Photography & Stuff

So the other day I learned that my Store Team Leader (at Whole Foods) has put in for a Regional VP position.  So I am trying to push through my clean-up process and send these files out to get printed!  I finished touching up my fractal film which still is in it’s “raw” state (without sound or editing) but because I am spending my time primarily on touching up photographs it will probably be a bit before I have the website and the video ready to go.
 

I took some great pictures at the WXPN Exponential music festival the other week.  I got good pictures of Earl Grey, Fountains of Wayne, and The Fratellis.  I won’t have them for sale of course but I plan to put them up on the website for viewing because they are a lot of fun.  Earl Grey is this Trio from New York.  Steph decided right away that they all got together and said “Hey, we’re a bunch of beautiful people let’s start a band!”
 

I’ll also have a family section up for mostly my family but the rest of you (If you really exist) can spy on me if you want.  Later on!
 

Well I just finished scanning negatives.  All in all I sorted through about 1000 negatives and scanned in about 50.  The scanner I used was superlative.  I used the Nikon Coolscan series V and I found the ICE (compensates for dust and scratches by using infrared light) and the GEM (reduces the effect of film grain) to be invaluable!  I am excited to finish adjusting and touching up the pictures now!  I usually do this while watching an episode of Alias.  I am watching the first season and it is incredibly good.  I can definitely see the stylistic parallels between Alias and Lost (J.J. Abrams current series).  As soon as I can I hope to get the website up and running with all sorts of work that the 1  or 2 people reading this blog can go look at.  Hopefully I can generate a little more traffic through photograph sales…

I would like to encourage anyone who reads this blog to comment!  I will engage any of you in a conversation or simply answer questions, whatever.  Anything to make it feel like I am not writing to a void.

I decided that this blog doesn’t even have to be primarily about photography although I suspect that Photography will consume a good part of the entries.  Lately I have been really debating my future with Whole Foods.  Earlier this year I applied for several positions as a buyer in an effort to move into a management position (called a Team Leader position).  I am almost positive I have the capacity to be a very good team leader as it stands, however like most workplace environments there is a lot of politics involved in any high level job offering.  Over a year ago I put in my name for an assistant team leader position with the grocery department.  I actually knew that I would not get the job, several highly qualified candidates were applying but I wanted to have the experience of a management interview under my belt.

I was told that I would not be allowed to even interview for the position.  I of course agreed but not without challenging the logic behind the decision.  Since then I have talked with the Store leadership about the possibilities for moving onto a “retail team” (I work in the admin team doing IT stuff).

One of the buyer positions I went up for was the Grocery Buyer position.  I did not get the position even though I was highly qualified.  I believe that despite the fact that I consider myself on good terms with the Grocery Team Leader I was not hired for pretty much the same reason I believe that the best candidate for the Assistant Team Leader position (the one I was asked to withdraw from) was not hired.

In both cases the lesser qualified candidate that got the job was what I call “sports buddies” with the Team Leader (person making the hiring decision).  I don’t want anyone who reads this to think I am calling it a scandal, but I do believe that it was a significant factor.  I believe that it is the kind of mild nepotism that happens all the time in work places.  After all isn’t it that tired old stereotype of the old boys club or golf buddies doing favors for each other.

I am not even saying that this kind of thing happens in all hiring decisions.  Far from it.  In fact I believe that I was out qualified for the Whole Body Buyer position.  The fact remains that I believe that I have the knowledge and ability to be a team leader, it is not (in my opinion) a hard job.  It involves a lot of paperwork, an ability to handle situations with discretion and diplomacy and a willingness to pick up the slack when its needed.

So recently the Assistant Team Leader position opened in the specialty department (Cheese Coffee and Housewares) and I am considering applying for the position.  It would involve a lot of “political” maneuvering I think.  You know meeting with this and that person discussing the move…  I think that I have a lot to offer the Specialty department in terms of enthusiasm for Cheese in general and a ton of marketing ideas to drive sales.  I  am more skilled than any other candidate that they would have with the spreadsheets and numbers aspect of being an Assistant Team Leader.  None the less I will be going up against people that have worked in that department.  The value that a Team Leader puts in having worked in the department can’t be underestimated.  It would be a hard sell, I may be able to do it but it would take a lot of time and effort that could be devoted to other things.

Then there is the question of whether I really want the ATL position.  There is no doubt that I desperately need to earn more money, especially if Steph and I have a kid!  But it would require having an ever changing weekly schedule, which I would only be partially in control of.  A benefit of my current position is that I have a great degree of flexibility with my schedule and basically for the most part work 7-3 Monday-Friday.  It’s a hard decision!

I was incredibly excited yesterday after my meeting with Nicole (the “Store Team Leader”) she was very excited and enthusiastic about having my photographs hung in Whole Foods Market Princeton. Not only did she love my photographs but she was even possibly interested in purchasing one! It would be the first since Steph (my wife) is the only one who knows about this yet. I hope that having works displayed at Whole Foods Market will be a good start to a healthy display resume for my pictures.

As I come closer and closer to printing, framing (and hanging!) my photographs I am debating more and more the format that I will offer them to the public. The things that I particularly wobble over is edition size, and price. I definitely want to offer the public high quality photographs at a great value but at a price that is fair to me. The profit margin on photographs is around 30-40% if you don’t include any expenses or time incurred taking the photograph. I don’t want to charge any more than my cost for framing. I may even encourage people to buy just the print and head a couple shops over to the “Frame Smith” which is owned by my neighbor Paul (Smith).
I know there are a lot of arguments for and against edition size or whether or not to even have editions! I am set on having editions. Perhaps the most powerful argument for me is that by limiting the number of prints I will make of a particular photograph I am forcing myself not to develop a crutch or get stuck in a rut of living on my laurels. So I think I will limit my editions right now to 550 which will cover all possible sizes of prints but will not restrict the negative from being printed in books, periodicals and such. I hope this does not deter people… I think it will not since exposure of an image will only serve to increase the perceived market value. Eventually I will write out the exact terms of my editions in the interest of full disclosure. That will all come with the website.

I do plan to tier the price of any given photograph within an edition however I do not plan do aggressively increase the price of photographs. For instance I might start selling 13×19 prints (sans frame) for $85 for prints 001-110 $100 for 111-221 $120 for 222-332 $145 for prints 333-443 and $975 for the remaining hundred prints. Actually I’m just kidding I was really thinking of $175.

I figure prints will sell slowly enough that an edition may take a decade to sell out completely. So if you factor in inflation then it is not really a dramatic increase at all. However, Should I become famous I plan to bleed the world for as much as I can get! Again, I kid:)

Jeremiah

Ah the first post. This ones going to be short. I am working on developing a site to support my photography. As it turns out the film/video industry does not pay well enough to be worth my while and film/video is too expensive and unmarketable as a hobby. My original passion (Photography) though, the reason I pursued the arts aggressively is affordable and offers me a variety of ways to market my skill. I plan on trying to pursue a number of avenues from giving business cards to all the local real estate agencies to taking photographs at local sporting events.

The avenue I am pursuing most aggressively though and am most nervous about is trying to get my photographs framed and displayed in local establishments and hopefully eventually local galleries! I am planning on selling my photographs as limited edition Giclee` prints and offering them to the public. I am very nervous about it, the worst that can happen though is that I’ll fall flat on my face which may only involve the loss of a few thousand dollars. This Thursday I have a meeting to pitch my photographs to be hung where I work @ Whole Foods Market in Princeton.

Well wish me luck I’ll continue to update this blog as things progress.