Digital Monks

every day we carry water. up one thousand digital steps, we push against the entropy and the apathy that is just as much part of our nature and the natural world around us as this drive to survive, to thrive, and to conquer. we are the digital monks, putting in our creative reps until they no longer encumber us. until they are so second nature that we can’t imagine a life without them. so that when the life we chose adds complexity, we are ready. our creative muscles no longer too weak to bear the load that we desire to carry. so that we can enjoy the work. and succeed. 

that is why we blog. my crew and i. the why behind the what. every day we discuss one thing. sometimes two. because it is a part of the process. and it’s a process we chose to be a part of. because we have big dreams, and we chose to be ready for them when they find us. because they always find us, but it’s up to us to recognize when they’ve arrived, and to be ready to pick them up  and  carry them. 

The Walk Away

as the old saying goes, you can’t make everybody happy. of course the intent is to be a built-in excuse for our shortcomings and those of our species. to make us feel better about all the people we’ve pissed off. but when you’re running a business that is so entirely dependent upon your reputation, it takes on a whole new meaning. 

a couple of weeks ago, i reached out to a potential client who had posted a need for a portrait photographer. as we exchanged messages, i felt the client trying to expand the scope of the job. i’m eager to please, and really looking to keep my calendar booked, so i looked past this. then, the client became argumentative. it would have been easy to throw down and defend myself, but i chose not to engage and to keep all of my communication positive. i could feel that this person was looking for me to fight back, but as with most people who are looking for a fight, when they don’t get it, they’ll get bored and walk away. in this case, that held true. the client said they’ll find another photog, and i wished them success. 

then, a few days ago, i got another message. the individual said that they changed their mind and they’d like to work with me over the weekend. i had no bookings this weekend so i was open to it, if a bit hesitant. while we were talking, an old friend and i started talking and it turns out she is the booking manager for a studio in bushwick.   

i took this as an auspicious sign. maybe this photo shoot would work out after all. but then the asks started coming in. do you have connections? can you help me get into modeling? i wanted to help. i thought for a minute, what if this is an opportunity? i’m a solid writer. i’m a good photog, and i know how to talk to people. but then reality struck. as i was spiraling down this path of possibility, my wife snapped me out of it.  thank the universe for that.  

i’m not an agent. i’m not trying to become an agent. and as much as i do want to break into the fashion industry as a resource for my photography, working with an emotion-driven and over-reaching potential client is not the way to do it. 

in retrospect, even though i mourn the lost opportunity to work on some new techniques and hone my craft, i still view this as a net positive. because i have already set my goals and it’s not up to my clients or anyone else to set them for me. 

Oh, the Humanity

one of the things that my recent clients have told me about why they decided to hire me over other photographers they contacted to request quotes was that in my message to them, i treated them like human beings rather than a payday. 

the first time i heard this, i was really surprised, because it just  wouldn’t occurs to me to treat humans like anything other than humans. but i suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that there are photographers out there who maybe don’t really like people and only deal with them because it’s the only way to make a living doing photography. or who have been in the trenches so long that they forget that while for them professional photography is an everyday thing, for their clients, it is a very special thing. 

i guess the reason i’m posting this is twofold. first, i want to impress upon anyone who is looking to start making money at photography the importance of having empathy for your clients, of being kind, thoughtful and sensitive to your clients’ needs and ambitions. and secondly, it is to remind future me, when i’ve been at it for a longer period of time, not to fall into the same trap as these other photogs who have lost sight of why they became photographers in the first place. 

don’t worry, i’m not going to  drone on about this, but let me end with a point. every interaction matters. with every person. whether they’re a client or just someone you bump into on the street. you never know when our how you might run into that stranger you were rude to again in the future, and they might be the gatekeeper between you and something you’re trying to attain or achieve in this life. if there is nothing else that drives you to be kind, let that be your motivation. 

treat people well in your everyday life and it will come as second nature to do the same for your prospective clients. and since i have actual evidence to back this up, i can say confidently that  they will appreciate it. it might even be the difference between getting hired or getting passed on for another photographer.  

The After Action Review

what was supposed to happen? what did happen? what went right? what went wrong? what should we add to our plan for next time?  

five questions. five essential questions that you must ask yourself after every exercise in order to add that real-time element to the learning process.  

and let’s talk about that for a moment, the learning process. i think sometimes it’s easy to see someone who has made it and only see the success. but what you’re really seeing when you see success is a process applied and proven. 

the after action review is the process that i learned, one of the few lessons that i still hold on to from my days in the military. it’s an underrated reason why our military is one of the best in the world. think of it as instant learning. 

so let’s use a real-life example to show how this works. 

 what was supposed to happen?   

i wanted to take a photo of a couple standing under the lights in time’s square looking up and over the camera with a blur of the crowd and traffic around them. i would light them with my softbox so that they stood out a bit more. once i had the shot of them in place, i would have them move aside and capture several half-second exposures of the crowd and traffic moving, then stack these images for the blur effect i wanted.

 what did happen?   

when i dug in my bag, i realized that i was missing my flash trigger, so there was no way i could take the exact shot i had planned in my mind. i improvised and had them stand very still for a half-second, and while the shutter was open, i used the pilot button on my flash to set it off and light them. since i had to do this several times to get it right, i didn’t have time to get the ambient shots i was planning on getting and i had to work with just one bit of crowd and traffic blur. 

 what went right?   

first of all, i didn’t freak out and lose my cool when i realized the flash trigger wasn’t in my bag. the lighting workaround worked as i hoped it would and i ended up getting two good takes out of the several that i attempted. the couple was very patient. while the photos looked a bit messy out of camera, i was able to edit them into shape and the final result is, while not 100% what i wanted, a really good shot that i was happy to send out. given that the client only contacted me the morning of the session asking if i was free that night, and that i had to rush home to queens after work, eat a quick dinner, grab my bag and run out the door with only about five minutes for a quick gear check, i would say it went a lot more right than it could have. 

 what went wrong?   

first off, i tried to do something for a client that i’ve never done before. that was probably stupid of me. next, i didn’t do a full visual inspection of my gear before leaving the house, and i didn’t do a good job of packing up after my last photo shoot either because as it turns out i left my flash trigger behind and now have to go retrieve it. so that is two counts of failing to do proper equipment checks. 

 what should i add to my plan to improve for next time?   

i can make printed checklists that force me to check for every piece of gear in my bag before leaving for and from gigs. and i can go to time’s square at night when i have an hour to take test shots of the moving crowd to experiment and learn the specifics of how to get the effect i’m going for. 

 —

so that’s it. an after action review. one gig, two valuable lessons that if applied, already make me a consistently better photographer than anyone who hasn’t learned those lessons for themselves. the accumulation of these over time become my own personal manual of how to become a better photographer. it is a process, and not one that can be completed overnight. but one lesson at a time, or in this case, two, it will happen. and one day people will look at your work and see the results of your process. they will look for mistakes, and they won’t find them, because you will have learned not to make them. 

Bag Check

always. always. always check your bag. for every little piece. it’s a very appropriate lesson to remember in the month of december: make a list and check your bag twice!! complete a visual and a tactile inspection of your kit. 

last night i got called out for a last-minute photo shoot with a couple from israel who were in town for hanukkah. they were so lovely. the nicest. and i wanted to give them the best pictures possible. 

so we met in time’s square where i had a shot in mind that i was really tied to. basically, i set up my softbox, i set for a half-second exposure, and i got the settings dialed in to get that blurred crowd effect around them while they looked up beyond the camera, gazing up at the lights and surrounded by them with wonder in their eyes. 

here’s the thing. i checked my bag and thought i felt my flash trigger in my bag. but it wasn’t in there. in my hast to get out the door, i left it at home somewhere. so i had to improvise. since it was a long exposure on the tripod, i set for manual focus and locked them in. then i stood with one hand on my camera and one hand on the pilot aka test button on my flash. i actuated the camera, then immediately triggered the flash. it sort of worked. and truth is, i got a version of the shot that i am happy with. 

but the point is,   

always check your bag! for everryyythinnggg-gah!!!

because not having something you are counting on to get a certain shot can really mess with your mojo. i basically was relegated to using my canon 430 ex ii speedlight flash in hand with a gary fong mounted onto it. a lot of people give the fong shade, but honestly, it’s a decent little piece of kit and i’ve gotten some great results with it. it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s a solid backup. 

just a side note, i have a great pair of speedlights that allow me some pretty great flexibility when shit hits the fan. my  canon speedlight, when i hit the pilot button, holds a medium-powered beam for about one second, so i can trigger that and then actuate my shutter, getting a semi-soft light on my subjects as long as the flash isn’t too far away. the pilot function on my yongnuo  560, on the other hand, triggers the flash at whatever manual power i’ve set it to. so for the long exposure shot, the yongnuo  worked like a charm, and for the rest of the photos, the canon was my weapon of choice. 

but i digress. it’s good to have options. backups. contingency plans. because shit will go wrong and you can’t call a time out when you’re an hour from home and on the clock. what is even better though is to not need them because you   

checked your fucking bag!!!  

 

Stella

i met a woman on the subway the other day. she was older than me, maybe late 40s but had that young spirit that made it hard to guess at her age. the subway wasn’t too crowded, just a couple of out-of-towners and a male-born applying some pretty fantastic make-up on the bench across from us.  

she seemed a bit lonely, and kind of kept the convo going even though i wasn’t a very good participant at first. we had that chat about how the trains on the weekend were always a surprise, kind of like the new york  equivalent of a pair of minnesotans talking about the weather. we were on the f, which was running on the e line before getting back on the f line and then rerouting to the g line. what a fucking mess. 

so she sees my gear bags, and asks if i’ve got a pool cue. i tell her no, that’s my light stand. that i just got done shooting some headshots and getting some candids for a client and i’m heading to do some portraits for a friend of mine who is into the video game.    

she says oh that’s cool, and then says she used to do a lot of photography. that she loved it so much that she got a job working at a camera store so she could get good deals on equipment, and then that led to her getting a job teaching for a lot of years. she was into the film side of photography and said her apartment was full of equipment and one of these days she was going to retire and set up her dark room again. i laughed and told her i only work in photography now so i can buy more gear and she nodded knowingly.

right when the conversation started getting good, she got to her stop. i introduced myself before she got off, and she told me her name was stella. we didn’t exchange contact information or anything, and you know that is probably a good thing since you never know with these people you meet on the subway. but i felt a pang when she left, like just felt like i wanted to give her a few more minutes of my time to help her feel less lonely. and who knows, maybe she could show me how to work in a darkroom and i could show her how to use  lightroom.  

anyway, i guess i’ll have to get someone else to show me those ropes, but at least i had a good chat on the train. better than what i get from the fucking mta most days.  

Take My Money (So I Can Make My Money)

when the word investment enters the room, backs subconsciously straighten, shoulders unslouch themselves, and throats can’t help but to clear. investment is a word that invokes the contrasting imagery of either tailored suits in the fast lane or pleated khakis and monotonous diatribes about responsibility. wolf of wall street but on one side, ben stein on the other. but regardless of bias toward a vision of success or stodginess, the word investment most often makes people think of money (although too often, people like to skip over the money and work that goes in and think immediately of the returns on investment).

money is an integral component of investment. it takes money to acquire the equipment that can help us achieve our ends, whether that equipment be some tool of trade, knowledge of a process, or just more money that we intend to turn into even more money. it’s easy to want to scrimp on investment, to try and reach the goal with the least amount of capital expenditure. it’s important to be a good steward so that’s totally valid. but there are some things you just can’t cut corners on.

one form of investment that i’m currently experimenting with is advertising. i am working with yelp to promote my photography business so that i can grow my client base and accumulate positive reviews that will propel my listing to the top of the results so that i hopefully no longer need to advertise in six months or so. as it stands, i’ll be putting in about $300 per month to push my listing to the top of the search results. and to be completely honest, that number makes me nervous.

in the hours and days after i agreed to try out the program, my mind was running through a loop of “what if i don’t book any clients and i just end up wasting $300+ trying this out” and “what if i only book enough clients to cover the cost of the advertising program and essentially working for free to put money into yelp’s pockets?” my other concern has been that the amount of money i have to pay per ad click is pretty high and there’s no guarantee that i’ll even get a booking or serious inquiry out of each engagement.

one week after signing up, the advertising program cost tally is at $92. of that, $27 was attributable to a concentrated effort to get my page out there in the final days of november, and $65 has been racked up so far in december. as a new joiner, i also have a $100 free ad budget per month for six months, and so far, yelp has debited $34 from that balance this month.

so where does that leave me?

well, from the period running november 28 through december 4, my ad has been clicked 11 times, with a total of 1,495 impressions. from those clicks and impressions, i’ve received messages from nine potential clients, and from that, i’ve secured two bookings, which together will represent $375 of revenue, essentially covering all the cost of my december advertising budget plus a bit of cushion. if both photo shoots go well, and both clients post positive reviews, that will be a really big win. why? because at the end of the day, i’m not paying for advertising, i’m paying for access to clients that will review my work so that my listing appears higher in the organic listings on yelp and i can book more business.

when i spoke on the phone with my account representative, who was super cool and definitely knew how to butter me up to feel good about myself, she was surprised that i was so willing to invest and didn’t put up a fight. she said that most of the people she talks to don’t understand how investing a bit extra upfront on yelp goes a long way toward ensuring long-term success on the platform. and while i haven’t proven the concept out just yet, i can’t argue with her logic.

when i break out the cost per click on my ad versus the revenue per client on a purely right now basis, the profit margin is dismally low. but taking into consideration that every booking now is getting me one step closer to an organic search-based booking in the future, that margin becomes a lot more attractive. let’s just say for example that i book two more gigs this month - completely reasonable at this rate - bringing total revenue for the month to $700 versus total investment of $300. that’s a $400 profit now. and let’s just say for example that during the next six months, i continue at the same run rate, booking four clients per month and bringing in $400 in profit. if even half of those clients leave positive reviews - or any reviews at all - i will end the six-month period with 24 reviews (or as many as 48 if i can inspire all of my clients to leave a review). when i browse yelp for photographers in queens, ny, where i am based, there is not a single one who has anywhere near that many reviews. even for the entire new york city area, 48 reviews will boost me to a very comfortable position in the organic search results. so for a total of $1,800, all of which should be covered by my revenues, i will reach a position where advertisement and solicitation is completely unnecessary.

for $1,800, i could be in a position that 100% of my revenues (minus tax) from inbound inquiries become profit. revenues that i would have had to scramble and fight for otherwise. and what’s more, the $1,800 should be tax deductible, and therefore the real money investment will be even less than that.

so the lesson here is, yes, it’s hard to part with my dollars. but instead of being nervous that i made the wrong call, like i was a week ago when i agreed to try this program out, i am confident that i am making the right decisions to establish myself for the long haul.

and that right there is the heart of it: the point of my foray into advertising as an investment. getting a gig here and there is essential for where i am today, but establishing a pipeline of gigs is what gets me where i want to be tomorrow. 

Quitters (or, A Tale of Two Singers)

ever since i signed my walking papers and left the army, i’ve dreamed of working independently. for a long time, i dreamed of being a musician, earning my way around the world one performance at a time. that never really worked out for me. part of it was because even though i have a unique style, and i am not terrible at music, i’m really just not that good. you know, like that that good. pitch perfect type shit. and the truth is, even if i am good enough, i never really pursued it commercially at the level that was necessary in order to find success. 

just the other day, i surprised myself by telling my wife that i wish i had discovered photography in my early twenties. maybe if i has pursued the path of the lens instead of throwing myself at the wall as a musician for all those years, i would have my own studio right now. but then again, i never would have met her, and i wouldn’t have had so many of the amazing experiences in life that inform and inspire my art today.  

just the other day, we attended a benefit gala in brooklyn, and at the event, there were two singer-songwriters who performed. the first was a female artist. mid-20s, appreciably beautiful, and with a crass attitude that didn’t quite match her gala gown. she said that she left her job in social work a couple of years ago to pursue music full-time. during her introduction, she was said to have written songs that were featured in a netflix series and a bollywood movie or something to that effect, so she was obviously not doing all that bad for herself in the grand scheme. 

the next performer was a mid-20s male artist  who was wearing some gaudy but well-tailored plaid pants. pants only fit for celebrities and stages. pants that are memorable long after the wearer has been forgotten, a point i can attest to because they were the only physical feature about this young man that i can recall. i guess that means they did their job. this gentleman, however, didn’t have a job. he also left the workforce in order to pursue music full-time. 

the female artist’s performance began with her strumming an out-of-tune electric guitar before she opened her mouth and angels poured out. she had an absolutely stunning voice and it was clear she was a true talent. she performed a rendition of chandelier  that stole the breath out of me and put me into emotional regulation mode. can’t be tearing up in public over a fucking song, dude. not cool.   

when the male artist performed, it felt very...open mic. like he was good, but he should  not have followed that girl. he was audibly nervous, rushing his way through the first song until he reached a part that switched from english to hindi and his actual talent came out. for three short bars, this guy was a star. unfortunately, the rest of his set was less than inspiring. 

i’m not here to talk shit or rain on anyone’s parade. i wish both of these individuals nothing but success, and could tell from the talents they displayed that if they apply the right levels of  focus and discipline to their craft, they could really make a career of it if that’s what they want to do by the time they get to the point that it’s an actual choice.

but seeing them up there got me to thinking. when i was in my mid-20s, i was convinced that there was no other path for me than a career in music. i applied myself to it so forcefully and was so adamant that even when people tried to tell me that i wasn’t good enough to make it to the top  no matter what pants i wore , i wouldn’t listen. that’s not to say i haven’t written some bangers. i’m proud of what i accomplished in my songwriting, and i’ll never regret the time i spent chasing that dream. 

as i write this now, i am falling off  the cliff of my mid-30s, beginning the downward descent into oldness. and a part of me longs for the days when i could just walk away from it all. i’d love to just put in my notice and go full bore into the pursuit of a photography career. and i might just do that. but the experience of age has taught me that even if i do choose that path, there is a responsible approach to it that i must take in order for it to work. 

so here i sit on a crowded morning train, ten years too old and surrounded by angry commuters with a bad case of the  tuesday blues .

dreaming responsibly. 

Moment of Truth

most of the time, i’m not a monday person. i mean, most people aren’t. you either do what you love without regard for weekends or weekdays, or you have an at minimum general disdain for monday morning. maybe i’m generalizing a bit here and playing off an archetype a little too loosely, but i think  the point is sound. 

this monday morning, however, was way better than most for me. i received an email from the co-founder of a company in the photography space that i very highly regard (let’s put it this way, they collaborate with casey neistat) telling me that a suggestion i posed to his team is something he wants to pursue seriously. we exchanged a couple more emails, and left off with me essentially getting an assignment to present some of the things i like most about off-camera flash as it applies to the dslr/mirrorless world of portraiture. 

so here i am at my desk, slogging away at the daily grind and trying to keep my head in this game. meanwhile inside my mind i’m not even at the office today. i’m in a design studio and i’ve already fully-weighed all of the functions that this potential product would have to include to be a bang-on success. 

whether this is something that actually comes to fruition or not, i feel the inertia building, and i can’t help but feel that i’m reaching critical mass on something that is truly great:

a defining moment in the making.  

About Last Night

it would’ve been easy to skip a day. easier than posting what was essentially a holding-on-for-dear-life attempt to not skip a beat.

i was horizontal, in bed, 11 p.m., and totally exhausted from two photo sessions. ok realistically, it was more like three. i was out of the house before 8:30 a.m. to photograph a campaign launch and take portraits for a marathon training program. then it was off to richmond hill to meet up with nai guy and hook him up with some pro shots for his stock henry (hip hop) and bad knees studios (videography) endeavors. 

by the time i got home, i felt like i had run a marathon. ok i guess since i’ve never run one i shouldn’t use that metaphor, but it felt fitting in this case.  

so when i was laying in bed, after spending an hour or so looking at travel destinations for a huge trip wifey and i are planning next year, i could barely keep my eyes open.  in fact, i wrote that post four times last night, and fell asleep in the middle of writing it three of those times. initially, it was four paragraphs, but somehow when i fell asleep the first time i erased most of the post. so then i rewrote it into three paragraphs and  fell asleep again, re-deleting what i had wrote. after that happened two more times, and i dropped my phone on the floor the final time, i eventually settled on a single paragraph and just published it before i could screw it up again.

i guess the point is that i did it.  

even if it wasn’t much, it wasn’t nothing.

i didn’t let it slip. i know there will probably be days when i want to. when i forget to post. when i don’t prioritize. and even when i don’t want to look at this blog because i am on another train of thought. but for now, i’m solvent. and it feels so good. thanks for the person who isn’t letting me slip. this discipline will pay off.

first learn to build, then build something worthy of your training.

Productivity

too productive in life to write about today. lessons to be shared. photos for example. look for sometime real tomorrow. but for now, must sleep.  

They Really [Don’t] Like Me

what am i doing wrong? or not doing right? that is what goes through my head every time i look at instagram.

i mean, am i not any good? i see other photographers and fuck just regular people who wouldn’t know how to dial in the perfect shot with intention if there was real money riding on it. i see them rolling in likes and follows. what are they doing that i’m not? 

 i’m even so pathetic that i’ve stooped to watching videos about how to grow my follows and likes. but the things i hear, well, i think they’re bullshit—dishonest and schemey.  

join a pod of people who like each others posts to boost exposure? nope. what’s the point of that? 

follow people so they follow you and then unfollow them later? hate that shit. 

use one thousand hashtags so that my photos get noticed? doable, but honestly  who has time for that?! and also, the people i already have following me hate that shit. just can’t win. 

pay for advertisements so that my photos get put in front of more people? could do that but honestly is that going to turn into revenue? probably not. 

and with that in mind, does it actually matter at all? not really. so why does it bother me that i don’t get as many likes and follows as i’m seeing on other people’s posts? that i don’t have droves of people fawning over my work? 

i guess the short answer is that i am human and i crave validation. i mean, i am getting paid for my work, and receiving rave reviews from my clients. that should be more than enough, and it usually is. except when i open insta and see that i have fewer followers than when i last logged on. 

part of me wants to  scrap this post. chalk it up to an emo moment of weakness and just firm up. but i think it’s important to talk about this. i know i’m not the only person who stresses over this. just the other day i was watching one of brendan van son’s youtube videos and he said that there are a lot of people out there who think you should get 10,000 followers before you start trying to get paid for your photography. 

...10,000?!?!?!  

i don’t even have six fucking hundred. how the hell am i going to get to 10,000 when half the follows i do get disappear within a week of showing up? did i mention that i hate that shit? stupid follow unfollow game.  

but here’s the thing. you don’t need any followers to get paid for photography. you don’t even need an instagram account. 

what you  need  to get paid for photography is a decent camera, a basic understanding of how to make it work in various lighting and movement-speed scenarios, and some decent lighting—which is wayyyyy cheaper to come by than when i started out six years ago (my new yongnuo 560 flash was about $50, compared that with my canon 430 ex ii, which still goes for around $250). 

does this mean you should abandon instagram? definitely not. it’s a platform, and it’s one you should nurture, so that if you ever do get exposure that drives traffic to your page, you’ve got a solid body of work for them to rub up against. 

but - and this is me talking to me right now - don’t let the volume of follows and likes tell you how valid you are. 

post good content, and the right people will appreciate it. 

volume of engagements can’t be the only goal. instead, try placing a higher value on depth of impact. 

and remember:

you probably didn’t get into photography to be loved for what you do, but rather to be in love with what you do. 

Weird Flex

early on in my photography journey, i acquired the canon 24-105mm f/4 is lens, and for the course of six years, it barely ever came off my 5d mark iii. 

when i broke that lens a couple of months ago (i realize that i talk about this a lot lately), i finally understood what smashing pumpkins was referring to with melancholy and the infinite sadness.  

but once i got over the shock of it, i realized it was probably the best thing that’s happened to my photography game in a really long time. i say this because with that lens, i was way too comfortable. maybe that’s not always a bad thing, but when it comes to creativity, comfort is not a great catalyst. 

now with my new gear set up, i have to be creative, rather than simple being iterative and falling back on my previous experience, to get the shot. 

i should’ve realized i was in need of something new to drive my photography to the next level when i opted not to take my 5d mark iii to bangladesh. instead, i packed my iphone and my new moment  wide and telephoto lenses.  

 but sometimes it takes a traumatic experience to force us to accept that we need change. hopefully if you’re reading this, you can avoid the trauma. 

i don’t think that it always comes down to new equipment and spending money, but in my case, that’s the shape that the water took when it filled my glass (that’s a lens pun). 

all of this is to say, the best thing you can do for itself is to

get weird and flex new muscles.   

 

In the Pocket

dji announced the osmo pocket this afternoon and i have a few thoughts. 

pros

1. purely in concept, it’s a great idea and a huge step forward from the prior osmo in terms of portability.

2. automatic face tracking in selfie mode will be a huge boon, what i didn’t see in the promo from today was whether the osmo pocket plays well with external microphones. if it does, then this could be the new perfect camera for travel bloggers. if not, then add that to the list of cons below.

3. the case looks pretty fantastic.

4. there is potential that this product could be integrated with other dji products. imagine plugging your osmo pocket into a dji tello-sized drone and achieving 4k60 on a micro drone. now that would be something to be excited about.

cons  

1. it seems to me that this is maybe too little, too late. with the gopro hero 7 and its gimbal-killing image stabilization, part of me wonders whether we should even care that there is a mini gimbal that is basically nothing more than a smartphone camera on a stick. keep in mind that gimbals hate water, so this might be a near toy, but it’s not going to be a one-stop shop; you’ll still need an action camera for the rainy days, so essentially the osmo pocket is a very pricey fair weather friend.

2. the 12 megapixel photo resolution is disappointing to me. yes, it’s 4k60 and that’s nice, but the truth is that a 12mp sensor isn’t enough to elevate this product to a buy for me. consider that the parrot anafi comes with a camera about the same size as that on the osmo pocket and it has a 21mp sensor.

3. the osmo pocket doesn’t yet add anything new to the market, but rather rearranges a few pieces that exist in other forms, and it costs way too much for what it is. let’s say you decide to buy an osmo pocket. it will make for a great second camera, but you’re not going to leave your iphone at home just because you have the osmo pocket, are you? no. it doesn’t replace your phone, and so as small as it is, it still expands the size of your mobile kit. for a lot less money (less than half the price), you can buy a snoppa atom folding smartphone and action camera gimbal, and from what i can tell, the atom will take up only slightly more room in your pocket or bag than this new offering from dji.

4. following on the last point, my iphone x has two levels of optical zoom with unique maximum aperture capabilities on each of its lenses, and given that i’m a moment lens user, my phone actually gives me a huge variety of camera angle and zoom options. with this in mind the osmo pocket is even less interesting and commercially viable, in my opinion. i can’t help but wonder, why wouldn’t dji mount a mavic zoom lens onto this new product? that alone would’ve made a huge difference in the value for money calculus.

5. as i previously mentioned, the osmo pocket has the potential to integrate into other products. that’s awesome, but a con for the moment is that unless those integration capabilities are exploited, the osmo pocket will never live up to its full potential.

as a total gear head, part of me wants to get my hands on one of these to play around with it. but i can’t see myself spending $350 on what is essentially an almost-outdated camera resolution. in summary, and with the admission that i have not seen or used this product with my own hands and eyes, i would say that this product would be better priced at $199, and that it would only become a serious buy if dji decides to find a way to integrate this with a folding, pocket-sized drone body in the future. 

Backlog

it’s that time of year where i am starting to reflect back on all that was accomplished and all that was left in the wake. and there are definitely a couple of creative projects i’ve failed to engage at the level i had planned so far. but there is still time. 

so let’s make a plan.

first and foremost, i entered this year with the intent to fully develop a manuscript for the first installment of a sci-fi/fantasy crossover series. it’s not that i made no progress on this, but i definitely didn’t get as far as i would have hoped. where i really got caught up was with character sketches. i am still on the fence about what i want my characters’ motivations to be, and even though the setting and story arc is largely in place, without fully-formed, true-to-life characters to base the story around, it will fall flat. so that’s been shelved somewhat until inspiration hits, but in order to get the juices flowing i am committing to spending at least one hour per week studying the traits of well-sketched characters so that i can get a sense of what i need to include and what i need to leave out  

next, i have yet to make any progress on the carry on travel series. this is something i have talked about a little bit before, but essentially it is a serialized video project that is aimed at walking through the logistics of traveling the world with nothing but what can be carried on the body and in backbacks.  for a long time, my hang up with this project was a lack of access to after effects and premiere pro. just a couple of weeks ago, that barrier was removed, and now the only thing standing between the idea and the finished product is a couple of tutorials on youtube and about 20 hours of editing and production. this is something i plan to pursue heavily before the end of the year as i begin to more seriously search for freelance travel photography and editorial work in the coming year.  

when i really wrack my brain, those are the only two projects that i can think of that are holding my anxiety hostage at the moment. and i have to admit they seem a lot less intimidating now that i’ve boiled them down to a single paragraph and action item each. 

24 hours. 

that’s really all that it should take between now and the end of the year to meet my self-set deadlines. 

i think i can do that.

Cyber Dron-day

in my last few posts i’ve talked about how thankful i am. how content i would love to be. and how the world is showing me that the people in my life are more important and fulfilling than things ever could be. 

these posts and affirmations have been more for my own good than for any one else’s. because the truth is i am struggling to contain myself. i am having such a hard time not buying a load of new camera gear during this holiday discount season.

about two weeks ago, the black friday deals started surfacing, and among them was a $150 discount on the parrot anafi, a 4k, 180-degree mechanical 2-axis gimbal, 21 megapixel camera-toting folding travel drone with a 25-minute maximum flight time and ultra-quiet rotor blades. i’ve poured over so many hours of footage and reviews that i could quit my job and become a parrot salesman. but my wife and another very good friend (who also happens to be a mavic air pilot and videographer) have been my voices of reason, telling me that i don’t need a drone, and that i should not buy one just because they’re on sale. 

i have been obsessively counting down the sale clock on this drone. i’ve contemplated just buying it despite the fact that i know my wife would be super, super pissed at me. 

i am happy to say that as much as it hurts me to allow this moment to pass, i am ready to sleep, and i will wake up tomorrow morning having not succumbed to my urge. 

to those who have helped me overcome my weakness, thank you. to those of you who are struggling to suppress your less productive urges, you can do it. 

life. goes. on.

The Thanksgiving Feast

last night, my wife and i stopped through a cheap but decent little airport motel on our way home from the great white north. there was a denny’s right next door so we decided it was as good a place as any to grab a quick bite so we didn’t wake up ravenously hungry at 4 a.m. i get cranky enough waking up that early without adding in a dose of pitted stomach. 

at the booth next to us was a family of four with two young girls who were probably around two and four years old. as we passed them to take our seat, i couldn’t help but notice their table was  piled high with plates of what looked to be  one of everything on the menu. there was an aura of contagious joy radiating from them. i couldn’t help but smile at the little girl sittting in her booster seat at the end of the booth and she giggled as she ate her grapes. 

i overheard the man i presumed to be the girls’ father saying, “i am so thankful for this thanksgiving dinner together,” and something inside me shattered. i was stunned, and completely taken by the pure innocence of this young family; at how they were able to enjoy something so simple and humble as a thanksgiving dinner at denny’s. i realized that as thankful as i am, it is not nearly thankful enough. 

but i don’t want to give the wrong impression. when i saw this family so humbly packing up their stack of to-go boxes, when i saw the mother sniff her youngest daughter’s wet bottom and laugh about it smelling like grapes, and when i saw the father stand up on his crutch like a grown-up tiny tim, proclaiming proudly that he had brought his wallet 3 and would take the check,  i did not feel pity for them. i felt humbled to be allowed to witness such a display of what the holiday season is all about.

no matter what level of having or not having we may all be experiencing at any given moment, it is so crucial that we take the time to appreciate those who are a part of our lives, that we appreciate those things that we can attain, and that we lay down all thoughts of moreishness that plague our minds with the drive to fill our stores for winter. 

so let me take one more moment to say thank you. i will never have everything i want from a material perspective, but from a spiritual, emotional and familial perspective, my cup runneth over, and my joy is full. thank you to that family, whoever they were, for reminding me of all of the lessons of the nativity, the christmas story, and all the other heart-melting tales that have been immortalized by hollywood. i thank them for reminding me that those stories are happening around us in real time every day. you’ve truly made me a happier man. 

The Nightmare

dreams can be so telling of where the mind is really at. last night i was dreaming that i was with my family.

— 

we are traveling, somewhere foreign and unfamiliar. it feels like china, whatever that means. we are at an amusement park with wide walkways and only a few other patrons that always seem to hover near the foggy edges of my vision. 

i am taking photos of my nieces. they’re flowing through a series of ridiculous poses unironically and with conviction, in the way that only young people who haven’t succumbed to the pragmatism of adulthood can. 

and then, as i’m maneuvering my camera to keep up with their pace, the front of my body - where it meets the lens - begins to flex and shift. i fire off several exposures and then realize that my photos are warped and distorted in ways not normally possible without heavy editing. at first, i’m excited by this new perspective, giddy with the knowledge that i have in my hands a device that can create images like no other. 

but then, the fear creeps in. i struggle desperately to realign my lens to its intended place in front of the sensor, but i am unable. 

i bring my camera to my mother, and i show her how broken it has become. though i don’t say it out loud, in my heart i am hoping she will take pity on my and help my buy a replacement. but she can’t do that, no one can do it for me but myself. 

 —

when i woke up this morning i thought long and hard about this dream. i carried it with me throughout the day, and even now, as i prepare to sleep once again, i can’t get it out of my mind. 

i realize that the dram expresses one of my fears. i am afraid of the idea that one day i will arrive in a place where the opportunity exists to take a photo that surpasses all of my previous work, and that i won’t be prepared to capture it perfectly. i fear that my equipment will be insufficient, that i will forget a crucial element of the photography process and poorly frame or expose the image, and that in my fumbles the moment will pass and i will be left with an inferior result. 

i am fairly certain this dream is at least in part the product of my deep focus over the past week on gear lust and my personal quest to uncover the underlying reason i become so fixated on the hunt for a new piece of equipment. and perhaps, it is part of the answer. 

Black Friday

only in america can you spend a whole day talking about how thankful and satisfied you are with life, only to turn around the next day and dive headfirst into a dog pile of greed. 

they say black friday was given its name because it’s the first day of the year that retailers move from the red to the black, finally turning a profit just in time to ring in the new year. 

im pretty sure that is bullshit. 

whats crazy to me is that everything that i would even consider buying this year went on sale long before black friday, with deals rolling in as early as the second week of november in many cases.  

in fact, some things are less discounted today than they were in the week leading up to thanksgiving. 

whats fucked up is that i’m actually disappointed by that. i used to love the thrill of getting up early and waiting in line in the freezing cold; of rushing into the store to get one of only a handful of ultra-discounted items that i had been waiting and plotting to buy for months.  

maybe i’m just a relic, and maybe i’m just a child of consumerism, but i would love it if there was just a good, honest sale; just one day every year that we could flock to our favorite stores and scoop up that sweet find. 

i guess in the internet age, those days are gone. but a girl can dream.  

Home for the Holidays

i’m writing today from minnesota, sitting at the thanksgiving table with my family, and i’m so truly thankful to be here, to be able to come here, to have a family that i want spend time with, and one that wants to spend time with me. 

wifey and i woke up this morning at 4am and took a car to laguardia airport, one of the most miserable places on earth, but that won’t stop me from being thankful.

i am thankful that we have tsa precheck, so we were able to slip right through security. i am thankful that even though our flight was severely delayed because of a mechanical problem, the airline was able to line up a replacement plane so that we only landed about an hour late. 

i am thankful that when we landed, we beat the rush to the rental car line, and were able to get in and out within 10 minutes, and that even though traffic was pretty heavy on the way out of the twin cities, the weather was good, the roads were ice free, and there weren’t any car accidents along the way. 

and those are just some the things i’m thankful for today. 

widening the scope, i can’t even begin to list the things i’m thankful for. mostly because i ate so much today i am likely to fall asleep before i get to the end of said list. 

the point is, as much as i’m looking forward to completing the gear lust series (i’ve already organized the next two parts and they’re teed up for next week!), today is a day to put such things aside.  

i hope every person who sees this, no matter what day of the year it is, has something to be thankful for. take a minute and appreciate whatever it is. it will do you some good.