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This was a pretty strange shoot for Fast Company that got me really confused. This woman Joni West (human version, center, avatar version in foreground) has created a marketing company within Second Life. She works on behalf of Colgate to give away smiles, among other things for other large companies. The avatars in this image belong to (or represent) other people that she knows through Second Life.
So, she had to pay them real money to send their virtual avatar to her virtual photo studio to do a virtual photo shoot with a virtual camera. It's crazy -- they have virtual lights, and you can move the camera around and shoot different angles and focal lengths. She then sent me the real digital images, and we put them into the real image, that I shot at a real art gallery with a real camera.
Joni (who used to work for Irving Penn a long time ago - !!!!) is and artist and also very involved in Second Life and believes that in the next five years, everything will happen there -- business transactions, social encounters, real estate, education -- everything.
The virtual photo shoot alone was weird enough -- when I try to imagine what that would be like it just makes my head hurt.
Back when I was working as a full time assistant, I remember helping on shoots for Goodby and feeling like they did better work than everyone else. The art directors were really smart. I also remember thinking that it would be a long time before I'd feel good about taking my book there, let alone shooting a job for them.
Well, I was there today to meet with art buyer Suzee Barabee, who couldn't have been nicer. I think she liked my book, but I was so distracted with actually being there that it was hard to focus on the meeting. Sometimes I struggle with selling myself versus just letting my book do the talking.
Anyway, they didn't hire me on the spot. I think they're using some guy named Nadav or something. But it was good to be there.
After 2 weeks of being sick, I am finally better. It's interesting how a virus can change your entire outlook on everything -- and not in a positive way. I found myself feeling crappy, getting really down on photography, and having to be a creative professional. Having to shoot a couple jobs while feeling that way pretty much sucked.
I know this isn't how I really feel, though. It's just part of the process. Now I'm back, feeling better, feeling positive, and ready to create.
No offense to the citizens of Denver, but I think I might nominate it as the "ugliest city ever". I think there is an amazing photography project hiding there somewhere.
I've been sick in bed with the flu for the last three days, and have some time to think about stuff as I stare at the ceiling. One thing that occurred to me is that when I am out of commission, there really isn't anyone that can replace me. Unlike, say, someone that makes widgets. When they're sick, they can stay home and the factory keeps churning out the widgets.
I suppose there are photographers out there who have built their businesses to include other shooters that can cover for them -- maybe in the tabletop / catalog world -- but that isn't really my thing.
Is there a way around this? I'm not just talking about sick days, but in scalability of my business. If there's only one of me, there is only so much I can accomplish in one day. If there were two of me (kind of like a medical pracitce with multiple physicians) things could be easier. My healthy me could cover for my sick me, or we could shoot two different jobs on the same day.
I guess it's what you sign up for when you decide to be a creative professional. You get paid for your unique vision. And that vision can only come from one place.
Maybe I need a clone?
Got a new intern today, looking forward to having some help in the studio. I need to be better about giving up control of my work, but it's so hard to teach someone what you've been doing your whole life without ever really thinking about it.
The other day I met Jonathan Schoenberg and Tom Dooley of TDA. They run a small Boulder shop that is doing big work. Not to mention they have great videos of themselves on their site.
Here's a video of Jonathan giving a lecture on viral marketing. If you're not one of the 4 million people that has already seen this it's worth watching.
As it turns out, he staged the event, and the next day put it online to demonstrate the power of the internet, and got almost 3 million people to watch it. So simple, and so smart. I love it.
Also worth checking out is the rocket car footage in the "us" section on their site.
Oh, and all the kick ass work too.
This was a pretty strange shoot for Fast Company that got me really confused. This woman Joni West (human version, center, avatar version in foreground) has created a marketing company within Second Life. She works on behalf of Colgate to give away smiles, among other things for other large companies. The avatars in this image belong to (or represent) other people that she knows through Second Life.
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