Calm Photos

The following is an excerpt from one of the finest examples of print journalism that I’ve come upon in recent months, not only in how well it is written but also in the talent and respect for subject displayed in the photography. This is a special report recently published by the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. It’s something everyone should read, regardless of how each of us feels about the war in Iraq and those who choose to serve. The full series of articles, with printable PDF’s, audio-visual commentary and photographs, can be found at http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/.

(Take note Dayton Daily News. This is how it’s done and done right.)

Farewell brothers. On Eagle’s Wings:

Near 11 on Saturday night, the gymnasium fell silent. Along with his first and last eagle feather, Cpl. Lundstrom was about to receive something even more enduring.”This evening I want to take a few minutes of your time to name my grandson,” said Birgil Kills Straight, Cpl. Lundstrom’s great-uncle. “Before he enters the spirit world, it’s important for him to have an Indian name, because that’s how the ancestors will know him,” he said.

Earlier that night, Kills Straight had gone to an Inipi, a sweat lodge, to pray for the name, and to ask the spirits to guide the fallen warrior.

After the ceremony, long after midnight, the Marines would take Lundstrom’s body into the tepee, where Lakota beliefs hold that the spirits of Lundstrom’s ancestors would communicate with his.

First, Kills Straight said, they needed to know who he was.

“His name is Wanbli Isnala,” Kills Straight said, and then translated: “Lone Eagle.”

With that, he took the eagle feather, walked to the open casket, and placed it on the Marine’s chest.

(more…)

This image is a good example of how effective black and white photography can be for winter landscapes. I captured this image last week at Grant Park in Centerville, Ohio. The original image was a full-color, digital capture. I desaturated the image in Photoshop for the conversion.

I’m still working on the “Photographs” page on calmphotos.com. I like working in WordPress. The problem is trying to find a good, easy to use image editor and picture display plug-in. WordPress was just not designed for photographers in mind. If anyone knows of a good photo management plug-in, please email me.

Seth Godin has a great example on what can happen when a well-known name doesn’t equate into branding success across product lines. The only exception I can think of is George Foreman and that cooker/grill thingy.

I’m quickly discovering that websites, blogs and the internet are developing and changing at a pace that’s challenging for just about anyone to keep up with. The good news is that these developments are creating all types of new opportunities for making my presence known and marketing my photographs and photoraphy services.

The bad news is that there is SO MUCH to learn. No longer can a business get by with just having a standard, “static” website. Now things have moved toward interactive blogs for customers, prospects and visitors. That’s why I recommend Dave Esrati’s half-day course of blogging and the internet.

I took the seminar this past Thursday. For just $99.00 it’s a heck of a deal, especially if you have your own business and you want to take advantage of marketing your business via blogging and the internet. There’s a lot to know and understand, however, Dave presents the info in a way that’s easy to understand. Best of all, it’s fun. More fun than a trunk monkey with a crowbar (inside joke - take the seminar).

No, not really. I just wanted to get your attention. Although some readers may think this is a professional photography trade secret, what I’m sharing over on my Squidoo Lens is actually a fairly well known Photoshop technique easily taught in most intro courses in digital photography. Besides, I enjoy helping others learn, and if they turn around and compete directly with me, well all the better. There’s plenty to go around.

The technique I’m referring to is that of handcoloring, or at least that’s what I call it.

I take any one of my color images, convert it to black and white and then bring out the original color within chosen areas of the photograph. I’ve posted a sample with this post.

I could have copied and pasted my step-by-step, how-to text from my Squidoo Lens, but I want to do my part in promoting Squidoo, which is a great new e-platform for sharing information and spreading ideas, introduced by Seth Godin.

The gunmetal sky of a winter’s day

Finally ends with a brief amber glow

Darkness comes early on this January eve

Skeletal fingers of a thousand trees sway on a northerly wind

Scratching, breaking open the heavy ceiling that brought yesterday’s snow

The night visitor is in the east

The Winter Moon makes his presence known

His skyward journey now begins

Silent shadows cast on beds of white

Through the frosted glass, backlight to dreams of warmer days

The darkness of my mind’s winter can not last

As the Winter Moon always returns
So does life and the seasons, for what was feared to have been lost now begins

And deep into the woodland the winged cat makes his haunting call

The first to nest and hope is he

And in the stillness of my half-sleep

With Orion’s eyes between bare trees

The Winter Moon announces, The dark silence of this January night may be mine, but share the sky I must with the renewed life that is sure to follow me

Thanks to a recommendation from David over at Voice, I went and ordered Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. I highly recommend this book for anyone who works in marketing or has their own business (and guess what, if you have your own business, then you definitely are a marketer).

Purple Cow is short and easy to read. In fact most people could probably finish the entire book during a two hour plane ride. What Godin’s book lacks in number of pages and bulk (and who has time anymore for a big, heavy business book), it more than makes up for it in quality of content. Godin does an excellent job in describing just how much advertising has changed over the last 20 years and what it will take to grow and market a business in today’s business environment. Here’s clue - find out who the “sneezers” are in your community. I’m beginning to get a good idea of who in Dayton is effective at spreading an “ideavirus.” Unfortunately, they are far and few between.

Anyway, what caught my attention while reading the Cow last evening was one of Godin’s examples of a “purple cow” in the elevator industry. It was his reference to Schindler Elevator’s innovative way to market themselves ahead of of their competition by simply changing the way their customers use their product, versus changing the product. Makes perfect sense in an industry where getting the customer excited about the product can be, well, challenging at best. I know because I’ve been there.

My last job back in the “corporate world” was that of Marketing Communications Specialist for Fujitec Co., Ltd., the parent company of Fujitec America, Inc. And what is Fujitec you may be asking? Their one of Schindler’s competitors in the elevator and escalator industry, along with Otis and Kone. Fujitec is a Japanese owned and managed company with operations in Asia, Europe, South America and North America. They’re a good, well-managed company with an emphasis on technical innovation and quality. Fujitec was also a good learning experience for me, not only about the Japanese style of business and management but also about business-to-business marketing in the commercial construction industry.

I didn’t know too much about elevators before joining Fujitec, but I soon learned that the operated in a very competitive industry with limited methods to market their products. For all practical purposes elevator companies are engineering-based organizations. In other words marketing is often an afterthought. The big, industry trade shows is where many of these firms place the bulk of their advertising dollars, if they decide to spend any at all.

I wish I would have been exposed to more thought-leaders like Seth Godin when I was with Fujitec. The best I could come up with was an advertising campaign, with logos and a slogan, promoting the service side of their business. I thought this is where the Company could gain some distance from their competition in the elevator industry. I think I made some progress with my idea. The website for Fujitec America still has the press release about the campaign as being the most recent posted on their website, and it’s dated June 22, 2001!

Hey, maybe my idea was a purple cow ?!?! Not.