How not to get my business

I like good customer service.  I can tolerate bad customer service to a point.  Uneven customer service, though, is the fastest way to lose my custom in the future.

Congratulations, Vistaprint! 

I ordered folded note cards through Vistaprint last week.  It’s part of an experiment – a dry run – to see how the process works, so that I can consider incorporating them into my Etsy shop, or even selling them at events, in the future.  I paid additional money to have them shipped and to my door in a week.  I considered the matter in abeyance until yesterday, when I logged onto Vistaprint’s site to check on the status of my order; it was listed as “still printing.”

I beefed on Twitter about it, and voilà!  What I thought was merely a kvetch into the ether turned into a chance for Vistaprint to impress me.  Somebody from the company monitors twitter, and I received a tweet from them within five minutes asking for my order number, so that they could look into it.  I was impressed.  I direct-messaged them the number, got a tweet that their customer service team was looking into it, and ….

This morning, I log on to check the order status.  The screen shot is above – it’s still listed as “printing in progress.”  So why did I pay extra money for fast shipping if it’s not going to be ready to ship on the day I’m supposed to receive it? 

As for uneven service, you can find beefs about your company on Twitter, yet your customer service team can’t reply to a simple query?  You have my e-mail address.  You even have my twitter account.  Surely all of your staff can’t be so engrossed in monitoring Twitter that they can’t compose a simple e-mail?  They’re certainly not keeping up with all the print jobs.

If Vistaprint has grown so large that they get behind on print jobs, so inefficient that they can’t deliver on time (when you’ve paid additional money for the service, mind you), and so jaded that they think one intern on a twitter account constitutes good customer service, they obviously don’t need my business. 

I’m disappointed, Vistaprint.  Really, I am.  You took a great opportunity to impress me with your responsiveness, and fumbled it. 

*After trying fruitlessly to find a customer service telephone number, I contacted Vistaprint customer service via online chat.  My representative was – I couldn’t make this up –DAMIAN.  They have offered to reprint my order gratis, and I should have it by next Wednesday.  Not a perfect response, Vistaprint, but you may yet redeem yourselves.

Happy Independence Day!

I’m celebrating my Independence Day, and the independence to be able to work for myself at least part of the time, by putting together final proof sets for two photo shoots/events I’ve done recently.

In short, I’m working.  (For the record, I will be attending a party and then the famed Boston Pops fireworks show later.)

That’s OK, though.  The first deliverable is for a client, Emmy, who hired me to take some portraits.  She’s starting a new practice and needs them for her website, brochures, etc.  (Emmy is the lady in the photos with Hunter, the boxer, back in April.)  I took photos of her for my portfolio a couple of months ago, and ended up getting a paid assignment out of it.  She will be getting her proof set on Monday.

The second deliverable is for friends of mine.  Amelia and Shirley got married on June 26th, and they wanted me to take the wedding photos.  I don’t normally do weddings, but I agreed to do it for them.  Their proof set will await them on Tuesday, when they return from their honeymoon. 

I’ve been busy and doing a lot of photography work, which is great.  Tiring, but still great.  That I have the time and the knowledge to do this is pretty darn nifty.

Happy Independence Day!

Busy but not productive

Despite appearances to the contrary, I have not forgotten this blog.  I’ve just had an extraordinarily busy – if not productive – month.  Weird, isn’t it, how being busy does not necessarily mean you’ve been productive?

I’ve been working on a freelance graphic design project – laying out a children’s book for its author – that tied up the first three Sundays of this month.  Graphic design is not my first love, but it brings in money when I can find the work, and that is a good thing.  It’s also not particularly noteworthy work to go into a photography blog.

I’ve also been working hard on putting together a shop on the Etsy website.  It would be a way to fund some of my photography by actually selling it to people other than the ones who have me take their pictures.  I won’t pretend it’s been successful, but I’m adding to my selection every day and taking notes on what may or may not sell well.  Note cards are a potential good seller, for instance, but I have to find the way to produce them that doesn’t cost more than they will sell for.  Not spellbinding stuff for a photography blog.

And there was the photo shoot that the client thought he could short-change me on.  My photo shoots are charged based on a two-hour minimum.  If the shoot is over in one hour, you still pay for two hours of my time.  Trying to talk me out of this – especially after you’ve agreed to the terms – is not a good idea.  I stood my ground, I got paid, and ultimately, the client is happy with his photos.  If there is a lesson there, I guess it is that you should never compromise on the important things.  Your time, your effort, and your results are worth a certain negotiated amount, and you shouldn’t settle for less.

Throw in a wedding, making prints as gifts, mailing things, replacing four tires on my car, and the absence of a very important person in my life, and things were just really busy.  With all of this going on, I haven’t spent a lot of time shooting for pleasure, which makes me a little sad.  I guess all work and no play really makes Travis a dull boy.

From My Perspective

Perspectives are weird things.  Depending on your perspective, things can look very different, be it in unimportant things like religion or politics, or in the really important stuff, like photography.  Being in the right place at the right time, being willing to engage your model, and not feeling bound to conventional poses can help you capture truly compelling images of your subject, and in some cases, can even help you to capture the essence of their personality.

Case in point is a photo by my friend Anna of my friend Grace:

Grace is a delightfully quirky young woman with a playful side, and this photo captured that perfectly.  My own attempt (below) caught some of that playfulness, though not nearly as dramatically as the image above

By snapping the photo of Grace lurching at the camera, Anna used her perspective to really capture Grace’s playfulness, and made a better image. 

Meanwhile, feeling inspired by the interesting perspectives one sees when multiple photographers are hanging out with each other, I tried a couple of experiments myself:

Here Anna takes her leisure on the grass.  And here’s Brandon, taking his leisure on a lawn chair.

Portraiture has a lot of good guidelines, but occasionally, stepping out of the lines and trying something new will yield a surprising and fun result.  So shake things up occasionally; you never know what you’ll discover.

Data Management: Back it up

I make between 10,000 – 12,000 images a year.  That’s a lot.  Most of them can be discarded without worry, but keeping the pictures I want to keep is important to me.  There are as many systems to back up images as there are photographers.  I’m going to explain my backup regimen here.  If you have a different way, I’d love to hear about it. 

In the days of film, managing your photos meant keeping track of your prints and negatives.  This could mean shoe boxes and photo albums, or for the more fastidious, negative sheets in binders and proof sets, labeled and numbered.

With digital photography, it’s still important to consider how to keep track of your photos.  If your computer catastrophically crashes as you’re reading this, would you lose any important images?

Some tips I recommend when backing up your images:

• Back up to multiple discs
• Back up to multiple locations
• Take advantage of online services to back up online
• Have at least two copies of everything you want to keep

I say you should back up to multiple discs for a simple reason:  Hard dives fail.  I back up all of my images to an external hard drive.  Then, I back up the “keepers” to either a CD or a DVD-ROM.  Thus, if my computer fails, I have two backups.  If one of my backups go, I have a second one.  And if everything dies simultaneously, I have bigger problems than finding my photos.

Those CDs and DVDs?  If I kept them on my desk at home, one house fire could wipe out all of my backups simultaneously.  By taking one backup set out of my house, that minimizes the danger. 

(not my photo)

My “good” photos are backed up online – either on the photo-sharing service Flickr (public) or on unlisted directories on Picasa (private).  Should an asteroid take out Boston, I can still log on from outside the impact zone and get the images back.

And by doing all of this, I have more than two copies of everything I want to keep.  Even with the chances of multiple disasters wiping out all of my backups being very slim, media do fail.

My backup regimen is much more intricate, but explaining the complexities adds nothing to the point:  Back it up!  One of these days, you’ll be glad you did.

Photographing Anna

My friend Anna stopped by my workplace freshly coiffed on Wednesday.  As I’m wont to do on both special and not-so-special occasions, I brought out my camera to commemorate the event.

I really like this photo.  More importantly, Anna likes it.  There are a couple of things I wish I’d done differently, but overall, it’s a very nice photograph.

The photo was taken using my 50mm lens opened up to f/2.0, at 1/50th of a second, with my white balance set to around 3200 degrees.  The light was provided by incandescent lamps, so it was necessary to really open up the aperture in order to draw in the most light – especially since I was hand holding the camera.  The more light you let in, the faster your shutter speed – and vice versa.

A wide open aperture also renders a nice shallow depth of field.  This allowed me to get her face – and most importantly, her eyes – in focus, while blurring out the items behind her.  This let me minimize distractions, helping the viewer to see Anna and not try to figure out what that is behind her.

Between the ceiling lights and one lamp to the right of the photo, plus the lamp behind her, Anna was lit pretty well.  The lamp behind her worked as a good key light to bring out the texture of her hair.  By standing and having Anna look up toward me, I accentuated her jaw line.  Most importantly, although this is nothing that I did specifically, Anna was feeling relaxed and serene.

If I had the photo to do over again, I would have brought out my external flash to provide just a touch of fill light.  That would have helped wash out the shadow her glasses cast on her right cheek. 

The most important element in this photograph, it should be said, was the model.  She was feeling relaxed and knew her her hairdo was spectacular.  If your model is comfortable, you’re guaranteed to get better photos. 

Rush jobs

Last Wednesday, I was approached by a client who requested that I photograph a special event the next afternoon.  It turned out to be a lesson in putting together a rush job and in cultural sensitivity.

The special event was her grandson’s B’rit Milah, commonly known as a Bris.  (That link isn’t for the squeamish, by the way.)  This is the ritual circumcision done to all Jewish boys on the eighth day of their lives, and it’s a very important religious occasion.

I did a little reading to learn about the event, then spoke with the grandmother about what exactly she wanted to have photographed.  (Mostly, she wanted photos at the seudat mitzvah – the celebratory dinner – afterward.)  As a returning client who has hired me on many previous occasions, I didn’t go over fees and costs; usually, I insist on going over that right away. 

24 hours isn’t a lot of time to prepare for a shoot – especially a shoot at an uncertain location.  There are things I do before every photo shoot, however, and knowing this helped me to get ready without getting too panicked by the short notice:

1. Format all memory cards.  Simple enough, but very important, because you may need every bit of space available on your memory card.  Halfway through an event is not the time to be rushing through your images deleting pictures from the camera menu to make room for new ones.
2. Grabbing my backup camera.  At a photo shoot – particularly a shoot of a religious event fraught with meaning and emotion, and not easily replicated – I try to have a backup camera ready.  If my main camera fails to work for some reason, the backup (which uses the same lenses and accessories) is at the ready.
3. Sorting my camera bag.  When you’re busy at an event, you need to know where everything is, and be able to grab it quickly.  Going through my bag lets me sort out what I need and what I don’t, lightens my load, and I’m certain I have the important things on hand.
4. Resetting my camera settings.  I always try to set my camera to the same basic setup before I put it away.  In my case, it’s set to ISO 100, Program Mode, with white balance set to 5500°.  Having my “default” settings always handy is very helpful in taking that first photo.

By always doing the items above prior to an event(for less important events, I omit step 2), getting ready for a rush job is less stressful and more routine. 

The photo shoot, by the way, was a success.  I always prefer to have more notice before a photo shoot, but it’s comforting to know that I can do a good job with less than 24 hours notice.

Cropping in the Camera

Behold the Scaleograph.  In the days before electronic publishing, layout artists used this device to mark up photo prints for cropping and sizing.  If it looks vaguely familiar, it may be because the crop tool icon in many photo editing programs is based on it:

(screenshot from Photoshop CS4)

Many times, people will take a photo that has a distraction in it, and then say, “Oh, I’ll just crop that out.”  I say, if it’s distracting and can be cropped out later, why photograph it now?

In high school, college, and during my days as a Navy Journalist and Photojournalist, I was taught to “crop in the camera.”  That is to say, I did my best to fill the frame with the point(s) of interest, so that a lot of cropping or other post-processing wasn’t necessary.  Back then, post-processing was either done in a wet darkroom or left up to a trusted photofinisher – a difficult, time-consuming, and tedious process, involving devices like that thing at the top of the entry.

It’s much simpler to crop photos today than it was 20 years ago, certainly, but something that isn’t considered is whether it should be done more often, simply because it’s easier.  It seems much better to me to take the photo you want to take in the first place than to spend time afterward making a poor photo into the one you want.

This isn’t to say you should never edit your images.  That’s ridiculous.  Often, a little work in your image editor will make a good image great.  One of my favorite shots ever (above) is cropped square, a shape you could never crop in your camera.  My point is that you shouldn’t depend on Photoshop, or GIMP, or whatever you use to edit your images, in order to fix something you shouldn’t have done in the first place.  Because, given a choice between making photos or Photoshopping them, I’ll take the camera any day.

On resolution

My friend Dave asked me a question about resolution the other day:

… picked up a little Canon SD1400 IS, which we're going to take on a trip soon.  I want the best images possible, which means roughly 2 - 3 MB per image for this camera.  I'm going with 2592 X 1944 pixels, which, according to the user manual, is good to print up to 8 X 10 pixels.  It also gives me almost 10,000 images on my 16GB SD card. Does this pass the common-sense test?

It got me to thinking about the high resolutions that most modern digital cameras can achieve, and whether or not shooting at the highest resolution is really necessary.

On the one hand, a 2 megapixel camera will yield good 4x6 images and acceptable 5x7 images, and a 4 megapixel camera will give fine 8x10 images.  The above image size works out to about 5 megapixels, so in theory, it would be fine for photos up to 8x10.

 

The sensor on Dave’s camera is a 1/2.3” charged coupled device – about the size of the square on the lower right of the image above.  That’s not a lot of space to capture a good image.  If Dave saves images at the smaller resolution, he’s giving up about two thirds of that sensor. 

Dave’s points about saving space on his memory card were fine, but I had to point out some facts I felt were important:

1. Saving at the lower resolution saves space, but I don’t think it’s a case where the savings is really necessary.  10,000 photos is a huge amount; between 2006 and 2009, I averaged 12,000 photos a year. 
2. Taking photos at higher resolution means you have more data to work with.  Dave can take a full-resolution, 14-megapixel image, crop it extensively, and still come out with a usable image he can print at a decent size.  If he limits himself to the smaller resolution, he loses the ability to crop afterward and still get a nice usable image.
3. SDHC cards are cheap.  It makes more sense to purchase a separate memory card or two, simply to have a backup in case of equipment failure, than to rely on one card to hold all of your digital images – especially if you’re backing them up to your computer like you should be.

In general, I always take photos at the highest resolution I can, and shrink them later when I need to.  It goes against my instincts to discard useful data when you don’t have to.  Case in point:

The top image is a photo of me taken by another friend.  I didn’t like the result, but was able to crop it (see second image), yet still print the cropped image large enough to send to my grandmother.  My camera is 15 megapixels; if I had set it to lower resolution, an image cropped this severely would have been pixilated at best, completely unusable at worst. 

In short:  Save large, save often, and back up everything.  You can discard data after you’ve taken your shot, but you can never recover data your camera doesn’t record. 

Portraiture – Engaging your Models

When making photos of people, photographers should strive to connect with their models.  That is to say, your interaction with the person you’re photographing should consist of more than instructions to smile and how to pose. 

For this photo shoot, the first interactions began two weeks prior, when I asked Emmy if I could photograph her with Hunter.  I explained that I would like to do this in order to expand my portfolio (thus, this was an unpaid assignment), and offered to share the photos with her on CD.  The low-key, friendly conversation set the tone for the shoot.  We worked out a mutually-convenient time, set a rain date, and it was done.

The day of the shoot, Emmy e-mailed me to ask what she should wear.  By setting the initial tone, she felt comfortable asking that question.  I explained to her that she should dress comfortably, because she would be on the ground with the dog.  Fortunately, that was all the direction she needed; Emmy is an elegant woman with a great fashion sense.

During the shoot, I had to engage both Emmy and Hunter.  When photographing people, I try to make them laugh and keep it deliberately casual.  People who are at ease look better in photographs.  There is a fine line you walk between keeping your banter light and remaining in control of the situation. 

Two-way communication is very important.  While you are the photographer and you need to remain in overall control, a model to whom you don’t pay attention quickly becomes frustrated.  Frustrated people do not look good in pictures.  Models often have good ideas that can improve a photo.  Listen to the person you’re photographing; it can make quite a difference in the final product.

Ultimately, keeping the people you photograph happy will help them, help you, and result in more opportunities to practice your craft.  Remember, practice makes perfect.

More photos from this shoot can be seen here.

Portraiture – Using Sunlight

Recently, I had a photo shoot with a lovely young lady named Emmy and her boxer, Hunter.  Taking a portrait is easy; taking a good portrait is difficult. 

Lighting is important in all photography.  I like doing informal portraits outdoors when possible.  With luck and a little time spent scouting locations, you can usually find a pretty background and take advantage of the sun, one of the best light sources around.

I found a comfortable spot for my models to sit, then set up my equipment.

I turned Emmy and Hunter toward me, positioned so the sun was behind them and slightly off to one side.  I used the sun as a key light; it provided most of my light.  By putting Emmy where the sun was over her head, it lit her pretty hair and added dimension to her face.

With the sun behind Emmy, however, her face was in shadow.  I used my external flash as a fill light; it filled in the shadows and lit her face without overpowering the nice sunlight lighting the background.

Alas, sunlight isn’t always available for your key light.  You can buy lighting kits that start in the low hundreds of dollars, or you can buy more complex studio lighting kits that can run thousands of dollars.  However, it’s still nice to know that you can take a flash, a pretty location, and a fortuitously sunny day, and make a little magic.

More photos from this shoot can be seen here.

On printing

What do you do with your photos after you take them?

Digital photography is wonderful, in that you can share photos online with many people simultaneously.  You can post your photos to Facebook or Twitter, or perhaps you have a Flickr or Photobucket account.  E-mailing attachments may seem quaintly old-fashioned, but it also does the job.

There is something magical, though, to the printed photo.  Looking at a print, be it in an album or a frame, is a tactile experience that can’t be reproduced online.  Printing is also a good way – and perhaps the only way – to share photos with people who aren’t computer-literate.  (My grandmother falls into that category).

Printing your photo at home

Photo printers are cheap and plentiful, and most will do a good job printing a basic 4x6 photo for your album.  When printing on your home printer, here are some items you should pay special attention to:

• The paper you choose.  A quick trip to an office supply store will reveal many different types and sizes of inkjet photo paper you can choose.  It usually comes in packs of 4x6 or letter size.  Choose dedicated inkjet photo paper; the store brand will likely be fine and you can save some coin on the purchase.  I choose letter size and trim my photos to fit; this gives me more flexibility in printing my images.  If you only want 4x6, buy the smaller paper and save both money and resources.
• Printer settings – your paper.  Your printer settings will have options such as “glossy photo paper,” “matte photo paper,” and “plain paper.”  Your printer lays down ink differently on glossy than on matte or plain paper; selecting the correct paper will deliver a better final result.
• Your print settings.  You should see options to print as draft, good quality, and high quality (sometimes more) when you set up your print job.  I always print at the highest quality; why bother making excellent photos if you’re not going to show them off at their best?

Printing your photos at a store

Unless it’s a one-off job, I prefer to print my photos at an online store.  It saves me time and money, in that printer ink is expensive and printing at home can be time-consuming.  You can upload photos to several services and have them mailed to you at home; alternatively, many places will let you upload photos, then you can go to a nearby store to pick up the images. 

• Snapfish – online service.  Mail to home.
• Ritz Camera – camera store chain.  Can pick up at local store or have mailed to you at home.
• CVS/Walgreens/Wal Mart – Pharmacy and big box store chains.  Can pick up at local store or have mailed to you at home.

My strong personal preference is for Ritz Camera.  Their printing is uniformly good and I enjoy the convenience of picking up prints an hour after they’re uploaded. 

Photo albums and photo books

Once you have your prints, you can put them in a photo album to keep them clean and safe.  This is the time-honored way of keeping most photos.  If you pick an album, try to purchase one with acid-free paper; it will last longer and won’t discolor your prints.  Albums sometimes have pockets to slip your photos into; these are fine.  Scrapbooks are an artsy way to display your work, and give you another creative outlet.

The printing services above also let you make photo books.  These are bound prints with your photos printed on the paper directly.  They’re durable, and when you take care to select your photos and layouts carefully, are attractive and unique.

Framing and displaying

You can also frame your prints and display them in your home.  My personal preference is to have a frame with a matte; this keeps your photo from touching the glass and protects it from damage.  The matte also sets off your photo, giving the resulting presentation a more finished look.  If framing and displaying several photos together, matching frames and mattes make for a nicely coordinated look – a decorator’s touch.

I choose plain frames and light-colored mattes for most of my photos.  Simpler frames are attractive, less expensive, and less distracting to the eye.  IKEA is a wonderful source for inexpensive frames and mattes.  Your local art store will likely have a wide and varied collection to choose from as well.

A carefully-selected, matted and framed photo also makes a lovely gift to a special person.  If you’re sharing your photo and want to add an artistic touch, you can sign the matte with a light pencil or pen for a “signature” piece of work.

The photo at the start of the entry cost less than $20 to print, matte, and frame.  It was a unique and wonderful keepsake for a good friend, and a memento of a fun afternoon in the sun.

Conclusion

Even though your photos may be digital, don’t overlook the satisfaction that can come from seeing your photos printed.  It’s the ultimate in portability and, when printed professionally, should stand the test of time.

When less is more

I went to New York this past weekend.  In addition to selling some old gear at Adorama, I was able to spend most of Sunday walking the streets of the city, visiting the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, and shooting photos all along the way.  Selected photos are posted on my Flickr page.

When I select which photos I’m going to share, I use a short list of criteria to winnow the selection down to a workable number:

1. Identify obvious quality issues.  Anything that is out of focus, has incorrect focus, or is too under- or overexposed gets tossed. 
2. Eliminate obvious duplicates.  Most of the time, your viewers only need to see one shot of a particular item.  Six photos of your dog peeing on a fire hydrant, from three angles, is overkill.
3. Identify problems in your remaining photos.  If it’s something you can correct, do so.  If you can’t fix it, discard the image. 
4. Tell a story.  I then go through the remaining photos and put them in an order that helps to tell a story.  If you find your “story” dragging at points, you have too many similar photos and need to cull some more. 

My reasoning is pretty simple:  If people only see your best work, they won’t know you take bad photos.  Nobody has to know how often your photos are blurry.  Nobody has to see your finger in front of the lens. 

Which brings me to the point of this blog entry.  Repeat after me:  You should only show your best work.

This seems like a simple idea, but too many photographers dump all of their photos – either onto their computer, a USB drive, or directly to the Internet – without taking the time to really look at them and make decisions.  This is the digital equivalent of having to look at somebody’s vacation slides.  Usually there are too many of them, too much repetition, and the truly exceptional photos in the bunch are drowned in an ocean of mediocrity.

I took more than 160 photos when I was in New York on Sunday.  My online album contains the best 16 of those photos.  In choosing which photos to share, I ended up picking about one out of every 10 shots.  That’s a pretty good ratio. 

In general, the better your photographs, the more people want to see, and it’s always better to keep your fans wanting more than to give them more than they want.

Simplifying

I learned photography using a 1970’s vintage Canon SLR.  When the Base Newspaper Office where I worked upgraded to new Canon EOS bodies, it was like a quantum leap in photography for me. 

Even though most of my photography these days is done digitally with my DSLR, I’ve been keeping film cameras around.  I enjoy shooting a roll of film now and again; it teaches me to slow down, to concentrate on the process, and makes me think very hard how to capture the moment I want to capture – film definitely does not offer the instant gratification of digital, nor the chance to shoot several hundred images and cherry pick the best right away.

That having been said, I’ve collected a few vintage cameras over the years.  They’re gathering dust for the most part, stored in a bin, not being used.  And that’s a shame. 

My partner and I are going to New York this weekend, and I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to visit Adorama and divest myself of some of the little-used cameras.  I’ll keep a couple that I really like – my very nice Canonet GIII QL17 and my banged-up, well-used Nikomat FTN spring to mind – and see if I can recoup some money from the others that aren’t being used. 

I still intend to shoot a roll of film now and again, as the experience helps me remember that making a good photograph isn’t always so simple.  A little history lesson now and again can only benefit my work.

Back to Basics!

I’ve been shooting digital images for a while now, and I’m beginning to see how they make me a lazy photographer.  When you have instant feedback, can correct your stuff immediately, or even post-process it extensively, it’s difficult to really get into the process, using the craft, and taking the time to make every shot count.

Additionally, every professional photographer in the city uses digital, and people are learning to expect instant results.  Impatient people get inferior products.  With that in mind, I’ve decided that my niche needs to be a more sedate, studied process.

That’s why I’m returning to the basics:  I’m going to do daguerreotypes. 

The business model is sound.  There is not a single working daguerreotypist in New England, so there’s no competition.  People must be aching for a return to simpler times.  Imagine, if you will, the fascination in little children’s faces as you set up your large daguerreotype camera at their kid’s party.  The anticipation of waiting hours for the results, and only having the one chance to get it right, will undoubtedly add a new and exciting facet to the typical dog-and-pony show that young rich children call a birthday party.

Or theme weddings.  The thrill of being captured in your finery, being held stock-still by special neck clamps as you wait for the 45-second exposure to complete.  This is perfect for those special occasions when only a finely-crafted image on glass will do.

Daguerreotypes are permanent in a way that no film-based photography can be.  Film degrades, but daguerreotypes are glass; unless you break them, they will last for centuries.

I really think I’ve come up with a unique business idea that will make me rich!

Oh, and HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!

Pots and Pans

One thing I’ve discovered among people is that they believe that a more expensive camera must take better photos.  It’s like eating a truly excellent dinner and telling the cook, “you must have great pots and pans.”  The very idea is absurd. 

I always take pains to point out that it’s not the camera, the lens, the light, or the subject that makes a photograph great.  The single most important element in making a good photograph is the photographer.  Surprised?

All things being equal, a good photographer will make good photos with poor equipment more often than a poor photographer will make good photos, whatever he’s using.

Case in point #1: 

This photo, of a bracelet by jeweler Keith Monsour, was taken at the spur of the moment, on an overcast day, with an iPhone.  Keith arranged the bracelet on a stone he’d found on the beach, set onto a field of clover, and I composed the shot in the viewfinder and snapped it.

Case in point #2:

This photo was taken by a friend of mine, using my digital SLR and a very good zoom lens.  Note that the background is in perfect focus, but the subject is not.  If the expensive camera were better, this photo should have been better.

So how does a poor photographer become good, and a good photographer get better?  Practice.  So go make a great photo today!

About Perspicacity

Since I’m not posting a Photo of the Day every day, I decided a name change was in order.  Since the URL uses the word perspicax, the Latin root of the word perspicacious, it seemed a good place to start. 

To be perspicacious is to be discerning.  Literally, it means to be “clear-sighted,” which has an extra meaning when applied to the practice of photography.  A photographer who intends to make good photographs needs to be clear sighted, to have goals, and to know what differentiates a good photo from a mere snapshot.

I’ve been thinking hard about how to proceed with this blog.  My Photo of the Day project was fascinating, but it was mostly successful because it relied on regular – indeed, very regular – posting behavior – on my part.  I have to decide how this will carry over with the name change.

My current goal is to use this blog to talk about photography.  It won’t give photography lessons, per se, but instead will go into the whys and wherefores of how I come to make an image.  Obviously, I’ll be relying on my own experiences, and perhaps the experiences of my photographically-inclined friends, to decide what to blog about. 

I’m open to suggestions as well.  If you have questions, please post them in the comments, or e-mail me with them.  If I can answer them intelligently, I will.

Meanwhile, I’m going to get to work on my first “new” blog post.  Wish me luck!

Returning to the blogosphere

I'm back.

I did pretty well keeping up with my Photo of the Day project for most of last year. The onset of multiple stressful situations did that project in late in October, two months shy of its completion, but it accomplished a lot of goals. It made me more aware of my surroundings, and though the pursuit of the daily photo led to some questionable choices, it did keep me thinking.

I have to retitle this blog in the near future. I'm going to work on posting more interesting photos as they happen. I won't be posting every day, but I hope I can put something up once a week or so.

I may also wax on about the philosophy of photography from time to time. Not often, I promise; I don't do philosophical well.

Meanwhile, here's to blogging again on a regular basis.

October 22

As fall approaches and the birds have had all summer to fatten up, these fat little birds -- house sparrows, perhaps? -- are all over Boston. They're a little comical to watch, as they hop around the ground looking for bits and bobs to snack on. They look so rotund that they shouldn't be able to get airborne. It makes sense that they fatten up for their journey south, I suppose. It's a long flight and they burn a lot of calories.

Last summer, a family of house sparrows took up residence in our front porch light. I was a little concerned that the eggs might be hard boiled, but the light acted more like an incubator than oven coil. My landladies moved them, nest and all, to a purpose-built little box high up on the corner of the porch, as they worried that the naked bulb might set the nest on fire.

I know, intellectually, that house sparrows are an invasive species in North America, and that they smash eggs and steal nests from other birds. Still, after the little family shared our home last summer, I feel some affection for the little pests.

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October 21

Surprisingly, it wasn't the foliage that caught my eye when I decided to take this photo; it was all the birds on the surface of Jamaica Pond. Alas, little birds on the big pond from a car hundreds of feet from said waterfowl doesn't lend itself to brilliant shooting, so this is the best of the bunch.

On the plus side, it was a great day to go for a ride with the windows down, even if I was rushing madly to get everywhere I needed to get and do everything I needed to do. I managed to travel distances in the city that I wouldn't have believed possible in an hour, and still made it to work on time despite having to make a detour to West Roxbury -- the precise opposite direction from work.

Yesterday was busy but felt unproductive. Today was busy but very productive -- I got a lot done -- and it feels really good!

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October 20

Today was inexplicably frustrating for me. I was working on stuff all day, I got stuff done, and I was on schedule, more or less, but I'm still behind and it feels like I haven't accomplished jack-@*$!.

(I noticed that my speech today has become approximately five times more scatological than usual as well.)

I felt a little better after accomplishing something concrete. We're giving away NaNoBoston 2009 stickers in goody bags this year, but we had to create them ourselves. This involved cutting them out of the label paper. It was laborious, but it felt good to just slice the crap out of these things -- and was productive as well.

I have about two dozen more things to accomplish before we assemble the goody bags on Friday -- not least of which is designing the ML nametags -- so I will be plenty busy. I'm living by the calendar, and it's working (more or less), but I don't have to like it!

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October 19

This little urban oasis is located near the Longwood Medical Area on my route to work. It's a little amazing to me that I have lived as long as I have and never realized that vines turned colors like other deciduous broadleaf plants.

It was such a beautiful day today; it's hard to believe that 24 hours before this photo was taken, Boston was getting a wintry mix of freezing rain, sleet, and snow. With the temperatures tomorrow getting into the high 50s/low 60s, it should be another lovely autumn day. Which is both pleasant and welcome -- I'll take all the respites I can get before winter sets in.

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October 18

My friend Keith and I had our dinner at New York System in Providence tonight. Even if we had only gone for this, it probably would have been worth the drive in the rain, and the drive back in the snow. I don't recall snow in October before. Once in May, sure, but never in October.

But I digress.

Keith needed the lift to visit a unique craft store in Warwick, and his lure was to offer me dinner for driving him. He introduced me to Coneys in Fall River earlier this summer, and New York System weinies -- don't call them hot dogs! -- are similar. They come topped with meat sauce, mustard, onions, and celery salt -- and I think the toppings outweigh the pork in the hot dogs.

Still, they're delicious, and there is a tradition -- a mythos, even -- around their consumption. Since they're small, they're often consumed in multiple units; six is not unheard of, though that's usually a weinie-only meal. As I only had two weinies, I also got a small order of truly outstanding french fries. (Note: a small order of french fries at New York System is a dinner plate full).

And then there was Norman, the loquacious and colorful weenie cook. He was entertainment all on his own, telling stories of his 20-plus years there.

All in all, it was a great day, despite the weather. I'm going to have to haul my photo walk cronies down there some weekend next spring.

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October 17

It was a brisk but pretty day in Roslindale today. I took a little walk, camera in hand, to run a few errands. I had the idea of getting photos of the foliage -- it's becoming a hobby of mine -- though this photo of the flag hanging from the pole caught my eye. (American Flags have been another thing I've been noticing of late.)

I managed to get a couple of frames from the Treasure Chest for a song today -- I guess I'm going to do some printing soon to find something to go into them. It's something to keep me busy on these cold autumn days.

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October 16

It's gotten chilly in Boston recently, with lows in the 30s and highs barely getting into the high 40s. I'm doing my level best not to complain about the weather -- really, I am -- but when it's this cold and this wet, it's difficult.

That's why this one lone rose hanging on to a scrawny rose bush made me smile. I was putting away the garbage can and spotted it there -- that bright color really stand out. It's kind of inspiring to see a little bit of summer hanging on.

If this little flower can tough it out, so can I. I think that's a good enough life lesson for today.

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October 15

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals runs the Angell Animal Medical Center in Jamaica Plain.

I drive by this sign almost every day. The iconography is great on it, and was what originally caught my eye. I found it surprising that an animal hospital rates the "hospital" sign (H in square), but when I thought about it, realized it made sense. It's easily the largest animal hospital in Massachusetts, as well as the best emergency medical option for a sick pet.

At work, I've referred residents with sick pets here often. When Pogo, our dog, became very ill at the end of his life, we brought him here, where the vet on call was thoughtful and treated us with great sensitivity, helping us to make the difficult choice to have him put to sleep.

Dealing with a sick pet is very difficult. They can't tell you what hurts or what's wrong, yet you want to help them and make them better. The folks at Angell are wonderful at guiding pet owners through very difficult procedures and options, and helping you to make the right decision. That is invaluable.

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October 14

Cumberland Street in Boston's Back Bay is a tony little side street of single-family homes near the Christian Science Center. Being a dead-end street means that there isn't much traffic either.

I drive down Cumberland between Huntington Ave. and St. Botolph St. almost every weekday en route to work. With the foliage really coming into its own in the cooler weather, the scene is very picturesque. Since tomorrow there will likely be an overcast sky, I thought this might be my best chance to capture a pretty scene before the leaves turn brown and get blown away.

I'm usually not fond of autumn, as it heralds the end of summer and the inevitable winter storms that befall New England. This year, though, I have to admit that the beautiful foliage (following a sopping wet spring) has been remarkable.

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October 13

Lt. Charles M. Toole once lived at 68 Weld Hill Street in Jamaica Plain. He died October 1, 1918, 42 days before the Armistice. I can't find a lot more information about him, but knowing that explains why he has this nice memorial marker near Forest Hills Station.

This marker is right on the main drag. I can't find information on when the marker was placed, though the geographic proximity to his home makes sense. I suspect -- but can't confirm -- that the marker was placed by the local American Legion Post 76, which is about 50 yards away.

Lt. Toole must have been quite a remarkable person to have somebody go to the expense of raising this monument. I hope that the remarkable young men fighting today are remembered equally respectfully when they give their lives.

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October 12

So the sumptuous scene above was shot at the site of one of NaNoBoston09's write-ins next month.

Juiceboxartists is a writing group in Somerville. The founder, Deborah, has kindly agreed to let us use their studio as a write-in location. The studio, in a former industrial building, is richly decorated; I could only think to describe it as a salon, and honestly, what better place to foster creativity?

The space is both beautiful and functional. Plugs are abundant and easily accessible, for instance, and there's wireless access available for the wrimos so inclined. I'm very excited that we're getting to use such a beautiful -- and unique -- location for a write-in. It's certainly very different from a library or a fast food shop!

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October 11

With National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) coming up soon, and our participation (our region is called NaNoBoston), and since we were shopping for door prizes for our events, finding "Nano Glue" just seemed kind of prophetic. After all, when things are falling apart, you can use glue to hold it all together.

We have managed -- finally! -- to get everything we need to host write-ins, along with most of our door prizes.

Alas, venues aren't coming along as smoothly. We have one pesky write-in night that is proving tough to fill. Today's trip to Cambridge was unproductive -- our hoped-for location at B.Good near Harvard is just too small. Tomorrow we visit a dedicated writing studio in Somerville; this location is practically scheduled already, so the visit is mostly a formality. We have until Friday, when we announce our schedule. We have a plan ... it's just a case of that plan working out.

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