I think making a living sucks. I respect anyone who does what it takes to make due – it takes integrity. But it still sucks. Because making a living suggest just getting by. It suggests doing what needs to be done. At heart, it suggests that tomorrow will be the same as today, and I can’t imagine anything more soul-deadening than that, because the very point of having your own business is exactly that you want to have a tomorrow that’s different from today.

That’s pretty much where I found myself about two years ago, which seemed a really odd thing, because by the books, every year kept looking better and better. In fact, things were going even better than … Read more...

Photo by Noah Devereaux, www.noahdevereaux.com, blog

One of my favorite photographers has always been Robert Frank. He has an amazing ability to convey theme and concept within a documentary context, but the thing that I loved the most viewing his photographs when I started was that they were a reminder of one simple point: great pictures can be found everywhere. Like yesterday’s daily picture, careful observation is the truest skill at hand. Noah Devereaux’s image illustrates how ideas can be communicated in the simplest of forms. It’s a great statement about the nature of weddings, consumption, and closure, and it’s a picture almost no one would bother to take.

There are two things that really makes the picture … Read more...

Photo by Merri Cyr, www.merriweddings.com

It’s a common thing to see the unusual lensing, soft bokeh, or beautiful light. But to see an image that communicates free of any device but the content itself is one of photography’s finest pleasures. It’s deceptively simple, but exactly because there are no visual devices to resort to, it requires keen observation, careful framing, and an understanding of how viewers react to photographs. New York-based photographer Merri Cyr has done just that here. The reflection in the mirror gives us location, adds a layer of complexity, and helps to balance the the sense of space in the image nicely. But the real standout is the fabric covering her eyes. It makes the image’s … Read more...

I love the look of lens flare. Who doesn’t? It’s the look of the moment. But as I thumbed through some pictures the other day, I wondered how durable it would really be. People talk about things being timeless, but nothing really is. Bresson and Frank’s pictures are amazing, but would they really shoot the same thing in the same way now? I see a lot of people still banking their brands on flare, but from my side, I’ve noticed that it has less impact in meetings than it used to several years back. Is it getting long in the tooth, or does it have legs? … Read more...

My first sales job was for my brother selling online listings to hardware and software suppliers. The problem is that this was back in 1990, so no one knew what that was, and I did little to help. I was horrible. Just really, really awful. My brother, being the kind soul he is, was sure to tell me so, and I was equally sure I didn’t have the stuff of real salesmen. I was pretty miserable. I always wished I knew how to use that Jedi, ninja mind stuff that others did. How much better would my life have been, if I could predispose people to like what I was selling? The funny thing is, it’s very often as simple … Read more...