After he left I started thinking about job hunting, and what it takes to make a good impression.  In his case?  Very bad impression.  So I thought I’d share a few tips based on my interaction with him at 10 a.m.

1. Bed head at 10 a.m. does not make a good first impression.
2. Showering before scouring for jobs is very helpful.
3. Smelling of recently consumed hard liquor is also not going to impress potential employers.
4. Slurring due to your recent hard liquor is also not going to impress most.  Maybe some, but most no.
5. Using curse words about your spouse’s former employer, “The bleeping let her go with no notice, so that’s why I’m looking for a bleeping job,” really doesn’t seal the deal.  A spouse who hasn’t worked in a month and didn’t get the hint is probably hitting the liquor with ya early in the morning.

So, there are a few helpful tips if you’re on a job hunt.  Shower, comb, no booze, and no cussing.  Oh, and a resume would be nice, or a request for a job application.  That always helps……….

I’m on your side on at least giving credit but with a generation that believes that music on the web should be free, why wouldn’t we expect that their thinking is anything should be free as long as I don’t get caught!

Pretty good insight.  Folks do think copyright is meaningless these days.  And individuals do download “free” songs and movies willie nilly.  But for profit corporations disregarding intellectual property rights?  You’d think that writers and editors would fully understand copyright as well.  Of course, the bar is set pretty low for journalism these days.  Maybe editors are too busy listening to “free” music to pay attention to silly things like credits.

Good deal!

Well the local paper picked up his story and gave him a front page section. The family asked if it would be okay if an image I created (an early composite) could be used. Of course I said yes because I’m 100% behind him.

Well, the family was interviewed about his story. They mentioned my photo services. And when the article went to print a huge page one image (my image) was used. The credit? Courtesy photo.

This is the third time the Prescott Daily Courier has used one of my images with no photo credit. The article’s author was credited. I dont know why though. I’m only a professional photographer. The author is only a writer. I mean we all do this for the love of the art right?

A good friend of mine has had several non-credited photos run by the courier without his permission. Not good. Our image files contain our copyright information. In my case the interviewed family mentioned me multiple times. And yet no credits.

For all my local photographer friends……writers too. Is copyright so flexible theses days? Maybe authors should be “Courtesy story”. What do you say?

To the Prescott Daily Courier. You have violated my copyright 3 times now. You have approached me numerous times about advertising so clearly you understand I own a business. The next copyright violation will result in legal action. And you didn’t even supply me with a courtesy copy of the paper with my image crossing one of your lead page sections.

Is there a real paper with standards in the area? Somebody point me in the right direction.

Today downtown was full of smoke.  This time around the smoke was coming from our forests to the south.  Over the weekend slurry bombers flew low over the house heading out to douse the fires.  Unfortunately high winds and dry conditions have made things tough on the fire fighters.

Fortunately we’ve got some great fire fighters in town.  In addition to the normal fire crews we also have the hotshots, forest service, and other volunteers who are experienced in fighting fires here in the southwest.

To all those who protect and serve, thank you!  Good luck dealing with these fires, and be safe.  For all my readers, cross your fingers we see some rain soon, or at least the winds die down!

Well today a major event occurred. The Titan rolled past 100000 miles on my way to the gallery in Williams!

2005 the Titan saw almost no use.  That’s when I’d gotten super sick.  So it wasn’t until 2006 that it really saw the road.  And that year it saw the road in a big way.  After my mis-diagnosis and “life changes” (nice way to put it right) the Nissan traveled through:

1. New Hampshire
2. Massachusetts
3. Connecticut
4. New York
5. New Jersey
6. Pennsylvania
7. Maryland
8. West Virginia
9. Virginia
10. Tennessee
11. Arkansas
12. Texas
13. Oklahoma
14. New Mexico
15. Colorado
16. Utah
17. Nevada
18. California
19. Oregon
20. Washington
21. Idaho
22. Montana
23. Wyoming
24. Louisianan
25. Mississippi
26. Alabama
27. Florida
28. Georgia
29. South Carolina
30. North Carolina
31. Kansas
32. Arizona

The first 30 in the list were all states that the Airstream and Titan went through in 2006.  Many of the states were revisited in the early part of 2007, and Arizona is where we all know I landed.  Getting to Arizona the Titan had about 48,000 miles on it.  Most of which were logged while the Airstream was in tow.

Yesterday I noticed the odometer and knew that today would be the 100,000 mile day.  Go figure, stopping in Ashfork on my way to the gallery the truck had 99,997 miles.  The image in this post kind of sucks, but hey, it was an IPhone photo.  It is a record of the milestone all the same.

You know, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to put another 15,000 mile on the Titan this year towing the Airstream……  Maybe I can get Portraits Across America rolling for August.  More to come on that!

P.S.  I love my Titan.  Great vehicle, and a great tow vehicle for my Airstream.  Both need some more adventures soon!

Last night shortly after closing time at the gallery my phone “blew up.”  I don’t mean it literally exploded.  Rather the notification sounds kept going off.  I was getting a slew of text messages from friends.

Are you at the studio?

Are you downtown?

There’s a fire downtown.

Whiskey Row is burning

The last one was my favorite of course, as it was the one that put my heart in my throat.  To my good friend who sent that text (you know who you are), way to give an old man a heart attack!

Pretty quickly I found out what was going on.  There was indeed a pretty large fire which hit the BBQ restaurant, The Bird Cage Saloon, and the Prescott Market.  For each of those businesses it was a total loss.  Looking at the damage this morning I really have to wonder if the city won’t just knock the building down.

The gallery and studio is about 1/4 block away from the fire.  The Prescott Fire Dept was on the spot, and had a ton of engines out.  Apparently it was a tough fight for them, flames going through the roof, the whole 9 yards.  There’s a ton of video out there on the net of the fire, and you’ll see it was pretty bad.

Not stressing out because you’re prepared

As the texts and phone calls poured in for an hour it struck me I wasn’t too stressed out about the situation.  Only one item popped to my mind that disturbed me.  See, the gallery is insured, my photography business is insured, and my gear is insured.  Heck, I’m even insured (health insurance that is).  As I thought about heading into town or not heading into town only 1 item prompted me to think about trying to race into the gallery.

The Drobo.

See, my Drobo rocks, is a RAID backup system, and contains all of my images and my client images.  My images were of no concern, as I have secondary copies at home with me.  The client images were the concern.  Almost 4 years of imaging and printing for clients leaves me with a very full Drobo.  Sure each client gets a disk with their images, but still.  I didn’t want to lose client files.

Now over the years I’ve backed up my client’s works. But in the past few months I haven’t had a drive large enough to fit all the client files.  I’ll be fixing that this week, making sure I have an off site copy of their work with me.

Disaster ready means you sleep better at night

Beyond the client file worry, I had no other worries.  The printers, the computers, the lights and stands.  I’m insured.  The camera gear comes home with me 9 times out of 10, and last night we were on one of the Niners.  All cameras were home with me.

Additionally, even with insurance I’ve done something additional.  I’ve photographed each piece of equipment and serial number on it a long time ago.  I keep an “insurance inventory” disk at home.  Actually, I’ve done that since I traveled with the Airstream in 2006.  Just in case, you know?  And heck, I’m a photographer.  Why wouldn’t I photograph my gear, even if it is a mundane task?

The Row will be different for a while

Coming in this morning I found police tape blocking the alley way.  Parked the truck in the garage and walked over to the gallery.  I then headed out to see the damage for myself, and was greeted by police tape affixed to our gallery.

I found fellow business owners on the Row just watching the scene.  Ron Evans (owner of Mountain Spirit Gallery) couldn’t go into his shop yet.  He was lucky though, no damage just smoke.  Other store owners fared worse.  Water and smoke damage for some, total loss for others.

We’ll now be missing 3 fixtures on Whiskey Row, and I do wonder if they’ll rebuild or walk away.  Just wait and see I suppose.

Suffice it to say, we got very lucky.  Things could have gone worse and more of the Row could have burned.  The Prescott Fire Department did a great job!

To my photographer readers…..

Be ready my friends.  You never know when disaster can strike.  Have you inventoried your gear?  Is it insured?  If you’re in business, is your business insured?  If you said no to any of these items I don’t know how you sleep at night.  Seriously, it takes very little time and money to protect yourselves.

And for myself and most of the other business owners on the Row, we’ll be back to normal tomorrow.  Of course, the Row won’t be the same for a while……….

P.S.  To all of you who have e-mailed, called, Facebooked, texted, and gotten in touch in any of the other dozen communication formats at your disposal…..  Thanks for your well wishes and concern!  We’re fine, and moving forward.  Your contacts are very appreciated to be sure!

Given how much has been going on since the return from the Vermillion Cliffs I keep finding myself wonder how the “big boys” do it.  Scott Kelby for example seems to keep up blogging while running a large company.  Yes, he has guest bloggers and other folks posting now and again, but he still manages to put a lot up himself.  In between making video tutorials, writing books, running a magazine the guy has the time and inspiration to blog.  I think I need to start drinking the same kool-aid he does!    Better yet, I need allergy season to end.

After all the health issues that started in 05 and ended in 10 I was left with a few presents.  Extremely allergic to milk and eggs.  Oh, and some seasonal allergies.  Right now, Cottonwoods are killing me.  Feeling punch drunk all day long has been “distracting.”  While not totally contributing to my absence from blogging, it isn’t helping especially when you sleep for 8 hours, wake up, and feel like you haven’t slept.

Fortunately, I’ve kept up with work.  Portrait sessions, newborn sessions, new high school Senior sessions.  Still keeping busy in the office!

So, stay tuned and we’ll see how I do this week.  The goal is to get back to Monday – Friday blogging.  I think we can do it.

Prior to my recent trip to the Vermillion Cliffs and Utah I’d been wanting to do some dramatic portraiture in a beautiful setting.  Normal portrait sessions with photographers seem to take place in studio or local to the client.  But what about combining dramatic settings with portrait clients for something out of the ordinary?  Would it fly?  More importantly, would clients go for it?

"Joni Cakes" in the Northern Arizona Desert

After the trip to the Vermillion Cliffs I had one answer. Yes, doing portrait work in an amazing setting did in fact make for a more dramatic portrait session. It was a little more work of course, lugging gear through sand dunes and across slick rock, but the results speak for themselves.

With our success in the Vermillion Cliffs it struck me that I want to do more of this.  And I want to do it in amazing settings across the country.  National Parks, State Parks, BLM sites, you name it.  That’s where my “Portraits Across America” idea comes in.

The Concept

This summer I would like to plan a trip back to New England to visit family.  I’m thinking late July through August, my slow season here at the studio / print shop.  July and August have been my worst moths for 3 years now, so if I know it will be slow here, why not take it on the road?

I would like to find individuals and families who are vacationing across the country in their favorite locations and do portrait sessions for them as I make my way to New England, and then on the return trip as well.  In order to make the trip work and cover expenses I’m thinking that 3 portrait sessions a week would be necessary.

For the clients who’d find this interesting, they would get something very unique.  We all have our favorite vacation spots that we visit with friends and families.  And of course everyone brings their digital cameras along and gets snap shots of the trip.  But what I’m proposing is something beyond a snap shot session.  Instead we’re talking a full on portrait session up to 3 hours in the vacation location of your choice.  How many people come back from a vacation wishing the images were better?  Well, here’s the opportunity.

Help plan my trip to New England, and then back again

The trip across the country would actually be planned not by me, but by clients.  Have Airstream will travel, right?  The Airstream is my portable lab and base of operations on trips.  And I’m basically willing to hit any location between Arizona and Massachusetts.  The potential for a really cool trip is there.  Now what I need to find are folks interested in a portrait session as unique as they are!

So folks, what do you think of the concept?

People have already been asking when we’ll be doing the next one.  What I’ve found doing these over the past few years is that you’ve got to wait until you know you’re going to have a full room.  Otherwise you have a few signups here and there, and a class for a handful of folks doesn’t really make sense.  So, the next Lightroom 4 class will be taking place on September 29th of 2012.  If you’re interested in saving a seat in that one please feel free to drop an e-mail or make a comment here on the blog.