I like listening to TED as much as the next guy. I have the app on my phone, I click the links in my feed, and I’ve linked to it myself. But lately, it’s started to seem a little too ubiquitous. There isn’t a day I don’t see multiple links in my Facebook and Twitter feeds, and it’s become such a common point of reference, I almost can’t escape it. Then, in one week, I come across articles in The Atlantic and New York Magazine, and I realized the backlash must be hitting a critical mass.

Ideas are like rot. By the time you see signs of them, they’re already everywhere. If you’ve ever seen a new idea and … Read more...

It was only a week ago. I can barely remember it. How about you? There was something about a plasticine Billy Crystal making his return – it was almost like human Photoshop. And a very strange leg that took on a life of its own from Angelina. J. Lo? Wasn’t there something about her too? And that’s really the long and the short of it, because this is what happens when you’re on a lifeline. You lose relevance. But the lesson isn’t just about the Oscars. This is about every business. It’s not about the slow death of an awards show. It’s about how we deal with change. Everyone loses touch at some point. But some recover, and most don’t.… Read more...

No doubt, you’ve been enjoying all of the Pinterest shitstorm goodness out there. If you’d like to read a great summary, check out the article on The Photo Life.

Here are two more. Christian Oth wrote a thoughtful article on the subject, and Sean Locke’s research was impressive.

Should we be offended by Pinterest? Sure, why not? But insofar as this all applies to wedding photographers, what difference does it really make? Copyright is so yesterday. Sure, it’s everything in the corporate world, where infringement is costly and the ramifications broad. But in the consumer world, it never had any teeth to begin with. Someone rips off this or that. Fine. It happens. It’s a pisser. But that’s the … Read more...

Failure is the sound of a thousand wasted efforts screaming in unison.

The reality is most things aren’t that hard once you break it down. But too many of us are trying too hard to find the needle in the haystack. And that’s a crap shoot. What are the odds that in a split second, we’ll reach in and pull out that needle with a million choices in front of us? But we love stories of magnitude and myth. We love the idea that our heroes can, in one fell swoop, distill the most complex situations into a single, supercharged moment of perfection through superhuman insight. Forget about. It doesn’t happen that way. Maybe sometimes in some places, but not … Read more...

So, my second installment in The Photo Life is now up. Be sure to check it out. Power to the People – Put Your Clients First. In that vein, here’s a continuation on the theme, and how we can move ourselves forward:

I bought some antler-hook coat hangers on Etsy the other day. They were cutely packaged with a nice hand-written note. And you could tell the message was personal. And, yet, I was unmoved. Nice of them to do, mind you, but meh. I tossed the note aside into the sea of papers that never seems to subside around the office.

The King is dead, the world is new, and we are free at last. Free at … Read more...