Archive for Barry Schwartz
A Few of My Favorite (Non-Fiction) Books
Posted: December 12th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] James Taylor – Timothy White. As a long time fan (I saw the original Troubadour shows with Carol King in 1970), seeing how an artist can maintain the quality of their work and continue to grow as an artist for a real, real long time provides a perspective I find more than [...]
What They Want
Posted: November 16th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] After Steve Jobs died I read over and over how he brought something extra to every product because Apple is a company of creatives as much as engineers. “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them”, he told Business Week in 1997. Jobs didn’t [...]
What Goes Around Comes Around
Posted: November 3rd, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] All business is personal – especially when you work for yourself. I’ve never forgotten something I heard Blake Discher say in one of his fantastic seminars, that when he tracked views on his website, his personal work was the only gallery where viewers typically looked at every picture. I had just recently [...]
Cool
Posted: October 20th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] Some photographic subjects come pre-equipped with a “cool-factor”. Hipsters in hipster clothing. Musicians. Designers dressed in black. A piercing here, a tattoo there. I work in several areas, but my primary focus is architecture. Los Angeles, where I live, was a center of cool architecture even before Europeans delivered us their fully-formed [...]
Agreement
Posted: October 14th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] “When you create something out of nothing, the first rule is to agree.” ~ Tina Fey talking about the process of improv at Google headquarters with chairman Eric Schmitdt. What else is it that photographers do, but exactly this? The first part: creating something out of nothing. The second part: getting your [...]
On Keeping Up with Things – or – How I avoid Work Yet Feel Like I’m Doing Something Useful – or – How I Browse Without Feeling Like a Cow
Posted: August 19th, 2011
Some of my browser faves, in no particular order: British Journal of Photography – http://www.bjp-online.com/ Great news, good interviews, roughly analogous to PDN. Published in a foreign country yet in English; so convenient. Luminous Landscape – http://luminous-landscape.com/index.shtml A review and essay site about equipment and aesthetics, all from a users’, practical viewpoint. Not too gear-heady. [...]
Lucky and Ready
Posted: August 5th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] My color management guy likes to say you’re either well color-managed or badly color-managed. Either way, you’re color-managed. Every contact with a potential new client (or a repeat client) is an act of good marketing or bad marketing. Either way, it’s marketing, because marketing is simply how you’re perceived by someone else. [...]
More is (every now and then) More
Posted: July 26th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] Speaking aesthetically, less is usually more. But not always so in business. Your contract has a list of what you’re going to deliver; how many files, what size, that sort of thing. Expectations on both sides of the arrangement – what your client gets, what you expect in return – are well-understood. [...]
These are a Few of my Favorite Things
Posted: July 20th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] In no particular order: The D-65 workshop gave me a professional workflow along with the tools to produce high-quality work – quickly – from camera setup all the way to delivery. Was more fun than I thought it would be considering how often I thought my head would fall off. At the [...]
Summertime, and the Marketing’s Easy
Posted: June 8th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] Summertime. Lounging my days away with friends, talking about nothing, waiting for the barbecue to get hot, feeling the warmth of the sun as it sets… Wait a minute. O man, there’s my fantasy life kicking in. Self-employed people don’t take off day after day. That’s for our clients. The ones with [...]
All Business is Personal
Posted: May 17th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] A great politician (they do exist), Tip O’Neill, famously once said “All politics is local”. There are a lot of ways to interpret that idea, but it starts with the fact that politics is about people. Business, too. Pretty much everyone in every business wants to work with people they like (and [...]
Less and Less is More All the Time
Posted: May 6th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] Brevity in writing: the key to clarity. Honest. Want to get through to your clients? Potential clients? Make it easy. Make it count. Make it sound professional. They don’t have enough time. Who does? Contacts with them should be like a good song or movie – no filler. Memorable. Messages are more [...]
SB3 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Future.
Posted: April 22nd, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] At SB3 I learned that just about everyone is worrying about the same stuff I worry about. I learned that everybody has their own way of marketing but that only those people who actively market (or have an independent income) are going to make it. I learned that it’s not just me [...]
Don’t Embarrass Youself
Posted: February 3rd, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] Writing for business, like so many things in life, is subject to an important rule: don’t embarrass yourself. Business writing should be somewhat conversational, but not like chatting to strangers after a drink or two (see title above). Good writing means putting your thoughts into a clean and clear communication – the [...]
Procrastination: Why Wait Until The New Year
Posted: January 7th, 2011
[by Barry Schwartz] I start planning my New Year’s Resolutions early, say, around July. I do this because one of my primary goals is to get a jump on reducing my tendencies to procrastinate in the new year. As a procrastinator, I find it’s helpful to have some quantity of ADD, something I once heard [...]
Cold-calling Doesn’t Have to Leave You Cold
Posted: November 1st, 2010
[by Barry Schwartz] You’re starting out. That means you probably have more time than money, and fewer clients than you’d like. (This can happen to established pros, as well, but that’s another post…). What to do to pass the time? Got internet? Got phone? Got voice? Like a good photo shoot, do some prep. Once [...]
Backing Up is (Not) Hard to Do
Posted: August 27th, 2010
[by Barry Schwartz] The same old song: it’s not a matter of if there will be a problem; it’s a matter of when. Backing up is not just for data, though. How about this: you talk to a potential client, you agree on what you’re supposed to deliver, what you’re supposed to be paid, and [...]
