PhotoDude.com

Wed. Mar 16, 2005

Five Questions Meme

So I click my way over to Zack’s over the weekend, and find he’s participating in one of those “blog memes” (now, think about how people would have looked at you five years ago if you’d mouthed those words … “say what?”).

This is a chain interviewing game for blogs. Here are its rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.” The first five commenters will be the participants.

2. I will respond by asking you five questions.

3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

Yes, Dear Reader, you can play, too! Got a web site? Feel like submitting to Pointed Questions From PhotoDude? Then leave your comment, and await probing.

Here’s my answers to Zack’s questions:

1. How did you start in professional photography?

Via both accident and passion. It’s really a much longer story than it should be … but you asked.

In the early 1980’s, I was program director of a rock radio station in the Macon market, and one of the perks of the day was access to great concert tickets. I’d get primo seats the promoters had saved to give as “comps” to those with whom they hoped to curry favor (can you say “Legal Payola”?). Most every act worth seeing in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I saw, from the 10th row or better.

I started borrowing the camera of a friend of my wife when we would go to concerts, and being that close, I was able to get some surprisingly good shots (sometimes it really is about “location, location, location”). And had a lot of fun doing it. So for Christmas of 1981, my then wife gave me my first camera.

Over the next two years, I took pictures of a lot more than just concerts. When I found myself standing in the middle of a rain soaked road at 1am because I simply couldn’t pass up photographing the reflections in the road … it dawned on me that I might have a problem.

Over that same time period, I was becoming less than enchanted with my career in radio, I split up with my wife, and then … I broke my neck in November of 1983. That will definitely slow you down, and give you lots of time to think about your priorities. Like, about 12 weeks in a big-time neck brace. And I decided to see if I could give this photography thing a go.

So, in the fall of 1984, Mr. Shortcut goes to his local newspaper with his “portfolio” of 4×6 glossy prints, and surprisingly wasn’t laughed out of the office. They sent me out for a test shoot … a Friday night high school football game. It sounds simple enough, but it isn’t. Low light, no flash, fast action, and, oh yeah, watch out for those sweep plays so you don’t get creamed by some big teen in pads. But I felt like I got something, and headed back to the newspaper.

There, the photo editor pointed me towards some shiny things I’d never seen that he called “reels and tanks” and some brown jugs he said contained D-76, stop bath, and fixer. I said, “Dee Seventy What?” He disgustedly proceeded to turn off the lights, load my film onto the reels, and process the film. I did indeed get a few shots, but it was also clear that Mr. Shortcut needed some further education.

So I moved to Atlanta and entered the Portfolio Center in April of 1985, and took their two year advertising photography program. When I got out two years later, I knew what all the shiny things were, and I entered the freelance world. That was 18 years ago next month.

2. Has the web helped with your work in photography?

I’m going to assume you mean that in a literal sense, as in, has my web site generated more photography business for me. The short answer to that aspect is, yes, it’s the most cost effective form of advertising any individual or business can employ, and it’s worked well for me.

But your question begs a couple of deeper interpretations about what the web has done for me. First, photographically. My Original Vision about having a web site (circa 1996) was simply to have my own “gallery.” My own virtual walls where I could “hang” whatever artwork I wanted, as well as have a commercial portfolio available for any potential clients who might wander by.

By 1997, I’d Been There, Done That. So next I added a big road trip, a day by day tale of my travels, complete with photos. It was great fun, and went over well. But it wasn’t very sustainable. Not when I’d shot and processed 90 rolls of film at about $20 a pop. Plus trip expenses.

But what really kicked it into gear for me, both photographically and for the benefit of this site, was the summer of 2000 when I discovered blogging and got a digital camera. No more $20 a pop. Plus, inspired to post on the site regularly as part of this new fangled photoblogging thang, I started shooting probably five times as much as I had been with film. Maybe more. And even after doing it for more than a decade at that time, shooting more makes you better. It’s true for everyone. It makes your vision sharper. Keeps your eye in tune with your environment.

4.5 years later, there’s 1,750 1,753 Pixel Piles to show for it. All because of the web.

But it goes even further. This journey of personal publication, in which I made this domain my playground for combining words and pictures, somehow convinced others they should pay me to make web sites for them. And my professional world shifted once again. Now I get clients who hire me because they need a photographer and a web designer. Or they need their site rebuilt, and also have a bunch of new products that need photos for the rebuilt site.

And this has been a Good Thing, because as the photo business has been through some rough years recently in Atlanta, now about three fourths of my income is web related. I’m still getting paid for doing something I like. The web has been very very good to me, in many ways.

3. Looking at your old photos, I was amused at the 1970s fashion. I am too young to have been a fashion culprit then, but everybody seems to have gone crazy in those times. What are your thoughts about 1970s fashion looking back after 3 decades?

I assume you’re referring to photos like these:
[1] age 17, 1975: First off, I’m 17 years old, after Sunday services at Wait Chapel (in the background) at Wake Forest University, on a weekend my parents came to town. I’m not wearing a stitch of clothes that I’ve paid for. I’m the kid who asked for a Nehru jacket when he was 12, and got a paisley shirt instead. Because Nehru was revolutionary, or something. You’d have to ask my parents. Luckily for them, I was never a much of a fashion rebel as a teen.
[2] age 21, 1979: I have no viable defense on this one. It’s four years later, I’ve got my own salary as program director of a radio station, and can choose and buy my own clothes. And on the day I know I’m going to meet three Playboy Bunnies, I chose to wear that blue geometric mess made of a synthetic “fabric” that would likely melt upon encounter with the steam from a tea pot. And, yes, that’s a perm. Yes, those are purple tinted glasses. But don’t I look studly in between all those highly valued American breasts? Ah, that was oh-so-long ago. I bet they’ve sagged since then. I know I have.

But back to your question. In defense of all who were of legal partying age in the 70’s, you have to understand some environmental factors. We were the generation who grew up with ladders that didn’t tell you the last step wasn’t really a step. When we grew up, if a kid was wearing a helmet while riding his bike, it was because he’d had a tumor removed or something. So we may have killed a few more brain cells than you youngsters did just trying to reach the age of 18 … when we could begin to legally kill brain cells (yes, back in those dinosaur days, that was drinking age).

But the biggest factor, in my observant and humble opinion, was the fact most of us had our brains running out of our ears in a melted form due to being voluntarily and regularly subjected to disco music. It was the combination of brutally banal lyrics with a lifeless yet relentless drum-machine beat. Perhaps the most popular song of the era has the following lyrics:

Life goin’ nowhere. Somebody help me.

Somebody help me, yeah.

Life goin’ nowhere. Somebody help me.

Somebody help me, yeah. I’m stayin’ alive.

Damn, grey matter started dribbling out of my left ear just from the memory flashback that caused. Disco made people to think polyester was a fiber that felt good (it’s neither), that four inch collar lapels and half your buttons undone was … appealing. Let me put it this way … it was enough to make men wear high heels, even if they called them platform shoes.

We were damn lucky to live to tell the grandchildren about it. If they’ll ever stop asking what they grey stuff is running down our neck when the radio plays those oldies from the 70’s.

4. How would you describe your political philosophy? What are the overarching themes and principles shaping your political beliefs? Are you a pragmatist or idealist?

Hey, that’s at least three questions. And there’s your first hint; I’m a stickler for the facts, don’t like wiggle words, and thus often find politics a frustrating stew.

But I’ll try not to vent here. I’ve never really fit the packaged set of views and values associated with either major party. I tend to mix and match. I judge on the merits of each individual issue, not the impact it will have on the party in/out of power.

Speaking in broad terms; I’m fairly liberal on social issues. I’m pro-choice, and think government has no business regulating or approving my marriage or anyone else’s. I’m an ardent Constitutionalist, and believe it should never ever be amended in any way that abridges anyone’s rights, as that is counter to the foundation of the document.

I like to think I’m fiscally conservative, but damned if I know if anyone really knows what that means anymore. I believe in being choosey about what you pay for, and believe in paying for what you choose. I believe our government should operate the way it expects its citizens to behave financially … be productive, spend what you earn, but don’t exceed what you earn. I believe that when you are forced to surge your spending, you need to surge your income … not cut it as we’ve done over the past five years. I believe we need to go back to the tax levels of the late 90’s in order to shut down the annual deficit faster, and pay for increases desperately needed in certain areas. I’d support a 25 to 50 cents per gallon gas tax, both to cut consumption, spur faster production of hybrid cars from Detroit, and reduce reliance on foreign oil. Plus cut the deficit and fund new initiatives. So maybe I’m not financially conservative, I’m financially punitive. I’d certainly never be elected on that platform. But it’s the medicine I think we need.

When it comes to foreign policy, I’m a hawk, a proponent of a strong and well funded military, and was long before 9/11. I thought we failed the Iraqi people after the first Gulf War when we called on them to rise up against Saddam, and then stood by and did nothing while they were slaughtered. Until we dug up their mass graves 12 years later. I thought we were horribly slow in moving to stop the genocide as Yugoslavia broke up in the early and mid 90’s. It was the appalling performance of the UN in that conflict that lead me to believe they were worse than useless. That they actually made some conflicts worse. And that it would always be the US who would have to be the one pushing for the use of force where it was required. I reached those conclusions before I had a web site. Or I would have been ranting about it back then.

So it’s always been hard for me to find a spot in the narrow binary spectrum. Over 25 years of voting (all in Georgia), I’d estimate that if you considered state and federal elections, I’ve probably voted 2-1, Democrat to Republican. But at various times, I’ve voted for both sides, at both levels. And in the last two elections, it’s gotten harder as the binary split grows wider.

Pragmatist versus idealist? Well, the pragmatist in me knows that each party in its own gloriously unique way is shifting towards the True Believers and shedding centrists like bad ticks. And that’s there’s not a damn thing I can do to change that.

But the idealist in me sees the “37-26-37” split in 2004 (declared Republicans vs. Independents vs. Democrats), and thinks those shed centrists can start adding up real soon into a viable third party. A Centrist Party.

Naaaah, never happen (yes, it could).

5. Why haven’t we met when our public addresses are less than 2 miles apart?

I’m afraid you’ll make me change diapers.

Other than that, I have no good reason. Do you?