Paul Lester Photo

Many years ago I took a small business class and even though I didn’t go into business, there were a number of valuable lessons that I learned. One section was pricing and value. The trick was to find the right price point where you could sell your product continuously, provide a good value for the public, and make a profit at the same time. If you price the item too high, you could make a large profit, assuming that anyone would buy it, too low, and you’d sell a lot of product, but not make enough money to cover expenses. Either way, you’d be out of business.

I was reading Joe McNally’s blog and this paragraph caught my eye:

I attempt to be coherent, and thoughtful, though it’s hard. When you hear about a recent cover of Time magazine being bought off Istock for $30, it’s easy to just think about reaching for the sawed off and giving them sumbitches what for. But this whole numbing process has been going on for so long it would be difficult to sort out the most deserving sumbitches, and truth be told, some of them be us.

Before I continue, you have to understand that Joe has a great sense of humor and his posts are often informative, but certainly always have a touch or more of humor in them. That’s one of the reasons that I read it. I usually get a laugh and who couldn’t use one of those every day!

So, back to business, markets, and such. I did a quick Google to find out about Time’s $30 purchase and found that it was true. They purchased the photo from IStock for $30. Now, the irony of this purchase was not lost on me. The label that was added to the jar of coins says: The New Frugality. The article featured on the cover was about how the recession has changed what we value and what we expect–even after the economy recovers.

When the photographer, Robert Lam, mentioned that he had gotten one of his photos on the cover of Time, most people where supportive … that is, until someone asked how much he got paid. When he mentioned that Time had paid only $30, then the support seemed to dwindle. Some thought that he got ‘screwed’, others thought that it was ‘terribly depressing’ that Time, a multi-billion dollar company only paid $30. In general, it seemed that some thought that he should get paid in the $10,000 range, just because of Time’s ability to pay. For most other things, the market doesn’t work like this, only taxes work like this … the more you make, the more they take! I pay the same amount for an automobile whether I make $5,000/year, $200,000/year, or $1,000,000/year. I may be able to purchase a more expensive automobile, but no one asks to see my income before I see the price!

I’ve seen this sentiment in numerous places about how photographers shouldn’t sell their work for such cheap prices and about how businesses like IStock are hurting photographers’ ability to make a living, etc. Perhaps photography books should cost several hundred dollars each because they hurt the teaching/workshop market!

I remember similar stories from the post office about how the Internet was hurting their business; however, they still survive, though postal rates are climbing more frequently. They had to make changes, streamline, and compete with the Internet, UPS, and FedEx. They aren’t the only game in town anymore. They had to find new ideas and new ways to earn money.

Pricing needn’t be emotional. Sure, we may think that our photos are worth more, but that’s only because of our own attachment, ego, and desires. In the end, a photo, or anything is worth what the market will pay. No more. No less.

What do you think?

I was watching a documentary, Half Past Autumn, about Gordon Parks. He led an extraordinary life. He was good at a number of disciplines: Photography, poetry, art, music, writing, and film directing. One could only hope to accomplish half as much as he did in his life. He was truly amazing. He refused to take no for answer. As an example of his audacity, he walked into the editors office of Life magazine and refused to leave until editor had a look at his pictures. The editor tried to get him to leave and make and appointment, but he remained there steadfast until the editor had a look. After the editor saw two pictures, he was convinced. He was hired immediately and given a feature story to cover gangs in Harlem, NY. He freelanced for Vogue, photographed Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, The Black Panther Party, and a host of other high profile assignments.

Yet, all through the documentary, you could see that he was losing pieces of his personal life. He was married 3 times: The first lasting 28 years, the second 12, and the final one, 6. In interviews with his various wives, they all loved him dearly, but they just could not compete with his dedication to his passion for photography. In a small way, this reminded me of Joe McNally’s story from The Moment It Clicks where he had to decide between going on assignments or being home for his daughter’s birthday.

At times, I know that I have a romantic view of what that type of life must be like. I see only the end result: The name and photo in print. However, there is a darker side. A side where dues must be paid. It was a great story and one that certainly helps to keep one’s perspective. If you have the time, it’s worth watching.

Our Photo Walk Crew

You only thought that SoFoBoMo had finished. Well, let me assure you, it hasn’t. The e-mails are flying and all sorts of ideas are flowing through cyberspace about how to make it better.

One of the big topics is how to keep that sense of community that we had the first year. Contrast that to the thread that is talking about how to reach more people, other languages, etc. Last year, even though we didn’t have a central repository for books, we seemed to make the rounds to view each others’ books. This year, the response was so overwhelming that would be nearly impossible to have a look at all of them and get a sense of what is available. Personally, I’ve looked at dozens of books and found some of them to my liking. However, there is just not the time to view all of them. The puppy has grown into a full grown dog!

Also, it seemed that a number of photographers just wanted to get finished with the whole thing, myself included. It had lost its luster, that ‘new smell’, from the previous year. This year, it was just a hustle to get 35 photos, put together a book, and say ‘done!’. I rather prefer the books that have something to say, a bit of narration to go with the photos. It adds a lot to the story.

So, for those who plan to participate in year 3, what would make it better? If you’ve never participated, what would make it palatable for you? If this year was your first year, do you plan to do it again? How could we foster that close-knit community? Is that even possible anymore? Is it even necessary?

This was the second year for Scott Kelby’s Photo Walk. Last year, they did not have one in Charlotte, so I didn’t attend. This year’s Photo Walk had quite a few more cities, including Charlotte, NC; However, I signed up for the Charleston, SC walk.

I believe that the Charleston walk had 46 of the maximum 50 people signed up to walk. We met at Riverfront Park in downtown, milled about for bit introducing ourselves to one another, did a group photo, then the walk began shortly after 9:00 AM.

Periodically during the week I had tossed around the idea of shooting film during the walk, then back to the idea of shooting digital, then back to film. As I arrived at the parking garage, opened the trunk, reached my hand in to pick one or the other bag, I chose to shoot film just for the novelty of it. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to be shooting a lot of photos. I figured that I’d be doing more talking and walking than anything.

As it is Charleston, the weather was warm and very humid. It wasn’t long before I and the other four guys that I was walking with, were starting to perspire. The guys that I walked with were named: Chrys, Kip, Robert, and Kazu. Mostly, we walked through the various streets, alleys, and parks and talk about a number of topics. Three of the guys knew each other. They get together once a month on Friday and go to a different barbecue restaurant to sample the fare.

Kazu, who is from Japan, was shooting film as well. He was shooting an Olympus XA and a Holga. Believe it or not, this was my first time seeing a Holga. He said that he really liked the Holga because he’s always surprised by what comes out of the camera. Surprised in a good way and lots of time in a bad way. He told me the camera can only shoot at 1/125 second at f/8 or f/11. That’s it. There is no way to focus it either. Talk about bringing things down to their simplest! I’m not so sure that I want to go that simple! He said that he was shooting Portra because it was so forgiving with exposure and that you need that when shooting with a Holga! As a side note, he is a local sushi chef and the restaurant that he works in is about 15 – 20 minutes from where I work. I told him that I’d stop by and visit him one day. I will!

We continued walking and shooting for the next 2.5 hours, finally ending at Tommy Condon’s, an Irish pub/restaurant. Most everyone from the photo walk joined up to sample some of the beers and the cuisine. Myself, I was not interested in beer, but all of the water that I could consume! My shirt was pretty damp from the humid morning and I was feeling pretty thirsty! After I had chugged back a fair amount of water, I had a local Southern favorite, Shrimp & Grits. It was quite tasty. Four of the five of us sat together. Kip had to leave. We spent the next hour and talked about cameras, films, family, photography, and whatever else came up.

As I figured, I didn’t take many pictures. I took about 3 rolls, or 45 pictures. I’ve not developed them yet and I’m not expecting much, truthfully, but I will share them later on this week. Then again, this was not about the photography, it was about getting out and meeting new friends, potentially. These photos are from my personal photo walk of downtown that I did back in March.