Quoddy Workshop – Lewiston, Maine from Oliver Wilkins on Vimeo.

We love this video about products made by hand with love and pride.

Credit and respect to Dan Maillette, the craftsman, and Quoddy, the manufacturer. AnnaM found the video on core77.com. And check out Oliver Wilkin’s other excellent videos!

Cheers
Ian

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Like the Chinese gentleman who shared our table for Dim Sum at Aik Hoe, everyone in Penang seems to get by in at least three languages – Chinese, Malay and English. I do admire that in a person because, like most New Zealanders, I’m a monoglot.

That wasn’t the only reason I liked him, though. He was his own man. At 87, so he should be.

Share each dish, he told us, you’ll eat less and taste more. Start the day at five. Oatmeal for breakfast keeps you young – I’ve eaten it almost every day for fifty years. No cream or sugar. Work in your business every day [he has an electrical business with 150 employees]. Exercise your brain. Sleep well. You’ll be healthy like me.

I was talking about creativity, and how it’s built on hard work, tradition and craft. Qualities necessary to creativity, but not sufficient. Our friend was a clue to something else you’ll need: authenticity.

The other day Stephen reminded me of a video from Ira Glass, about how long it took Ira to sound like Ira (listen to it here; or be a devil and listen to all four parts).

Ironic, isn’t it, that finding your own voice should be so hard?

But until you do, you sound like everyone else. Or no one.

I have no choice but to be myself. Everyone else is taken.

Cheers, Ian

PS Today’s other lesson was that I eat too much black pepper. Bad for my eyes.

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Heather and I have been in Penang for a few days, “recharging our creative juices”.

But what does that mean? Creativity is like happiness. You can’t reach out and grab it directly, although we do believe that getting out of your comfort zone (I couldn’t think of another cliché, sorry) – and sleeping a lot – both help.

We’re staying in old George Town. It was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008, as the locals are proud to tell us. They’re also proud that Jimmy Choo was born into a family of local shoemakers, and apprenticed to a little shop just a few metres from where we’re staying on Muntri Street. His Dad helped finance his studies in London, where he came to the notice of Princess Diana and Vogue in the late ’80s.

I’ll never be seen wearing a pair of Jimmys, but suddenly they mean something more. Less Sex in the City, more the flamboyantly decorative crafts of Penang – real, not devised by an agency.

They have a voice and a backstory. I can imagine paying good money for them.

So, creativity: built on hard work, tradition and craft. Those certainly aren’t enough, but they can’t be by-passed.

Cheers
Ian

There used to be hundreds of shoe makers and factories in Penang, but sadly most are gone. Sadly? Inevitably, I guess.

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Rebecca said it right!

The more you replicate other photographers the more beige you become.

Be inspired by the success of other photographers and influenced by their philosophies.

Be colourful, but accept that some people see beige as a safe colour.

Somebody asked me how do we stand out when our audience sees us as somehow all the same … just dearer or cheaper (light beige and dark beige).

I was watching a piece on TED about a guy called Daniel Libeskind … his work is very left of centre and clearly not beige.

Watch it and listen to his talk. Take note of his word sets, Emotional vs Cool, Memorable vs Forgettable etc. This certainly explains the concept behind not being beige better than I ever could.

Cheers, Johannes

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Yes our circumstance is unique (our studio was wiped out in an earthquake), but what a great motivator to get a new sample album or two.

Very seldom do we get a blank canvas opportunity where we get to look at what we do and ask, “If my past no longer dragged down my future what would my future be?”

On February the 22nd  everything changed. We went from a plan, to a nightmare, to a dream.

But this post isn’t about us. This is about you.

We as a studio would often leave updating our samples until there was a specific need, which most often was a bridal show.

This always put pressure on us and the lovely folk at Queensberry because the deadline would always be short.

What I am proposing is the regular scheduled upgrading of sample albums, either as a specific job or as a copy of some work you are proud of.

Choose a couple of dates in a year, like April and October, and make those the dates to replace samples. Make it a rule for every year.

Try and look at it as a blank canvas opportunity where you get to be whatever you want to become, by creating something to excite you and your audience. Make it the “new you”, not the “old you” revisited and rehashed.

Recreate yourself continuously. That should be the plan. And the dream should be to always be excited about being a photographer. And if you have the choice, skip the nightmare.

Cheers,
Johannes

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Just read a post (love the internet -pause- sometimes)

and had to share the punch line.

The complete post is here and it’s written by a guy called Spencer Lum for a blog called Ground Glass.

Read this and grow. I wish I had written it.

Find yourself in 13 steps

1. Be true to the art. The art powers it. It’s not a flash to the side, a quilt on a couple, or a texture on an image. Those are just techniques. Techniques have no soul. You do. Art does.

2. Don’t rush it. Faster isn’t always better. You start on a path, and it’s hard to get off, so if you push too hard, you get lost before you know it. Build the word by letting people in on what you do. Be true to it. Make them need you.

3. Do something for people who follow you. Find ways to reach out and make yourself and not just your art part of their lives. You are only successful because of the people who believe in you.

4. Learn. See how you can make photography your own. See what ways other photographers have used the craft to connect with people. We’re talking about the history books – great photographers have meant so much to so many, they’re part of the history books. There’s way more than just impressing people. Get under their skin and in their head, and you’ll always have a following.

5. Take a stand. If you have no position, you’re not digging in enough. Everyone has a viewpoint. Every has something to say. Find your voice.

6. Forget about pretty. You want beautiful. And beautiful can be ugly.

7. Learn technique, copy inspiration. If you do it the other way around, you’re back on the wave.

8. Get people to hate you. Nothing can be that great if no one hates it.

9. Make things that shouldn’t work, work. Every great idea was something most people thought wouldn’t work at one point. Salt on caramel? Who does that? Until someone does. Flare? That’s a lens defect, right? You learn about yourself when you walk to the edge, and jump off to see what happens. Otherwise, you discover nothing new.

10. Believe in people, believe in yourself. Belief powers everything in the world. It gives you the stamina to make it through. It lets people see the best you there is. It lets you become what you’re not quite yet. Trust that if you put it out there, people will get it. Some will. Many won’t. Don’t worry about the many. They’ll come around if you stay focused on the some who do.

11. Forget about money. We’ve all got bills to pay. Pay them. But you’re more important than the money. You, your time, your self is everything. Protect it by any means necessary.

12. Rest. There’s enough pressure as it is. Give yourself the time to digest.

13. Don’t be a chicken shit. OK, this one is just a reminder for myself. But it works, right?

Now go follow Spencer – Ed.

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Well, today is our last day, and it’s time to express once again our thanks for your support in 2010. We’re hugely grateful, not just for the business you send us, but for the friendship and generosity that makes our job such a pleasure.

Yesterday was the Summer solstice for us – the longest day, with the promise of long sunny days to come – but for many of you it was the shortest, and in many cases the weather has been pretty bad. Whatever the weather’s like outside we hope it’s warm and welcoming at your place.

Our holiday wish for you is that – like Adrienne’s dogs – you take into 2011 an unalloyed enthusiasm for life, good will towards all and a sense of anticipation for the good things to come.

Thank you again, have a great break and see you in January.

Best wishes from Nigel, myself and the rest of the Baugh family, and everyone else at Queensberry.

PS We should also express our admiration and gratitude to the Queensberry Lab, Bindery and Office teams for the amazing work they’ve done over the last few weeks to get your orders on their way to you so fast and efficiently. They really are terrific.

PPS Great picture, Lu.

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Last week it was NZIPP in Queenstown. This week Photography By Woolf’s 50th Anniversary exhibition in Wellington. They very kindly invited Heather and me to share in the family celebration afterwards. It was his birthday so ten-year-old Noah got to choose the restaurant. It was great fun, the whole extended family get on so well … and it got me to thinking:

1. What a challenge it is to build a long standing family business that truly serves … the family. We know it. Chances are you do too. Well done to the Woolfs.

2. So many photographers got a start at Woolfs, and many of them featured in the exhibition. The family’s proud of them, as important to them as the network of clients, friends and influencers who also sustain the business. We met some of the young talent carrying it forward.

3. And finally as one family business to another I was struck by the pride we take in the stories “our people” throw up – as if they’re family stories. So Simon is proud of the fact that Emma Hughes, who used to work for Woolfs, this year won the NZIPP album competition. Just as we’re kinda proud that Johannes won a gold at NZIPP with an image from Brett and Sarita’s wedding in the UK (Brett and Johannes are both good friends and clients of ours).

Nothing to do with us really, but they’re “our people” and we love to see them doing so well. Makes me feel like a doting aunt!

Cheers, Ian

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I’m looking at a truly beautiful print (sorry I can only show you a 233K JPEG).

Where does it’s beauty come from?

It starts with a beautiful flower. I don’t know who bred it or nurtured it, but I wish I did.

It’s a beautiful composition. I do know that the stylist was Katie Lockhart, the photographer Sjoerd.

It’s a beautiful file, worked to perfection at Alt group as part of our re-brand last year.

And it’s beautifully printed.

Here’s the thing. The beauty in the print is totally dependent on everything that went before. Break the chain and you’re left with ordinary.

Normally in our business we’re dealing with people, not roses. And storytelling is (even) more important than style.

But when we see a beautiful outcome like this, it’s the result of a whole lot of things done well.

Cheers, Ian

PS The prints I’m looking at aren’t silver halide. And there are three of them, all subtly different on different stocks. All beautiful.
We’re having a great time playing around with things right now

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I was listening to a lovely song by Amy Seeley and was imagining images in my head. The song is haunting and has a feeling of being connected to a story.

When I think about stories I usually think in a visual way.

Creating a relationship between sound and imagery that isn’t literal is a powerful thing.

That is the difference between an album of images from a wedding, and the emotional and visual journey that is an album as a story, a collection of memories, a journey, a love, and a destination.

One is a set of pictures, and the other is a visual and emotional soundscape – a song in my head.

What we want to do is relate, not just the visual information, but also the feelings of a wedding. If we do this then we have succeeded. How we do it comes down to sensitivity, skill, circumstance, and understanding. Understanding that the imagery is not just a literal representation of what happens, allows us to let people see what we felt.

Cheers
Johannes

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