A short time ago I wrote a blog about the care and feeding of your network and it’s interesting, in talking to more photographers, how many do absolutely nothing to maintain it.  It’s almost as if they view their network like wildflowers – great to look at but they just grow and require no care.

Yesterday I had fun writing a blog about an aspect of Matthew Jordan Smith’s program.  Matthew is definitely in my network  and I’m in his.   We’ve been friends a long time, but the friendship came years after we met.  We share a ton of mutual “networkees” (hey it’s my blog, I can make up words if I want to).

So here’s my point – I talked MJS in coming to Akron and he met some great people and got a lot of really good feedback.  He shared some ideas with all us and I blogged about one of them yesterday.  He liked what I wrote and put something on his blog directing more people to the information on my blog.  I can’t wait for him and Nozomi to come back to Ohio.

It’s all about give and take and those people in your network who are the strongest and mean the most to you need contact.  It takes work to make it happen – we’re all so busy with so many different aspects of our lives.  In fact, in all the years we’ve known each other, Matthew and I both realized this was the first time we’ve ever had really great quality time to talk and just hang out, beyond a dinner together when we’re all on the road.   

If you make the commitment to put in the time and stay in contact your network will just keep getting stronger.  All of you will benefit from each other’s ideas, energy and passion for photography.

Make it a great weekend everybody!