poached from margie zable fisher via smallbusinesstrends.com. a solid balance with a few catches that actually surprised me.

In a recent AP-GFK poll, 72% of Americans said they

here’s a few damn good reasons it’s solid to have friends into visual media as much as you are (you geek).

1. they can double check your licenses – just had a photographer contact me this am to let me know he found an image of mine in a full spread ad use + wanted to make sure i knew it.

2. they can provide tearsheets – see above.

3. they can find work for you. everyone needs a solid person of the same skill level as themselves that can be recommended if need be.

4. we all need collaboration + the occasional business understanding.

5. bounce ideas off before they get out of hand.

6. solid way to get feedback that doesn’t include the word ‘nice’.

7. share beers after swapping who has the stranger mac tech stories.

8. who else understands that RAW is your file format not something less + that the relationship between aperture numbers + the size of the corresponding hole is counter intuitive but totally logical.

9. they almost always know what that one mystery button on your camera/computer/phone/hard drive does – thanks juan.

10. you can never have too many geeks on your team.

completely unrelated though you might think he was a friend of mine, mark taylor, a talented shooter out of london has put together a new feature on his blog he calls inspired fridays + will be showcasing various influences. he’s starting off today with yours truly. cheers mark.

in my ongoing series TEN we’re highlighting steps that any location photographer can easily incorporate into their business to green things up a bit. specifically we’re looking at recycling – from batteries to the material laden computers we all spend too much time in front of. i’m a tech guy as much as the next customer but with the amount of equipment needed in this industry today we need to be responsible about what we’re doing with it when it’s time has come.

1: one of the first things i do after computer gear goes downhill is to incorporate it into shoots if possible. this image is one of a billion possibilities.

2: if you are done with the stuff think about turning it over to a local charity or school as oftentimes they’re in need of machines(check out freegeek). just because it doesn’t function up to our standards of heavy image lifting doesn’t make it useless by any means.

3: if that doesn’t do it for you then definitely recycle the machinery. companies like apple, epson + canon will make it easy on you. and you can always hit up third parties like flipswap as well.

4: don’t print so much. at least set up a b+w setting for all the paperwork.

5: if you do find yourself spitting out the pulp products, use services such as greenprint that allow you to drop pages or cut out what you don’t need prior to inking it.

6: this is a big one for me but carbon credits ( who doesn’t want to recycle our air!?!?). sure it’s not a perfect system but it’s in place and better than nothing. i’ve talked about this before here and am working it into my workflow for all clients (merrell, cosmo, 24 hour fitness…). see terrapass for more and if you’re a business then keep an eye out as i’ll have an in-depth update on this soon.

7: aside from computers, your cell phones can easily be processed via any number of companies including flipswap mentioned above.

8: ink cartridges can be sent in via prepaid shipping bags as well from places like best buy, etc.

9: work the old school water cooler rather than all the bottled stuff.

10: when was the last time you walked to your studio? rode a bike? skateboarded? busted out the roller skates or the stilts?

and not to let you off easy by thinking it’s all about after-the-fact feel good actions try thinking ahead maybe using refurbished machines, your locations + even grants available.

TEN is an ongoing serial effort to highlight points of value within a topic without watering anything down or writing a full blown essay. Obviously there are more factors with some decisions and less with others. But in a nutshell creatives in general and the world on whole have a tendency to make processes more involved than they need to be.

The previous post in this series was on negotiation and more topics are forth coming. Now numbers not being my strong point I won’t lay down the law with only 10 items of contention but we’ll keep it right around there. If you have a few of your own chime in.

Today we’ll cover solid reasons for turning down work. Not really the point of the job but at times it’s necessary to promote business, maintain relationships or even keep one’s sanity. I’ve unfortunately had a few of these covered lately passing up work throughout the West and a plum travel story in Japan. But knowing that I had no choice is some solace. Hope your decisions are as clear cut.

Here then is a list of the very few reasons to happily say no to the work that’s been brought your way.

Industry – the job appears to bring down the photographic community (ex. rights grabbing contests)

Business – the work obviously goes against your business plan or vision

Finances – this shouldn’t really be a job breaker (see negotiations) but if the work is too far from your current standing and CODB then know it

Morality – shooting the project doesn’t jive with your high standards (think cigarettes, etc)

Reputation – the AD simply wants you to ‘copy’ the example they have in hand, negating any personality

Health – either the work is simply to risky or by taking on the job your recovery from a previous condition will only be exacerbated hampering future projects

Delivery – overlapping schedules or attempting to do too much with too little leaves you empty handed or in the very least bringing less than you need to to the table

Family – timing is everything (schedule vacations ahead of time & when junior’s due ….)