APE posted an article on the future of photography. There’s been a bit of controversy over the article as Leslie Burns talks about in her post. The basic idea is passing your work, or making it available to be passed around to create “fans”. Creating a bigger fan base increases your market.
It got me thinking of how digital technology is moving us into to a viral content world. Think about how much we love to share things with our friends. Random pieces of content that we think is so great, we share it with everyone we know. Thus the concept of “Viral Content”. Advertising age reported that GE, the country’s third largest advertiser, is moving to shift half of it’s $3 billion budget into digital and one-to-one marketing within the next 3 years. That said, GE as well as many other brands will be spending a lot of money on creating viral content.
So, why don’t we as photographers use our own work as viral content. People pay us to create our own viral content (well, if it lines up with our creative vision), or we can go create it ourselves. If people are posting it on their walls, desktops, or passing it to friends, is that any different than me sending a promo poster to potential clients to hang on their wall? Is it different from sending a print to a potential client? They can still scan it if they really like it.
My point is, making our work available to be passed along in a personal use level that promotes the artist is a great idea. Maybe someone blogs it, sends it to their friends, or makes it their desktop. You’re creating fans. Eventually, it might make it into the right hands. If you have your images registered with the copyright office, that gives you even more power if someone chooses to use your image in a commercial venue and violate copyright. The web world is getting smaller and smaller so finding images that are used without your permission is becoming easier and easier. There are even image tracking companies that will track all images used on the web. Besides, if it’s passed around low resolution images, no one is going to use it in print anyways… or at least we hope.
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APE posted an article on the future of photography. There’s been a bit of controversy over the article as Leslie Burns talks about in her post. The basic idea is passing your work, or making it available to be passed around to create “fans”. Creating a bigger fan base increases your market.
It got me thinking of how digital technology is moving us into to a viral content world. Think about how much we love to share things with our friends. Random pieces of content that we think is so great, we share it with everyone we know. Thus the concept of “Viral Content”. Advertising age reported that GE, the country’s third largest advertiser, is moving to shift half of it’s $3 billion budget into digital and one-to-one marketing within the next 3 years. That said, GE as well as many other brands will be spending a lot of money on creating viral content.
So, why don’t we as photographers use our own work as viral content. People pay us to create our own viral content (well, if it lines up with our creative vision), or we can go create it ourselves. If people are posting it on their walls, desktops, or passing it to friends, is that any different than me sending a promo poster to potential clients to hang on their wall? Is it different from sending a print to a potential client? They can still scan it if they really like it.
My point is, making our work available to be passed along in a personal use level that promotes the artist is a great idea. Maybe someone blogs it, sends it to their friends, or makes it their desktop. You’re creating fans. Eventually, it might make it into the right hands. If you have your images registered with the copyright office, that gives you even more power if someone chooses to use your image in a commercial venue and violate copyright. The web world is getting smaller and smaller so finding images that are used without your permission is becoming easier and easier. There are even image tracking companies that will track all images used on the web. Besides, if it’s passed around low resolution images, no one is going to use it in print anyways… or at least we hope.
1/23/14
Technology, The Industry & the Concept of Free
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masterfully aligning perception and reality through personal branding
APE posted an article on the future of photography. There’s been a bit of controversy over the article as Leslie Burns talks about in her post. The basic idea is passing your work, or making it available to be passed around to create “fans”. Creating a bigger fan base increases your market.
It got me thinking of how digital technology is moving us into to a viral content world. Think about how much we love to share things with our friends. Random pieces of content that we think is so great, we share it with everyone we know. Thus the concept of “Viral Content”. Advertising age reported that GE, the country’s third largest advertiser, is moving to shift half of it’s $3 billion budget into digital and one-to-one marketing within the next 3 years. That said, GE as well as many other brands will be spending a lot of money on creating viral content.
So, why don’t we as photographers use our own work as viral content. People pay us to create our own viral content (well, if it lines up with our creative vision), or we can go create it ourselves. If people are posting it on their walls, desktops, or passing it to friends, is that any different than me sending a promo poster to potential clients to hang on their wall? Is it different from sending a print to a potential client? They can still scan it if they really like it.
My point is, making our work available to be passed along in a personal use level that promotes the artist is a great idea. Maybe someone blogs it, sends it to their friends, or makes it their desktop. You’re creating fans. Eventually, it might make it into the right hands. If you have your images registered with the copyright office, that gives you even more power if someone chooses to use your image in a commercial venue and violate copyright. The web world is getting smaller and smaller so finding images that are used without your permission is becoming easier and easier. There are even image tracking companies that will track all images used on the web. Besides, if it’s passed around low resolution images, no one is going to use it in print anyways… or at least we hope.
1/23/14
Technology, The Industry & the Concept of Free
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I’ve photographed Justin Bieber several times and seen fame up close. His stripped-down Coachella set showed the thing I keep relearning about creative work: production amplifies, and only artistry carries.
You recover from creative burnout by treating it as a nervous system state: build real down-cycles, read your own signals, and return to the work you love.
A magnetic personal brand comes from coherence and one clear through-line. Here is how entrepreneurs build one, in order, and the trap that keeps most brands scattered.
I spent a month training kung fu in Wudang at 47, the oldest and slowest learner in the room. What being a beginner again in midlife taught me about pace, comparison, and starting anyway.
You develop taste through thousands of reps of looking closely and deciding what works. A photographer’s honest answer on how taste gets built.
You make a personal brand more coherent by naming the identity underneath it, distilling a one or two word through-line, and bringing the four layers into agreement. The full path, in order.
You cannot pour from an empty well. Travel is how I refill mine. Here is why new places are creative input rather than a break from the work, and why output without input runs dry.
There is a difference between making something and performing the act of making it. Here is what I learned about the creative act, content, and why the resistance is the whole game.
AI can generate endless brand content, but it cannot construct the identity underneath it. Here is the real line between what AI can do for your brand and what only you can.
Burnout is less a willpower problem than a nervous system running with no recovery. Here is what I learned about creative recovery from social media burnout and a reset in Costa Rica.
Most brand photographers take good photos of you. Few capture who you actually are. Here is what to look for when hiring a brand photographer so your images match your authority.
Taste is less a gift than a discipline you build through thousands of reps of seeing. Here is what twenty-five years behind a camera taught me about the art of seeing.
Visual Frequency of Authority is the energetic signature your images transmit before anyone reads a word. What it means and why two people with the same credentials read so differently.
About the Blogger
I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here.
I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here.
