I’m on a four and a half hour flight from Las Vegas to Jacksonville, FL, and I’m feeling quite comfortable right now as I type this into the handy WordPress app on my iPhone. Sure, the old woman beside me smells a bit smokey… but she’s friendly, quiet, isn’t using the armrest between us (even though middle seat should always get dibs) and best of all is “normal” sized.

Southwest Airlines has an interesting seating policy. They assign you a letter and number, not a seat. When it’s time to board, you line up in the order of your letter/number combo… and once you’re on the plane you take whatever seat you want (um except in the cockpit, thankfully).

This leaves room for a little fun and a lot of anxiety, especially on a full flight.

THE GAME

Lan and I typically choose aisle seats across from one another. This allows us to talk to each other without having to sit side by side and without the need to talk over someone, which is strangely considered rude. The game then becomes the task of making the seats next to you look as unappealing as possible.

The window seat next to me was taken right away by a nice older gentleman. This was a good first step. Immediately after, a cute girl who we’d spoken to and joked around with in line at Burger King in the airport came down the aisle, and I suggested she take Lan’s window seat, which she did. Lan then had her leave her bag on the middle seat, while he slouched down and tried to appear to be larger than he is and sloppy looking. This is actually a pretty good play.

There are, of course, more effective methods, but they often come at a cost. As people come down the aisle you can have bouts of coughing and/or sneezing. This tears up your throat though and almost requires that you continue with the act even after someone sits down (if they are brave or don’t care, or even worse, if they are already sick themselves). Otherwise your plan becomes obvious and you just look like a jerk. That makes for an awkward flight and almost guarantees an armrest war.

For this flight I chose “the wall”. I leaned forward and buried my head in my iPhone, creating a formidable barrier while shielding my face from passers-by. This method has three layers of protection. First of all, it shields my face, which doesn’t allow someone the ability to judge how good of a seat companion I’d be, and in this case the mystery is usually enough to compel a would-be-middle-seater to move on. Secondly, since people normally like an invitation before they join two existing people who have already staked out their territory in any situation, the hidden face also means they can’t just give you that friendly nod as they approach, because you stupidly made eye contact first, which then means you agree to get out of the way for them to enter the row. Lastly, people normally hate interrupting someone else, and since I look so intensely busy on my muy importante iPhone they have to tap my shoulder to get my attention and ask if I’ll move so they can get in. This is undesirable to most, and they cattle on.

DON’T HOLD OUT FOREVER

At some point you will likely notice when a flight is really filling up, and you have to start planning for a much unwanted intruder. This is a list of the most common choices from least worst to absolute worst (there are subcategories for all of these which include sweatiness, cough factor, general hygiene among other things, but these are the basics):

1. Attractive women – I don’t actually know who they end up sitting by, maybe there’s a really cool separate room for them in back because they never stop at my row.

2. 16-24 year old skinny people – They usually aren’t experienced fliers, which makes it more likely that they will be too shy to take the armrest even when it’s rightfully theirs. They also are usually too embarrassed or nice to wake you up so they can use the restroom, and would rather sit and hold it. They also don’t typically strike up meaningless nap-depriving conversations. Bonus!

3. Business people in suits (still skinny) – These people usually travel often so they know to use the restroom beforehand, they know the armrest rules but are sometimes evolved enough to understand the positions that exist that allow two people to use the armrest at the same time, and they are usually too busy reading a book or looking at pie charts to be annoying in any other way.

4. Older people (still skinny) – They have to use the restroom more often and don’t have reservations about waking you up so they can do so, but they are usually polite about it. They sometimes come with interesting odors, from smoke to perfume to old-people-smell, but this is usually tolerable especially once the flight is in motion and the vents are blowing. They are more chatty than any of the previous categories, but will typically let you sleep if you can find the opportunity to close your eyes in between sentence.

5. People with children – I love kids. Just not on planes. They can’t sit still or be quiet or understand the effect they can have on those around them trying to nap… but they can’t be blamed for it. I just want them to be children in another row. But not the one behind me because they’ll kick the back of my seat JUST as I’m falling asleep.

6. Fat people – I’m chubby. But I still fit in the seat without my arms or rolls encroaching into the seat next to me. So when I say fat I only mean people who make it impossible for you to be comfortable because their bodies are actually unable to stay contained to their space as defined by the borders of their seats. I know what it’s like to struggle with my weight, so I’m not saying they shouldn’t exist or that they need to diet or anything like that. It’s just absolutely uncomfortable to sit next to them on planes.

Actually #6 has major subcategories that correspond, in order, with #s 1-5 of the list. 1-5 are the skinny versions. So I guess it should be:

6. Fat attractive women.

7. 16-24 year old fat people.

8. Fat business people in suits.

9. Fat old people.

10. Fat people with kids. Or people with fat kids.

11. Fat people with fat kids. (I realized this was worse than either of the options in #10.

There is also another category that I think would best even #1, attractive women. That would be drug mules. I think they’d be small and try to be as invisible as possible. Not taking the armrest, not going to the restroom (to avoid suspicion), and pretty much non-talkative. The only reason they don’t make the list is because they aren’t the easiest to identify. Unless people really can tell when someone looks like they have something up their butt.

LAN’S FOLLY

If you have a full flight, SOMEONE is going to sit next to you. Lan’s fat-slouch and the purse were doing such a good job that everyone moved on. Not one person stopped. He and his fun companion (who was a nice mix of categories 1 and 2) celebrated. Far too soon.

After a few minutes, an 18-year-old-looking kid came up from the back and asked to sit between them. Apparently there were no more seats in the back. They hesitated before saying yes and he awkwardly said that he saw a seat (the only other open seat) ahead of them and that he’d sit there instead. And THAT was their big mistake.

Sometimes you take something undesirable in order to avoid something even worse. Sometimes in life you have to understand that luck doesn’t always last forever. Sometimes you give in, ESPECIALLY to a #2.

They should have taken the kid.

About 30 seconds later, after their sighs of relief at having averted an attack on their beloved open middle seat, one more person came up from the now-full back. She had nowhere else to go. She sat between them. She’s still sitting there now as I type this. Lan is trying to nap, next to his very own number 9.

I’ve been trying to lose weight, with some temporary successes, but overall unsuccessfully, for years. Many many years. Well, then again I suppose it depends on your definition of trying. Trying, to some (and by some I mean lazy fatties like me) can sometimes mean wanting to lose weight… feeling guilty about eating too much… and wishing that I was thinner.

There are times, however, that I’ve genuinely tried. I’ve actively set goals (and failed them) and have put programs and activities in place that, had I not been tempted by the devil (feel free to substitute “the devil” with any number of evil things, such as “the donut”, “the couch”, “the all-you-can-eat Vegas buffet”) I would have eventually been successful with. Alas… the devil has always won. Or rather… I have always found the devil more enticing than having a Spartan body (yes, with painted abs a la 300). You see… having a Spartan body would be great for when I’m climbing in slow-motion from the pool at a party or when I’m competing in a flexing contest… but donuts taste good right now. And so I eat them. (actually I must confess I’m blaming a lot on donuts and I rarely eat them, but the word is admittedly funny so I type and type it!)

DISCLAIMER: yes, all these images are ridiculous

When I was a kid I was average sized:

When I became a teenager I was chubby:

When I was 15 I was sent to Vietnam for 2 years to learn “my roots” (on my father’s side) and got malaria and lost a ton of weight and became fairly thin:

By the time I was 18 I was back to getting chubby:

And once I hit 20 I surpassed 200 lbs… a weight I would not see again for many years:

At the height of my fatdom I was 230 lbs. That’s a lot for a 5’9″ tall guy (I used to claim to be 5’10″ but really it’s like 5’9.5″ and I’ve decided to be more humble in life). I thankfully don’t actually have an image from that time… but I do have this one which was probably over 220 AND shows the dumb hair I had for a few months. Perhaps at the time I thought the blonde hair and giant black eyebrows would distract people from seeing my belly.

So… 2009 arrives. I’m fed up. I’ve always been on-and-off active… having played a heck of a lot of beach volleyball from 18 to 23 or so… then finding mountain biking and other outdoor activities… but I’ve never really stuck with anything. One thing I’ve ALWAYS hated was running. Ugh. Just thinking about running makes me angry. I’m angry that I’ve ever had to run in my life for any reason whatsoever, and I’m angry that I know that I will have to run in the future, for a variety of reasons (hopefully never for my life, but you never know… I DO live very dangerously).

Wait, where was I? I tend to get off topic pretty easily. Oh yeah, 2009. So in 2009 my dear friend Ryel bought me a pair of running shoes as a gift for some workflow and other help I’ve given her… and I buy a Nike+ sensor. It works perfectly with my iPhone 3GS (built in communication and app) and I now have no reason not to run. Ok, actually I have my bad knees which have bothered me since I was a teenager… but the honest truth (as opposed to the dishonest truth) was that they had seemed ok for the past couple years and I was determined to at least put them to the test. When I say I hate running though… I mean I HATE running. Every step I take while running is another step I hate. I literally think the ENTIRE time, each time I run, of all the excuses I can find to stop running. Almost every second. Sometimes I even think of ways I could allow my ankle to sprain or maybe just trip and fall and scrape my knee… something enough to give me a good excuse to stop. So when I run… and when anyone sees that I’ve run like 5 miles… they actually have no idea what an accomplishment that really is… because I REALLY HATE running!

But I ran. I ran a total of 38 miles. Over the course of 2 months (that’s a LOT for me, probably the most ever). Along with that I also decided to cut my daily caloric intake down to 1,000 calories (plus any exercise I did that day… so if I ran off 400 calories I would eat 1,400 calories that day). Extreme? Yes. But I wanted results and I was tired of not getting them. I was 215 lbs when I started and I just wanted to look and feel good by November. In just over 2 months I lost 25 lbs. Yup, one morning I actually weighed in at 188 lbs. It was the lightest I had been since I was 19. Wow. Momentous, right?

Unfortunately I didn’t think so. I felt like I had done a lot of work but I didn’t realize how awesome an accomplishment I’d really achieved. I wanted to continue but I went on vacation and stopped the dieting and stopped the running all at once… and didn’t start them up again. I regained 15 of the 25 lbs I lost over the course of 4 months… and that’s where I am right now. 205 lbs. Hello again, fatso.

Ugh. 205 lbs. I look at images I took just months ago when I was under 190 and they make me SO regretful that I didn’t just keep it up. Here’s my favorite. Yup, that’s me in a pose that normally would show wonderful curvy love handles with the way the wind is blowing my shirt in… but there are none! Ok they’re there but they are manageable. They’re close to being gone.

image of Roxanne Darling and myself by Shane Robinson

A New Beginning. Again.

So… I want that again. I want that and more. I want 175 lbs. That’s not too thin for my height and age. That would actually not be that thin at all, just a hell of a lot more thin than I am right now. And it’s not just about LOOKING thin (and wearing a Spartan Halloween costume). It’s about FEELING good and healthy. I really enjoyed being lighter on my feet, I enjoyed being able to run up a flight of stairs with the slightest of effort. I just wish my insecurities about my body and weight had caught up with the rest of my good feelings… I might have realized how far I’d come and be less likely to keep it off. Unfortunately I still felt like a fatass… and so I let myself become one again.

I’m going back on the 1,100 a day calorie plan (plus exercise). I’m trying to run a consistent 15 miles a week plus calisthenic workouts in between runs. I’m also looking for someone to barter a headshot session for a road bike (blog post about this coming soon). I’m going to post some of my results to this blog. Probably at least my weekly calorie intake. My runs go to Twitter. My calisthenic workouts I think will show up on my calorie chart (it’s all in the amazing Lose It iPhone app). And once I get that bike those results will be posted too.

Do you think I can do it? I sure could use people giving me a hard time about NOT keeping up with my goals. I’ll come up with some actual dates soon, once I figure out exactly what I want to do… but I’m totally open to suggestions, criticisms, name-calling and encouragement (in no particular order). I have Lydia (who is surprisingly an AMAZING motivator) but no offense to her… I would love some more.

These are some of the stats from today’s blog post on 750words.com, click the image to see all the stats:

I actually wrote 606 words this morning then deleted it all… I wasn’t happy with where it was going and needed to start fresh… but after writing 606 words straight I needed some time before I started again.

The writing this morning was all about workshops in the photo industry. But I really wasn’t happy with what I was saying… because I ended up just talking about what Lan and I have done, and then about what I think that people actually want. I think it should have been a lot more about what I want to change in my own business… because honestly there is no better way to lead than by example. So… I’ll save that talk for another day.

Instead, today I want to talk about something else that’s really important to me right now. Art. When Carlos Baez first started truephototalk.com (where much of the talk of workshops and value and lies and truth and…) it had nothing to do with “truth” in the industry, and was actually more about bringing the art back to photography, or at least his desire to bring art back to the spotlight of what photographers are about.

Photography, especially in the wedding industry today has become much more of a commodity and less of an art, in general, than ever. The homogenization of photography can be blamed mostly on the amazing advances in technology that we’ve seen in the past 10 years, but also by what the consumers of this commodity want. They want the same thing they see on 100 blogs… and luckily there are 10,000 photographers shooting that same exact thing. I used to look blogs just like everyone else, especially when I was thinking I was going to become a wedding photographer… but then I realized that not only did each photographer’s weddings look the same from client to client… but each different photographer looked the same as the ones around them. And all that looked pretty much the same as what I was doing.

Certainly some photographers are better and some worse from a technical perspective… but most photographers, once they reach a certain level of experience, all look pretty darn similar (NOTE I say most, because there are some who certainly stand out). THAT is why there is the huge movement in making your business about YOU and YOUR PERSONALITY. Lan and I have been lucky that our personalities lend themselves well to selling ourselves instead of just our photography. We’ve been hired more than once (actually MANY times) for gigs where the client only later realized that they were completely excited that we were their photographers yet had never seen any of our work.

Our wedding film on themotionboutique.com website was our first true wedding video. When Nicole, the awesome (and I mean she really was cool) came to meet with us we chatted for almost an hour, laughing and having a great time… before she asked if we had any work that we wanted her to see. We told her “no, actually nothing we’ve ever done before would be at all representative of what we are going to do for you, but we’d love it if you’d trust us enough to do a great job for no reason other than you’ve met us.” We explained in words what we wanted to do for her… and she hired us right there… and said it was because she really liked us and wanted us there on her wedding day. It was a surprise but also felt great, and it was an amazing amazing wedding that we totally delivered for her (in our opinion, and in hers).

SO… we are living proof that there is credibility to the claims made by so many that a photographer’s personality is as important (if not more in some cases) as their actual work. BUT… do I want that to be why my clients hire me? Do I want to be part of that 80% or so of photographers whose work is just about the same as everyone else… leaving only my personality to shine above and make me the right choice? Perhaps the capitalist in me is happy with that… but the artist in me is definitely saying NO.

What do I do about that, then? How do I improve my art and craft? How do I elevate above what I currently do? In the past couple years I’ve gotten to the point where I only pick up a camera if I have a gig. Holding an SLR makes me feel like I’m working, not enjoying photography like I used to. That’s one of the reasons I’m absolutely in love with the Olympus E-P2 that I have on loaner (and have to give back in a week). It doesn’t feel like work. It has brought the fun back into photography for me.

So maybe I just need a camera that doesn’t feel like I have to do serious work with. I don’t know. But I know I want to do something to get myself out of what I’m stuck in right now.

Yeah, if you’re read this far you can probably see that I am a terrible writer when it comes to just laying down thoughts… because I can’t stay on topic, not for more than a paragraph or two. Oh well. I’m not as keen on fixing that too soon.

These are some of the stats from 750words.com, click the image to see all the stats:

When Joe Philipson asked me to accompany him to Japan Nite at The Viper Room over the phone from Austin while he was hanging out at the SXSW Music Festival I just said yes. I didn’t really even know what the heck he was talking about. Seriously… it sounded cool… but I still had no idea.

It wasn’t, in fact, until we actually got to The Viper Room on the night of ??the concert that I even found out exactly what was going on. A bunch of Japanese bands playing one after the other at a really cool LA venue. There was Chatmonchy, JinnyOops, Red Bacteria Vacuum, Omodaka and OKAMOTO’S. Ok, this I could dig… if I like the music.

I did.

My favorite band was JinnyOops, although the version I loved was not the full band… as they were missing their horn players… but I do still enjoy their recorded music very much!

I brought my iPhone and the Olympus E-P2 that I have on loan from Olympus… and was amazingly impressed with both cameras. I haven’t really used the iPhone for much, but recently downloaded Hipstamatic app and have been shooting some fun shots with it… and I used it on the crazily lit stage with some pretty cool results.

OKAMOTO’S via iPhone regular camera app:

OKAMOTO’S via iPhone Hipstamatic app:

chatmonchy via iPhone Hipstamatic app:

OKAMOTO’S via Olympus E-P2 :

JinnyOops via Olympus E-P2 :

You can see the entire set HERE.

I’m looking forward to shooting more with the iPhone and a LOT more with Hipstamatic. I didn’t do much with the Olympus this night… but it’s been amazing otherwise… so some great images should be forthcoming.

Today is April 1st, and the first day of a few projects I’m trying to start or revive. One of them is this attempt at a daily written blog. The idea came from 750words.com, which is a site that reminds you and allows you to write 750 (or more) words a day… the idea being that if you aren’t held accountable by someone or something to do it… you probably won’t.

My first writings were just stream of consciousness. I let words just flow from my brain into my fingers and really tried not to think about it too much. Since I had just gone through a breakup… most of the words were about her. That was stuff I’m glad was not for publication at all. I’m a very open person… but honestly not many people out there want to read about those types of things from someone who is hurting and feeling insecure and down about themselves. Then again, the right kind of person would take a lot of motivation from it. They could compare themselves to me… and feel great in comparison! Alas… I’m keeping those docs to myself.

The other great thing about the site is that it gives great statistics on what you’re writing. You get a word cloud, some pie charts which gauge your mood based on the words you use, and some other pretty cool statistics that I’m sure will become more interesting to me as time goes on and I actually have more to be analyzed.

There are also the monthly challenges. Each month you are challenged to write 750 words every single day. There is no way to cheat… so you really just have to do it. I was delighted and surprised to see that my friend Rudy Jahchan was on the short list of 10 people who completed the task last month. Way cool and very motivational. There are a lot of reasons I think daily writing is important… and I’m totally not going to go over them at all today.

Instead I’d like to try and describe the things I might want to talk about during these 750 words a day… because as of this moment I have no idea but if I put some stuff down in writing, right now, as I think of it… there might be a chance I’ll somewhat stick to it in the future and provide either entertainment, information or perhaps mild amusement to anyone who happens across these writings. I suppose I could also spend the time sprinkling SEO keywords in a dense enough manner that for each 750 words about 6% of them are the name of a product, and at the top of the page I could have a link to that product on Amazon. How awesome would that be???

Ok, so probably not very awesome.

Instead I think it would be most useful if I literally just write the things that are on my mind. Those things usually revolve around just a few different topics. There’s photography… of course. Boy do I have lots to say about photography. I originally started this blog in 2002 with posts about my new love of street photography… unfortunately in the multiple moves the content has taken the photos themselves have been lost to the ether… I no longer even have the original scans (they were all shot on film back then). All that remain are a bunch of posts mostly about gear lust… which I’m proud to say I no longer feel much need to write about these days.

I’ll also write lots about my thoughts on video, DSLR video and filmmaking. Mostly because besides photography I’m mostly involved with this stuff on a daily basis, and half of what Lan and I teach and get hired to do is all about video. We were lucky to get into web video before web video was the thing to do (December, 2004) so we have just about as much experience as most people can have on this specific topic. Though things have come a long way (YouTube is so easy a child can upload their videos now) there’s still a lot of other factors that people don’t understand or know much about… so I’ll likely write about these things too.

Lastly… well not lastly but lastly for now… I’m going to start giving my thoughts on industry-related topics. I’m involved in a few industries… but they all revolve around web marketing and web deliverables and web promotion… and there are lots of things to say about all of that.

Ok, so here are my first 750 words. Actually I’m now at 777.

These are some of the stats from 750words.com, click the image to see all the stats:

I don’t want to go so far as to actually lay claim to anything she’s doing right now… but Lydia spent most of WPPI with Lan and I and is truly embracing videoblogging and things we’ve spoken with her about in her business… and for that (in addition to her fantastic talent as a photographer) I believe she is the perfect candidate to win the Identity Kitchen contest for a $3,000 identity (branding package).

Lydia is talented, kind, genuine, hilarious (usually) and best of all in my eyes understands transparency in her business… even though she is really just beginning to show it. Let’s just say she learns quickly. She’s also a finalist in the contest… and needs comment votes.

Take a couple minutes out of your day, check out her entry post, and leave a comment of support to vote for her (each comment is a vote, I believe it’s one vote per person). She doesn’t have a large following (being new in the business) so her social reach is still small (but strong, 60 votes so far!)… she definitely deserves and NEEDS this, so I’m reaching out on her behalf. ;)

Her entry video:

Her entry images:

Identity Kitchen is Ellen Petty and located not far from me in SoCal at the Noho Lofts. I’ll admit I hadn’t heard the name Identity Kitchen until this contest… but so far I really like what I see… so I think Lydia will be in good hands.

VOTE FOR LYDIA!

(this post was written on my iPhone, excuse any fat-fingered typos)

I am all for marketing yourself in the smartest and most creative ways possible. I think people need to stand out in a sea of competition… show their personality or whatever else makes them unique and attractive to hire.

We all already know that Facebook and Twitter are great for this. You get to build a fanbase who is at least interested in the little things you have to say… your blog posts (Twitter feeds are the new RSS, unfortunately)… your photos… pretty much all the stuff you upload, be it personal or business related.

The problem is with people who don’t understand what to do with their existing audience and instead of offering something of value to them… or strengthening their bond and loyalty and “fandom” of them… they instead alienate them with constant badgering and repeat messages.

Yes, it’s true that they used to say you have to repeat something 7 times in a commercial (I think it was 7) in order to get people to remember it. Yes, it’s true that the reason you see a commercial more than once on television during the same 30 minute show is because people get convinced of things through repetition. The difference is that people are willing to deal with those ads as a “payment” for watching an entertaining (hopefully) show. What are you offering them to follow you on Twitter or be your Facebook fan?

What Value Do You Offer?

Are you only posting things about yourself? Are you only posting notices about your own business and your blog posts and the last photos you shot? If your intended audience is your family and you just want them to know what you’re doing in life… that is fine. If your intended audience are true fans of yours who hang on every detail in your life… well that’s weird but it’s also fine. But if you’re attempting to build a follower base who you can sell your products and services to… basically building a client base who will know about your latest and greatest… you’re going to need to do more than just promote yourself.

I used to follow too many people on Twitter. I say too many not because I think there’s a threshold over which you can’t successfully pay attention to… but because I was following people that my eyes would automatically skip over in my Twitter client because I knew without reading their tweet that I wasn’t interested in what they were saying (most likely because you always say the same thing or only talk about you, you and you). So… that made no sense and I eventually just got rid of them. If they had ever offered anything that entertained, educated, inspired or somehow moved me… I wouldn’t naturally skip over them at the sight of their avatar.

I am not saying I’m an expert at this. I am guilty of the same sometimes. I’m definitely not saying that I entertain, educate, inspire or move people… but I do try. And considering that Mr. Tweet shows me that for every 30 people or so who add me, around 10 drop me… I know I’m not always successful (though at least half of these are marketers trying to inflate their numbers by following loads of people and unfollowing the ones who don’t follow back).

Twitter Badgering

So you have a new product or service… or a new contest… or a new whatever… or maybe not even something new… and you announce it on Twitter and see that 10 of your 1,000 followers responded in some way. Awesome!

So later in the day you announce it again to get the people who weren’t paying attention in the morning… and sweet! Another 4 people responded.

So late that night you again announce it… so you can reach the followers who are night owls and don’t pay much attention to Twitter during the day. 1 more response, not bad!

Ok… now STOP. At least for a while.

Three times in the same day is already pretty bad for the same exact announcement unless it’s something amazing… but it makes sense when you’ve got something big going on… however seeing people post the same thing day after day after day is just extremely annoying, and puts you in the category of people I will start to automatically skip over in Tweetie when I’m reading tweets… and you will eventually be cut when I do my quarterly cleanup of my following.

There are lots of exceptions to this… ongoing contests being one of them. Especially ones where you need daily votes. There’s still a point at which it’s too much, but I appreciated when Mike Ambs was doing this every couple days or so to get Babelgum votes because I did want to vote but without his tweets I’d likely not remember… or more recently Brigitte Dale is promoting her daily need for votes to win the “Good Mood Gig”. These contests allow people to vote over and over every day… so a daily or so reminder through the short duration of the contest isn’t a bad thing.

Announcing the availability of a workshop as the seats fill up is also a pretty decent exception in my opinion… but again you just need to not overdo it. Once you’ve said something 3-5 times on Twitter you can trust that most of the people who care at all about things you say have seen it.

There are lots of other exceptions… and I think that uncommonly used thing called common sense will be able to handle your decisions on these on a case-by-case basis.

Facebook Fan Invites

Facebook fan invites are the reason I started typing this blog post… after venting a bit on Twitter and creating my new rule.

If you send me an invitation to be your fan when I’m already your Facebook “friend”, I’m going to unfollow you.

This makes sense to me. I’m already your “friend” (I put that in quotes because a large portion of my Facebook “friends” are people who I don’t know but who added me because I am part of their industry and have many OTHER “friends” in common. I’m totally cool with that… it’s a good way to network and see what’s going on in your industry and I enjoy having the extra base of people who will see a certain percentage of my updates). Being your Facebook friend means I will see your announcements and new photos and other things you post about. I’ll see them and I’ll act on them if I choose to. That means I’m already part of your audience.

Don’t Ruin a Good Thing

If you’ve already gotten me (and all your other “friends”) to accept your friend invite… you should be pretty happy. We are now a part of your audience. Build upon it, cultivate it… and help it grow. You are NOT going to make me happy by now trying to get me to become your Facebook “fan”.

By sending me notices every week or even month to become your fan you are essentially alienating me, your willing audience, and creating a barrier between your information and my desire to receive and process information. It’s annoying. It’s bad business. It’s essentially not very smart.

Use that effort instead to try and convert people who AREN’T your audience into Facebook friends or fans. Otherwise you’re just ruining a good thing you already have going with people you are already connected to.

BUT don’t ask me how to do it though, cuz I have no idea. I am identifying what’s wrong here (and it’s still just MY opinion)… but have no solution to offer another route. Do you? I’d love to hear it in the comments below.

Although pretty much all of my recent clients know about Dropbox (because I pretty much force them to use it so they can get their deliverables) I feel as though there are still tons of people I know who do not… and this post is for them. Or perhaps I should say it is for you, reader, if that suits you better.

Dropbox is a file sharing service that’s also an online backup service that’s also an online gallery/proofing service that’s also… well it’s pretty much whatever you want it to be.

It works on Mac and Windows (which is perfect since I run Windows 7 on my netbook and Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro and Leopard on my G5) and has a web interface as well as a desktop component… and they recently just released their extremely useful iPhone app. All of these elements are important in their own way and I use them all. I’ll try to sum up how in a short-ish post.

How I Abandoned Mobile Me

Mobile Me is awesome. Mobile Me sucks. As a place to safely store files online, available anywhere… it’s great. Upload/download speeds are always great, I have access to files anywhere… and I can even upload files and send out links that will expire in a certain amount of time.

The thing I used most is the gallery feature… their galleries are the BEST for delivering client proofs where you’re not trying to get print sales from the photos. They look good, are easy to navigate, and allow people to easily look at large numbers of photos in a variety of ways.

There is also the Find My iPhone feature… cool and sometimes really useful, especially if your phone is stolen.

The rest of the service isn’t so great for me. I don’t use the email… the syncing is replaced by the free (and so far more reliable and open) Google Sync (computer to computer to iPhone)… the web interface is ALWAYS ridiculously slow… and it costs $99/year for all that greatness.

Enter DropBox

DropBox offers 2GB of storage on your account for free. It shows up as a folder in Finder (or Explorer) and you can create subfolders just as any other folder.

Store and Sync

The main feature of Dropbox is the automatic sync of all the files and folders in your dropbox with any other computers which you have dropbox installed. Drop a file in dropbox and in the amount of time it takes to upload to the server then back down to your other computers… it’s there. (ok that sentence actually made it sound like a long time, but it’s not)

What I use it for, however, is mostly for collaboration and for delivering client files. Every folder in your dropbox has sharing rights… and you can right click (ctrl+click) the folder and choose to share… it will open the web interface and allow you to send invites to whoever you want to share it with. This means when you drop files into the shared folder they will automatically download to the folders of everyone that folder is shared with, and they receive a notification on their screen.

Keep in mind, everything you are currently sharing in your folders AND your clients or colleagues count towards your total usage. You get 2GB for free and can get additional 3GB by referring other users (hint hint, yes that was part of my motivation for this post, 250MB additional for each person you sign up). Or if you need lots of storage you can pay $9.99/mo for 50GB or $19.99/mo for 100GB.

Versions

Another great feature of Dropbox is that it saves each version of each file you upload. So if you are collaborating on a file with someone and editing straight out of the folder… if you make any mistakes you can just go back into history and pull the version you want. These versions are stored for a month! Which means you also have…

Backup

Not only are you able to back up important files (2GB worth or more, depending) but even once you’ve deleted them from Dropbox, they remain in backup for 30 days. It’s like an online Time Machine (the Apple kind, not the HG Wells kind).

iPhone app

The iPhone app for Dropbox was recently released, and is pretty darn awesome. Multiple times I’ve dropped a huge file in Dropbox but needed to leave right away… and wanted to be able to send a link to the file once it was uploaded. When on the road I was able to check the status and then send a sharing link once it was up. Nice.

You can also view content and mark files as favorites for frequent reference (pricing lists, contracts, etc…), and there’s an upload button that allows you to upload photos and videos directly from the iPhone.

Viewing photos is also made super simple from the app… just open a photo and you can easily navigate from photo to photo using the navigation at the bottom of the screen… or by the standard swipe gesture.

Send a link to any item via email… and Dropbox automatically creates the link and sets it to expire in a month.

Galleries

If you create folders in your photos folder that comes pre-created in Dropbox and fill them with photos… you get instant galleries that you can share. They galleries aren’t quite as cool as Mobile Me galleries… but they are fast and easy to navigate. They work great for proofing and easy image sharing.

Download Dropbox

So… like I said… download Dropbox… and get your friends to join… and your clients… and your mom. Share files with ease.

These are the ways I use Dropbox, do you have any to add?

image by Chris Bartnik

Aardvark

Aardvark is a service that allows you to ask a question to the community… and it will send that question to someone who is available and might know the answer (based on categories that its members sign up for) and then typically provides you an answer within 5 minutes by one of these other community members. They have a nice little iPhone app that makes asking these questions pretty easy wherever you are.

I tried out the service for a little while… but I never actually asked it a question… though I was able to provide answers to a few.

While some of the questions I saw were really legitimate things you’d need to ask in order to find an answer… MANY of them just pointed to a bigger question…

Are We Really This Lazy?

I knew there was something wrong when most of the questions I didn’t have answers to I knew I could find with a quick Google search… and I did. I found that I could answer quite a few of the questions with a simple Google search (though in my frustration with these “lazy” people I didn’t answer the questions for them, yes cuz I’m a jerk). Other questions, like “is anyone hiring in Chicago, IL?” or “what is your favorite song this year?” seem to be out of place on the site… which left less than half that I thought needed to be legitimately answered on Aardvark by someone else (some questions asked for specific recommendations for products and services… and these seemed totally useful to me if you’re the type of person who doesn’t LOVE research like I do).

The people asking these questions are already online, obviously know how to use the internet… and have enough time that they can log on to the site and ask the question and wait 5 minutes or so for an answer… so couldn’t they just Google it?

Google Fu

I have been using the internet since 1995… and I’m fairly geeky. I’ve Googled (yes I’ve been using it as a verb forever) things thousands of times… and perhaps I’ve gotten a lot of practice. They say it takes 10,000 hours to become a true master of something… and I wonder how many hours I’ve spent searching for things on the internet… but I really don’t feel that my Google skills are so much more powerful than the average internet user. Still, these questions are being asked on a forum

I can’t remember, however, the last time I had a question that I couldn’t answer with a Google search. Obviously there are types of questions that can’t be fully answered with facts… but I’m talking about questions that have simple, factual answers.

We Are To Blame

I am definitely not blaming Aardvark for this problem. I think their service is really great… and I haven’t spent THAT much time on it so I have probably not been exposed to the many great questions that probably exist on the site. My frustration is more with people in general. The truth is that I’ve felt just as frustrated with people on forums and other places where these questions typically surface… I just never really voiced it until now.

I do think services like Aardvark and specific forums like the new videoWTF are awesome places to learn from others and get questions answered for things that aren’t so commonly documented online… and there are a lot of those things when it comes to really specific industry or trade related questions (I’ve answered some tough questions on videowtf.com)… but I get really annoyed when I log into Aardvark and see someone asking “what’s the capital of Alaska?”.

Or am I wrong?

Tracie did an amazing job on my makeup… and she’ll be posting a video about how she did it soon… but good or not, it was hard to open my mouth wide enough to eat with my fake torn lip and protruding teeth. :P

Lan shot a whole set of photos… here is one of the cooler ones. You can see the rest HERE.

I heard about this iPhone app called TiltShift this morning (though it’s been out for some time now)… and had to try it out for myself. From what I’ve seen there are a few of them out there… but this one looked to me to be the most interesting one. It’s $1.99 on the Apple app store… so you can see my first impressions here before taking the plunge. ;)

Tilt shift movements in photography were originally provided on large-format view cameras… then Nikon introduced a lens for 35mm cameras in the 60′s and Canon in the 70′s. It was originally used to correct perspective shifts in photography such as in architecture… but most recently tilt shift used much more often for creative effect. When used properly you can make real-life scenes look like miniatures or toys… which is fun.

Unfortunately tilt-shift lenses aren’t cheap. Canon’s tilt shift lenses are both over $1k and I’m sure Nikon’s are around the same. So… people usually resort to Photoshop. You usually can’t get the same effect out of your images… but if they are shot perfectly and Photoshopped perfectly… you can get the tilt shift look without having to actually buy the lens (and learn to use it properly).

Enter the iPhone and the billion apps for it. Now you can do tilt shift photography right on your phone… and it actually looks pretty neat. Not perfect, not professional… and certainly not like a real tilt-shift lens. It is, however, very cool for something that can take less than a minute from capture to Tweeting your latest faux tilt shift masterpiece… and all from your beloved iPhone.

Check out the TiltShift app on iTunes. For $1.99 it’s pretty darn cool.

These are images I shot today at Disneyland and edited directly in the TiltShift app.

Tracie put together a nice video compilation of some of the different places we visited on O’ahu… using footage from the Canon T1i, her little point-and-shoot Canon SD800IS, and my iPhone 3GS. The underwater scenes were shot with the Ewa-marine underwater housing on the Canon T1i.

She made the music in Garage Band using Magic Garage Band. If you have never used Magic Garage Band… give it a look. We have used it many times to create music for videoblogs, with great results. It’s quick and easy… and offers really high-quality results, although not that much in terms of variety.

This is a nice preview of some of the videos you’ll soon see coming from our trip… explanations and tutorials on how we shot!

This post is part of the Hawaii Fusion Trip 2009.

In keeping with the low-budget nature of the Hawaii Trip, I decided to actually make some of my own gear. I didn’t get to do everything I had hoped (time has a way of slipping by quickly when you’re planning something big) but the flash grid project I was able to do the night before we left.

The grid actually worked out PERFECTLY. I was amazed at how great it was. I am making two more, one with longer straw pieces for a tighter beam, and one that’s a little wider as well. The one I made was right in the middle… and ended up being perfect for a general flash grid that lasted me the trip.

What you’ll need:

• black drinking straws (I got mine from Panera Bread)
• Quick Grip glue (I got it at Michael’s)
• black duct tape (I bought black Duck Tape from Michael’s)
• cardboard (I used thin product packaging cardboard
• scissors
• a ruler is good, but I didn’t use one
• black marker (I was going to use it to black out the edges of the cardboard, but didn’t show that in the video)

The Quick Grip Glue was very key to the success. I’ve read a number of posts (the one I used to make mine was HERE) and a lot seem to have trouble with durability. The glue I used made this thing nearly indestructible, it’s holding up perfectly by being completely strong without being brittle… and using the duct tape around it makes the cardboard somewhat tear-proof.

This first example showed me that if you truly value your time and don’t have a lot to spare… this probably isn’t the most cost saving project. If you have a little time on your hands, however, you’re easily able to make 3 of these in less than a couple hours… saving about $70. To most amateurs and even quite a few professionals this is TOTALLY worth it.

You might also be worried that the final product will look too unprofessional… but if so… you’re likely worried about the wrong things. Cover it with black and it’s good enough, no one will look closely enough to see that it’s homemade… and if they do you tell them that you make your own because no one out there makes exactly what you need. If YOU are professional… and you deliver professional results… that’s truly all you need to worry about. Pros jimmy-rig things all the time, it’s a constant necessity.

Here is the glue I used (I get 4% of purchases if you buy):

Quick Grip Glue 2 Ounce

If you prefer purchasing grids and want the same results, I recommend HONL Photo’s grids. You can purchase them below through Amazon:

HonlPhoto Speed Strap for Shoe Mount Flashes – you need this to attach the grids to your flash
HonlPhoto 1/8 grid
HonlPhoto 1/4 grid

Stay tuned for actual results from the grid in Hawaii!

This post is part of the Hawaii Fusion Trip 2009.