Lost (and found again)
So, I spent all week long without the charger for my camera. Friday before last, I completed an assignment, and we (and by we, I mean myself and the first and second assistants) were flying to pack up, and in our haste (well, frankly, their haste, packing was their responsibility) the charger for my camera batteries was left behind. I did not realize this until mid-week, when I needed the charger and could not find it. I spent (and by spent, I mean, I paid the two assistants to look) two hours scouring the office and re-opening all the lighting cases looking for the wayward charger. Alas, to no avail.
I then took the time to revisit the shoot location, which took me over an hour, round trip, to see if it had been left behind. Sure enough, there it was, set aside just for me.
Why am I telling you this? Because of the importance of having backups and redundancies. Had I not had a second charged battery, I'd have a problem. (A problem a colleague of mine ran into at the anti-war rally on Saturday). Had I not had a backup camera system, I'd have a problem. Further, it is important that not only does all your equipment have a label with your name and phone number on it, but that you do a sweep of the areas of operation to discern if you too have left something behind.
The biggest problem is not only in the hassle of hunting for it, but, if it ends up truly lost (as opposed to temporarily misplaced) the time involved in re-ordering the item, paying for it, and paying for the shipping (or having to go to the local store and get it yourself) is a significant expenditure of capital and time.
Instead, make a point of sweeping your location before your final departure. It will save you so much hassle down the line.
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This March (March 8th, 9th, and 10th) marks my sixth time presenting at the 
I can remember when I started out, I ate so much Top Ramen, that I began figuring out ways to make it taste better than it did. I had cupboards full of it, when I could buy it at 10 for $1. I did this however, not because I was just trying to get by on the $25 assignments, but because, as someone just starting out, I had just a few of the $125/hr 4 hr minimum assignments each month. Yet, when you do the math, would you rather do a single assignment for $500 maybe three times a month, or 60 for $25? I submit that with 60 assignments you should be an employee of that company. At $150 an assignment (which is what a few wire services pay and expect you to live on) you'd need 10, or 2.5 a week. Either of these scenarios means that, when the calls (albiet few and far between in the beginning) come in for the $500 assignment, you will be booked doing something else and unable to take the assignment. While I have long-since graduated from Top Ramen, every so often I will pick up a pack, and in an odd way, remember the "good" old days.
In fact, there is even a book, 
So, this is the anatomy of an assignment. Specifically, it's about how it came together, and was executed, and how, when you're a professional, with the right tools, you can make it happen, despite countless challenges. On January 16, the phone rang. It was the Art Director for a publication group that was handling a regional publication that wanted a portrait of a Member of Congress. The interview was schedule for January 24th, and the Communications Director also wanted the photography to take place that day. We discussed the details -- small circulation regional trade magazine, cover and single image inside. When asked about their budget, their figures were slightly lower than where I felt comfortable being, by about 20%. A negotiation ensued, and the result raised the figure to 10% less than I had originally proposed, and I forwarded on a contract to that effect, which was signed and returned prior to the shoot taking place.
After two dozen images, both vertical and horizontal, I say to the Congressman "we've got the second setup right outside the door, where my assistant is already waiting with the lights set up." We walk downstairs, and out the door, through security. Since we are leaving, there is no delay, however, if we had started outside, I would have had to pass through the metal detectors and my camera through the x-ray machine, but the Congressman would not have, nor would he have had to wait if there was a line, I would have. Tactically, it was best to go the other direction. We get outside, and the light is different from how it was 2 hours earlier, it's sunnier, and so I make a quick adjustment to the light power, and make a test frame. Then, I continue shooting outside. After about 30 seconds I ask him how he's doing comfort-wise because there were a few intermittent snow-flakes falling, and he said he was fine. After about another dozen frames, I stop and tell him "we're done sir, thank you for your time..." and he's off to his next meeting. The final frame and revealed metadata is below.
As Warren Buffett goes, so goes the investment community. Yet, many of the things Buffett does and says, have applications that reach beyond investing. Buffett's got a new book coming out in 2008, for which Bantam paid $7 million, but until then, we have two notable tomes: Warren Buffet's 
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Just because you THINK everyone else is signing WMFH agreements, doesn't make it the right thing to do -- i.e. to transfer your copyright. Morover, as you stay in business longer, you realize that, in fact, everyone ISN'T signing these agreements, it's photo editors telling you this (to get you to sign), or it's other defeatist photographers just giving in and signing.
The concept -- "The Upside of Down" is simply the concept of growing through loss or challenge, and how this idea seems to be mostly devoid from many photographers approaches to their existence. It must always be roses and caviar, no burdens or challenges to tax their minds. In other words, the path of least resistance (and that usually equates to the path with the lowest pay or most onerous rights demands) is the road most taken. One of the things that always amazes me is how people in general (and photographers are not immune from this) will hold in admiration a colleague who is far more advanced in their career than they are, and how they would seem to do just about anything to spend time with them, learn from them, or possibly be mentored by them. Sometimes they write and ask for advice, othertimes, they talk during the down times of a lengthly assignment, yet, when they see the first opportunity to leap in and "replace" that photographer who's objected, in principle, to taking an assignment for a really bad deal, how they see nothing wrong with it. 
The bloodbath continues. Last week, we learned that Time Inc was slashing their most valuable resource, among those to go, staff photographers. What's that you say? The CEO two years ago, Ann Moore followed the mantra of everyone else at the time when she announced that it's employees were their most valuable resource. So, 300 or so people must go, but, well, they'll be able to freelance for the corporation, of course! It's just that, well, when they remodeled, they needed more desk space and fewer people in the elevators in the morning, since not enough parking spaces were vacated with the combined 350 that were slashed early last year. According to a Time Inc spokesperson they wanted to "focus on increasing efficiencies". Nice.
An e-mail goes out to them. This one hits 3 photographers, and those that are photographers are being given the opportunity to "volunteer" to be laid-off, incase any of them were thinking of leaving anytime soon - now's the time!
Before People though, was Life. No less than Arnold Newman fought against Life - as a contractor - over the subject of photographers rights and won. However, a decade or so later, Life was slashing staff, and eventually, as the talented staff numbers declined, so did the readership, and thus, it closed it's doors except for the occasional special edition they put out now. The upper management at Time Inc, who seem to be immune from slashing within their own ranks, should look back, as history may well repeat itself.
And now, a happy tune that will take you back to your childhood (play along if you'd like with a click of the "play" button below):
The Washington Post. Several photographers there were given the opportunity to go, and the opportunity to freelance back for the paper. Of course they got a buyout package, but the bean counters who first determined that it was cheaper to hire freelancers and get the same "all rights/copright" package from them that they were getting from their employees, also did the math to make sure that the package that was offered, combined with the staff cost savings, minus the pay schedule for the same amount of work they had done in the previous year, resulted in lower costs for the paper, and thus less money for the soon to be freelancer.
I'm headed to The Big City! The last time I was in New York I was Amazon's official blogger for the PhotoPlus Expo! This one will be a quick trip up and back for a preseantion at the Apple Store in SoHo.
Today marks the day when several other blogs and sites picked up on this blog, something I've been doing for a while, as well as a private insights and counsel I've been giving for years now. However, today I was found by two clients online, at the same time. Interestingly enough, I can be found first on Google's 