I’ve talked many times in the past about about how Google.com/trends shows how it’s possible to see what countries and cities in the world originate the most google searches for real estate photography and thus have the most demand for real estate photgraphy. What’s always been difficult in the past is to get more detailed data […]
Real Estate Photography Demand By State – From Google Correlate
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Sunday, August 31, 2014
Real Estate Photography Demand By State – From Google Correlate
Conserving Water Helps Environment And May Add Value To Your Home
It sounds like doom and gloom but homeowners can actually make a big difference during droughts. What you do may also help increase your home’s value by giving it a complete check- up for things that might be wasting water.
Conserving Water Helps Environment And May Add Value To Your Home
http://www.engage360.me
Agents: Are You Sending MIXED Messages?
While coaches, experts, trainers, top agents, and our own marketing team will all tell you that consistency in your message is key to staying top of mind and a consistent pipeline of referrals — most will also share that is not only fine to mix up the mediums — it’s a smart strategy for success. Why? Because let’s face it — we’re all DIFFERENT.
Agents: Are You Sending MIXED Messages?
http://www.engage360.me
7 Tips for Pricing Your SaaS Product by @YEC
Not too high but not too low — make sure your SaaS product is priced just right.
The post 7 Tips for Pricing Your SaaS Product by @YEC appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
7 Tips for Pricing Your SaaS Product by @YEC
http://www.engage360.me
7 Tips for Pricing Your SaaS Product by @YEC
Not too high but not too low -- make sure your SaaS product is priced just right.
The post 7 Tips for Pricing Your SaaS Product by @YEC appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
7 Tips for Pricing Your SaaS Product by @YEC
http://www.engage360.me
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Photography, Authority and Race
I am troubled by what I have seen.
In recent weeks, we have witnessed terrible, on-going episodes within our borders through photos and video that speak volumes about the tragedy of race. Racism is as old as human history, and there is a long, rich history of capturing race conflicts in the US by photographers like Charles Moore, Bruce Davidson, Gordon Parks and others. But in this post 9/11 world, the balance of power has shifted towards authority – militarized officers outfitted with high-powered machine guns and body armor straight out of central casting for a Michael Bay film who seemingly police differently depending on the color of your skin.
This image by Charles Moore published in LIFE magazine changed history. Kennedy adviser Arthur Schlesinger commented that the image “transformed the national mood and made legislation not just necessary, but possible.”
Photo by Charles Moore
In her seminal essay On Photography, Susan Sontag writes “Photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing.” Photos and video are crucial to a functioning democracy, but if we’re too immune by the barrage of our digital world, what hopes do we have for society?
In Russia, the car dash cam is ubiquitous because of the level of lawlessness and corruption. Witnesses are shills, cops are corrupt, and dash cam footage provides the only factual account of crashes, bumps and dents. In other words, photography/videography is the only means to fight corruption. In the US, we continue to find inequality in the treatment and incarceration of blacks. Will photography help us to uncover this disparity and turn disbelievers into advocates? Can photos spur not only regional outrage, but national outrage and create a transformative dialog?
How will these three photographed events shape our world?
Video Still by Steve Ronko
Irrespective of which side of the aisle you sit, you have a constitutional right to take photos in public places including places of government. When NJ resident Steve Ronko tried to file a Open Public Records Act request with camera in hand to get information about an animal shelter, Officer Richard Recine challenged his constitutional right. Recine is caught on video saying, “Obama has decimated the friggin’ Constitution, so I don’t give a damn. If he doesn’t follow the Constitution, we don’t have to.” Police officers swear to uphold the constitution with an Oath/Affirmation, and the Constitution is an imperative vehicle for upholding our rights as citizens. The police cannot selectively choose to defend the Constitution based on mood. Although we’ve seen story after story about this, the NYPD apparently felt that its officers needed a reminder.
2. Eric Garner dies after alleged choke hold by NYPD
Were it not for the citizen journalism, the police report would have merely indicated an individual resisted arrest and then died upon being transported to the hospital. Instead, not only do we see an unarmed man with a history of arrest for selling loose cigarettes being forced to the ground and complaining of not being able to breath, we also see EMTs not even attempting to revive an unconscious victim.
Photo by The Daily News
Although the case is pending, we have at least seen some lip service given to the issue. Mayor Bill de Blasio declared that is “looks like a chokehold to me,” and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton ordered an extensive training review. But Staten Island where Garner was killed has the highest number of most-sued cops despite having the smallest population. So barring a more aggressive effort on the part of Internal Affairs or the FBI, citizens will have to continue to be vigilant to ensure that police are evenly protecting the community rather than assaulting it.
3. The Death of Michael Brown in Ferguson
There are no photos or video of the incident itself. There is a dispute as to what happened. But what isn’t in dispute is that an unarmed teenager was shot dead by a policeman in St. Louis, a city with a rich history of racism and segregation. What we do have photos of is the police reaction to an upset community like Scott Olson’s photo of a man with his hands raised approaching what looks like a SWAT team, but is just the every day Ferguson police force.
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Ferguson isn’t a war zone. This is not Gaza, Donetsk, or Damascus. This is St. Louis. The response is disproportional to the threat. Protesters are being tear gassed on their private property as captured by Rich West.
Journalist Ryan J. Reilly was arrested in a Ferguson McDonald’s after taking a photo of a cop.
SWAT just invade McDonald’s where I’m working/recharging. Asked for ID when I took photo. pic.twitter.com/FOIsMnBwHy
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 13, 2014
The Huffington Post reported:
“They essentially acted as a military force. It was incredible,” Reilly said. “The worst part was he slammed my head against the glass purposefully on the way out of McDonald’s and then sarcastically apologized for it.”
What exactly was the threat in the McDonald’s again? Since when did obesity and high cholesterol require a police force?
17-year old Tyler Atkins challenged the media’s portrayal of the black victim with a tweet and the hashtag #If TheyGunnedMeDown. His diptych shows photos of himself with his saxophone and another as a rapper that he made for a school science project.
Photos by Tyler Atkins
The tweet was in response to the widely circulated photo of Brown flashing the peace sign, but who some in the media portrayed as a gang symbol.
Photo by Michael Brown via Facebook
That a teen wanted to appear cool shouldn’t be an indictment of his character. If a Japanese girl made the same gesture, how would she be portrayed by the media? Can a black teen be treated like a white teen? Can we eliminate the highly polarizing and race-loaded words of “thug” and “gangster” for blacks and “bro” for whites? Are we visually literate enough to be skeptical of images we come across in the mass media and social media because we know we’re being link baited for clicks?
The newspaper front page has been supplanted by YouTube and Buzzfeed. But the barrage of images shouldn’t numb us to this problem of race, it should inculcate us to the disparity in how different people of different races are treated in this country.
Let yourself be outraged by these images. Write letters to your representatives. Talk to a cop. Exercise your constitutional right to photograph that which ails your community. The community your deserve is the community you help build.
Still not outraged? The camera doesn’t lie.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Updates:
WOW: KSDK broadcasts images of police lobbing tear gas canister at Al Jazeera crew in #Ferguson – pic.twitter.com/gZsfbmZlhv
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) August 14, 2014
nononononononononono RT @mdotbrown: Goodnight. RT @Sixfever: Just wow pic.twitter.com/mznFVqXePd
— Lana Berry (@Lana) August 14, 2014
Photography, Authority and Race
http://www.engage360.me
Do Good Stories Trump Good Photos? HONY, Selby and More
Photos have been historically considered as a means to record history. But the proliferation of digital devices and social media have turned photography into a visual language. Photos go viral for a multitude of reasons (e.g. humor), but it’s often stories that effectively communicate a story that resonate with our humanness and humanity. I’ve recently come across two examples where good stories arguably beat out better photos as shown by the viral spread throughout social media. Do you agree?
The Sartorialist, The Selby and Humans of New York
It would be laughable to debate the success of any of these blogs and the photographers behind them. Scott Schumann effectively created the genre of fashion blogger with The Sartorialist in 2005, and utilized shallow depth-of-field and environmental portraiture to create an oft-repeated style. But the story is the same with each photo – i.e. there is no story. It’s street fashion with no context other than where and when the photo was taken. His early photography isn’t great, but his eye and technique dramatically improved over time leading to photos like this one: Thoroughly well-composed, well-exposed and a lovely portrait of a man in his sartorial best.
Photo by The Sartorialist
Todd Selby started photographing his artist friends in their homes or workspaces in 2008 for The Selby. As word got around, requests for shoots started to flood in, and he parlayed this success into books and ad campaigns for brands like Cole Haan, Nike, Louis Vuitton and more. Unlike Schumann’s solitary portrait, Selby publishes a set of photos from the portrait to an environmental detail, and finally includes a hand drawn interview sheet that better conveys the personality of the subject. Selby is arguably the better photographer with better stories, but the stories are often about an artistic elite making them less relatable to the everyman. Here is typical environmental portrait of Terence Koh and Garrett Gott.
Photo by Todd Selby
The unemployed NY transplant, Brandon Stanton, started Humans of New York (HONY) in 2010 on a quest to document “create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants” with the intent of photographing 10,000 New Yorkers. Four years later, his Facebook followers exceed the population of New York City. Of the three blogs, it is arguably the most viral (not necessarily the most commercially successful), while having the worst photography. That isn’t to say it’s bad photography, but there’s no denying that Selby is far more consistent in producing good photography than Stanton.
Take this recent photo from Stanton’s trip to Iraq as a part of a UN World Tour. The image isn’t particularly sharp, there are tons of distracting background elements, the high key areas of the photo pull your eye away from the subject. But here’s the story:
“My happiest moments are whenever I see my mother happy.”
“What’s the happiest you’ve ever seen her?”
“When I was a child, some German doctors told us that I could have a surgery in Italy, and my legs would work again. She was so happy she started crying. But I never had the money to go.” (Erbil, Iraq)
Photo by Brandon Stanton
HONY resonates with a large audience because its stories are more universal despite frequent criticism. Whether or not he slices and dices his interview to come up with more compelling dialogue is irrelevant to his superior story telling abilities. He knows how to tug on your emotions. One can argue that it is the captions and not the photos that make HONY successful, but that is a technicality in my opinion. Many photos – even the best – require a caption to understand context.
Jen Davis & Haley Morris-Cafiero
Yale MFA-recipient Jen Davis started to explore her self-identity and weight with a self-portrait entitled “Pressure Point” in 2002. The exploration continued with her Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence project entitled “Looking and Looking.” We live in a society that stigamatizes the obese, and her images are an incredible visual document of the confinement that her weight imparts on her physically and psychologically. This image is a technical masterpiece that is reminiscent of Vermeer.
Photo by Jen Davis
It’s seems insensitive to compare the merits of two stories of self-identity and weight against one another. Whether it was a function of timing and the spread of social media or some intrinsic the story, there’s no denying that Haley Morris-Cafiero‘s Wait Watchers had larger virality. Morris-Cafiero’s images don’t have the technical mastery of Davis. This is partially a function of the style (photojournalism vs “art”), and also reflective of the more experienced Davis. That said, I would argue that her photos evoked a stronger reaction because of the overt bullying and harassment depicted behind her back. Morris-Cafiero’s images are almost homage to Davis. Whereas Davis’s images are quiet and solitary, Morris-Cafiero’s scream at us. Injustice? Bullying? Lose some weight?
Photo by Haley Morris-Cafiero
Purist might lament my point. “A photo should stand on its own!” However, as many people have pointed out, you can be a great photographer but a poor businessperson and fail to succeed. Similarly, in today’s hyper-connected but highly decentralized world of “publishing,” good photography is rarely enough to go viral. Storytelling is a vital skill for success, and that’s arguably a good thing for photography and photographers because it elevates an aggregation of pixels into a meaningful amalgam of life.
Do Good Stories Trump Good Photos? HONY, Selby and More
http://www.engage360.me
Interview with St. Louis Photog David Carson – #ILovePhoto Chat: Aug. 15, 2014
On this special edition of I Love Photography, Allen Murabayashi and I interview St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson, who documented some of the first incidents happening in Ferguson, MO on August 9th. Listen in for his detailed account of the QuikTrip looting and his interactions with both the people of Ferguson and the police. We also discuss Jen Davis’ thoughtful self portraits, Martin Schoeller’s most recent shoot and changing style, as well as Kim Kardashian’s new book Selfish. You can tune in below and follow along with links, or subscribe to the I Love Photography podcast, here.
Links
Interview with David Carson (follow him and his updates on Twitter at @PDPJ)
Philadelphia Daily News changes it’s cover for Ferguson reporting
Ferguson Images Evoke Civil Rights Era and Changing Visual Perceptions
Photography, Authority and Race
Actor Robin Williams’ career as seen in 8×10 “glossies”
Edward Snowden photographed by Platon
Heartbroken Little Girl Learns What Happens When You Accidentally Delete a Photo
Kim Kardashian’s Selfie book – Selfish
Polish couple fall off cliff and die while taking selfies
Jen Davis’ self portraits on Flakphoto
Videographer Uses UV Camera to Show People their Skin Like They’ve Never Seen it Before
Brian Smith’s Photography Gear Guide
Marco Longari’s images from Gaza
David Chancellor’s photos of conservation efforts
Martin Schoeller shoots Tavi Gevinson for New York Mag
Humans of New York is Suddenly a War Photographer
Interview with St. Louis Photog David Carson – #ILovePhoto Chat: Aug. 15, 2014
http://www.engage360.me
New Member Shout Outs: Aug. 20th Edition
This month we’re delighted to share five PhotoShelter newbies that have fleshed out their Beam portfolio sites quickly and with ease to display their fantastic work. From Sara Malas’ sun-drenched portraits to the homes of the Hamptons documented by Mitchell Geng – take a look at how each photographer found a perfect match for their outstanding portfolios.
Mitchell Geng
Mitchell’s PhotoShelter homepage
- Name/Site: Mitchell Geng
- PhotoShelter template: Shuffle
- Member since: July 14, 2014
- Location: New York, New York
- Speciality and background: Mitchell Geng, an interior freelance photographer, starting shooting his own home listings while working in real estate and studying photography on the side. As others began to request his services his photo business grew. He’s currently based out of New York City and his clients range from real estate to management companies, and many private home owners. Although based in NYC, he’s no stranger to traveling for shoots. He’s currently available for hire.
Mike O’Hara Photography
Mike O’Hara’s PhotoShelter homepage
- Name/Site: Mike O’Hara Photography
- PhotoShelter template: Marquee
- Member since: July 17, 2014
- Location: Redondo Beach, California
- Speciality and background: Mike’s passion lies no where near a desk – he’s happiest when taking photos outdoors. From surfing to mountaineering, Mike spends his best days traveling through nature. “I strive for capturing magnificent images of the mountains, the land, and the sea and showing the true beauty of the world we live in,” claims Mike. He is currently available for freelance inquiries and print sales.
Access Property Productions
Access’ PhotoShelter homepage
- Name/Site: Access Property Productions
- PhotoShelter template: Shuffle
- Member since: July 14, 2014
- Location: London, UK
- Speciality and background: Access Property Productions specializes in creating images for the property sector. Access creates images for all media collateral, including print, online and video. They also can work along side with an in-house team of creatives or be hired to complete a project from start to finish on their own. Their number one goal for clients is to get them images on time, on brief, and on budget.
541 Images
541 Images PhotoShelter homepage
- Name/Site: Brian Nelson’s 541 Images
- PhotoShelter template: Marquee
- Member since: July 17, 2014
- Location: Portland, OR
- Speciality and background: Brian’s world is all about cycling and photographing – but it wasn’t until he saw the work of PDXCross that he was inspired to get involved and do it all. “I wanted to know the people I was seeing, to be able to capture the characters, emotion and beauty. After several years of racing and shooting, I’ve made a few good photos and had more fun than I ever though possible,” says Brian.
Sara Malas
Sara Malas PhotoShelter homepage
- Name/Site: Sara Malas
- PhotoShelter template: Element
- Member since: July 15, 2014
- Location: Washington, DC
- Speciality and background: Sara is currently a sophomore attending American University in Washington, DC. A double major in Film & Media Studies as well as Psychology, Sara always has her camera on her. She specializes in portrait and travel photography, and her high school portfolio series “The Smoker’s Soul” is definitely worth checking out.
New Member Shout Outs: Aug. 20th Edition
http://www.engage360.me
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