Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease, but the truth is, any disease that changes a loved one is horrible, regardless of what it’s called. My mother’s Alzheimer’s has progressed and it’s getting harder and harder, but there are these priceless moments when she smiles, holds my Dad’s hand or just shares a memory with us that are priceless.

I’m not looking for sympathy, just begging everybody to remember to cherish each day. Things can change when we least expect it, but as photographers you have the ability to give each client a gift – their memories captured forever and sharable with future generations.

We moved to Sarasota to be able to spend more time with my folks and of all the things I’ve ever done in my life, the move was the most important and the one decision I cherish the most. So, hug your Mom today, your kids and your spouse.  Take the time to make every day Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Life is simply too short and one thing we can never get back is time.

A year ago, good buddy and GoingPro partner, Scott Bourne, did a rant on five of the most stupid things photo-related companies do to us. It’s one of my favorite posts, because of two things, the actual points he made are dead on and the sarcasm with which each point hits home is some of the very best.

It’s one thing to complain about the challenges we all face dealing with the rocket scientists at the corporate level, but it takes a true artist to describe them.  So, if there was a Pulitzer for reality and sarcasm, Scott would sure be my nomination.

Visions are made by individuals.Accomplishments are made by team work.

Congratulations Resource Magazine! Many of you are aware that here and there I write for Resource Magazine. I love the magazine, but even more impressive is the attitude of the staff.  The magazine comes out quarterly and their two websites just keep raising the bar for publishing great material and helping to make our industry stronger.

Well this week they hit the industry with their new digital edition and it’s amazing. Here’s the link that’s available free to the public until the end of the month. You need to take the time to read it cover to cover. Pay attention to the interactive components. There’s so much to see in this issue.

One of my favorites is the story on good buddy Tony Corbell on pages 35-36 – then I had some fun with the flow chart on What Kind of Photographer Are You ! My article for this issue is on networking and it’s on pages 45-46. Be prepared to be blown away by Michael Kenna’s images, all are spectacular, starting on page 78 and running for ten pages!

I know everyone is going to have their favorite story, but for me the one that blows away everything I’ve read about or seen in other publications is Jesse Newman’s six year, 6000 image “Rebirth of Gaea” starting on page 169.  It’s a remarkable body of work starting with the embedded video that will take you through the process in a little over four minutes.

Congratulations to Alex, Aurelie, Adam and the whole Resource Magazine team! It’s a remarkable achievement and one that sets a new standard for photographic publishing!

The good buddy is Bill Hurter, Editor-in-Chief of Rangefinder Magazine and a friend for many years. We go back to his days at Petersen’s Photographic when he was editor and I was at Hasselblad.   But the most fun came in working with him during my years as president of Rangefinder Publishing and WPPI.  He was instrumental in helping to make Rangefinder the powerhouse it was when I left in ‘09.  In fact, while there are lots of great editors, there aren’t any as good as “Mr. Bill”.

What made it so much fun to work with him was the way he got involved in so many different aspects of the business.  Many of you know him from his never-ending support for print competition at the WPPI show each year. Others know him from working on speaking programs at the same convention. Still more know him for his relentless pursuit to find photographers with outstanding work who often none of us had ever heard of for each issue of the magazine. Then there are those of you who know him for having authored over 35 books on photography! At least that was the last number I counted!

As for me, I know him from lots of hard work, putting together award-winning magazines, arguments that often ended with way too many laughs and a lot of great times. Rangefinder back then was like a family and in spite of the arguments you always have with other family members, we always managed to get through them and always for the better of the magazine and the company.

But today’s post is about all the laughs. A classic was one year after WPPI, probably 2006 or 2007, we all headed out to celebrate. Bill and I, with all the maturity of two evil fraternity brothers, were determined to bury our mutual buddy and advertising VP, George Varanakis in one of the bars. After all, this was a celebration of another great show and a little libation was acceptable. We bought George several rounds, convincing ourselves that because we were older we could handle the abuse better than George. NOT!  At the end of the night, I looked at Bill and sloppily said, “Mishter Bill, I thinkkkk we got him!”  Bill smiled, agreed, we both passed out at the table and our wives carried us home!

It was a not-so-look-alike Marilyn Monroe who showed up for Bill’s birthday one year singing, “Happy Birthday Mister Editor…”

Bill’s birthday was April 11 and had we all still been working together at Rangefinder we would have participated in “Cake at Eight” a strange custom nobody ever understood, but we still went along with it. Marlene, operations manager for Rangefinder and the only person with less seniority than the owner himself, used to come in between four and five in the morning every day, all due to the challenge of beating traffic in the greater LA area.  Whenever it was somebody’s birthday she’d pick up a birthday cake and at approximately 8:00 – 8:30 we’d all sneak down to the lunch room.

Whoever had a birthday was then paged, we’d all yell surprise, sing Happy Birthday and eat cake, for many of us the first food of the day. Go ahead try it some time…see how you feel starting your day on chocolate cake and frosting! It was bizarre, but we all loved it! It was years later that it dawned on me, for Marlene, since she started at 4:00 am, it was already lunch time!

But the best was the surprise aspect…It couldn’t be more obvious. If it was your birthday you headed down to the lunch room in complete silence since nobody was in the office. You could hear a whisper in the air, “Dead man walking!” The chuckles and the chatter from the kitchen made it obvious you were about to get your dose of sugar for the day!

Last on the list of stories this morning is the holiday exchange we did each Christmas. Everybody got great gifts one year from their secret Santa, except Bill…somebody thought he’d enjoy having his own Sea Monkeys. Definitely a bad call, but Bill took it like an adult and never pouted once! The following year the owner of the company drew his name and spent a fortune on him to make up for the bad gift the year before!

So, to my readers, I apologize for what must seem like a lot of boring stories from days gone by, but for “Mr Bill” and all the Rangefinder crew, it’s lots of smiles and a walk down memory lane.

Bill, here’s to wishing you a terrific slightly belated birthday and the hopes we get more chances for more memories, more laughs and more moments of inspiration – it’s the mutual love for photography that brought us all together, but it was your never-ending quest for great photographers, stories and incredible images and cover shots that kept us all inspired and oh yeah, smiling every day!

New photographers don’t realize how small the industry really is. While Michael and I share a whole bunch of mutual friends, we’ve never had any time to just sit and talk. In fact, the only real conversation we’ve ever had was on a couple of podcasts at GoingPro. What made the evening worthy of a post is the variety of topics we hit, the most fun for me, being some of the stories we exchanged and so many common paths and friends.

• When Michael was 14 he knocked on Richard Avedon’s door, literally. Interested in photography, he was able to meet one of his idols.  I was 50 when I met Avedon in Tucson when he turned over his archives to the Center for Creative Photography. We wound up that night in a little all-you-can-eat Mexican bar. Over the years that followed I’d catch up to Avedon every few months in New York.
• The late Dean Collins was an inspiration to Michael and he’s got Dean’s full series of DVDs. Dean and I met in 1987 and we were absolutely the best of friends. Tony Corbell was Dean’s right hand at the time and there’s another friendship started. Tony and I did the introductory video for Dean’s DVD collection.
• Michael “studies” two hours every day. He experiments with new techniques, reads about new ideas and finds himself obsessed with constantly learning. My good buddy, Don Blair, was still taking notes in other photographer’s programs right up to a few months before he passed away in his late 70’s. He was convinced that as a photographer he could never stop learning.
• Michael photographed Sal Cincotta’s wedding. Sal just agreed a week ago to be our closing speaker at Skip’s Summer School.
• Michael and I talked about couples in photography and two of his good friends are Byron and Wendy Roe. I met them for the first time at Photographer’s Ignite. They’re also friends of Kevin and Clare Kubota’s. Byron and Wendy are tomorrow’s guest post here at my blog.
• Michael was a professional chef and had his own business.  I love to cook and almost set the house on fire after a cooking class a few years ago.

Michael uses his own images on his stationery, a point I’ve been reminding photographers about in my marketing program for years.

Michael and I got going, talking about the industry. He got here at 3:30 and left after 11:00 and it seemed like only an hour. I’ve written a lot about the importance of industry friendship, but what makes them so special are the common denominators so many of us share.  The one topic we talked about the longest related to “good enough”.  The digital revolution has brought with it a lot of photographers willing to settle for mediocrity. Actually, they’re settling for crap!

I’m talking about those “professionals” out there who provide a client with images that aren’t any better than Uncle Harry produces.  Anybody can book their first client, but the key to success is booking your second client after word gets out about your work. It’s about that first client coming back again for more images or booking another event.

There is no substitute for quality and for knowing and understanding the craft! Each photographer has to decide if they’re building their house of bricks or cards…

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.” – Steve Jobs

“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey”. ~John Ruskin

I’ve been following Asukabook recently and a short time back they started doing their own program to better support the community. I love their approach, because it supports a wide variety of charitable causes.

They started holding fundraisers at shows to support the work of non-profits.   They’re specifically offering attendees a chance to donate to a specific non-profit and in exchange the attendee gets an AsukaBucks gift certificate. Attendees donate $10 and get a $100 AsukaBucks gift certificate as a thank-you.  To date they’ve raised over $4,000!

• WPPI NYC in October where they raised $600 for Red Cross Japan Relief.
• Imaging USA they raised over $1,200 for Habitat for Humanity New Orleans.
• Their best fundraiser so far has been for NILMDTS at WPPI Vegas this last February where they raised over $2200.
  
• Currently they’re raising money for the Aasha Fund which was started by Vicki and Jed Taufer to help children and families all across the world. They are currently trying to raise enough to start a Hope’s Promise Children’s Home in Nepal.

The key to their success is consistency. So many companies would have given up because they didn’t raise huge amounts of cash and make it into the news!  But all of a sudden with just three shows they raised $4000 – that’s money that didn’t exist for any of these non-profits before.

There’s actually another important key to success – it’s about passion – passion for photography, passion for what photography can do and passion for the human spirit.  Team Asukabook possesses all three of those ingredients and they’re setting an example that makes me proud they’re in our industry!

Well, today is March 2 and for most of you March is the last opportunity to get some very specific projects in place before business really picks up. So here’s a list of things to consider:

• Have you put together a promotional calendar for the rest of the year? For example, schedule one consumer promotion a quarter.  Remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Florists, limo companies, travel agencies etc. make great partners.
• What do you have in the pipeline for publicity about you and your business?
• How about a letter to all your past clients reminding them of your skill set? Maybe it’s time for a letter reminding them a family portrait is a terrific Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift. Your best potential clients are those already in your data base.
• Prom time is fast approaching and in May just about every junior and senior is going to be heading to their high school prom. How about planting the seed for a prom portrait and working together with a dress shop, tux shop or limo company?
• Here’s one that’s just about house-cleaning: Are you using your own images in your stationery, for example, your note cards? It’s the perfect way to promote your own work.
• What programs e.g. workshops and seminars are you going to register for between now and the end of the year? It’s great you went to WPPI, IUSA, PMA@CES or your state convention, but what are you going to do to recharge your battery mid-year when you need it the most?  I’m involved in at least two programs, Skip’s Summer School and I’ll be on the road with JB Sallee in the fall. Kevin Kubota’s bootcamp is coming up in April. Sal Cincotta will be on the road. Check out your favorite photographers and see who’s on the road. This isn’t just about continuing to expand your skill set – this is about keeping your focus and networking!
• There are some terrific free seminars on line and you need to get yourself signed up. Nik is hosting a full series for the month of March. Creative Live always has something new coming up. Kelby Training has an ongoing series, along with programs from Xrite, Marathon Press and Adorama TV just to name a few.  But here’s the issue, you snooze, you lose! You’ve got to follow-up and participate.
• What are you doing to meet other photographers in your community? Personally I’m a big fan of SmugMug’s meetups, AKA Smugs. There are also local guilds and PPA chapters. Get involved and start building your local network.
• What are doing to be involved in your community? There are always things going on in photography and you need to be involved. You want your community to be good to you, so you’ve got to be good to your community.
• Is there new gear on the list you need, but don’t have the cash? Relax, it’s not the end of the world, start out by renting it and experimenting with that new lens NOW, while you have some time. Make sure you really need it, before you stress yourself out worrying about the cash! And don’t forget about leasing equipment instead of buying it outright! Here’s your chance to tie up somebody else’s assets without depleting yours.
• Have you met with your accountant? Your taxes are due soon, but don’t do this on your own! There are so many aspects of your business that are deductible and money spent with an expert is going to be coming back to you as you learn all the things you forgot that cost you money.
• Is your website all it should be? It’s too long a topic to go into it here, but there are six different posts over on GoingPro that talk about nothing but your website. March is a great time for cleaning up all your messes! I have yet to see a website that couldn’t be improved and here’s another plug for SmugMug! Yes, they’re a sponsor of some of my projects, but long before I started working with me I fell in love with what they do, the quality of their staff and their finished product. This is all about making your work look good, often better than you deserve! LOL

Okay, there are dozen different things to think about and any one of them could take you a few days to really address. You’ve got the passion for photography. Don’t let that passion get lost by missing all the opportunities to keep your battery charged, build your network, expand your skill set or just have fun!

“Fun” there’s that word again. It’s one of the most important aspects of being in business and it’s the first thing lost and buried when the flood gates open and the challenges with the economy and technology come rolling in.  It takes work to stay focused on fun and not let life get in the way!

Dale Carnegie is quoted as saying,

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

Okay gang, time to go have some fun!

All those ideas and all the enthusiasm wound up being crushed under piles of  “Hi-honey-I’m-home” baggage! Your email was backed up. You had calls to return. You had fires to put out, some of them business, some of them personal. By the end of the first week home you felt like you were being pulled in a dozen different directions.

Just for a second, take a deep breath.  It’s all natural and we all have it happen. The trick is to get back on your game as quickly as possible. I wrote a little about this last week, but let’s take it one step further and turn “Momentum Re-capture” into a part of your every day routine.

• Look back through your notes and see if you can find one thing you learned or one idea that was planted by each speaker. You don’t need to do everything every speaker talked about – just look for one piece of low-hanging fruit, something that’s easy to implement with a good potential return.
• Put all of these ideas in a list and write them down. Personally, I love to write stuff like this out long-hand or put it on my white board. I’m a visual person and writing it out and seeing it is more effective for me personally than just typing it into my computer.
• Start with one item and bring it into your business. Every new idea has a time frame of implementation and gestation. Some things grow faster than others or take more maintenance, while others can bring about almost instant results. Be patient – the key here is to just be doing something.
• Put aside one hour every morning that’s your time. That means no interruptions – no phone calls, no checking email – nothing except time for you to ponder – to look at new ideas, catch up on your blog reading and just absorb.
• Read and watch…virtually every speaker you heard over the last few months has a blog. In addition, many of them have videos on YouTube.  You might find a few have outgoing educational newsletters and all you need to do is sign up and they’re in your mailbox regularly.

Here’s a prime example from Adorama TV with Tamara Lackey as host with good buddy, Matthew Jordan Smith. Put his name in the YouTube search box and you’ll find another dozen videos from one of the best photographers in the world…and all it takes is your time!

Last on the list is getting yourself involved in the photographic community. I’m referring to all the programs going on around you that are live workshops and meetings.  Check to find the closest SmugMug Meet-up in your area. Check out upcoming programs for Creative Live. Xrite regularly sponsors free online seminars.

The point is momentum is just like a house plant. If you don’t water and feed the plant, it dies. Well momentum the way I’m using it here refers to all those things that light your fire, keep you motivated and get you excited about photography.  You need to feed your enthusiasm the same way!

And you’re not allowed to come with all the excuses of why I don’t understand how busy you get or the conflicts in your life when it comes to finding “me-time”. We’ve all learned there’s nothing we can’t do or can’t have if we just believe in ourselves!

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it!” Pablo Picasso

There were a whole bunch of great moments in the 2012 schedule this year.  So, for those of you who might have been on similar journeys over the first two months of the year, see if these highlights make any sense…

• Networking is a kick, especially when you’re catching up to old friends and associates. While there were a lot of people I missed, I was able to connect with a lot of great photographers, teachers and vendors. So much so, that after each trip I found myself re-energized. 
• New friends add new dimensions to your network. New ideas help you stay focused and help you reaccess your approach to business, marketing and for that matter your life.
• Social time, especially with friends, creates an aura of what I call Thanksgiving syndrome. Ever notice how somebody always asks, “Why don’t we ever have turkey and stuffing at other times during the year?” Getting out with friends on this last trip was a kick and just reminded me we don’t have to always wait until we’re together at a convention or workshop to have fun!

Roberto Valenzuela, Kim Valenzuela, my wife Sheila and Michele Celentano in the front row with me and Gustavo Fernandez in the back. Ever had time with friends where you laughed so hard it hurt?

• Then there were the events themselves.
  • PMA, now in conjunction with CES gave the imaging side of the industry greater exposure to the world of electronics and DIMA brought some terrific classes to their venue.
  • IUSA, sadly wasn’t PPA’s best ever convention, but it’s still a great place to network and a slow show means there’s time to talk to key vendors. 
  • PhotoProExpo was the ”sleeper” and one of the best state conventions I’ve been to in years. David Ziser and his team blew the numbers out of the water, breaking 1000 attendees and already on their way to a sold out trade show for 2013. 
  • GoingPro Bootcamp was incredible. Scott Bourne was on a roll opening with a reminder that people don’t buy what you do, but why you do it! He set the tone and stage for the day! Michele Celentano brought an amazing energy to the program, but more impressive was her honesty in talking about her own challenges in her career. My favorite moment was noticing the looks on the faces of some of the attendees as she talked about being in the same place they were in twenty years ago. “Will there ever be a time when my work doesn’t suck?” she used to ask herself. Sound familiar?
  • WPPI was one of the best shows ever for me personally. Lots of new projects, sponsors for upcoming events and some great new ideas on things I love doing, but the show itself didn’t seem to have quite the kick it’s had in the past.  And to those of you who still don’t getit, I haven’t worked for WPPI for three years, give it a rest – I can’t help you with programs you didn’t like, your hotel room or crowded seminars. LOL

So, now the challenge for all of us, me included, is taking all that momentum from the last few weeks and applying it to the reality of business.  We all do the same thing – we come home energized and ready to take on the world, then life gets in the way…but that’s tomorrow’s post!