A couple of things… I was researching some new articles I’m writing, and went back to one of my favorite essays, Ken Rockwell’s The Seven Levels of Photographers for inspiration. I noticed that he recently added a level 0 to this, having found a new level below level 1, The Equipment Measurbator. Level 0 is “Online Expert or Armchair Photographer.” This type of person doesn’t really know anything about photography, but is quite happy to foist his or her opinion upon the Internet masses. I filed it away as interesting, but not particularly relevant to me, until today when I was going through my online portfolio cleaning up the comment spam. I found this comment on Watchful Wings:

What a coincidence. I think what is beautiful about a picture is when it is so good that you don’t have to edit it too!

I had a meeting yesterday with an art director who designs several local magazines. They’re pretty classy magazines, and nicely designed, so I’d love the chance to shoot for them. Anyway, I wanted to leave him with some examples of my work, so I designed this little one-off sell sheet to give to him.

This one is just meant to be very general, so I don’t think it’s too effective on its own, but I think it gives an idea of what kind of commercial work I do. I’m planning to make postcards to advertise headshots, and another one for promo photos for bands and performers.

I shot a photo the other night for the organization Heterosexuals for Same Sex Equality. The campaign is called Straight Not Narrow. They’d asked me to include the words “Straight Not Narrow” in the photo, but after much thought, I couldn’t come up with a concept that included the words. My language is photography, and I find it hard to mix English in there too. I always found photos that include words to be a bit heavy-handed. In a photo, I feel that if you can’t say what you want to say visually, then maybe you need to think about how you’re saying it. Anyway, here’s what I came up with to say “Straight Not Narrow.”

I was hired to shoot a few full days for Mazda Canada, producing images of accessories for their website and brochures. That was fun.

I finally found a use for that 24mm macro lens that I bought about 6 years ago. Hero shots!

I love the little stories that are everywhere. For instance, I got this ten dollar bill as change at the grocery store. It makes me wonder what was the story behind the note scribbled on the front of it.

Was the guy unable to make it to the nearest Hallmark store before Uncle Bob’s birthday? Was he behind bars, and earned that bill hammering out license plates? Or is this just the best way the guy knows how to express his affection for his favorite uncle? Curtis, if you’re out there, let me know.

In other news, I’ve started labeling disks for my clients with Lightscribe.

I’m really digging the technology. The labels are not quite as nice-looking as the color ones I had been producing on an inkjet printer, but they’re far less hassle. Also, I don’t have to buy expensive ink.