Marketing Essentials International » commercial photography

A Sunday Morning Reflection on a Monday – All thanks to Bob Coates

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:32 +0000

Yesterday I ran the following post as a Sunday Morning Reflection. Since Sunday is such a slow blog post day and I didn’t have access to some of the images I wanted to run with the post, I decided to run it this morning and include three of Bob Coates’ images along with it.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do, but more important than the images is the point about staying in tune with personal projects. Bob’s core business is more on the commercial side, but his fine art represents a combination of passion, diversity and the constant quest to continue his growth and education. The end result is stunning!

We had great friends here this weekend,Bob and Holly Coates. Bob and I first met at WPPI years ago, then came Holly, then the four of us getting together in Sedona and the list of dinners around the country at various conventions goes on and on, but the topic this morning isn’t about the wonderful friendship we share. It’s about great photography.

Our home is like a gallery, filled with prints that span my entire career, but I don’t have one of Bob’s. We sat down with his Ipad and started looking for a new addition last night. Like so many of us with friends, while we stay in touch, we lose track of what we’re all actually working on and doing. I hadn’t looked at Bob’s images in a long time and was simply blown away by what he’s been creating.

I’ve written so much about the importance of personal projects, never compromising on quality, listening to your heart and expanding your skill set. As we looked at image after image it was incredible to see Bob’s done just that. The images were stunning, many demonstrating new technology he’s been experimenting with. In fact, one image of an iris was the result of 43 different shots.

Talking about that image led us into a discussion about how you can never stop learning and that took us to a conversation about Ansel Adams and a comment he made. I’m para-phrasing a lot, but in ‘84 he made a comment about wondering what people will be able to do with his negatives electronically in twenty years!

So, here’s the point this morning – as you look at your own portfolio are you producing images that are truly great? Can you look back at a year or two of your images and see your growth in the craft? Do your images represent a continuous expansion of your skill set? Most important of all, every time you click the shutter are you keeping your dream alive?

Motivational writer Jack Canfield wrote, I’m a big believer in growth. Life is not about achievement, it’s about learning and growth, and developing qualities like compassion, patience, perseverance, love, and joy, and so forth. And so if that is the case, then I think our goals should include something which stretches us.

And one more that hits home from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg:

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

Images by Bob Coates. All rights reserved.

How2 Series: Business Diversity with Carey Schumacher

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:00:39 +0000

This post ran a few days ago on GoingPro. It’s got so much content and deserves to be shared more than usual for a few different reasons.

First, it’s a great idea and demonstrates just how much a photographer can push the edge of the envelope, especially when it comes to new directions. Second, there’s a second part to the post, the live interview with Carey, now in the GoingPro Podcast archives. She shares a lot of great ideas, especially when she talks about “pounding the pavement” and ways she worked to get her name out there and build brand awareness for her company, Barefoot Memories.

Carey is an outstanding photographer, but for me the most fun has been watching her business grow over the years as a result of a lot of hard work, marketing, attention to SEO/SEM and just an outrageously positive personality! Carey stays focused on having fun no matter how hard she’s working. There it is, that word “fun” – too often forgotten in business today!

If you’re not having fun then you’re doing something wrong. Maybe it’s as simple as taking an afternoon off and just doing some of the things that got you interested in photography in the first place, getting back to your roots.

It’s time for a new theme on the GoingPro blog, Great Ideas. We’re all part of an incredibly exciting industry filled with some pretty amazing creative moments by some remarkable artists. Today, it’s an idea from San Diego children’s photographer, Carey Schumacher.

Carey’s been a children’s photographer in San Diego for the last ten years. Her business has grown substantially, in part because of the attention she gives her marketing efforts, especially with SEO/SEM. Google just about anything to do with “San Diego Children’s Photography” and her business, Barefoot Memories will always come up on the first page.

Lately she’s been thinking a lot about diversifying her business.

“I know I’m going to get to a point where I’m older and won’t have the energy to be chasing kids on the beach with a camera. So, I want to start finding other things my skills as a photographer can bring to the community,” commented Carey in a conversation recently.

Her idea? To combine her skills as a photographer with a commercial application with a local four-store chain of sporting good shops. Working together with her vendor, Pixel2Canvas, she was able to develop an idea to display images of the local junior soccer heroes in several different communities.

Here’s the brilliance of the concept:

•   Several of Lococo Sports suppliers would have come in and done something similar. Nike for example, would have provided them with over sized images of professional soccer players, but this is about local champions. Utilizing at least ten kids from four different communities created a team of forty ambassadors.
•   This is about creating a program with natural longevity. Different kids, teams and communities are all putting the spotlight on Carey’s work, a new product and the sports shop. You couldn’t ask for better advertising and publicity.
•   The concept has terrific diversity – other sports, other applications, even special events all lend themselves to this kind of concept.
•   It’s a quality presentation. The large prints demonstrate Carey’s skill set to virtually every person who goes by the store!

This is a concept all about great partnerships.

“When I was working on the concept, I pretty much knew what I wanted. I talked with Roxanne and CB, owners of Pixel2canvas and they were excited about it, because it was an idea they wanted to work on, getting into large format printing. The panels are printed on 48in-wide sheets, and the windows were about 70in high & 60in wide, so the panels needed to be installed in long vertical strips. Having a vendor who knows their stuff regarding splitting the images into workable sections was VERY helpful!”

Photographic quality has to be dead-on along with the printing quality of each image. Think about the quality values any image of yours would have to have to be blown up to these sizes and display values. Would they hold up?

Tied together with today’s post is the newest podcast on GoingPro. It should come as no surprise that Carey was our guest and brought some outstanding insight about being a professional photographer to the conversation.

I can’t think of a better idea to help launch a new feature on GoingPro. Great ideas don’t just appear without creativity, great skills and in this case terrific partnerships based on quality, delivery and exceeding expectations: Carey’s skill set, combined with the quality of work she received from her vendor, put together with a great retailer and lastly the community!

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

2011 Summer School Profile: Bobbi Lane

Thu, 26 May 2011 11:30:03 +0000

Some of you met Bobbi Lane last year at Summer School, when she and Tony Corbell ran our first ever Lighting Lab. She’s a phenomenal photographer, doing work mostly on the editorial/commercial side of life, but here’s what I love about her work – first it’s timeless and second it often can’t be defined. In the “old days” you could look at an image and clearly decide if it was commercial, portrait, wedding etc. Today, every image has multiple applications and as buddy Dean Collins would say, “Beauty is in the eyes of the checkbook holder!”

So, I love Bobbi’s work, but I love her diversity even more. There’s nothing she can’t shoot. Galleries on her website cover a wide range of images, each with outstanding appeal to her target audience, the commercial world, including ad agencies, design houses, coporate clients etc. You be the judge. Every image here has multiple applications.

Notice a common theme? Bobbi knows her lighting! I also found this terrific clip from Sekonic, which will give you a great idea of what Bobbi is like in action. I consider her proof that hyper-active kids grow up and get jobs!

Join Bobbi and fourteen other great instructors at Summer School, July 31 – August 3. It’s going to be a kick and a great way for you to pick up new ideas to incorporate in your business to help increase revenue, strengthen your marketing skills and build your network. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget recharge your battery and have some fun!

“Fun” is not a dirty word when you’re buried in new concepts for your business over 2 1/2 days, fifteen different instructors and building new relationships in an industry you love! See you in Vegas!

How2 Series: Grabbing the bull by both horns! Mostly by Terry Clark

Wed, 11 May 2011 10:00:39 +0000

Okay, so I’m going out on a limb this time – but I just said, “Oh hell, he’s a buddy, he’ll be okay if I publish what he sent me!” The most fun of having friends with different backgrounds and attitudes is the different way they all attack the challenges in business. Some are more left brain in their approach, taking time to consider all the options and then being very goal oriented in what they want to accomplish. Others are just plain aggressive and simply take no prisoners.

Yesterday I wrote about the challenges of photographers in Ohio being so fragmented. The issue really wasn’t so much having to cancel a couple of workshops, but more about missed opportunities. Well, Terry Clark sent me an email mid-morning yesterday to simply offer his “condolensces”. What he actually did though was send me one of the most fun emails I’ve ever gotten. Read it and then tell me you’re not smiling over hearing the way one photographer is determined to take on his market…he doesn’t know the meaning of the word complacent!

It was with tremendous sadness and utter surprise I read this morning you had to cancel Julianne Kost’s program. I simply could not believe from of the whole of Ohio, Western PA and West Virginia you didn’t have a standing room only sell out for her. Anyone who uses Lightroom and/or Photoshop should know her name (and that’s everyone these days) so what’s the problem? I think you nailed it… attitude.

No doubt this profession is splintered. There are those who see the glass half full, those who see it half empty and those who are waiting for someone to hand them a glass. Me, heck, I’m not waiting, I’m drinking right out of the bottle! Like your hot dog vendor I’m advertising and getting results. When I made the decision to stop shooting weddings I started a direct mail post card campaign with my corporate and advertising clients. I’m happy to say it worked.

Yesterday I booked two more days of work. On average I’m booking about one new job every other day. Right now I’ve only got three days not booked in May. Some of my commercial colleagues are in shock. Like the hot dog vendor’s son, they are just trying to weather the economic thunderstorm. Me, I’m dancing in the rain and loving every minute. it’s all an attitude.

Last weekend I photographed my first of the weddings I have booked for this year. As you know, I decided to pull out of that market. But I do have some this year and I’m going out swinging hard like a champ, not a chump, so I’m killing them. My day Saturday began at 8:30 AM and ended at 12:15 AM Sunday morning. In between I captured every moment, every detail and every nuance there was.

Not only was the family ecstatic, but the venue coordinator begged me to send her a slide show she could post on their website linking back to mine. She told me in the 20 years she’d been at this venue (an art museum) no photographer had ever worked so hard taking pictures. She now wants to refer all of her couples to me. It would have been so easy to gear down and coast through this wedding. But I couldn’t do that, it’s not who I am, and it’s not what this wonderful family deserved. It’s all an attitude.

Sadly, however, in the case of Julianne’s program I think it’s even more than the belief of business being in a slump. I’ve heard way too many people lately claim to be “experts” at Photoshop. For example, when I was interviewing for a new assistant a few months ago I posed the question, on a scale of 1 to 10, where do you think your Photoshop skills lie? Every one of them answered 7 or higher. I asked again saying, “with 1 being you don’t recognize the box the program comes in, and 10 being you helped write the program, where is your skill level?” Again, these people, with one or two semesters worth of Photoshop classes under their belt each gave me a response of seven.

Believe me when I tell you, they were not a seven. In my book their average was more like a three. The guy I ultimately hired? He told me he was probably a four and climbing. He had about five years experience with LR and PS. I’d say he might have been a bit humble. I like that.

All the people I interviewed were recent college graduates, except who I hired, he’s a freshman in college. But the graduates “knew” they knew the program. They were told by professors they were experts. But it’s not just college kids, I’ve heard it from a lot of colleagues, too. They don’t “need” any help or additional training because they use the program every day. They “know” everything they need. Really? I started on Photoshop 2.0 and I know for absolute certain I can learn more about that program. But then the one thing I learned a long time ago is the day you stop learning is the day you stop growing and start dying. It’s all an attitude.

They say the sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. This is what I see a lot of photographers doing today. They’ve always done what they’ve always done and until recently (a few months or a few years) it’s always given an acceptable return. But now it’s not working and they don’t know what to do, but the same thing that’s worked in the past. And because it worked in the past it’s not their fault, it’s the economy so time to batten down the hatch and hold on for the storm to pass. No need to try anything new. No need to seek new training. They’ll just keep doing what always worked, before. It’s all an attitude.

Trying something new for me is exciting, whether it be a new subject matter or a new camera system or a different process. As we discussed, I’m shooting more and more with my Leica rangefinders, specifically the digital M9. Sure, it’s not as “easy” as any DSLR. There’s no autofocus, there’s a more limited ISO range and it will never compete with the nine or ten frames per second of a high end Nikon or Canon. It doesn’t need to compete. It’s a different animal and therefore requires a different way of thinking, and seeing. It’s back to the basics.

Timing your shot is critical since you are really only going to get one crack at it — ain’t no machine gunning this camera! It’s old school. At last weekend’s wedding I shot 90% Leica. My lens range is simple (24, 35, 50, 90) which allowed me to totally concentrate on image making. The result was a very satisfied client and a very happy photographer. Below are a couple of the resulting images. As I’ve been saying… it’s all an attitude. Terry Clark

Terry, I know you didn’t intend for this to be published, but what a kick it was to read. You reminded me of two of my favorite quotes:

“Your attitude, not your aptitude will determine your altitude!” Zig Ziglar

And from an unknown source on a kitchen magnet…

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storms to pass, it’s about learning to dance in rain!”

How2 Series: Following Your Heart by Terry Clark

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:30:10 +0000

I met Terry Clark when he won the bid on me for some marketing support through the annual Mentor Auction done by Jim Hicks and his team for Thirst Relief last year. They do a terrific job each year on the auction, usually held just before WPPI. Terry bought a couple of hours of my time to help review his business.

Since he was only ninety minutes away near Pittsburgh, we set a date for me to come over to his studio. I had never met Terry and knew absolutely nothing about his work. I also didn’t realize what a great friendship would come out of that day together.

Terry’s background is rooted solid in photography with thirty six years of experience, having done just about everything, including once being a picture editor. He really needed very little help – his work is outstanding, but like so many of us at one time or another, he was just in a rut. Well, he’s well on his way out of the rut now!

Yesterday’s post, prompted an email to me, which was so well written, I asked Terry for permission to use it as a guest post. I’ve read it several times already and while I don’t make my living as a photographer, it inspires me to think about other projects I’m passionate about. This is a story about following your heart and believing in yourself. It’s also about passion and loving what you do!

Somebody once accused me of being overly optimistic and thought they would insult me by calling me the industry cheerleader! I’ll be the first to admit, I love what we all do in in this industry, but it goes deeper than that. I’ve said it numerous times before, the best part of this industry has little to do with photography! It’s about the friendships that come out of everyone’s love for the craft!

I really liked your post today. Spot on as always. Follow your heart and work harder than hell. That’s the “new economy” it seems. Everybody I talk to is in the same boat — photographers, graphic designers, corporate clients, and advertising agencies. Budgets are shrinking, costs are rising and the barbarians are at the gate. The best thing to do to survive and thrive is find what everyone else isn’t doing and do that thing. And read The Art of War. Best business book out there for our times.

With everything happening as it is I decided to go radical. For the last several years I had been building a wedding business in conjunction with my corporate and educational business. I was doing weddings first because they were fun. When the fun ran out I continued because I felt I needed the income. This year, after much thought and planning I decided to focus solely on what I love to shoot, which means no more weddings. Not wanting to scare the four couples I booked for 2011 (all were booked a year ago), I just raised my prices to the highest in Pittsburgh and put the entry point on my website. That dropped my inquires to a trickle. Problem one solved.

When I spread the word to the commercial clients that knew I shot weddings the news was met with shock and surprise. One of my client friends asked ‘but how will you survive?’ She was worried that giving up what had become 1/3 of my income would be crushing to my business. I responded, “more marketing with what I love to shoot.” And so that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few months, marketing, talking with old and new clients and marketing more. So far I’ve had the busiest April on record and May is nearly filled. In fact, I had to break from writing this to talk with a client and book a four day job for May. Not a bad way to start the day!

For me it came down to a lifestyle choice. I was unhappy doing wedding photography and thus wasn’t producing the kind of work I could be proud showing. The revelation came from a dream where I remembered a story from years ago. I photographed a number of people who followed their heart and did what they loved. All of them changed direction, many changed careers. Most, at least initially, radically changed their economic status. For some their income came back, for others it did not, but regardless of income they were all extremely happy and successful in every way. In each case their only regret is they didn’t do it sooner.

So we’ll see how it goes in the coming months. My enthusiasm is back to the level it was when I first discovered photography 36 years ago. People are taking notice and responding in a positive way. I have personal projects planned for the “slow months” of summer to continue to fuel my creative soul and give me new work to share. I know it’s going to be an exciting year! Terry Clark

Jump Starting Your Business!

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:49:28 +0000

A few weeks ago Jasmine Star interviewed me for her blog. I couldn’t have been more flattered. One of the questions she asked just seems so appropriate this time of year. The question was, “How do you jump start a photography business?” It’s a great question and deserves to be expanded.

We’ve got to start with the definition of “jump start”. Let’s look at jump starting a business that’s already established and stalled. If we had twenty, fifty or even a hundred photographers in the room right now and they had all been in business for a few years, the room would be split right down the middle between people having a great year and those referring to 2010 as the year from hell! Based on their experiences both groups would be right in their perception, but are there things the half having the harder time could do to change their year-end outcome?

It all begins with getting focused on what it is you want to do. You’ve got to get yourself psyched up and be not only excited, but really motivated and proud of your career choice in photography. So, as simple as it sounds, it starts with your attitude. Photography is about your heart – and you can’t create images that grab people’s hearts if your own heart isn’t in it.

This is about recharging your battery and right off the bat I’m going to plug Skip’s Summer School next month. You need to get yourself out of the rut and get a good dose of optimism with lots of good ideas on how to change things. And if you can’t make it to Summer School then look for programs by some of the industry’s leading icons to help get you pumped. Jim Garner, Joe Buissink, Matthew Jordan Smith, Dane Sanders, Dawn Shields, Jasmine Star, Kirk Voclain, Kevin Kubota, Jerry Ghionis, Yervant, Bambi Cantrell, Tony Corbell and dozens I’ve missed are all on the speaking tour from time to time and you need to tap into their energy.

Then there are specific things to do like launch your own publicity campaign, getting involved in the community, creating buzz for your business. You’ve got be proactive and offense is always more fun to play than defense!

A children’s photographer should launch a new promotional opportunity. We’re coming up to the fall and it’s perfect for themed sessions around harvest time, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. A wedding photographer needs to do a mailing to past clients about “expanding”, new products e.g. albums etc. anything that creates a little noise.

Maybe it’s time for this same wedding photographer to expand and diversify into children’s photography. How effective would it be to do a mailing to past brides who might be starting a new family and plant the idea for baby photography? Or let’s say you’re a commercial photographer and it might be a great time to remind your clients about the need for a new headshot! Something that goes beyond that old high school senior shot they’ve been using!

And let’s not forget the whole world of social media. Are you using it to your advantage? Are you active in Twitter and Facebook, using them as marketing tools. Do you have a blog? Are you consistent in maintaining a constant presence.

The point is your business stalled for a reason. I’m not minimizing the challenges with the economy, but too often that’s become the scapegoat and if you look at businesses with challenges you’ll find there are things that could be done to turn things around.
Okay, so this is a blog and I’ve only got so much room before the statistics say you’ll lose interest and move on to reading something shorter. The issue is, no business is over until you give up and if you’re worried and feel you need a jump start then get some help before you pull the plug. There’s a lot of information on GoingPro2010.com. Scott Bourne’s PhotoFocus site/blog has great information and both of us are here to help you and answer your questions, but we can’t help if you don’t ask.

Then there are some great blogs out there, starting with Jasmine’s. In fact, read this week’s interview with good buddy George Varanakis at WPPI/Rangefinder. Dane Sanders has a lot to say at Ask Dane. The list goes on and on, but you have to do a little research to find those components that can help you the most. Get yourself signed up for DWF and their forum. You can search by topic or you might want to start your own string and ask the question haunting you the most, just to see what your counterparts have to say.

These are difficult times with the challenges of the economy and technology both playing a role, but here’s the best part! You’re not alone in dealing with the challenges and there are lots of us out here willing to give you a hand!

Guest Post: Don't Get Stuck in the Middle by Nicole Wolf

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:00:05 +0000

Social Media is more than just a way to stay connected or communicate. For me it’s become the ultimate doorbell when it comes to knocking on the doors of photographers who I’ve never met and who are inspirational. I’m not sure how the friendship with Nicole Wolf even started, but I wound up on her site looking at some great work and that’s all it took to want to share it with more people in the industry.

The best part is putting a voice with images – email just doesn’t cut it when you want to check out somebody’s spirit and their passion for the craft. Their images might look terrific, the ideas they present are exciting, but you need to either pick up the phone or meet them in person – that’s when the fun really begins.

This morning, meet Nicole Wolf. I saw her images, we talked on the phone, but I had no idea how her guest blog would become one my favorites to date. What I’ve enjoyed most is learning how she’s influenced by other photographers and stays focused on special projects to keep her creative juices flowing.

I wrote about Jason Groupp’s NYC project a few weeks ago. In the next day or two, registration for the 2nd Annual Skip’s Summer School is going to launch and Kevin Kubota’s program is, “The Power of the Project”. In PDN’s Focus on Weddings, I interviewed Jonathan Canlas, who talked about being influenced by photographers outside the wedding industry, commercial shooters like Chuck Close, Craig Cutler, Alec Soth, Stephen Shore and Andreas Gursky.

Nicole’s guest post is a perfect example of a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson, that I’ve paraphrased and butchered to death over the years…”I am a part of all that I have met!” Time for me to shut up and just turn it over to Nicole!

One of my favorite quotes is by Cecil Beaton, “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” How can you read this quote and there not be a fire under your butt to create work that is innovative and forward thinking?

I said a long time ago, when we took on wedding photography as part of our business, that I never wanted it to get to a point that we were stuck in the middle. Mediocracy in my opinion is the easy way out. It’s easy to have a formula. It’s easy to follow the crowd. It’s easy to do the same shots week after week. It’s easy to never experiment with light and it’s easy to play it safe.

What isn’t easy is thinking for yourself, stretching the possibilities of your own imagination, creating a new way of being, pushing your limits, taking risks, to be thought provoking and inspiring. Remember, you are only as good as your last shot!

The question always asked of me however, is “How do you do that?” “How did you think of that and what was your motivation?” The answer is easy, look outside of your comfort zone and create work that exceeds your own expectations.

I have worked in the commercial photography and design world for about 15 years. Since being a part of the wedding industry I have noticed something, wedding photographers create a bubble for themselves and stay inside that bubble. You can’t expect growth if the only thing you are inspired by are other wedding photographers, if the only workshops you attend are lead by other wedding photographers, if the only photos you look at are by other wedding photographers and if the only imagery YOU shoot is wedding photography. Don’t get me wrong, there is amazing talent out there and things to be inspired by in the wedding field, but that should not be our only outlet for creative thinking.

It is so important to create work that relates to another part of yourself. At SOTA Dzine, the work we do commercially pushes the boundaries with lighting and concept. I think it is so important for wedding photographers to not just shoot available light! So what if you have never studied it or taken a class. You can learn by experimentation, assisting for a photographer that does and READ. The only way to move forward, especially in this day and age, is to push yourself with your lighting techniques. Take advantage at WPPI and the other trade shows to talk to some of the lighting vendors and invest in something new. Also, concept is key. Study and research movement, fashion, expression, composition. Then implement those learned skills in a new way of seeing into your own work.

Ever since grad school I have also understood the importance of a personal body of work. This is not a paid gig. There are no clients involved. You may or may not ever show it to anybody else, but it is yours! It allows you to take your work to a place that is vulnerable. Where you are not being judged on whether you got the right shot or produced the perfect photograph. It is raw, organic and real. Figure out what you want to say. Tell a story or discover a new way of seeing. Allow yourself to make mistakes so that you can in turn create something inspired.

We, as artists, need to be open to the possibility of failure and from this nourishing ourselves. You have to recognize your need for growth. This is an amazing way to grow through your work and in turn apply this to your paid gigs! SOTA has seen this play out many times with booking commercial clients who hired us for their wedding photography and visa versa. One of my new favorite outlets for wedding photographers is Will Jacks, Chris Williams and Sarah Hodzic workshop called “Rebirth.”

All in all, don’t get stuck in the middle. When you look back 25 years from now at your body of work, you want to be elated by what you accomplished and how you never let yourself be commonplace. You pushed the envelope, never rode on anyone’s coattails, and made your own mistakes. You earned your own successes!

Make an imprint in the industry, take risks, do it for yourself and for your clients!

Nicole Wolf

The images shown represent Sota Dzine well and the style offered to their wedding clients, commercial clients and a personal art image from Nicole’s project on lobster fisherman. But for me personally, the most fun comes out of Nicole’s constant quest to make her work look different and push that edge of the envelope she wrote about!