Playing Work

Posted by Larissa

I'm not particularly crazy about horror films and scaring the living daylights out of myself, but there is something so intriguing and inspirational in creating images of a darker nature. I've always said that I like to make beautiful pictures and that is still very true. I strive to make great pictures every time I pick up the camera. Sometimes even the darkest subjects can make beautiful pictures when interpreted in a certain way.

This is the third year in a row that Larissa and I have created "Halloween" photos. The previous two years involved Larissa and I murdering each other in various ways. This year, the opportunity presented itself to photograph The Pale Barn Ghosts and The Hello Strangers (Larissa's band) in preparation for their Halloween show.

We knew that we wanted to shoot tight portraits of each band member against a black background. I had been thinking about this year's Halloween shot for some time and already had the lighting planned in my head . . . dark shadows, high contrast and mysterious light. We set up our studio in our neighbor's barn, which worked perfectly. I set up in the afternoon and had everything ready for the evening of the shoot. We were able to shoot 8 portraits between 6:30pm and 10:30pm. Pretty damn efficient!

The ninth portrait had to be shot the following week because Brechyn from The Hello Strangers was not able to make it to the previous shoot. We decided to try something a little different with this one by utilizing the spooky closet in my attic. I lit the scene almost identically to the other portraits to keep the mood consistent.

I wanted each band member to really bring his or her ideas to each portrait, and everyone came through. The goal was to show a little bit of each band member's personality while emphasizing our darkest human fears.

Here are a few images from this year's Halloween shoot along with a short video I created to help promote the October 31st show. To see the other 5 images from this shoot, go to the Horror portfolio on our website. To see more of the video shorts, add us as a friend on Facebook.

As leaders from all over the world gather in Copenhagen for the World Climate Conference, I thought it might be worthwhile to re-post something I originally published for Blog Action Day 2009.

By nature I am an optimist, so I still hold a flicker of hope that on this last day of the conference, some form of climate action will be established this year. This is no daunting task. This treaty needs the support of the entire world. If you want to add your name to a petition urging our world leaders to make concessions and reach an agreement, you can add your signature HERE. This is the largest petition I have ever seen and think it says a lot about the challenges surrounding this issue.

Blog Action Day: Climate Change - originally published on 10/15/09

Today is the day that thousands of bloggers are uniting to write about one single issue: Climate Change. It's an issue that affects every single person on this earth, regardless of country, social class or occupation. We are all responsible for our own actions even when we don't realize that the small things we do each day are having significant affects on people across the globe.

Now is a good time to stop and think about our actions and the unintended consequences those actions may have. How do our actions affect ourselves, our neighbors, our fellow countrymen and women, the rest of the world and most importantly our children and their children's children? Climate change is not just a name for an invisible force but a living, breathing organism. Climate change is essentially the Earth. It's our home and we are responsible for it.

I don't pretend for a moment to have an answer for the climate change dilemma. I don't think anyone knows exactly what to do, but in my opinion awareness of one's own actions and the changes that are already happening are an important step in the process. With that said, I have compiled a few links to photographers that are doing great work surrounding the issue of climate change. Take a moment to visit some of these links.

There are times as a business owner when you feel like you're on top of the world, and other times when you're face down in the dirt wondering, "What the heck just happened?" It's inevitable that any business, big or small, will experience fluctuations in cash flow. There are too many factors that are not within our control to be able to constantly regulate a consistent stream of cash. However, there are things we can do to minimize the slide factor.

The illustration above shows a complete imbalance. Imagine your business as both of those little guys. The guy on the left is having his best year ever. Money is flowing in and he is busier than he has ever been. There is so much work that he can barely keep up.

Now look at the guy on the right. He was in the same position as the guy on the left just a few months ago. Business was so good and he was so busy that he couldn't see the point in continuing his marketing efforts. He thought, "Why spend money on promotion when business is already booming and I can barely keep up as it is?" But here's the catch: because he stopped marketing to his customers, they forgot he existed. Business slowly started to fizzle. Less work was coming in, but he was grateful to relax so he continued to ignore his marketing plan. By the time he realized how slow business had become it was too late. He was already completely off balance and heading straight for the bottom.

Despite his current position, he vows to rebuild and never let this happen again. He starts making calls, sending out promotions and networking with clients. He is scared because money is running out and bills are due so he pushes hard . . . really hard. Business starts to come in and he keeps pushing like a madman. He says to himself, "I'm going to get so much business that this will never happen again!"

A year later, he is lying face down again wondering what happened. He repeated the same cycle as the previous year. He pushed so hard for so long that he became burnt out. He let his marketing efforts slide for too long and ended up in the same situation as in the previous year.

So what can he do?

He needs to find a balance . . . a consistent marketing effort mixed with a consistent motivation to keep work coming in without letting it overwhelm him. Maybe he needs an extra employee. Maybe he needs to streamline his workflow. There are any number of things that he might need to do, but the key to all of this is that he consistently promotes his business to existing customers while simultaneously reaching out to new ones.

He needs his cash flow to look more like the next illustration.

In this scenario there are ups and downs but they are much easier to weather than in previous years. He has found the sweet spot. He has leveled his expenses and kept a consistent level of cash flow throughout the year. The marketing plan that he puts in place annually is followed closely and never stops. Business is good but not overwhelming, and some months are better than others.

Now he is balanced on top of the business seesaw, and able to adapt to fluctuations in the economy and changing trends in his industry because he has not allowed himself to get too far up or down on the scale. This may sound too good to be true, but with some planning, foresight, and diligence, the catastrophic scenario in the first illustration can be avoided and a more balanced work and cash flow can be achieved.

We are excited to have our Creative Highways Project featured on the blog of the fantastic Tilt Studio of Baltimore, MD. We have worked with them on several projects, and are proud to have a relationship with such a forward-thinking and environmentally savvy company. Thanks, Tilt, for allowing us to share our work and ideas with you and your readers!

Rob Haggart wrote an article titled "This Photo is Lying to You" for the September issue of Outside Magazine. It's a fantastic article that you can read HERE. This is a fascinating discussion and I think it’s a great topic for Outside Magazine’s Photography issue. I don’t know a single photographer that doesn’t manipulate in some way but I agree that it would be in the best interest of news organizations to clearly define their levels of manipulation so that readers/viewers know the extent of the changes. Easier said than done right?

Journalism as a whole has had a difficult year. Unprecedented job loss, rapidly declining ad revenue and decreasing public confidence have plagued the industry throughout 2009. Even as media literacy increases and the public becomes ever more skeptical of everything we see, I would think that news organizations would want to make the effort to clearly define their manipulation levels since their entire business structure is built around the concept of telling the truth with accuracy. It's no secret that photography has been manipulated ever since its birth, but when it comes to news I think we all have expectations that what we are seeing is as close to reality as it can be. Here is a link to some famous photo manipulations.

What do you think about photo manipulation? Share your opinions in the comments below.