Calm Photos

Yes, there is such a thing as press that’s less than positive. Sometimes it’s completely non-intentional and the negative effects aren’t realized until a few years down the road. Shortly after I started my photography business in 2003, the Dayton Daily News ran a full-page story about my work with nature and landscape photography. It was a good article. I can’t complain about that. The problem is that it ran at a time (early stage of going into business) when I held the mistaken belief that I could actually make a living solely based on the fine art market for nature, landscape and wildlife photography. The lasting negative effect of both that initial belief and particular article is that I’ve been permanently pigeon holed as just a “nature photographer” here in my local market, and I accept full responsibility.

I received a quick and expensive education to the contrary once the payables far outstretched the receivables. Even today people in Dayton keep mentioning “the article” and how much they are a “great fan of my nature and landscape photographs.” Daytonians love my work so much that they email or call me quite frequently asking me to donate a print to some silent auction or donate services or donate licensing rights. Donate, donate, donate. “It’s a great way to get your name out there.”

If I hear that phrase one more time I’m going to go out of my mind. Uh, I’m pretty sure that here in Dayton my name is out there. Perhaps that’s part of the problem ??

Here’s one the few certain things I’ve learned now that I’ve been in business as a photographer in the Dayton area going on five years now. The only thing that results from donations are more requests for donations, plus a whole host of hobbyists fishing for free info (that’s why I added paid workshops and lessons to my list of services).

Anyhoo, the truth is that my bread and butter is my commercial and assignment photography services, particularly in covering events, architectural projects, business portraits, products, processes, and a recent pick-up in activity for family portraiture.

Posted below is a new flyer I put together highlighting some of the recent architectural projects that I photographed. If I had to decide which area of commercial photography that I enjoy the most, I would have to say architecture followed closely by editorial and event work.

And yes, I will always hold-on to my first love of nature and landscape photography. However, I like to consider myself as a “renaissance man” in the field of photography. I can’t stand being pigeon holed - whether it applies to my professional or my personal life. What is it about this area of the Midwest that people feel so comfortable being permanently stuck in ruts - ruts of the same old way of doing business, day in and day out, and of applying convenient labels to one another.

Change, expand, adapt, learn, move forward. When things get too comfortable, then I know it’s time to light a fire under my @%# and get moving. In the words of Martha Stewart, “it’s a good thing.” Yesterday an old friend - originally from Dayton but who has also lived elsewhere (and that means out of Ohio) - commented that there’s just this “negative energy” to the area. I think it comes from so many of my fellow Daytonians falling into their comfortable zones and well, becoming permanent residents in the bland land of security and predictability. That’s not living. That’s just simply waiting.

I did quite a variety of commercial and assignment photo shoots this past year. Everything from food, medical facilities, dental office, home interiors, waterproofing product application, small families, big groups and events.The following images are my personal favorites from those and other commercial photography shoots. I thought it would be important to emphasize this body of work given all the nature and landscape work I’ve been posting recently.

Is Jim Crotty a nature photographer ? Is Jim Crotty a portrait photographer ? Does Jim Crotty do commercial work ?

Yes, yes and yes - for God’s and cash flow sake, yes (just no weddings, please). I’m hearing more and more that here in Dayton I’m regarded as strictly a nature photographer. That could be part of the problem why I struggle do to business in this town. Sometimes I’m in a fight against my own success. But I still believe there’s another, more negative reason why this is the case. In fact, I actually know it to be true. More on that later. For now here are my personal favorites from my commercial assignments for 2007.

      

. . . And one final yank on the political chain before the weekend . . . You may hate the man, you may completely disagree with him, but what Rush Limbaugh did this week was one of the most classy, beautiful moves I’ve ever seen. That’s the way it’s done folks. Outstanding.

Semper Fi, Rush !

Below is a photograph of the exterior of my photo studio, located on Far Hills Ave. in Centerville. It’s a nice location. Much better than the smaller office space I occupied in Kettering when I first got started. Notice the nice, new sign with outside light fixtures, which were not exactly inexpensive.

Ground floor entrances on both sides, plenty of parking, easy access, lots of space for studio shoots. When I moved here I was told by the property management company I lease through that there would be “lots of traffic” due to “high visibility.”

Yup, I get lots of traffic all right. A day does not go by (and by no means am I exaggerating) when I don’t receive at least one visit from a sales rep of some sort. The most common variety are those selling advertising, followed by phone systems and then insurance. One particular phone company has had at least a half dozen different reps come in and call on me over the last year. How a company can turn people over like that and still make money is beyond me, but hey, I guess that’s the nature of that industry. And let’s not forget those steady “request for donations.” About a year ago I placed “no soliciting” signs near both my doors. All that did was encourage them, so this morning (after getting bombarded yesterday) I placed my own “What part of no soliciting do you not understand ?” signs right at eye level next to each door.

I’m in my final year of a three year lease. After two years I can honestly conclude that for every 50 unsolicited sales calls I receive, I may get one prospective customer, and even then they’re almost always shopping for price versus quality. It’s great in Dayton.

Time for me to move on. I thought about making the big move last year, but I was talked into staying through a heavy application of guilt. Something happened last week with a major installation of fine art nature photography at a new, local hospital that finally pushed me over the edge and encouraged me again to pursue the much needed change.

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There are plenty of photographers with good equipment and some technical skill.

There are a few less with good equipment, technical skill and the ability and experience to function as a professional - within their career field as well as with their clients.

There are far, far fewer photographers who possess all of the above in addition to what is most important - Creative Vision.

I am in that very small minority. The photographs presented with this post should illustrate my point. I am not just a “nature and landscape photographer,” or a “commercial photographer,” or a “portrait photographer.”

I am a visual artist who brings a unique creative vision to both personal and client-assigned work, bringing forth the extraordinary from the ordinary.

My photography is how I envision light and subject through my own creative approach toward life. Although my subject matter is widely varied, the one constant is my personal drive, skills and talent in capturing photographs and creating images that no one else could previously see and compose.

That’s what I bring to the table.

I actively seek clients - both for assignment work as well as purchasers of fine art prints and licensing rights - that are located throughout North America and beyond. In no way am I beholden to my local market - in terms of creativity, capability or short-term business necessity.

Please call 1-877-527-6889 or email jim@ohiophoto.org for more information about how my creative vision can enhance and add significantly to the visual effectiveness of your marketing and advertising efforts, printed materials, organizational web site or decorative presentation of your office location.

First Impressions is my second Blurb book. This one includes information and samples about my commercial and editorial photography and photography services, including recent images from food, product, portrait and architectural photo shoots. It is 22 pages in length, full color and comes in either hard or soft cover formats.

I work with many different types of commercial clients, from corporate marketing managers and executives to magazine editors to book publishers to home builders and architects. I also provide a fair amount of portrait work for a number of retail clients. For all I apply the same tried and proven method of digital work flow and backup of image files.

In about 95% of my assignments I shoot in what is known as digital raw file format, on both my Canon 1D and 5D cameras. Shooting in raw format (which leaves the original digital capture unprocessed in the camera) provides me the greatest latitude for editing and fine-tuning via Aperture or Photoshop on my Macintosh desktop and laptop systems. From the raw file I can create just about any size JPEG or TIFF file while maintaining optimal quality for the client’s use of the image, whether it be for a web site, broadcast television or print publication.

The rare occasions that I shoot in JPEG format are usually for my own personal work that involves fast moving sports, wildlife and event photography, however, even in those cases it is becoming less and less common as card capacity (a raw file takes up about two or three times as much memory space as a high-quality JPEG) continues to go up and card prices go down.

I view and treat all original raw files as my original, digital “negative.” Notice the use of the word “my.” Unless the client is willing to purchase full, exclusive rights to the photographs taken for an assignment, they do not receive the original raw image files. What I provide my clients, per their intended use specifications, are JPEG or TIFF versions of the original raw file.

All of my original raw image capture files are carefully backed-up on removable media even before I put the CompactFlash card into the card reader for editing and processing. The removable media, with the raw files, is carefully marked with the shoot date and client information and stored in a fire-proof safe.

If something were to happen to the working versions that are on my hard drives I have the peace of mind knowing that the original raw digital “negative” files are safe and secure. I also provide peace of mind for the client in the possible event they lose track of the JPEG or TIFF versions provide to them or if those JPEG’s or TIFF’s become opened and saved so often that they begin to degrade in quality.

I bring this point up as one of the many benefits of doing business with an experienced, professional photographer. Working in smaller market such as Dayton - where sometimes the value of true professional photography goes a bit undervalued - I routinely see situations where local companies and ad agencies try to cut corners as much as possible when it comes to photography of their products, services or facilities. They’ll usually go with a family friend who “does photography on the side,” a young person just out of school or worse yet, they try to do it themselves.

Almost always they end-up with what they pay for, and not just in terms of poor quality (is that really how you would want the world to view your products and services ???) but also no backup of the original raw file - that is if they are even shooting in raw format.

A year or two goes by and sure enough no one can find the original file when it comes time to print that brochure, community report or new ad for the trade magazine.

Bottom line: hire a professional photographer and ask him or her about what format he or she shoots in and if they backup the original image files, and if so, what medium is used.

After two years of being in my Centerville location, where I manage the studio and gallery for Picture Ohio, LLC, I’ve finally acted on a few friendly suggestions on improving my visibility. Just yesterday Signetics - a local sign-making company that I highly recommend - delivered the new sign for my storefront. What an improvement ! This time I didn’t try to do the design myself, wisely leaving it up to the staff at Signetics. I am more than pleased with the design and the final product. The sing clearly communicates the emphasis on who I am and what I do versus my previous self-designed sign that simply emphasized the name of my business, Picture Ohio, LLC.

Looking back I think that name was throwing a lot of people off the fact that I provide photography services that include studio portraits, commercial/assignment, product, architectural as well as host of other digital imaging services PLUS the continued creation and sale of fine art nature, landscape and cityscape prints and photographs for decoration and stock licensing.

I was also motivated by the fact that I installed some exterior lights near my signs, on both the front and back entrances. Now I can safely say “just look for the big photography sign” when giving people directions to my studio and gallery.

Jim Crotty Photography

The static web site for Jim Crotty Photography and Picture Ohio, LLC isn’t so static anymore.

This site has gone through many changes, several software programs, four additional URL’s and three different hosting companies since it first went live, several years prior to the start of Picture Ohio, LLC in 2003. It first served as a way to showcase my personal portfolio of nature and landscape photography before being morphed into the main site for my photography business. During most of that time I used Microsoft FrontPage on a Windows-based desktop system for design and management of ohiophoto.org. I’ve never considered myself much of a web designer, by any stretch of the imagination, which is why I’ve used FrontPage for so long. Basically, if you can use Microsoft Word you can use FrontPage. It’s pretty basic and reliable, but it’s not exactly web 2.0-friendly.

Then something started to change, about a year ago when I invested in a MacBook Pro. I was re-born as a Mac addict. Apple had been my very first desktop computing platform of choice, back when Aldus PageMaker (now Adobe) first arrived on the scene, way, way back in 1987. I used Apples from that point up until I took my first job with a company that used only Windows-based systems, which was Vocational Resources International in Salt Lake City, about 1999. From that point it was Windows and PC’s, even when I started Picture Ohio, LLC and finally landed along the career path which I should have taken many years ago, that being professional photography.

After several painful lessons of trying to manage digital processing, editing and printing from a Windows PC, I have returned to the desktop platform that was, and continues to be, inherently designed for us “creative types” - designers, illustrators, graphic artists and most important of all, photographers. About two months ago I made the big, final leap back into the Mac pool with the purchase of a Mac Pro Quad Xeon 64-bit workstation with a refurbished 23″ Apple Cinema Display. I still have my old Dell PC, which still does a stand-up job of serving my Epson 7600 printer, but now almost 99% of my work in editing, processing and cataloging all of my digital photographs is completed on my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro, made even more efficient through the use of Apple Aperture. The transfer of files works flawlessly over a wireless network that I manage with an Apple Airport Extreme, between both Macs as well as with the old Dell PC. And the slide show presentations that I now present in my studio via the Apple TV unit connected to a Sony Bravia are beyond breathtaking. My digital darkroom and studio is just about where I’ve always felt it should be.

This gets me back to the original point of this post, and that is the newly re-designed web site for ohiophoto.org, pictureohio.com, picturesqueohio.com and jimcrotty.com. I’ve trashed the old FrontPage site and replaced it with one created and managed using a program designed for Mac users called RapidWeaver. So far I really like it. The program seems to provide the functionality of WordPress with some of the best features of Dreamweaver. The best part is that I can now manage my site from my MacBook Pro from just about anywhere at anytime, as is the case with my WordPress blog, calmphotos.com.