agenda Weekly* appreciate steamy portraits of bikini-clad models (well, at least not in a way that will land you the job). In order to wow your audience, you need to know your audience. Cater to their tastes. Or, better yet, know specifically what kind of photography you want to shoot and then go for the clients who dig your style. It all goes back to a blog post that I did a while back, “Specialize, Don’t Generalize”.

Another way to impress? Do your homework. Wow your potential clients by expressing genuine knowledge about their work and their projects. People like to know that you’re really interested in their magazine, ad campaign, art exhibit, etc. It’s very much like job hunting. When that inevitable question comes up, “Why do you want to work here?”, the candidate who answers with specific references to the company’s products or services will get points over the generalized, nauseating response of “I want to work at a place where I can grow.” <gag>

Do you remember times when you’ve been WOW-ed? I would love to hear some examples.

*Fictional titles created by author of this blog to illustrate a point. Any resemblance to actual titles of publications is pure coincidence.

To Flash or Not to Flash? That is the question… and no, I don’t mean revealing the fleshy, family jewels to unsuspecting pedestrians.  I’m referring to the critical question many businesses face when building their websites.

Adobe’s Flash has long enjoyed its role as the premier multimedia development platform for a richer web experience.  For a time, Flash held a monopoly on the ability to produce “oohs and aahs” over websites, allowing businesses to catch and retain the all-important attention of the eConsumer.  Then, Apple – fearing a development coup – made a firm stance against Flash, prohibiting its use on the iPhone and iPad.  Instead, Apple decides to fully embrace HTML5, which, supposedly, can emulate many of the Flash features.  So now, you’re left with this dilemma:  Use Flash and risk underexposure to millions of iPhone users OR don’t use Flash and risk creating a website that gets passed over for lack of pizazz?  Let’s take a closer look.

These days, “instant gratification” takes too long.  With Apple and Google pushing limits and crossing boundary after boundary in technology, particularly mobile technology, it’s no surprise that people are demanding access to information anytime, anywhere.  How does this affect you and your business?  Let’s say you just met someone whom you’d like to impress with your new website.  You whip out your iPad.  Oh wait… your website is in Flash and the iPad does not support it.  Or, you have an Android phone (Take that, Apple!), but you don’t have the latest version.  Doh!  So with all that time you wasted trying to get your Flash website to work, you lost the opportunity to woo someone with your fancy-shamancy website.

Here’s something else to think about.  Whether you’re an Apple fan or not, you can’t deny that the iPad is a game changer; throngs of industries and creative professionals have embraced the iPad and multi-purposed it to their specific needs.  First to market tends to control the market; just another basic principle that we all learned in business 101.  So if the Apple iPad/iPhone/iTouch are dominating the mobile market, is that reason enough to forgo the Flash?

Personally, I love some of Flash’s features, not to mention that I’m a self-taught Flash developer.  But even I’ll admit that Flash tends to take up a chunk of resources when loading in your browser, making for some awkward wait time.

I know that a number of creative professionals, who have stuck by Flash, actually have a separate mobile site specifically designed for the mobile experience i.e. less load time, simpler interface.  But, not everyone has the money or the time to build both a Flash site and a mobile site.  I certainly don’t.  To Flash or Not to Flash…that was my dilemma, and in the end, I decided to build just one website that would satisfy both the mobile needs as well as the “at-computer” needs of web browsing.  Did I make the right choice?  … We will soon find out. My new site launches in a couple weeks.

Hey Everyone!  It’s been a long, busy year full of projects undertaken with one goal in mind: to launch my new website with a bang!  There will be tons of new photos and series that I just can’t wait to show you.  I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve!  To help whet your palette, here’s a photo from a shoot several months ago.