nickonkenShoptalk

Shoptalk has moved...

Thanks for coming back and reading. If you're reading this now, you somehow have it still bookmarked. Domain forwarding is a tricky with past links, so I'm leaving the old blog up for a while. If you have RSS'd this blog, you will automatically keep getting the posts from the new blog.

That said, check out the new Shoptalk at http://www.nickonken.com/blog

The new website is also launched: http://www.nickonken.com

Looking for Interns in NYC

We're looking for some interns in New York City for the next few months for a few things, but mainly setting up for a gallery show and book release party. Give my last post a read for the type of candidates we're looking for.

Send us an email to info@nickonken.com and tell us a bit about yourself.

•Where you're from
•What types of projects you like to work on
•What are you passionate about
•What tech skills do you have?
•What skills outside of photography do you have

•Most of all, what would you like to learn?

The internship will be 1-2 days a week from now through March on average.

Take a read of Adam Swords' post on his interning attitude and POV:
http://www.adamswords.com/blog/?p=57

Knowledge is a Commodity

I've thought a lot about this topic over the last year or so. I think this part the game has become a "new school" evolution. Not that it ever wasn't before, but now that the game has changed and accessibility to pro photographers is so much easier. There is also a lot of free information available online where if people dig enough they can find a lot. I'm finding a lot of successful photographers that learned on their own, and had a college education in something not related to photography. That said, there are things that you will never learn online. A lot of learning comes from observing, and being around the environment that you aspire to be in. Having access to that is much more difficult.

To really get going in this industry you have to learn somehow whether that's going to college for it, taking some sort of course like the workshops in Santa Fe, workshops from other photographers that are teaching. So basically you have to pay to play. Education costs money in any industry or field. It's part of the sacrifice that comes with learning a craft. The essential knowledge will cost you somehow whether it's time or money.

In my opinion the best way to learn is with working professionals. It's been the best way for me to learn. Taking a workshop from someone who's work or business that you admire when they offer one. I did this a few years ago when my friend Stephanie Rausser taught a class at Santa Fe. It cost me a few grand, but in the end, I learned a lot through conversation with them during and now after the workshop. Was it worth it? Of course. A lot of times, photographers of that caliber rarely teach because the commercial world as I've come to learn is extremely crazy and last minute. You can get a call one day and leave 3 days later to shoot it, so it's hard to plan for. Most are focused on being photographers, which is time consuming in it's own right. Taking a workshop is as easy as finding them, signing up for them, and paying for them. They aren't ever cheap.

Another avenue is interning for a photographer, which if you have more time and less money this is a great way. Interning is a great way, and probably a better way because you get to spend time with that photographer. You get exposed to a real working environment which is valuable. In turn for this you're giving your time. Who said picking someones brain was free? Think of all the time, years, and sacrifice that individual has put in to get to where they are at. Think of how valuable that knowledge is. That changes the perspective of "working for free" It now becomes a trade of time and hard work for knowledge, exposure, and experience.

That said, what you get out of it is all what you put into it. The harder you work for that person with a great attitude, and the more questions you ask, the more you will learn. This is with either case of taking workshops, or interning. The move you give, the more you will get back. If you give without expecting in return, the reward is usually much more. Most photographers are willing to share things when people are giving back to them.

Again back to the new school era where there are many aspiring photographers, how do you stand out? How do you get in? How do you get selected for an internship? This is the tricky part. Here are a few thoughts:

Great Attitude: This is the most important asset to anything. Being willing to work hard and happily will get you far. Being energetic and excited to help doing whatever it may be. Even sweeping floors and cleaning toilets.
Have something to offer: A lot of bigger photographers get hit up all the time for internships, assisting, brain picking, etc. Have something to offer, even if that is paying for a meal. It's a nice gesture in trade for their time. More than likely if they can spare the time to even meet with you, you'll learn something. Don't come with an attitude of "tell me everything you know" AKA don't be a leach.
Special Skills: Having a skill that is outside the photography realm can be valuable. If the photographer needs something done in the office, or other types of things that you may have a skill with. Offer that up. It may be a way in the door.
Be Responsible: Being someone the photographer can trust, especially getting a task done well and on time.
Be COOL: I mean this in the personality department. Be someone fun, and excited to learn. Bring something to the table. Be a pleasure to be around, and I'm sure you'll get asked back.
Bring Value: This is semi covered above, but always think of value that you can bring to the team and the photographer. Think ahead of them. The more you give, the more you will receive. That is just a law of nature.
Timing and opportunity: Remember a lot of getting an internship or even the chance to meet with a photographer comes down to timing and opportunity. Be patient.

Jeff Holt has been a great example of this all of these qualities, and in turn he has learned so much. He's been a huge asset to me and has helped me out in so many ways. He approached me in the beginning willing to sweep my floors. He offered his great attitude and acquired skills over the years to bring value. He comes with a giving attitude, and receives greatly for it. What all has he learned? That may be a more specific question for him to answer.

To sum it up, Knowledge has become the currency of our era. As with most things these days you have to pay in some way to gain that knowledge. The more you put in and give, the more you will learn and receive.

New School vs. Old School. Adapt & Change or Get Left Behind

I've had many of conversations with different people lately, and I'm starting to see a trend. New School vs. Old School. The biggest thing I've realized over the last year is that the times are changing. Technology is changing, and changing the game. Social Media is blowing up. Twitter and Facebook are becoming household names. Which by the way if you haven't seen this video on the Social Media Revolution, check it out, the stats will blow your mind. The internet has created a gateway for anyone to be an expert at what they do. It's created a platform for anyone to enter the the world of getting their work out there. This IS an amazing thing… IF you use it to your advantage.

New School vs. Old School. There is a ton of truth to both, and you need a fair amount of the old school to carry into the new school. In the Old School photography world it's about having amazing work and creative, which in turn gets you jobs. Which is 100% true. Hone your craft and do it well. Make amazing images, and someone will recognize you. Ten years ago, hell even 5 years ago it was much harder to get in the game. The internet didn't exist(with the capabilities it does now) which meant to get your great work into the eyeballs of the right people, you had to send physical portfolios, post card promos, prints, and be seen in printed magazines. A rep that was hitting the pavement with your portfolios all the time. This is all VERY expensive. Getting into the game COSTED a lot.

This is exactly why the "Greats" don't all have websites(or have terrible ones). Annie Leibowitz, Ellen Von Unwerth, Patrick Demarchlier, etc. EVERYONE knows who they are (that hire them at least). They've been in the game for years. They ARE established. Being published in all the major magazines is their portfolio. (don't get me wrong would it benefit them to adapt and spend of their cash reservoir on a web presence? of course.)

Now enter the New School: Getting someone to recognize honed craft. With all the benefits of the digital revolution and the ease of putting your work out there into the world wide web of eyeballs, we've encountered a downside. It's made it extremely cheap to get into the game. Let me rephrase that. It's made it FREE to get into the game. In turn, the downside is the volume of people that are doing it creates white noise. Everyone is a "photographer" these days and images are flying around the web like nobody's business. Having amazing work has now just become the entry way to getting anywhere. Anyone not at the "greats" level are struggling to adapt to the times. The older folks who choose not to learn the digital media opportunities. The ones in the game for probably 5-10 years that started in the filmic old school world and just got used to it before it changed. These are the ones that are getting left behind should they not choose to adapt.

Creating your "Personal Brand" is the key to getting anywhere. Create a voice that people remember your work by. Not only graphically, but what you project through social media outlets. The content you put out there to the world creates people's perception of you. Consistency of brand creates longevity.

What am I saying with all this? Move with the current of technology. Adapt, and try to get ahead of where technology is moving. Then use it to your advantage. Use social media and internet connectivity for your business. "Old School" is also a mentality. It really comes down to a choice as all things do. Only YOU can make S#$@ happen.

It's where the world is moving and if you don't get on the train, you may get left at the station. Be a game changer.

Goal time.

Over the last couple years, I've really been getting more into and serious about writing down my goals for the up and coming year. These goals tend to get filtrated and outputted into my marketing and business plans. My friend Kris over at Krama Consulting helped me really get this process started last year. It really takes diving into who you are, what you do, and what you want to really start to develop a detailed list. If you want to learn more about Kris' services check these links out:

Becoming Change: http://integralbusiness.blogspot.com/2009/12/telecourse-becoming-change-january-20th.html

Integral Strategic Planning: http://integralbusiness.blogspot.com/2009/12/telecourse-integral-strategic-planning.html

Since photography is such an artistic journey, it took me a few years before I really was able to create a visual style and hone in on who I am as an artist to then turn those into a list of goals in the form of a business and marketing plan.

My goals have manifested in melting both personal and business aspects. Since the photography business is really a lifestyle job they both very much fuse together. I recently read the Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris, and as much as he speaks to the full time corporate person working to create a lifestyle where they work less and enjoy more, there are many aspects of the book that directly apply to a career like mine. Lifestyle design is a huge asset to what this career can offer. You can create a business around what you shoot, what you want, and how you want to live if you do it right.

It's pretty amazing to look back at the goals that I wrote a year ago for this year as it comes to an end and see how many of them have actualized. In retrospect, I feel I could have looked at the plan more often through out the year to keep myself in check, but for the most part most of what I aimed for has been accomplished. This means my goals for 2010, should shoot even higher.

Here are a few categories on my list without going into too much detail:
•Tangible/Immidiate goals- These are goals that goals that take priority that can be checked off a list. For example, my first goal in this category was to move to New York. It took me half the year to find the right timing to do it, but I checked it off the list. Another was to finish my new business cards, which also are done.
•Creative Development- This one is hugely important. It's great to review your own work and see where you want to improve. These are things to constantly be working on to develop my photographic eye and skills. Examples: "Refine production details" work on bringing in more and better production elements into my work. Another: "Building a better rapport with my subjects" Social skills and building a rapport with my subjects is something I feel is very important and that I can always be better at.
Financial goals- I think it's good to set a goal that you want to bring in for the year. This was the first year I did that, and I luckily ended up doing much better.
Travel Goals- Travel is a huge passion of mine and something I value as part of my lifestyle design. These are a bit looser because my desire of destinations have changed due to learning about new places and opportunities. One I can check off the list from this last year is Iceland.
Long Term Development- Other goals that I have that pertain to advertising and editorial work, business development, and maybe things to accomplish in my life, etc. These are ordered in priority. IE: Advertising assignments, my ideal was 6 campaigns for this last year. Another was to develop a new website which is on the way.

These are examples from my goals last year. I have yet to sit down and write them for this year. Many new ones have culminated in the process.

The marketing plan is basically taking this list of goals, and planning out how you will actualize them. What are the methods you will use to attain those goals?

Pencils Of Promise

This morning I've embarked on a journey to a far away land (from New York) to a little country we know as Laos, where I'll be joining my friend Adam Braun, the director of an organization called Pencils of Promise. An organization that I truly believe is a great non-profit model that builds sustainable schools for kids in small villages. So many organizations have unsustainable models that in the end create a mindset of dependency (an in-depth conversation to have) which  is even more harmful to a social ecosystem. This minute and a half video has a quick fun overview of how the organization works and it's mission.

http://www.pencilsofpromise.org

I'm a believer in giving back as much as possible especially to be blessed with a career/dream job as I have. It's a goal of mine to be able to collaborate and do at least one non-profit job per year. What goes around comes around. I would encourage you to give back using the talent's and skills you have, whatever that may be.

My homie Jeremy Cowart has a great project on 12.12.09 called the Help Portrait. By now you may have already heard of it. A great way to get involved in something bigger than ourselves and give back. http://www.help-portrait.com/

Stay tuned for some blog updates and images from Laos

Back the F*#% Up!

The last few months has been quite a growth spurt in the new New York office. Relocating here was a big jump, but even more so setting up a proper digital asset management system. Its a work in progress at this point. I got a big kick in the ass this weekend, when I found out my good friend Fred Egan had his house burn to the ground. Luckily his office was left in tact and he was able to recover his photography equipment and images, but I think it's a good in my face warning that it could happen to anyone, including me at any time.

I've hired Jeff Holt, to come in and help me build, set up an IT infrastructure, and implement a back up system both on site and off site. The above sketch is a general outline of what we have in progress of set up and it's still evolving. It's very intricate. Designing an IT infrastructure is very custom to what you have an how much you have to spend, but after this great awakening with Fred, it's pushing me even more to get things in order, especially an off-site backup.

The main idea is to have a mirrored backup that is onsite and that are equal sizes, then to have the same data mirrored off site somewhere. Hard drives go bad completely at random, so a constant mirroring of data on-site is a necessity. In talking with an Apple IT consultant friend of mine, he swears by tape drive backups because they last at least 30 years. Backing up on to secondary hard drives is great if you have a method of spinning them up once a year to keep the liquid bearings from drying up. If you let them go 3-5 years, they dry and the HD is toast. They're meant to stay in use.

The trick is to build a system that is expandable and accessible. Obviously if you're serious about being a photographer, the more you shoot, the more your digital assets are going to grow. Now a days with the digital sensors getting larger and larger the RAW images take up quite a bit of space. I am also constantly needing to access images for portfolio uses, projects, books, website, blog posts etc. so having a system where you can easily access everything easily takes quite a bit of design.

The system I have set up is 2 x 8 bay enclosures in a J-Bod(individual drives) setup with 1TB drives in each bay totaling 16TB. Each bay from one enclosure is mirrored to the parallel bay in the second enclosure for the redundant onsite data. These are the archive drives where jobs are dropped once they are finished and archived. We have a 2 bay enclosure with a RAID 0 that acts as a production drive for jobs that are in progress. The archived jobs will then be backed up onto tape and sent offsite. This system is hovering $10K.

Creating a system that is customized to fit your needs and budget can be pretty tricky and techie. Jeff has set up a few consulting packages to design the right system for you if you need it. His packages go from over the phone consulting to in-house setup. For more info send him an email: Jeff Holt

Another part of backing up is HAVING insurance. Unfortunately for our friend Fred, he had no insurance which resulted in a total loss. Irresponsible? Maybe so, but shit happens. I know I go through life thinking these things will probably never happen to me, and knock on wood they don't, but this is a sure realization that they can happen to anyone any time. I know what it's like to be strapped for cash and not finding the funds to pay for insurance premiums, but this is definitely a hard reminder. Our friend Jory Cordy has set up a donation page if you feel so inclined to help Fred out as he lost his living possessions.

In regards to insurance, one thing to be careful of is that a lot of renters/home owners insurances won't cover your gear if it's for business use and it values over a certain amount. It's good to have separate policies. I have a basic renters policy with Liberty Mutual, and a Business policy with The Hartford Agency. http://www.thehartford.com Business insurance gives you liability coverage and and inland marine coverage on your gear world wide. The premium for the business insurance varies on where you live and how much gear value you want covered. It IS essential!

Communication Arts Photography 50 Annual

Contests are a great thing to enter, but a hard thing to get into. I've entered the Commarts Photography annual contest for the last couple years now, and this is the first time I was lucky enough to win. This plays on the "making better images" part of the game, so I would encourage you to enter contests. Not only to push yourself creatively, but publications like this are seen by all the creatives. It's some of the best exposure.

You can pick up the annual right now, which I also recommend you do. There is so much inspiring work in it. If you have a commarts online account you can see it here, but otherwise, here's a screenshot. The image is from a campaign I did for Nike in Mexico City last year. You can see more on the campaign here:

http://www.nickonkenconnection.com/shoptalk/2008/08/the-legend-of-santi.html

Lifestyle Design

"You must give up the way it is... to have it the way you want it."

In digging through inspirational quotes for a special promo project, I came across this quote, which really resonated with the way I see life, and have seen it over the years. I touched on this idea in my Transitions, Passions and Sacrifices blog post, but I wanted to expand a little and make it a bit more generic across whatever you may want to do or apply it to.

It's so true that there is a lot of sacrifice to do what you love and get paid for it ultimately. It's something I've lived by most of my adult life. I think we've come to know a generation of people that are starting to value free time, enjoyment of life and loving what what they do as SUCCESS as opposed to money. Don't get me wrong, we all need money to live and to live decently to whatever your standard of living may be, but our new definition of "success" changes that ball game drastically. If you really want to do what you love and make a decent living that takes a lot of time, hard work, and sacrifice to get to a stable point.

What does that mean? We all know it takes money to live, but how much? I've always seen the end goal of "Success" being achieved by putting the right puzzle pieces together. Some people have greater responsibilities than others at the time of their decision of pursuing their passion, so the puzzle pieces are different for everyone. Some people live in bigger, more expensive cities than others. Some have relationships and families. Some have full time jobs where the salary is great with consistent/stable pay and they're used that standard of living. Obviously there are more, but if you have an ultimate goal of doing what you love, it's about moving the puzzle pieces around and cutting things/overhead that needs to be cut in order to create more time and/or money that can be invested back into your business of creativity.

To me it has always meant making those small decisions to save money, and the sacrifices of taking the jobs that aren't that creative for a higher pay/less time ratio. Success for me is defined by working a job I love, enjoying life(the biggest idea I took home with me from my living stint in Paris), having great people around me, and making enough money for a decent living. To get to point means to design your lifestyle to get there. What have I sacrificed along the way? Money, stability, relationships, eating out, loads of possessions, etc. What have I received? Much more free time to enjoy life, and pursue my passion of a career, travel, etc.

I recently read a book called the 4-hour work week which, in my opinion some of the ideas in the book are a bit extreme, but the basic idea is great. I recommend it: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/ As much as I talk about branding and design, this book is about applying those concepts to your life. Designing a lifestyle that in the end brings you happiness and fulfillment.

It ultimately comes down to how bad do you WANT this version of success? How bad you WANT it will dictate how much you will sacrifice to get there. How much will you give up? If you're working a full time job with great steady pay but you hate it, are you willing to give that up along with the financial stability that goes with it to give you the free time to create a business of your passion? The amount of work it takes to get to that position is a hefty amount and you got to WANT it enough to be motivated to hustle for it.

Food for thought.

The Production Experience and Building Your Entourage

I just wrapped a big 10 day campaign shoot, and the whole experience got me thinking more about how having a good crew and production is so important. In the end. Along with creating images that make a happy client, creating a production experience takes your "service," better yet your brand to another level.

A huge part of that is bringing a team of people that can provide that experience. Beyond professional capability, the attitude and personality of the individuals on your team can create or destruct the synergy of your team. On this last campaign, we had such a great fun time. Many laughs, and many inspiring conversations happened, on set on top of everyone busting their asses and doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. When you're working with the same crew for 10 days, this becomes extremely important. We all became a family, along with the clients because there was such a camaraderie between everyone. I write this in contrast to other previous productions where people just come in and do their jobs with a mediocre attitude. If everyone can get their jobs done with excellence and have fun, that sets up a great atmosphere. We became friends (with everyone being respectful of their role in the production), so it became a group of friends having fun and taking care of business. Needless to say, we had a fantastic time. So to my crew, thank you for bringing your A game, not only in professional service, but attitude and personality.

On another note, thanks to my digitech, Jeff Holt, we were able to create a great music shoot mix that created a great set vibe, and got everyone's heads bobbing, let alone the dance parties that broke out. The change in music made a night and day difference with the models energy. I believe that music plays a huge part in a photography set. (We rocked some awesome Michael Jackson mashups. You download them here for free: http://bit.ly/xf4Lj)

Thirdly, food. Being the foodie that I am, great catering is hugely important. I've had a number of jobs where the food sucked, and as starving as I was on set, I didn't even want to eat it. We were able to get my new favorite LA catering company, http://www.rockit-foods.com on board for all 10 days, and they provided 2 gourmet meals a day and didn't repeat a single meal over the course of the 10 days. Every day just topped the next. It was better than most of the restaurants in LA.

That said, finding the right team is tough especially when working out of NY and LA, and my LA crew rocks.