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Diary: Setting Up The Business

April XV, 07

Right, so here I am and I made that decision, not an easy one, to write a diary on this fine forum.

I do not fear to embarrass myself, I can laugh about myself. But I fear to fail, this is for sure!

So what?

I was in many situations in my life that were life threatening, I saw human despair und suffering on scales that most of the people in my peer groups will never witness, so I hope! So what Bear? You are afraid to fail. Suck it up, face it! <smiles>

The purpose of this diary is two fold, one purpose has to do only with myself, I explain later, the other side is a more altruistic approach, I chose to share the pitfalls, the up and downs, the heavens and the hell of doing what I try to do. It may be of value for others who plan the same at some stage. What happened so far?

Not even a month ago I decided that I want to be serious about my photography. I want to achieve commercial success on a scale that allows me to make a living from nothing lese but photography, selling prints that is.

My first target audience? -Tourists -

We have a National Park close by that has a seasonal high frequency of international visitors, as well as other outlets that offer prints.

What to do first? - Marketresearch -

Not long ago I went there and to other places on purpose to talk to the managers, I looked at the prints on offer and was shocked to the bone. For example, a display, one of those who you can rotate around, loaded with matted prints wrapped in foil, but "What the Heck is that?" I look at each and every single picture. "This can not be!" I go to the manager and introduce myself as someone who might wish to join his outlet with fine art prints at some stage, and I ask him as to how successfully this sells, pointing towards the display. He laughs and lets me know that fresh baked warm bread sells probably less successful. I thank him for the conversation and ask for his details, take his business card and leave.

I am speachless. The quality of the photographs and execution in print was really not what I would have thought to be a seller. A5 matted, some of them look like taken with a point and shoot from 2-3 years ago and printed on epson R300, I really think so because I have that consumer printer myself. Motivs out of focus, massively blown out highlights in the landscapes, well, all in all not what I expected to find. The prices? Fasten your seat belt, between 30-50 Euro each across the outlets and parks that I visited!

Allright, this is interesting.

They operate with a hefty 20%-35% cut, but I can calculate my prices accordingly.

2 Weeks ago.....

Photoshop. Oh my God. What a program! I need to study this, where to start? Amazon!

4 days later some "people arrive".... Katrin Eismann, Dan Marguis, Martin Evening, Alain Briot, John Beardsworth, Roger Ping, Scott Kelby, Uwe Steinmueller, Doc Baumann, Heiko Neumeier, Matt Kloskowsky, Adrian Bircher and more arrive at my doorstep and demand entry.

My eyes are red, my coffee consume high, my screen sucks, I feel edgy, my wrist hurts, I order a WACOM INTUOS 3, it comes, but without the pen, thanks a million. Grmbl. A lot of phone calls and flippin eamils to get that pen here. Unbelievable, this is customer service. Yeah right!

Layers, Masks, Colormanagement, Preferences, Actions, Scripts, Brushes, Pencils, Lab mode, Adobe RGB, Ditgitall Asset Management, Sharpening, Blurring, Blending Modes, Filters.... "Tanka", I call my dog and leave the house and walk to the beach, I am exhausted. I am not 20 anymore and I realize stuff takes so much longer for me to stick to the brain, much longer in deed. In my twenties, I was able to eat that in much shorter time. It is disheartening. "Suck it up!"

Right, so there is that mountian in front of me, a businessplan needs to be developed, pictures need to be taken and to become better, much better, photoshop skills need to be learned as quick as possible, and money.... well, this is another one, a big one. Our assets are in our development project which is on budget and on plan, I am proud of that! But there is not much room for manovering, I need to make a list of most important investments that have to be tackled to start. can not do everything at the same time. Priortize!

A dolphin stranded on the beach. I am in tears. Life is too short to not enjoy it to the fullest. "Calm down! Yes, you want all this to happen yesterday, but it will take time!" I call the authorities and let them know of the dolphin, climb up the clifs and watch over the atlantic. Last year I found another dolphin on the beach, his partner was still out there, for days circling in the bay, looking for her partner. I do not see another one right now.

I made my first prints last October, 30x24 and 40x30, stretched canvas, regardless who saw them, all mentioned I would have to start selling my pictures.

I always laughed, I am not laughing anymore. I started this journey now, and I look forward to it, whatever will be....

tbc.

Jurassic.jpg


Donegal.jpg
 

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Yes, I can relate....

I love your writing style...I am in the same boat, so to speak - wanting to earn my keep behind the lens, but, I am still learning. I have a business plan and take a few steps every day toward implementation of that goal. While I have a zillion travel photos, I could make into fine art, and maybe will do so at a point, I am setting up a studio for portrait and maybe some commercial stuff while learning Photoshop and trying to market myself - all while keeping my day job! But I never met a challenge I did not enjoy!
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi Georg
we'll follow your diary!
what a chance for OPF to be able to share your thoughts, mind good-bad.
I wish you a great success, you have the skill, the location, the landscape to shoot and apparently some clients "turning" around. Yes you are on target!
PS CS ? post here we'll hellp you as much as we can !

I did set-up my business from scratch too with my wife 14 years ago when I was a bit younger than you're today.
It was (still is) an advertising agency dedicated to the yachting industry. Boat photography came later... when I was pretty sure that I had enough clients for.

Ther's one thing (among plenty others, but off topic ;-) that I do bad is printing.
I want the best prints for my clients. So what? I work with a lab. Ok It's easy for me, they are 3 km from our office, but I still send them my files thru FTP... The very big enlargements are done in Paris and I receive the prints within 3 days. They are used to my files so I had only one to refuse for years of good service.
If you order the same prints by sy 20 pieces, you'll get good prices !

And, by the way, you can concentrate on photography and marketing...

Just my 2 cents of €

We'll be glad to see your progress in your new life and happy to help as far as I can, I'm sure all other OPF member will do so to, so is OPF spirit!

Cheers!
I really love Ireland (so do my wife too!), be prepared for a visit one day!
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
I really love Ireland (so do my wife too!), be prepared for a visit one day!
Some years ago we made a tour in Ireland, and we do remember a marvelous tiime we spent in Ballyshannon. Are you far from there?
We spent a night in a fabulous B&B.
At night we went to a very small pub -no tourists there!- and asked for an Irish coffe, the right place for it were my thought...
They gave me a real coffee with marvelous cream but... no whisky.
I thought for myself should I complain or is the way they drink Irish coffee here?
Finally I decided to very politely complain...
Of course whisky was missing and I got plenty! all the guys in the pub laughed as loud as they could and believe me we had very good time there, my wife, my son and I !!!

I already told you, we do love Ireland!
 
April XVI, 07

I still have to do some catch up here to be on the same page. I thought about the form of this diary and I decided I will post every sunday, except today that is.

I am listening to Gutsav Mahler's 5th Symphony, Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 1988. The first public performance was 1906 in my hometown in Cologne, Gustav conducted himself. Awwww.... Mahler, talk about great Orchestras, massive, I do not know how often I listened to him during my life.

If you ever need to take a deep long breath, I recommend you to listen to the 4th movement, the short Adagietto of the 5th Symphony, this is the most peaceful, solitude, tranquile, deeply introverted and most romantic slow movement. As a matter of fact, I urge you, I beg you, please start listening to classical music daily if you do not do so already, as the creative you are, you owe it to yourself to sharpen your senses, and this is what classical music does amongst so many other things. I read somewhere that the sale of classic CD's counts for not more than 1% overall. I am not astonished anymore. In our "Pop-idol-karaokee-punk-horney-fast-food-tele-insanity" this is not astonishing at all. <grins>

I would be very astonished if you would disagree to my description when I say this is a breathtaking beauty! So was Alma Schindler, the woman he dated during he wrote this symphony and married shortly after. Mahler's 5th started a new epoch for him, in his life as well as his symphonic work.

Lenny (Leonard Bernstein) once said, "Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable. "

Photography can do the same, I am 100% certain on that part, in different ways, photographs can connect you to a deeper sense, I really should say to THE deeper sense of creation in deed.

I so very much hope I will be able to achieve this one day, as it is my ultimate goal. Towards this goal I work, and one of these days, the sleepless nights and countless solitude hours will pay of. There will be a day when someone in this world looks at one of my prints and is stunned, touched by heart, his mind calm, his heart open, sensing the beauty of creation, and may be, just may be this picture will have changed his world a little bit.

Lenny was right, there are three realms of knowledge, the known, the unknown and the unknowable. And it is the latter that can only be experienced as the individuals we are. Or in the words of Douglas Spotted Eagle, "We are all humans, five fingered humans, and as such we are all the same". ----

My plan is starting slowly to fill with my input and ideas. I will create a Portfolio, the river Gweebara, from it's spring to the point where it meets the Atlantic.

16 pictures not more. 16 Pictures in may be four categories, wide angle, close up, 50mm and Tele. The river is rich in important irish history, once was rich in trout and slamon as well, not anymore, and Brian contribuetd towards this lovely book about the Gweebara River. Brian Cannon, our local postmaster and local historian is very fond of my pictures, his post office is full of pictures from the centuries, it is an amazing place he created there. I love it! Everytime I go there we end up talking about photography. After a while I started to show him my attempts, made a few prints and brought them with me, and embarrassing enough, the next time I went there my pictures where all over the place. I really was embarrased, not anymore, but I really did not expect that to happen. So in a sense the local post office became my first gallery exhibition, and I get weekly feedback on my work from Brian, what the locals think about it. This is very nice and useful in deed! I love it! Thank you Brian. - Note to self: send Brian a link! -

16 Pictures of the very best quality that I can come up with, matted and printed to the highest standard we can achieve these days. I already started shooting since a week or so. Got a few keepers, but will need to shoot many many more. - Just a moment.... changing CD. Filmmusik, Lord of the Rings. I love it! <smiles!> -

Another idea developed on the subject of marketresearch. Let's assume I would have 80 pictures, technically not challenged, esthetically pleasing, very good pictures. How in the Hell do I know which one would sell and which doesn't? I am biased, so much is certain.

Here is the solution. I will buy 2 of those long wallpaper tables for painters. I will take those 80 pictures, once I have them that is, and lay them out in blocks of 20, 4 x 20 pictures in rotation. 80 pictures in one go are too much.

Now, I can see myself with this setup in the national park nearby, hopefully they allow me to do that, but I think they will. People walk by and look at them, I will ask them to chose the 4 pictures they like the most. I talk to them and ask them why. I have my 4 favorites already earmarked, I will give them 1x matted A5 print as a "thank you" for their efforts and time. I will do that for a few days until I have sufficient data to draw conclusions. This way I can get a feeling for the market, the people who come there, how they perceive my work, and what they like best. Then I can compare this with my own 4 favorites, I can not wait to do that, this will be a very interesting experience in deed.

So, I have to create 80 Keepers first, pheew, now here is a goal!

I have to start to act like a managing director again when it comes to my business. It seems so long ago that I was in that position, but you never loose some aspects of it. It is a funny thought, I am employee, apprentice, managing director, CFO, CEO all in one now.

Brainstorming! A very important exercise, everything is allowed, just go with the flow and spit out ideas, collect them, bundle them, discuss them, choose the best, compare it with best practise and go for it. That's how it works.

The other 2 ideas are webpresence and slideshows.

I am a zombie when it comes to website creation, not a clue in the world, so I will have to relay on externals, and I made some preliminary contacts last week. Downloadable PDF slideshows with my own music composed towards them. I hope this will be a successful thing to do and that the feedback is somewhat positive. Well, positive enough to make this a permanent feature on my site. Not only a catalog that you can browse, but also these special downloads. Here is what is on my mind. "Please register with your details and choose the slideshow/slideshows that you wish to download, I will send you the link to the download page afterwards".... get my drift?....
" Do you wish to receive a monthly email on the latest editions? Yes/No....

One slideshow accessable for everyone on the site without registration. It has to be a damn good one!

See you next sunday.

tbc.

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David J. Eves

New member
I like your taste in music

It is myheart felt opinion that the second movment of Beethoven's ninth symphony SHOULD BE required liwstneing for all !!

Very interesting diary, YOur huge prints blow me away,

I kinda sell my photos in a different manner.. What would a jumbo size that huge sell for ?

I was workinig at a nuclear power plant in the desert. Lampson built a crane out there that could lift and crawl with 1000 tons. I took one photo og that huge crane that was 3 city blocks long. and sold 100's of copies @ 3 bucks I made over 12,000 in just under 3 months.

As far as your comments about which ones to choose and which one? Let the public decide. they always have a different eye than you would expect. But they are your greatest source of what is more popular than other images.

We were surprised in our tiny gallery on 4th Ave in Anchorage


rollover_1.jpg

Images we thought would sell big.. didn't sell nearly enough as others we never even thought were saleable ! so go figure.

But we made way more money and had a far more positive reaction than we ever figured possible! People from over 33 different countries purchased images here. It was a thrill to meet so many wonderful people from all over the world.

Our new store will be so much larger and with a full array of Native hand made clothing. baleen baskets, artifacts, and of course video's and photographs and so much more.

good luck in your new adventure.!! Practice.. .. makes "better" !
 
On different note, yes please, by all means feel free to post into this diary, I may not always answer in the thread, but certainly will answer via Private Message when my time allows it.

Thanks ChatKat, Nicolas and David!

I was workinig at a nuclear power plant in the desert. Lampson built a crane out there that could lift and crawl with 1000 tons. I took one photo og that huge crane that was 3 city blocks long. and sold 100's of copies @ 3 bucks I made over 12,000 in just under 3 months.

Yes, Beethoven for sure, big times! <smiles>

This an interesting example which leads me to a question David. Do you mind me asking?

@3 Bucks and $12,000 revenue in under 3 month this means you would have sold something like 1300 copies per month.

What size were the prints? Post card size I assume.

How did you manage to reach this number of 1300 per month?

P.S.
As a matter of course, I do let the public decide, this is the inherent reason for the described exercise.
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David J. Eves

New member
The Prints

THE PRINTS WERE ALL 8X10" color.

They were all done at this sink every evening 100 8 x 10's would be processed.

First I would expose a complete box of paper sheet by sheet and box them back up.

Kodak states that with practice you can process three sheets of paper at the same time by clipping one corner of the paper and interleaving them one upon the other upon the other and keep doing that while agitating. With much practice they claim six sheets can be done at the same time. Well I / we got so good at doing six sheets at a time that we soon developed a "ballet" for doing 20 sheets in one shot at a time, every 5 seconds a new sheet would go into the tray. every 5 seconds when the time was up they would come out. it required the careful skilled "ballet" of two people in unison to pull this off.

drkrm15.jpg





I was working at a nuclear power plant under construction. Each craft had a tool shack.

in other words, if you needed special tools, you would go to the appropriate tool shack.

Threre was a labor force on that job of impressive proportions.

1000 electricans

1000 carpenters

1000 pipe fitters

1000 Iron workers

etc..

so every morning at 7:am I would drop off a box of 100 8 x 10's to a different trades tool shack.

I WENT TO WORK broke every morning, and by 9.am I WOULD HAVE 300 bucks in my pocket.

this went on every day 5 days a week. for many months.

I was known as the KODAK KID! I opened DEE photo center in the tri-cities in that year 1979 David Eddie & Eddie DEE photo center !

So @ 300 per day 5 days per week $1,500 was a hefty sum to be pulling in in that time.

that was damn good money! but it took 4 months because not every single night in all those months did I score a perfect night in the darkroom.! some nights I had other things to do.. ha ha ha ha ha.. !!

I had a Durst semi auto processor, but doing them by hand was much quicker and faster.
After each run 3/4 a quart of new chemicals was added to the tray to replenish it./ them. I remember it well. we did it so much and had so much fun.

I have always made money by selling volume cheaplly. No one minded paying 3 bucks for a gorgeous color print in those days.. my cost was about 32 cents per copy.
chemicalsl & paper only..

but yes! that is how I did it, sounds preposterous but I am known for doing things like this all the time.! no matter which state I am in (pun intended)!

read3.JPG


I often take photos of complete strangers, and sell them to complete strangers!

What a business!! YoU ARE only limited by YOUR IMAGINATION.
 
Week 2

April XXII, 07

Enormous tragedy struck in Virginia a few days ago. Now there are 32 families in immense pain, traumatized and try to find a way to get their life back, the loss of their child, brother, sister will have inevitably changed their lives forever. Someone who apparently was mentally ill went on a killing spree. It is in these moments that we are stunned and shocked beyond belief, the daily struggles and problems shrink to a very small portion in face of such atrocity.

Senseless, insane, and other attributes come to mind, and for a short while something amazing happens, people you never saw in your life want to shake your hand, want to hug you, and “share” that pain, they send you letters, call your phone, you will be under siege!

I say for a short while, because I know how this works, the ones who are directly effected let aside, but the Onlookers, the people that you have not heard from ever before in your life and that stand beside you all of the sudden as if they are your life long best buddies, they will come, they claim to have that T-Shirt and they want to put their arms around you when the camera is online, they might appear in their hundreds, even thousands at times, sending you mails, knocking at your door, people in suits “representing the blah-blah-better-life-xyz-organisation”, politicians, the neighbour that threatened to kill your dog, the managing director of the local Taco Bell, they are all here, from all over the world they show up, but there is hope, rest assured, they are gone soon, very soon, when the cameras are offline they disappear, and you are on your own again and have to bear the grief and pain on your own as it should be, and try to find back into a life with some sense of normality, if you did not break down under the tremendous pressure of those Onlookers that is!

There is a poll on this website about guns that was opened short afterwards VT happened, and rightly so. One of the answering options says, “ Yes. It is people that kill people….Guns are not inherently evil.”

Excuse me friends, but my red flags are up when I read such rhetoric. Analyse this yourself for a short moment and you might agree. Of course, cars are not evil, trains are not either, so what? Oh, I missed something? Really? I don’t think so!

But o.k. let us see, it implies that because an object does not inherit the evil aspect, whatever that might be, people shall be allowed to own it, right? Sub consequently we need to get rid of people then instead, to solve the problem that occurred through ownership and the abuse of a few, right? Yeah well, we tried that too, and the US prison statistics do speak a clear language on that part in deed.

This statement “Guns are not evil, people are” is probably as old as the Rifle Association, probably even older than Charlton Heston. Charlton Who? <grins> Weapons are as old as mankind, and older. Ethic is as old as mankind, not older! It is an ethical question, a moral obligation. Period.

The ultimate scenario, to take some ones life, to protect others that are innocent etc., it exists of course, as do other valid scenarios, but what we witness in our times has nothing to do with that fundamental ethical right anymore.

28 years ago back in Germany , I had to go to a tribunal to argue and give reason why I refuse military service, it was up to them to decide whether I have to serve or are allowed to spend time in public social service instead. I made a point with my education as I was training Shotokan Karate and AiKiDo. It was documented in my written statement that I refuse to serve “my country” with arms on these grounds, and btw. why in the Hell should I care and a possible armed conflict be my problem anyways just because I have “German” stamped into my passport coincidently. Well, I am not complaining, I could have pulled the looser card, and have Palaestinian stamped in it instead.

So they thought they can feed on my martial arts education and have an easy game, but I refused to play it and argued with Immanuel Kant’s categoric imperative instead. I won in the first instance of three possible.

It is this martial arts education and Kant’s categoric imperative that has formed me early and in important parts as the person I am today and it is out of this perspective I shall end this introduction when I beg you to remember that exactly this enormous tragedy in Virginia Tech that we witnessed, that we followed globally with a massive 24/7 media coverage on hundreds of satellites, that exactly this tragedy strikes on a daily basis since many years now and ruined thousands not “only” 32, but thousands of families, parents, sisters, brothers…. in Iraq! ---- Peace is more than only the absence of war! Are we Onlookers? ----



I am listening to Franz Schubert, Alfred Brendel playing, Schubert was with me since my childhood, somehow I always come back to the Sonatas.

A week of 16 hour days behind me, as I write here I reward myself with a glas of burgundy and some music. I know one thing for certain by now, if you try to set this up yourself, and should be under the impression that it takes you to shoot a bunch of stunning landscapes and sell them, be warned, it takes a lot more, a helluva lot more.

The mountain in front of me gets bigger as the days pass by, then again <grins> that means that I am getting closer, doesn’t it?

I visited Brian, the local postmaster/historian, at his home the first time. We talked a good while about this project and he is very interested and it was nice chatting with him and his wife Mary. As a result, I will meet the author who wrote the book on Gweebara River that I mentioned earlier. He has intimate knowledge of the history and environment. It is important to me for many reasons. To shoot this 16 prints portfolio requires more than only finding unusual spots, stunning sights and the right light, this will come anyway with countless shootings, but I wish to learn as much as possible about the history and the people who lived here, the environment, the geology, well, the whole package.

It is my belief that the more intimate knowledge I can get, the better the chances are that the end result will reflect that.

The second portfolio is also in planning already, Glenveagh National Park, and this will be only one of many that I plan to do on Glenveagh. I have already a contact to the responsible Ranger who is in charge of the Golden Eagle Project and I hope to meet him soon.

Portfolios the way I envision them require more than only shooting and printing first class pictures, much more in deed, a lot of preparation and groundwork has to be achieved first, I am working on it.

Now to another aspect, and I apologize up front to the established landscape photographers here who might read those lines as they know this all to well, but I write in a broader sense and might even publish those lines one day, who knows, the target audience might be people who share that dream as well and want to become a landscape photographer.

It is about safety.

One spot where I started to shoot pictures of the river was very interesting for its somewhat spectecular erosions in the stone. However, I was wondering about the deep sand there, but I put it towards the tide that was out and water still trapped underneath, at one stage my heavy alpine Meindl-Boots got stuck right in it and I had a hard time to pull out again, my backpack with ~25Kilogram was left behind and I walked with tripod and camera only.

Not far from where I shot, Brian’s Uncle lost his life in quicksand, so did a good few people over the years. I had no idea, there was no warning sign whatsoever, and although I wondered about the condition of the sand, I never before experienced quicksand, and it was not present in my mind at this time. This could have easily ended in harms way and was a great lesson to me in deed.

It has to become your bloody routine to check on the area that you intend to shoot in all details! Do not assume safety, assume the very opposite! I think I can say that we all experience that “trance” like state when we shoot, and this is the point of danger, we let the guards down and forget that we may be on treacherous grounds. Always put safety first! Do not risk anything for that particulary stunning once in a lifetime shot, it is not worth it, it might be your last otherwise!

The next thing on the agenda this week was only briefly touched and noted to be important and flagged, legal and financial aspects of the business. While your mileage will vary depending on where you setup the business, some things are in common to my situation. For example, you have to do it! <grins> The earlier the better, start to get the relevant data from the authorities and familiarize yourself with the possible impacts on your future income. Contact your solicitors and ask for advise, they will point you in the right directions. It is not rocket science, but I understand if this is your first enterprise it is a daunting task, hence it is even more important to start this as early as possible.

The last aspect I wish to write about for today is a nagging and anything but pleasant subject to me, DAM, digital asset management. It just sucks when you do not have it sorted, and it is a strain to start doing it and finding a structure and a methodology, but it has to be done, or you will get lost inevitably in the flood of pictures to come. I started on Monday to have a look at it, and after 2 hours, put it aside and did other also important stuff, planed to continue on Tuesday, but I did not and put it to Thursday, never touched it, and now it is Sunday. You get my drift? I have little doubts there are many out there that suffer the same denial syndrome. <grins> My solution is scheduled for next week, there is nothing on the agenda except this, get it sorted, get it done, once and for all, period. – Sigh! – If I am not here next week, you know why!<grins>

See you next Sunday.

Tbc.

River Erosion; Work in progress:

P.S. As always, feel free to post right in here....

diary_Erosion.jpg
 
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John_Nevill

New member
Georg, I like your narrative and will follow your diary with some interest.

I'm a year into starting my (small) photographic business and have just completed my first year UK tax return.

I wont go into the details, for fear of putting people off as its a slow process and not immediately lucrative. My business / game plan is ~7 years.

However, one tax benefit we have in the UK is capital allowance, so any capital (asset) purchase can be partially offset agaiinst other income. For example, if one were to purchase £20k of photographic equipment then (50%) £10k can be offset against the first year's revenue.

Also if your turnover doesn't exceed £15k then there's no need for formal accounts.

Obviously, this isn't relevant to those in the US, but it may be useful for readers in the UK who may wish to start up and take advantage of the enterprising nature of the UK Inland Revenue .
 
Dear John,

thank you very much, it is always good to get feedback, be it good or bad, and as for your hint on UK taxes, there was an article in Ian Farrell's this month "Professional Photographer" that mentioned exactly this.

Things are very different in the Republic of Ireland in deed and by far not that easy, unfortunately.

My personal game plan on ROI (return on investment) is a ambitious 48 month timeframe, remains to be seen, but I am reasonably hopeful that this can be achieved.

P.S.
Just thinking, what's your opinion, shouldn't we invite Ian here, the thought just crossed my mind.
 
Week 3

April XXIX, 07

Roadblocks:

Ireland goes to vote on the next government soon. This will be an interesting vote in a time of transition from a boom economy to a economy that faces the inevitable wake up call.

The economical irish success story, celtic tiger as many call it, was based on 2 things only, foreign capital and construction. The latter has proven to be a difficult leg to stand on with your whole weight, and it remains to be seen whether the irish property market will face a crash or can level things onto more healthy grounds. The foreign capital investments, well this is also an interesting story, and of course the official channels paint a gloomy picture of success in securing investments into Ireland.

However, I do have first hand experience with that, and it is out of this perspective that I write. Yes, IT Tech and Service companies were attracted for quite some time to open their gates in Ireland, and the package on offer was immense, no taxes to be payed for 5 years is just one of the offers that attracted these companies. But what did they really invest here?

Well, I remember Harvards Michael E. Porter who compared the "celtic tiger" with the following picture. Imagine you hold a big ballon in your hands that represents this tiger, the problem is that this baloon has 10 holes, and you have to stick all your ten fingers in at the same time. This funny picture is correct in my view.

Many of the companies who came here made huge profits over many years, immense profits in deed, but not a single cent was reinvested in this country, simply because they did not have to. The manufacturing Halls where they produced computers and other goods were all rented, nothing was owned, and Plan "B" was already in the drawers since many years. Pack in and move on to countries where there is even cheaper labour, even less governmental restriction on environmental aspects, no unions and many more reasons for them to move to low cost countries where ruthless exploitation of labour becomes reality again, the wet dreams of any predator capitalist becomes reality there, again. A cruel reality in deed I might add.

These investments were shortsighted and shortlived. Today, many of these companies left Ireland, and nowhere near to the amount of the 80s and 90s american hi tech capital is invested here anymore, of course not!

And the building industry? Well, in the meantime in Dublin the average houseprice is around 430.000 euro, for a shed with 3 bedrooms build to relatively poor standards. Houseprices exploded here to a insane level, speculators drive it, and people have 100% mortgages with no own capital requirements over 30 years and longer. There are many strings attached between the construction industry and government, and it is well known that there were and that there are massive levels of corruption at work!

The results are a totally overestimated property market value, a massive bubble that can burst anytime and cause depreciation of 25-30% in no time, and this is highly dependant on the dollar course, if the dollar hits 1.15 we are more than likely to face this crash. Negative equity will be the result, your total mortgage payments wil be higher than the value of your property, repossessment will become a growing business, and a kick up the arse for many years to come will leave many behind.

Sharper brains then I have analysed this cycle and all came to the same conclusion, there is no "soft landing" possible, if we pass the treshhold, it will crash. This treshold does not depend on the american dollar alone, but it is the factor that counts the most at the moment.

This corruption in the building industry has another side effect, one of many, today we have areas like in County Wicklow where whole towns like Enniskerry have to boil their water to avoid bacterial contamination, since more than two years this is the case! Imagine this, you have a family with a couple of children and boil every liter of water you use! Recently Galway faced the same problem, and it goes deeper much deeper. Ireland faces a watercrisis if they do not get their act together, in Waterford there was a watersupply shortage, in April.

For the observant from the outside this may come as a surprise in deed. Ireland and water crisis?

As long as we allow the dependancies of politics and industry to rule the policies that effect our very own health and wellbeing we will witness these events. They are roadblocks towards a better functioning democracy that works for the people in the very first hand and not for their own interests.

In my personal opinion, no party is electable that does not have gobal warming on #1 on their agenda. Too long we allowed politics and industry to shake hands behind closed doors, and today we pay the price, we all do, for generations to come.

Roadblocks have to be identified and taken away in the attempt to improve democratic structures, and sometimes this calls for civil courage to stand up and act. What does it take to display civil courage? I have no answer to that question, but in Limmerick last week five people, only five people had a sit in at the local county council to protest against waterschemes and quality provided. The council looks for an injunction of course to get rid of them. I would guess one of the chaps there was in his late 70s, and I herewith express my respect and admiration to them when they acted on behalf of a lot of people in Ireland who share this opinion, I go so far to say it is a clear majority of irish people who are fed up with corruption and facing a watercrises since years, but they did not show up, not yet that is, and the irish are incredibly patient and have a long history of suffering and enduring pain which might be one reason.

The health system in Ireland is in massive crisis as well, since many many years that is, but it would be too much to write in depth about it here. Just a few points, crosscontamination due to poor hygiene is not uncommon in hospitals, hundreds of people lay on trollies in hospital gangways, regulary that is, even died on trollies in gangways because there were not enough beds available, and this in a country where there is a flood of money available. A friend of us went to hospital to have a minor operation, a cyst under her eyelid to be removed. This was in 2005, she was hospitalised in and out until 2007, spent a total of 16 month in hospital and went through a lifethreatining stage of 6 month and nearly did not make it, she is the only provider in a familiy of 5 people, having 4 young children to deal with, and why? She was infected with the super bug MRSA due to poor hygiene standards in the hospital and nearly lost her life.

---- Roadblocks to a better democracy have to be identified and dealt with, and may be then we can improve things for all of us a little bit more, in a more responsible way, for the future of our children that we leave a legacy to deal with, but to ignore the roadblocks is no option in my book! ----

Talk about Roadblocks, when you start such a business you will face a great deal of them in your way, and it can be pretty obverwhelming in deed in face of the problems that have to be taken care for. Last week was a poor week in some respect as I was bugged down with a lot of stuff I had to do that have nothing to do with photography, so I thought.

Lets see, talking to the architect, follow up with solicitors, planing office, meeting with builders and contractors, going over plans and make changes and corrections, a lot of that stuff happened last week and had nothing directly to do with building my photography business, again, so I thought.

But it is now at the end of the week that I see that different, and while the tasks had mainly to do with development and future building projetcs, with no direct relation to the photobusiness, they were taking up my time and energy.

I felt like stretched into 2 directions, I wanted to tackle some administration stuff in dealing with my photos and implement a digital asset managment, and while I was at it, the phone rang, people knocking at the door, and a lot more of distractions that appeared to keep me from what I wanted to achieve.

As a result, first I was disappointed and it was a somewhat frustrating experience. But not anymore, because we identified certain roadblocks and how to deal with them.

Yesterday I sat down with Karen and we went through those events that we need to pay attention to in the time to come, and we agreed to split certain areas of resonsibility so that they are better defined and are clearly allocated, this sounds like an exeggeration and you may think well that's normal, but it requires that you really are aware about these roadblocks and deal with them accordingly.

I am constructed in a way that I need certain crutches when it comes to implementing structures at the beginning, and it has proven helpful, and once things are implemented the crutches can go. In this case I simply will have a sign on the door, "work in progress" and as long as the sign is there, I am not repsonsible for taking phone calls, letting the dog out, answering to people knocking at the door or similiar. I allocated 1 hour daily to tasks that have to do with the other projects, and keep the whole saturday for them as well, the rest of the time is photography, developing the business and learning photoshop.

Another task came on board this week, and I may take responsibility to help launching a new english language publication that offers photoshop knowledge and tutorials on a very high level. It is a challenge, the folks are very nice in deed, and I can combine that to a degree with my other business plans in useful ways.

Roadblocks will appear, they will look fierce and difficult to overcome, they will be like a pest at times, but you can manage to get rid of them by allocating priorities and time and ressources accordingly. If I do not do that, I turn quickly into a grumpy old fart that you do not want to meet in deed. <grins> Simply because if I do not deal with roadblocks in a certain way, they become bigger and more persistant and sure much more difficult to deal with. They will inevitably appear, many of them, the trick is to identify them and deal with them as they come up, right away.

Now you have to excuse me, I have to deal with another roadblock, I have to go and strim the gras. <____fill in a cursing dockers foul language> <grins>

Note to self: Once successfully selling prints, hire bloke to strim gras!

See you next sunday

tbc.
 
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Greg Boyer

New member
A paradox maybe?

Hi,
Have just started following your diary. Thank you for sharing.
I find that it is quite strange that we associate violent actions to
such a beautiful endeavor. I refer specifically to the words "shoot,
shot, shooting" when refering to taking pictures.
Just a thought.

Respectfully,
Greg Boyer
 
Week 4

May VI, 07

Opportunities:

Yesterday the third report of the IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "Mitigation of Climate Change" was published.

http://www.ipcc.ch/

The fight for irish voters in the upcoming elections is in full gear at the moment, but the subject of climate change is barely touched from any of the parties in question. Well, I am not astonished, the nurses are on strike at the moment, and a lot of other interests of more local character are exploited to win voters, of course, taxes are #1 subject and the catalog of promises is longer than the contents listing of the 155 CD's Bach Edition that I started to listen to this week.

I would guess this is no different in Germany, USA in fact in a lot of countries when elections are on the agenda. A turf war on positions and future prospects in a possible governement, and a slagging match usually goes along such events. Noam Chomsky's "Understanding Power" inevitably comes to mind.

So here we are, the reports are on the table and those who wish to know what is behind all that can inform themselves and draw conclusions. While the discussion in the public can go into the scurile at times, some facts are no longer in need of further discussion or dispute, the facts of climate change are here.

To tackle the problems at hand a total of 2-3% of global GDP is immediately required, inaction for the next 5-10 year will result in a much higher price to pay, just in financial terms, let aside the human tragedies that inevitably will follow and the impact on life on this planet in general.

So there are opportunities to use and utilize, we have the knowledge, although naturally we have gaps of knowledge as well as outlined in the third report, but we certainly know enough to address the problems and we do have the means to do it.

Will it happen?

This remains to be seen and I am skeptical on the outcome to say the least. I believe that it requires citizens all over the world to put significant pressure on the politicians that they voted for to tackle these problems in a serious manner and not let go and just be satisfied with lip services, as so often happens, and when the elections are history, those lip services are burried under the daily news, and no one signs accountable anymore. Accountability may be a good keyword to remember in this contex, as it is our all responsibility to change behavior and act in the small ways we can. To do nothing is no option, and we should start to adress these issues with the attention and seriousness they deserve in deed, and not allow those who were elected to represent the people to let go and burry the much needed demands on energy policies and change of the same under their daily news bulletins. There are opportunities to tackle the problems, opportunities that make economically sense and that are urgently needed to be implemented for the sake of our children and future generations. We can not just sit back anymore and say “ Well, what can I do?”, this is not good enough, and there is a lot a single person can do in deed to contribute towards this change.

---- Opportunities have all one thing in common, they exists only for a little while, and it is up to us to use them when they appear or to let them pass by. ----

I had a intense week to say the least, because of the timezone difference to the US I worked late nights and often was up until 4 AM in the morning discussing possibilities and strategies with good friends and ex-business partners, 5 hours sleep and the next morning started with the rest of the demands. On Thursday I payed tribute to this lifestyle and fell asleep for a full 14 hours, living with a virtual Jetlag the whole week caused this I suppose.

But it was well worth it and great fun. I always enjoyed business and I come from a long business background before I moved with Karen to Donegal and things changed into a more quiet lifestyle without the 4-6 business flights per week and the countless nights in expensive hotels.

I was just thinking whether my Armanis still would fit me, well, a somewhat scarey thought in deed that is. <grins>

When you start a photography business at some stage in your life, regardless of what kind, be it studio photography, advertisement, stock photography, fine arts, weddings, whatever, and you fit the profile of someone that did other things in his life before, and did not start with an education as photographer at tender age and continued this all your life, then you are in the same boat as I am, and I guess that many of us came to photography through sideways and roundabouts at some stage in their life.

So you probably had or may be still have another professional life to make ends meet, and this is an interesting aspect that I found out this week. It is about opportunities, and sometimes it happens that your past profession and expertise might offer you a chance to combine your newly started enterprise with the experience and expertise you gained in the past.

The longer I think about it the more I am convinced that this is a benefical situation, and regardless whether you were a nuclear physics professor or may be managed the local ice cream shop, there will be fields of interaction that could be beneficial for your future endeavours.

In my case that means that I was asked whether I would like to help publishing a Magazine and books in the Photoshop department of sophisticated workshops and tutorials. I can not be more specific at this point in time, but I will in due time without doubts. So it happened that I took responsibility and I am working with some very nice people in deed on this common goal, and to achieve this I am utilizing my past experience, a lot of my old contacts, make new contacts, and somehow it feels as if a circle closes and things fall together where they should be. Very easy I could have let that opportunity pass by, for many reasons, but throughout my life I became somewhat cautious to not let such chances slip too easy and developed sort of an antenna for these things when they knocked unexpectedly at my door.

I have little doubts that similar situations will occur in your endeavours in one way or the other as well, really, I am sure for that, and I would like to point your attention to this, to sharpen your senses towards such opportunities, too easy they are often overlooked, or quickly dismissed, only to be regreted as a missed opportunity later in life.

In german we have a word that says “Betriebsblindheit”, and it means that if someone runs a business since many years in the very same way, he often is blind and stubborn towards changes or, and more crucially, opportunities. So regardless how bad it may be, he runs his business this way anyways, because this is his way, hence the only way, the my way or the highway attitude that many small business owners often quickly develop and completely forgot about the needed flexibility that they may have had in younger years and that they utilized to bring them to where they are today.

Tunnel Vision would be another effect that often goes along with it. In the past I often had to deal with globally operating organisations and corperations in change management situations, and astonishingly enough, I often was confronted with this small business attitude and a tunnel vision as a result, which was always a interesting challenge to overcome.

What I am suggesting is that you look at your business that you want to start with photography from all possible angles. There could be many revenue streams that are not obvious at a glance, but if you analyse the tools at your disposal, by this I mean not you cameras and printers, but your experience from what you did before or what you still are doing, and it will not take long and you will find different angles and opportunities. Stay flexible and open to change and often it happens that opportunities follow. Be aware that tunnel Vision is always a danger and that it requires your will to look at your business by taking a distance, take a step back and try to get the bigger picture. How will it be in a few years? Where do I want to be with my efforts? You get the drift!

Another important note I wanted to make today is about…. Yes, you guessed it <grins> still…. and for quite some time to come…. Digital Asset Management. Ahem.

I am not making excuses. No need, I started as I described earlier, but due to opportunities that I chose to take serious, a slight change of plan had to be implemented. That’s what Flexibility is all about, isn’t it? <grins>

No seriously, I am a bit insecure as to whether it is appropriate in this forum to mention it the way I will now in the following, but I just risk it.

Although I do have a little experience in computing from my past, I know my way around a AS400 mainframe and UNIX is no total stranger, I am no expert in any particular field, or even a C programmer. But I had to deal with data management in relational databases early, Bill Gates did not yet steal from Apple when I dealt with subjects to transfer entire databases from one world to the next.

So I thought allright, this photostuff needs to be tackled, simply because of the data flood inevitably hitting my poor computer. So I naturally started to create a structure that considers my current workflow, and yes, I also made backups. But to be honest, I never was satsified with the whole, but I went along and changed little things here and there, added more harddrive capacity, even thought about a blue ray burner (basically a High Capacity DVD that enables you to store between 25GB on a single and 50 GB on a dual layer disc), but this is still not mainstream and hence overpriced, so value for money is not as good as simply adding more terabytes to my harddrives.

So in the meantime 4 external hardrives, a RAID-0, with fast western digital raptor drives, a hotswappable Kingston Tray etc has to be served from my PC. Astonishingly enough, I managed to have this run without any trouble so far, I mean we talk Firewire 800, USB, SATA, and IDE alltogether, so this was sort of an adventure but it works well.

However, my structure, and not to worry, I am not going to bore you with all details of my backup and datamanagement strategy, well a strong word for what I really did in deed, but this structure was not sufficient, this I knew and dreaded to deal with.

I thouhgt I might spend a week maximum, get it sorted once and for all. Wrong!

Firstly, there is no once and for all, it has to be a scalable and flexible enough system to adapt to changes that might occur simply due to changes in software or operating system. So I knew it requires a somewhat more sophisticated approach, and I looked around who did what so far and quickly landed at Peter Krogh, who I later saw is a moderator here, and his book THE DAM BOOK.

Well, hello Visa card and Amazon, and 3 days later this week it arrived, and I started reading.

I am not finished yet, but I wish to highly recommend this book to anyone who takes photographs that pose a commercial value of some sort to him. In fact, if you start this business, make it the very first book you buy!

Peter goes to greath length in explaining the how and the why, and it is a pleasure to read in deed. And even if you are somewhat familiar with concepts of datamanagement, you will find new aspects and hints that you probably did not think about before in his approach. I mention “his” approach, because he developed a methodology in deed, but it is transferable step by step to your business if you wish to do so, or you can, like in my case, utilize parts of it and adapt it to your own needs, ymmv.

However, the very first thing to be aware is that you will add value to your pictures, hence it is a no brainer to do it. Why do you add value you may think, and there are many answers, but to give you one idea, a picture that you need to find and it takes you 30 minutes to find it, has a lesser value than the same picture that you find in 3 seconds, simply because you as the managing director of your business spend 30 minutes on searching, now what do you pay yourself per hour? <grins>

You get the idea, and there is more to it, and I was so impressed by Peters accuracy and his clear style and pleasently presented material wich by it’s very nature is somewhat more of a very “dry” material in deed that I wish to end this diary entry for today by highly recommending his book to everyone who plans to make money from his photographs, and hey, here is an opportunity to tackle this problem before it grows bigger and bigger, and it will, as along as you continue shooting.

See you next Sunday

Tbc.
 
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Greetings,

I won't be able to continue this online diary, mainly because I am too busy with other tasks that need my full attention at this point in time.

Thanks for all your private messages and good whishes!
 
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