As we sat here…

… a fighter jet decided to dip down from above and buzz Detroit Lake.

The ground shook and my jaw dropped to the ground.

Wish I had known it was coming. I could have gotten a proper video. Not a bad capture given the surprise. On the first frame you can see that it was about 100ft off the water as it was flying through the gorge.

I hate wars, but love the toys they give birth to.

And I’m pretty happy bout that.

Yet, as a novice, I’m able to sell my services and prints to the entire world, and have. I’ve sold prints to publishers, been commissioned for projects, been invited by Getty Images to sell stock, and made various other business connections via Flickr.

And now for the ironic portion of this blog… As I try and transition past novicity and become more of a professional, however subjective that term is, I find I now hate myself and Flickr. I don’t really hate either of those two things but hyperbole makes for a more interesting read, agree? yes, you do. I’ve recently been contacted, via flickr, about the purchase of a few more of my images. One from a Holland magazine, the other a French magazine. Upon further investigation and email correspondence I’ve found that lo and behold, they have little to no budget, but would ‘love to purchase my art’ for their campaign. Since I work in advertising, this is not a new concept to me. We do the same thing at our shop. When budgets are low we scrap, and find quality on the cheap. This is what Flickr has to offer. I disagree with the Times article in some ways. I believe there is quality, in advertising terms, on Flickr. It’s one reason Getty has partnered with them. However, since this quality exists in abundance it has simultaneously made millions of professional photographers that earn next to nothing for their work. Again, this is not a new internet concept. You can see the same trend happening across various other creative mediums. Anyone can be a designer these days. Traditional professional designers will argue that these people are not true designers, and as in the movie Helvetica, you’ll hear Mr. Carson say that ‘just because they have the tools doesn’t mean they are designers’ or something like that. What he doesn’t mention is that in the industry he works in, that doesn’t matter. All that matters is what will sell and what the industry will buy. And more and more, the playing field is leveling and ‘novice’ talent is producing actual work for unreasonably cheap flow.

The same can be said for my native medium, interactive design and development. Tools are making it easier for the masses to join and compete. It’s the reason I was livid at Macromedia when it came out with its Dreamweaver product allowing non coders to build websites. It’s one more step towards not needing to know a craft to actually produce the results of said craft. Go on Craigslist and post a web development or design project. The majority of the responses will be appallingly inexpensive and equally shameful in portfolio quality. However, there will be a couple that come close enough to make the grade. The result is a lowering of the industry wage and the promotion of marginal quality. I’m forced to lower my rates to compete. Again, I wasn’t complaining about this when I was a novice web designer in 1999, but it kicks me in the boo boo now.

The book The World is Flat explains these processes in detail. I tend to agree with the synopsis of the book that the overall result of this process is actually for the global good. India is able to compete which drives US innovation, and so on. Globally this is great. I know that I need to think globally, but personally, at this moment, it is bad.

I could go on and write about this topic for hours, but It’d just be more novice writing garnering page views. Oh wait, I forgot to mention, anyone can be a published writer. Anyone want to hire me to write for their blog?

Over the last couple of years my addiction to taking pictures every day has grown in intensity. More recently this addiction has heightened my curiosity to a point of seriousity. You do realize that seriousity should have inclusion confirmation from Merriam-Webster. If truthiness can make in, seriousity should. Seriously. Ok, back to the point. I’m getting more serious about photography. I even purchased a serious camera. Along with this serious camera, and an overabundance of seriousity about it’s use, I’ve gone and constructed myself a website dedicated to my photography. It is my hope that this will inspire and urge potential clients to contact me about my services.

The concept of the site is to take as much distraction out of the interface as possible to allow all focus on the content, the photography. I decided the entire site could be controlled by a small non intrusive control. I also wanted users to be able to interact with the photography by zoom and panning. Users also have the option to zoom out to see the full photo. Finally, I wanted a super easy way to content manage the site. Since I’m an avid Flickr user, its API was a natural CMS choice. I merely have to tag my photos in Flickr and they show up categorized on my site. I’m a big fan of leveraging the many publishing outlets I already use.

If you are a photographer, and are interested in owning a site similar to this one, chirp me.

Chris Teso – Portland Photographer

Are you a Flickr member?

Are you an aspiring photographer?

Are those two synonymous?

Do you want your own photography website that you can control via Flickr simply by using tags?

Do you have your own website but find yourself duplicating your efforts by having to update it as well as Flickr?

Are you getting sick of these questions? me too, let’s cut to it…

FLICKR CONTROLLED PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE

Look and Feel:

Currently two different looks:
option 1 – Photography Portfolio
option 2 – Portland Child Photography Portfolio

Both are completely run from Flickr. Simply specify the categories you want, tag your photos appropriately, and they will show up on your website in the order you specify.

More customized designs can be obtained for a fee. [see below or Contact me for more information.]

Customization Options:
There are different customization options available. For example, in option 1 you can either have a ’search tags option’ or remove it if you wish. Also, option 1 will allow you to send someone directly to certain photos by adding a simple parameter to the url like this

Base price = $500
Comes with all files, category navigation and instructions on tagging.

Additional Custom Options @ 100/hr:
- customization/design
- website hosting setup
- domain name setup

Contact me fore more info.

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