Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman use both photography and video to tell stories for editorial and commercial clients. 
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Coming Soon! Every year we'll be publishing at least two magazines of our work. Look for our first issue soon.
Jenn and I are excited to be hosting our first creative workshop this weekend called The Review.
You may already know we have been holding regular workshops for the two of us as a way to track our growth, keep us inspired and push ourselves forward. This workshop for us is a natural extension of what started as a simple thing between the two of us and now we’re excited to share it with our friends and peers.
Hopefully the workshop can inspire everyone involved. I know if we as group can’t inspire one another, the ocean surely will. As Jenn and I have found those waters sitting just beyond the front yard are magical.
Along with sharing work, we have designed the workshop to encourage creative dialogue and discussions about living and working as a photographer.
We’re opening the weekend tonight by having a mini short film festival and throughout the weekend we are going to encourage everyone to dream big!
We’ll try to post the films and any other resources from the weekend on the workshop website.
The Review Workshop
Note: I write a lot of blog posts that go unpublished. Mainly they act as a journal for my thoughts. This blog post is more self-therapy for myself, but maybe it’ll help you a bit.
This industry can do crazy things to one’s self-esteem. Where else do you hear of people paying 500 dollars for a portfolio review to get their work ripped apart? Or throwing down 30 bucks an image with the hopes of being included in one of the twenty contests PDN puts on?
Whether it’s through contests or browsing the web we’re constantly comparing ourselves and our accomplishments to others.
But what does comparing yourself to others do? Very little. If you’re like me you could benefit from spending less time worrying about what everyone else is doing and just do your thing. There are many ways to grow as a photographer, but I can promise you one of the fastest ways to keep growing is to keep creating.
Focus on what you can control. Channel your energy towards doing what you love and the way you love to do it and forget the rest.
Conan on comparing yourself to others:
Maybe I’m a bumbling, Gomer Pyle fool who should be more concerned about this stuff, but I can’t control what’s going on around me,” Mr. O’Brien said. “And TV is changing so much, I don’t think anybody in television knows how it’s going to play out.
A lot of that is up to me. If I do a good, funny, and fresh ‘Tonight Show’ every night at 11:35, it’s going to be successful, and it’s going to be irrelevant what everybody else is doing.
As more and more of us enter the realm of freelance photography you’ll undoubtedly come across people who absolutely love your work. All is good until they introduce the catch. They can’t afford to pay for it.
A credit line doesn’t pay the rent.
This post entitled When to Work for Nothing on the Shifting Careers blog on the NY Times sums it up nicely:
It doesn’t matter if you’re a dog walker, a Web designer or a tax preparer. When you agree to work free, you reinforce people’s misguided ideas that the self-employed are independently wealthy hobbyists. Don’t degrade your profession by letting a cheap client take advantage of you.
This recent article in the NY Times called Transforming Art Into a More Lucrative Career Choice made for a nice read on being an artist, but not a starving artist.
Some artists have begun to figure out ways to make money and make art — aiming to end the notion that “starving” and “artist” are necessarily linked.
The photo community has gotten into the mix too including Jen Beckman with her 20×200 project. Fellow OU alum Susana Raab also took matters into her own hands and is selling a catalog/zine of her images for 20 bucks to further fund her projects. Alec Soth’s latest adventure is a self-published newspaper called The Last Days of W. Those are just three examples that come to mind. I’m sure there are plenty more. If you know of others please do share.
In many ways this all reminds me of the notion of having 1000 true fans. (That article is a nice read to get yourself thinking outside the box when it comes to funding your work.)
The concept goes like this:
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
1000 fans might be a stretch for this guy. Only if I could adopt another 999 moms and I’d be on my way.
As the editorial and newspaper market continues to dwindle we as photographers need to be thinking of alternative ways to fund our projects and make a living. In many ways it’s a great way for photographers to take total control of their work and make a meaningful connection with those who enjoy their photographs. It also becomes even more incentive to be working on a personal project for yourself.
Clear your head. Breathe slowly. Dream. Create.
In many ways I feel like I’m just starting out with photography again. Everything feels fresh. I have no idea where I’m going beyond I know I love the process; the journey. Find that love again and you just might find yourself with 1000 fans in the process.
I’m sure like me you didn’t get into this because you loved newspapers or magazines. If you’re like me you got into this because you love people and that will never die.
Something for our minds to think about as we work off the pie and turkey.
See the second portion of Making Money Doing What You Love.
Seth Godin if you don’t know is a marketing guru. His blog always proves insightful on topics dealing with marketing especially if you’re working to market yourself as a freelance photographer.
One of his latest posts is worth a look: Maybe you can’t make money doing what you love
Some highlights from the post:
When what you do is what you love, you’re able to invest more effort and care and time. That means you’re more likely to win, to gain share, to profit. On the other hand, poets don’t get paid. Even worse, poets that try to get paid end up writing jingles and failing and hating it at the same time.
Seth makes a valid point. Is it better to get paid to do photography if it means taking pictures you aren’t happy with or is it better to take pictures you love, but support your passion by doing something else?
Ideally we could have our cake and eat it too. Meaning you or I would get paid for our vision and the pictures we love to take. Doesn’t always work that way, but I think the goal for any photographer should be aligning yourself with clients and editors that hire you not because you have a camera and a pulse, but because your vision and style fit the assignment.
I’m miles and miles from that myself, but it’s something I’m working towards and it starts by only showing work that represents YOU. It doesn’t mean showing a sports photo or a celebrity portrait cause you think that’s what editors want to see. Your portfolio should showcase your passion and love for what you love to do. This is the one time where it’s ok to make it about you.
Loving what you do is almost as important as doing what you love, especially if you need to make a living at it. Go find a job you can commit to, a career or a business you can fall in love with.
Maybe you can’t make money doing what you love (at least what you love right now). But I bet you can figure out how to love what you do to make money (if you choose wisely).
Do your art. But don’t wreck your art if it doesn’t lend itself to paying the bills. That would be a tragedy.
Something to think about on this Monday afternoon.
A trip up to NYC to shop my book around(once I get it together) is on my extended to-do list.
I found this older article on The Digital Journalist on getting your foot in the door with photo editors to be informative. A lot of it is probably common sense for you.
The article starts by having you ask yourself five questions:
- Why do I want to be a photographer?
- What kind of photography do I want to do?
- Which photographers do I admire the most and why?
- What client do I want to work with?
Read the rest of the article on The Digital Journalist here.
ADBASE has some helpful articles focusing on business issues that we all face as photographers and creatives that are worth the time to read.
The Secret to Business Growth: Client Satisfaction
Bid Fair, Bid Smart: How to win jobs with savvy estimates
David Parrish addresses the one word that makes all creatives cringe, business. His book is entitled T-Shirts and Suits: The Business of Creativity and is available as a free download on his website.
I’ve been following his blog as of late too. He addresses a lot of concerns for any creative trying to develop a keener business sense.
Some great stuff.
For example on his post about The Art and Science of Advertising:
Setting a very high price for one option in the pricing range makes the other prices look very economical. In other words, the £2,000 version doesn’t look so expensive any more, once a £5,000 version is added to the range (even if it doesn’t sell). This applies to services as well as goods.
Loyalty cards with a few free stamps already attached are more likely to be used by customers. (A ten-stamp card with two already attached is more likely to be used than an empty eight-stamp card).
Customers are more likely to behave according to what other people do, rather than what they ‘ought’ to do.
A commencment speech by Sean Kernan.
Just remember what Sean says:
Making your art is making your life. It is identical to the process through which you continually become yourself. When your Art emerges from your consciousness, its bigger than your consciousness. It’s smarter and deeper than you.
Go looking for that anxious moment of not knowing where you’re going, and the thrill of getting there. Think of that moment in the cartoon when the coyote chases the roadrunner off the edge of the cliff, and runs out onto the air. That’s it, that’s your moment. Don’t look down. Keep running.
Always take photos for yourself. Enjoy the journey. Savor it. Hate it. Love it. Live it.
Don’t shoot for editors.
Don’t shoot for awards.
Shoot for who matters most. You and your subjects.
Ben at the Golden Gate from our on-going American Tourist project.
Luckily I’ve never done an unpaid internship and most people I know go out of there way to avoid such endeavors, but either way I found this post to make for a light-hearted read.
I hope all the interns out there are having a good summer.
When all is said and done, the internship process serves the white community in many ways. First, it helps to train the next generation of freelance writers, museum curators, and director’s assistants. But more importantly, internships teach white children how to complain about being poor.
If all goes according to plan, an internship will end with an offer of a job that pays $24,000 per year and will consist entirely of the same tasks they were recently doing for free.