The public value of intellectual creativity is $0.00...

There must be some blog or some manual or something somewhere that lists, as a suggestion for cutting start up costs, to enlist an inexperienced designer to create your design package for FREE with promises of future paid work when (if) the company takes off.  In reality, most companies are not successful and most designers know this.  So basically, this invitation to become a part of "something incredible" is really an invitation to donate time and resources to someone who's basically out for themselves and doesn't plan on giving you anything for the effort you've so kindly doled out for them.

You will find funny (hilarious) blogs all over the internet written by frustrated designers who have to deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis.  Even though my primary work is as a photographer, I have had people ask me to do work - for free - with some future promise of business if "things go well."  Most designers have a story about somebody trying to get free stuff.  The comic I listed above courtesy of designer James Tadeo's Lunch Time Comics and David Thorne's 27b/6 blog are possibly the funniest, most creative illustrative descriptions of the kinds of crazy things designers have to go through with clients.  If you got a minute and want to laugh, I highly suggest checking those out.

So what does this mean for you as a designer?  This means that you need to make sure you are compensated fairly for the work you have done or are being asked to do.  Creative Opera's blog lists 10 Reasons Freelancer Designers Get Screwed and you may be having trouble getting your business off the ground because - you are getting screwed.  The unfortunate reality is that the only way you can be in business as an effective designer is that you have to be able to financially support your efforts.  When clients look for a designer, they look for a designer.  They don't look for a police officer or an English teacher who does design on the side.  Unfortunately, many of us have to have that primary income to support our second job but the problem with that is that the second job is suppose to be supporting the second job and if it's not, you're getting screwed...

So what does this mean for you as someone who needs a design and doesn't want to spend a lot of money?  If your budget is really $0, then you need to become a designer yourself and do your own work.  That will involve spending time drawing out and doing research/getting ideas on what to make your design convey/look like.  Remember, if it's a logo you want, then it has to communicate what you are about in one image.  Decide what that looks like.  Mayhem Studios has some info on the Value of a Logo.  I suggest checking that out.  Doing your design also involves buying the hard materials to create your image be it studio arts or computer graphics programs.  You will need to purchase and learn how to use several computer programs, so plan on spending around $1,200 just to buy them and then either sign up for a class or buy a book (or find a really generous designer friend) to teach you how to use them.  It takes most people years to master these programs and the things related to them (hence the availability of bachelors and masters degrees in fine arts), but it may take you less.  Good luck.  And then make sure you understand what you need to know about formats, printing, what files to send to printers, what image formats will allow you to use transparencies, colors, the impact of vector and pixels on the transferability of your design, design trends, legal concerns and copyrighting, intellectual property, fonts, and a few dozen other vital elements to remember when creating and disseminating your design.  You may be an amazing designer and just have yet to discover your talents, so if you are trying to save money then I suggest giving it a shot.  And then if other people begin to like your designs, then after you have done all this work and learned all these things about being an effective designer, you can do theirs for free too.

Basically, services are things that are paid for.  Commissioning a designer (or hiring a photographer or videographer or DJ, etc.) is requesting a service.  The general public either doesn't know what goes into making these things happen or they have chosen to devalue, yet still want, those services.  Interesting.  Creative Opera also lists 8 Common Misconceptions about being a designer that we all should know.  This info is great for both designers and clients.  Design work isn't as cut and dry as some would like to believe.  So spend a little time today hugging your local designer.  They probably need it.

Removing a photo watermark: flattering, but still stealing

We as photographers take risks whenever we share our work with the world online.  Copy and pasting runs rampant and between illegally downloading music, illegally stealing and modifying copyrighted images, and illegally downloading/viewing/uploading copyrighted material on youtube - we live in a culture that values a creative's hard work enough to collect it and surround oneself with it, but not enough to pay them or credit them for their work and to really just steal it.  So why do people do that at all?  They're just cheap, most the time, and don't want to pay for the full image, some going so far as to even poll the web to find out the best way to steal it.

When I upload anything to the web, I place my logo on my work which also includes the (C) copyright embedded in it.  That means that I own the image, you do not.  Don't steal it.  That also means that if you are going to take it and put/post it somewhere else, do not alter the image unless you communicate with the photographer (me) about that first.  If it is an image that he or she wants to share but may choose to enter into a contest or publish somewhere else and now you have done your fancy work and removed their watermark and reposted the image, regardless of how you decided to credit the photographer.... that is 10x not cool.  Now what you've done is just helped put the photographer's work in a vulnerable position.  Whether it's an image of something you like or even you at a festival, party, or club event: the decision of the photographer and/or event coordinator to place those watermarks on those images is usually for promotional reasons and cropping the credit out is a pretty heavy slap in the face.  That's like me going to write an awesome article that everybody loves and becomes the talk of the town, but you whited my name out of the "author" line because you felt the piece looked better without it.  So now I did the work and get no credit.  That's kinda f***ed up.

But you may say, ok then - if you're that worried about it, don't post the images at all!  I totally agree and keep a good amount of my work offline and shared only in print because of that.  It's a tough balance trying to share your ability with your community as an advertising tool and not being taken advantage of.  At the end of the day, don't steal someone else's work and just be nice.  :)

Same Blog, New direction: What you should probably know about being a photographer

I am noticing, more and more, that the general public just haven't got a clue (not even a little one) about what goes into being a photographer.  Probably the biggest misconceptions are (A) how much it costs (the job expenses are astronomical), (B) how much you really have to learn to be somewhat decent, and (C) how important skill and ability really are.  Granted, all of these elements will vary depending on what kind of photographer you are, but really not that much.

For example, if you are a mid-level sports photographer, you have to factor in the equipment you are carrying onto the field (approx. $3,500), your post-processing equipment (approx. $2,000-$3,000), and then added liability/risk if you or your equipment get ran over or hit with a ball.  If you are one of the higher-level sports photographers, add $30,000 to your equipment costs and you're all set (more info here http://www.sportspictures.com/sport/sports_photography_equipment.html).  So, if you want to be a sought after (aka working and hired) professional sports photographer, you have to shell out more money than the average American makes a whole year.  If it's your "hobby," then going $7,000 in the hole is pretty average.  But regardless, most people don't know or take the minute to figure out how much all this costs.  And while sports photography may be on the high end as far as cost goes, their midlevel standard is what you can plan on spending to be a professional photographer in any arena.

Now, you may be thinking, "Well, my cousin so and so and his friends just went to Costco and bought a $600 camera kit and they take really beautiful pictures.  I don't understand why some photographers go and spend thousands of dollars more if they don't have to.  So, I'm not paying all this money for a photographer, my cousin can cover my event for free and the pictures will look the same."  Ok, good for you - so lets look at this a few ways.  Your cousin may be a part of what I call "Fad Photography."   You may have seen what I'm talking about.  American Apparel clothing company uses this style of photography almost exclusively.  What these photographers do is cover their subject simply, plainly, non-flattering, and realistically.  They use the kit camera, the built-in flash, and usually no other prop.  This is pretty much as bare bones as you can get these days in photography.  So, maybe your cousin may be wanting to be a part of this trend and honestly, in my own opinion, this style is a pretty cool style.  What these photographers do is capture the moment and make it look interesting.  But wait, listen to what I said.  They make it look interesting meaning they don't do a bunch of fancy camera techniques to get the "right" image - they make sure their composition is effecting and attractive to the people they want to see them.  Random guy and photographer CobraSnake is a prime example of what I'm talking about.  This falls into (C) of what I mentioned before: raw talent and ability.  Not everyone's "Fad Photography" looks great, you still have to shop around and hire somebody that knows what they are doing.  They gotta recognize a moment, be able to be in the right place at the right time, get around rules and regs for places that don't allow photography... they have to sometimes be creative rebels in how they work.  For some, all of this comes naturally.  For others, they gotta work at it but either way, an effective photographer makes an image interesting one way or another and not every Tom, Dick, and Nancy can do that. 

So, from here on out, I'm not going to post that much of my personal work on this blog.  I post some periodically on my facebook page and my website, so posting them here too seems a little redundant.  If you are interesting in seeing my work, head over to one of those.  Instead, I'm going to focus a little more on being more informative on what at least I go through in being a photographer.  And that's ranging from public misconceptions about being a photographer (that you don't really get until you are one or until one explains it to you), some of the difficulties I run into in my on-site workflow (which usually involves oblivious people), equipment issues you probably wouldn't know about, and just the general effort it takes to do what I and so many others do.  This should be an interesting discussion...!!! :)

Event: Barona 40th Annual Pow Wow

Barona Indian Reservation, every year, holds a huge Pow Wow bringing together tribes from really all over the nation.  From food, fun, and tons of vendors selling Native jewelry and clothing, I highly recommend putting the next one on your personal to do list.  

Romeo's 30th Birthday Party

We all threw my husband a SURPRISE 30th birthday party.  It was a total success, he had no idea and was totally surprised.  The night was full of fun, dancing, talking, drinking, playing with the dogs lol and just an all around great time.  Much thanks to everyone who came out, we had a blast! :)

Happy Birthday Romeo!! :)

The Camera doesn't matter...

... it's your photographer's eye that does!

Yes, fancy cameras give us more options. Tons, even. But not having one of those $1,000 - $5,000 cameras should not stop you from still going out there and making your art. These are from my Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS. I like this camera a lot because of the bunch of point and shoots I've had, it takes the best quality pictures I've seen. It's small, about the size of a box of cigarettes and costs about $150-$200 depending who you buy it from.

Travel: Baltimore :)

I went home!  Home was well missed, everything from the trees to the people to all the bug bites I came back to California with were each lovely and missed in their own ways haha.  I went home to pick up my new child (dog named Sooki) and to also see my family and catch up with the friends I had time to go see.  It was an amazing weekend and I took some nice shots while I was there.