For many of my photo sessions my wife volunteers to be my assistant. In order to test lighting setups in between wardrobe changes, I often have her pose for me. This is one of those outtakes.
(Part of Five-A-Week.)
April, 2006:
where does this go?
Whenever you see a lack of writing here on my part, it’s rarely due to lack of things to say. In fact, I probably have more to say than you’re willing to listen to. 99.9% of the time, a lack of update here is due to one of three things:
# Too much going on to find time to update.
# Lack of feedback or too much feedback from assholes and haters.
# A indecisive state of mind in regard to how I want my sites to progress.
Right now, it’s a little bit of 1, a little bit of 2, and a whole heck of a lot of 3. What I’m most confused about is one tiny thing: where do I put my photoblog?
On the one hand, I have a lot of readers of *revjim.net* and “revjim@livejournal”:http://revjim.livejournal.com/ that are there mostly for the photography. Therefore, it makes sense to keep the photoblog at *revjim.net* and use “Daniel James Photography”:http://djamesphoto.com/ simply as a place to sell photographs, host images, and provide information about my rates and services. However, this means that, since the only site worth visiting on a regular basis would be *revjim.net*, I’d have to make this site my primary outlet for announcing sales, projects, specials, casting calls, promotions, gallery showings, art fesitvals, and new products. “My Photography Site”:http://djamesphoto.com/ would then simply be a place to link to in posts, and mention on business cards and letterhead.
However, it seems like an even better idea to have constantly updating photographs at “Daniel James Photography”:http://djamesphoto.com/. If people visit for the photographs, they’ll also read about specials, promotions, casting calls, gallery showings, art festivals, new products, etc. So, I have a mind to move my entire photoblog over to “My Photography Site”:http://djamesphoto.com/ and just pimp it in occasional links, included photographs and sidebar text here at *revjim.net*. But I’m worried about making things too complicated on myself, my readers, and my patrons.
I’d like to hear your opinion.
Jessica with large beaded necklace
swamped
I have over 80 -messages- conversations in my Inbox waiting to be read, and another 140ish that require some form of response or action. I have at least three pages of my LiveJournal friends list to go through, if not more. I have over 430 items unviewed in Bloglines, and that’s not counting my photography folder which has over 1300 unseen items on its own. I have another 108 items in Bloglines that I’ve read/skimmed, and have marked for more reading or commenting, but haven’t got to it yet. I don’t even know how far behind I am in MySpace.
In other words, *I’m swamped*. Life has been incredibly hectic lately, and I’m having a lot of trouble keeping up with everything. If you’re waiting for a response from me, or if you haven’t heard from me in a while, I’m getting there. It’s just going to take a little bit longer.
My Day Job comes first, because it pays the bills. Photography orders, requests, inquiries, and session scheduling comes second, because of how important it is to my sanity. Personal email messages are next, because I cherish real communication with real people so much. Maintaining my own website is next, because of the sanity it brings. That’s followed by my Bloglines, LiveJournal, and MySpace reading, because your thoughts and words mean so much to me. My Photography section in Bloglines comes last, only because the signal to noise ratio is so terrible.
thoughts after an OpenShoot
Leave it to me to attend a “DFWOpenShoot”:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dfwopenshoots/ with 20+ models, a make-up-artist and several photographers and not take a single photograph. I really enjoy being able to be picky about the kind of photographs I make and who I make them with. I can remember a time when I would photograph any person that was willing to walk in front of my camera because I sorely needed the practice and experience. Of course, if I ever stop needing practice and experience, I’ll have done something terribly wrong. But, having so many offers that I couldn’t possible accommodate everyone and being able to pick and choose which projects I want to take really feels good.
I would have photographed at the OpenShoot, but I was having more fun (and gaining more useful knowledge and connections) talking with other photographers, watching how they worked, and discussing the future. I met a lot of interesting people, several of whom I’d love to just sit around and talk with over a glass or two of wine. Quite a few of the models were fantastic as well and I’d love to work with them. However, my work stands for itself, so I can afford to arrange to meet them privately in a more controlled environment and get even better results than I would have at the OpenShoot.
Another concept that was driven into my head at the OpenShoot was this obvious bit: good equipment does not a photographer make. With the proliferation of digital photography, everyone and their brother is a “photographer” these days. For under $5000 you can have top of the line equipment that would strike deep envy into the hearts of many a fine art, freelancing, or amatuer photographer. There were quite a few of these “photographers” at the OpenShoot and, now that it’s over, I’ve seen the results of their work. I’m not naming names, because that’s just not nice, but, quite honestly, their images are terrible. I’m not saying that as a snooty elitist, or because my ego has some how been set to overflow. They were quite simply terrible.
I also saw a handmade jewelry maker recently advertising a jewelry show she was hosting. Knowing a little bit about handmade jewelry, I could tell that her work was quite beautiful. However, since anyone can be a “photographer” these days, she decided to photograph her works of art herself for use in various advertising pieces. Imagine if all of the cars on the showroom floor of your favorite local dealership were covered in dust and dirt and reeked of sweaty gym socks. That’s the best way I can describe what her work looked like in her photographs. If you’re willing to look past the dirt and dust and awful smell, you can tell that the car underneath is quite beautiful. But, most people aren’t able or willing to look that deep when there are plenty of shiny, clean cars at the dealership around the corner. It’s important to always put your best foot forward. I don’t understand why other people don’t seem to get that.
All of this thought and realization has left me wanting to dive back into it. I want to make art. Period. Wanna help?
a solemn passage
Mission Concepcion in San Antonio, TX had such a raw feel to it. I could have spent days pouring over every nook and cranny here.
(Part of “Five-A-Week”:http://revjim.net/five-a-week/. Order a Print.)
snow covered foot bridge
If I am Silent
This is Aurora holding her hands over her mouth. She has the following words from "Silence is Golden" by Garbage written on her chest:
IF I AM SILENT
THEN I AM NOT REAL
BUT IF I SPEAK UP
THEN NO ONE WILL
HEAR
The concept for this shot was a collaboration between myself and the model.
Five-A-Week
I’ve been offering new photographs under a Creative Commons License almost daily for quite some time now. It’s about time I get committed about it.
I’m taking a cue from a Fantastic Musician who produces music free for your enjoyment at the rate of one Thing A Week and also offers a subscription to this feature.
I present to you “Five-A-Week”:http://revjim.net/five-a-week/.
Quickbooks != Double Entry Accounting
A few years ago, just for fun, I taught myself Double Entry Accounting. I found the whole process very interesting and was intrigued by the fact that so many people would go through so much trouble to learn what amounts to nothing more than a hunk of theory and procedures developed over 500 years ago that have changed very little since then. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the system and the obvious nature of its rules.
I assumed that keeping track of my business’ finances using accounting software would be a relatively straight-forward task, so I set out in search of this software. “Quickbooks” came highly recommended by almost everyone I asked so I purchased the “Pro” version. $150 later and 10 minutes into using the software and I found myself angry, confused, and sitting in a pile of my own hair.
While “Quickbooks” may indeed perform Double Entry Accounting in the background, using it is nothing like the simple system of checks and balances that I learned. “Quickbooks” breaks everything down into common business aspects and concepts and takes the accounting out of it as much as possible. This is great if you don’t know accounting and your business doesn’t deviate too far from the norm. However, if you intend to make even the slightest curve away from a “normal” usage pattern, you’ll find that the software gets in your way more than anything. So I’ve found that my knowledge of Double Entry Accounting isn’t nearly as useful as I thought it would be and, instead, I’m now giving myself a profanity-studded crash-course in manipulating “Quickbooks” into doing what I want.
Here are some of the things I’ve learned so far.
* If you want to “pay a bill” (an annoying feature of “Quickbooks” that you are all but required to use) you will be annoyed every time you do unless you have a “Credit Card” defined. I don’t have a business credit card. I don’t really need one. Despite this, I ended up making a fake “Credit Card” account just to get it to shut up.
* You can only pay bills by “Check” or “Credit Card”. You cannot use “Cash”, “Accounts Payable” or “Owner’s Equity” to do so. Oftentimes, I “pay bills” with my personal funds which are not tracked along with my business accounts. So, in order to work around this, I had to create a “Credit Card” account for myself at the “Bank of Daniel”. Any expenses that are paid with personal funds are treated as charges on the “Bank of Daniel” “Credit Card”. Every now and then (once a month, probably) I’ll submit a transaction to pay off the debt on this “Credit Card” with funds from “Owner’s Equity”.
* Every now and then “QuickBooks” crashes, and then starts itself back up. I haven’t lost any data yet, thankfully, but it sure doesn’t inspire confidence. At least it recovers on its own and, other than having to wait for “Quickbooks” to restart, I’m not out any trouble or effort.
* Don’t *EVER* click on the “Customer Name” box of an imported transaction or you’ll *really* regret it. If I import some transactions from my bank and some of those transactions include sales, “Quickbooks” associates them with my “Sales” account automatically and adds the Buyer to a list of “Other Names”. This is all fine and dandy until I try to modify that transaction. Just clicking in the box with the Buyer’s name causes “Quickbooks” to forget that the buyer is already on the “Other Names” list and insists that the Buyer be a “Customer”. This, of course, wouldn’t be a problem except that “Quickbooks” remembers that there is an “Other Name” (that it created) with the same name as this “Customer” which is a no-no, apparently. So, I have to convert the “Other Name” into a “Customer” which, of course, can’t be done from the transaction editing screen. To make matters worst, “Quickbooks” won’t let me leave the transaction editing screen until I supply the name of a “Customer” that doesn’t already exist as an “Other Name”. So, in order to work around this problem, I have to make up a new name for my “Customer” and save the transaction. Then, I have to go to the “Other Names” list and convert my Buyer’s real name from an “Other Name” to a “Customer”. Then I have to go back to the transaction editor and change the “Customer” from the fake name to the real name. Then I have to back go to my “Customer” list and delete the fake “Customer”. All because I clicked in a stupid box.