I came across this quote in Bobby Earle’s blog post titled “Originality is Overrated (for Photographers).” In it, he writes about the importance of sincerity in art and I couldn’t agree more. I know for a fact that I do my best work without the added pressure of doing it for any other reason than just to make a photograph that is meaningful or taken candidly in a quiet moment. Check it out for some reassurance.
Two things that came in my inbox yesterday that couldn’t have been read at a better time:
“To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.”
Also, “Do something everyday that scares you.”
Today I have done something that has scared me which may lead me to doing something I never did. I’ve had a couple of really important meetings in the past few days that could potentially change my life for the better and it had me terrified. And no matter how much encouragement I could get, deep breaths I could take, prayers I could say, reading these words were exactly what I needed to give me the confidence to trudge forward and roll with the punches. So maybe you need some encouragement too…I hope reading these words will help.
Title quote from Brida by Paulo Coelho.
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“The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating — in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.”
__Anne Morriss, The Way I See It #76
“Sometimes looking at the sky makes me sad because I don’t know if the stars are still alive. The moon was very yellow the last nights and appeared very much like in the books when I was smaller. I find it hard to believe that the sky is the same everywhere and only we turn around and around. We’re restless and the stars are not. I wanted to say goodbye, but maybe I don’t have to. There’s still sand in the corners of my suitcase and four full bottles of sunscreen. This year, the sun is only going to kiss my skin and not bite it.”
September 2007 — HOLDEN BEACH, NC
When I completed my internship with Monte Isom, the most amazing businessman I know and fantastic celebrity athlete photographer, we went to Crif Dogs to celebrate and have a nice communal dinner of hot dogs (a staple when working with that crew and when visiting New York). First of all, it may sound silly to celebrate with hot dogs but Crif Dogs serve their dogs wrapped in bacon with all kinds of crazy toppings. Delicious toppings. Avocado, fried egg with melted cheese, teriyaki, pineapple and green onions (don’t knock it til you try it), they even serve one with kim chee, but you can only order that if you’re on the other side of the wall in their speak easy (through a phone booth). Anyway. While we were there, Monte and KB, a very experienced digital tech in the industry, made me make a promise and repeat it out loud: I will never work for free again. At first I kind of laughed to myself and didn’t take it seriously because I didn’t believe in myself enough to be paid for my work, but then it really sank in as we sat there and discussed why.
I came across an article that put it into better perspective and these lines really stood out to me: “A photo credit doesn’t pay the rent,” and “Remember: If your photos are good enough to be published, they are good enough for you to be paid for them.” It’s important for photographers who are just starting out to understand this because photographers, if you’re willing to do something for free, or cheaper than what it’s worth, etc, you’re actually screwing other photographers out of making a fair living and being able to stay in the competitive market. I’ve heard one too many stories about photographers losing a bid on a job just because someone else said they could do that job for much cheaper or the same price but were willing to hand over all rights to the publication at no cost. That only lowers the bar for us and for you. The article mentions that people tend to glance at a photo then jump to the story skipping over the photo credit, and even if this isn’t the case, as much as the pub will tell you it’ll be great exposure and free advertising for you, it really isn’t…unless it’s going to be printed in a well-respected publication, and if that’s the case, they would be paying you.
It’s not to say that you shouldn’t ever work for free—if it’s for a good cause that you believe in, or something that will make a great addition to your portfolio, etc, then by all means. Just make sure that you get something out of it. These were just a few tidbits that I picked up and thought I should pass along as things to keep in mind.
Along the same lines, here is a posting of email correspondance between a designer and a “technology entrepreneur and potential yacht owner.” Warning: the f-bomb is dropped a time or two. It’s pretty freaking hilarious but also puts the situation into perspective when this entrepreneur tries to get a logo made for free and tries to justify it by saying that he knows it would only take the designer a few hours to make, yada yada yada, and the designer responds with a correction that the entrepreneur isn’t just asking for a logo that would only take a few hours, but that he’s asking for a logo that would take a few hours and fifteen years experience. Boo-yah! This one is via joshualongbrake.
I don’t know where the origin of this quote is from but I’ve seen it posted on various sites without a source. Googled wasn’t any help either. Nonetheless, it put a smile on my face.
Even though this article was published months ago, it’s still a good read now. I’ve recently become a fan of the Opinionator Blog over at nytimes.com, and stumbled upon this lovely little piece while browsing the interwebs. Content and subject matter on the blog is all over the place since not only does everyone have an opinion, but everything gets an opinion, and rightfully so. Every now and then there are a few article gems that are just about life and lessons learned. Those are the ones that I like.
Click to read “The Joy of Less” by Pico Iyer: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/the-joy-of-less
Edit: it’s actually the Happy Days portion of the Opinionator Blog that I adore which for some reason hasn’t been updated since November. I knew there was an easier way to sift through all of the other opinions and just realized it as a separate section of the blog.
There was a not-so-fantastic movie that I somehow ended up owning called Alex and Emma about a writer who’s struggling to finish a novel in 30 days so that he can pay back some loan sharks (seriously). The Emma character, played by Kate Hudson, likes to read the ending of books to determine whether or not she’d actually like the book which of course drives Alex, played by Luke Wilson, completely nuts. I’m not necessarily going to share an ending per se, but it is the Afterword of a book. I haven’t read it yet, but found this excerpt to be comforting and can’t wait to pick it up.
From Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, a book about getting a second chance at life the first time around:
I don’t wonder anymore what I’ll tell God when I go to heaven, when we sit in the chairs under the tree, outside the city. I’ll tell him about Mike Barrow riding his bike into the Atlantic Ocean, and about Bob Goff and his family jumping off the dock, waving good-bye to world leaders as they left the lodge. I’ll ask God if he remembers when I fell apart in the hotel room in Los Angeles, and he’ll look comfortingly at me and tell me he was there. I’ll tell him about Jason and his family, about breaking ground on the orphanage in Mexico, and about my friends drilling wells in Africa. I’ll tell him about The Mentoring Project, how quiet the kids are when they meet their mentors, and how we can’t get them to stop talking only a month later. I’ll tell these things to God, and he’ll laugh, I think, and he’ll remind me of the parts I forgot, the parts that were his favorites. We’ll sit and remember my story together and then he’ll stand and put his arms around me and say, “Well done,” and that he liked my story. And my soul won’t be thirsty anymore.
Finally, he’ll turn, and we’ll walk toward the city, a city he will have spoken into existence, a city built in a place where once there’d been nothing.
Hi! My name's Huong (pronounced "Hung") and I'm a photographer, writer, wife, and paranoid germaphobe who lives in Roanoke, VA. Traveling, good reads, and witty people with lovely brains are a few of my favoite things, but photography and writing are what this web log is about.
