Archive for Book Reviews
The Signal and The Noise
Posted: November 21st, 2012
[by Jay Kinghorn] In case you haven’t yet heard his name, Nate Silver is a statistician with rock star status who writes the FiveThirtyEight blog for the New York Times. In Silver’s new book The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-But Some Don’t he highlights the difficulties we have at predicting the [...]
Art Without Compromise
Posted: November 20th, 2012
[by Irene Owsley] Let me be the first to confess that I usually prefer fiction and literary memoir for light holiday reading. But I’m also fascinated by big picture thinking as we photographers find ourselves in such a period of rapid change in the industry. In her book, Art Without Compromise, Wendy Richmond exhorts the [...]
Your Best Year Yet!
Posted: November 19th, 2012
[by Charles Gupton] Thanksgiving week is a good time to catch up on reading. Often the days leading up to the holiday are a bit slower as many people gear down for their own time off. It’s an ideal time to review the year to date and evaluate what adjustments we need to make for [...]
Selling in the New Economy
Posted: October 16th, 2012
[by Blake Discher] My chapter in The ASMP Guide to New Markets in Photography is titled “Selling in the New Economy.” I start the chapter with the sub-topic that I’ll tell any photographer I talk with these days about business: that we’re salespeople first and photographers second. Sometimes they’ll agree, other times not. But eventually, [...]
Summer Reading Suggestions
Posted: June 29th, 2012
[by Charles Gupton] As the days of summer grow longer, one of my favorite activities is to get outside early before the heat builds and read. Reading a great book feeds my mind and creativity and often bolsters my business resolve. Some recent books that may inspire you too: Spark by John Ratey When work [...]
This is War
Posted: June 28th, 2012
[by Kevin Lock] I believe photographers are soldiers in the creative world. We fight for, and at times with, our editors, publishers, critics, the general public and even ourselves. We fight hard to bring our art to life. This summer I have War on my mind. The Art of War By Sun Tzu In the [...]
Summer Books For You!
Posted: June 27th, 2012
[by Selina Maitreya] As I began my quest to suggest books for this post, I realized that the books Ive been reading are not photo books but all are indeed still perfect for photographers. Photographic vision and the act of photography are divine gifts….thus my suggestions for you to read this summer are: 25 Lessons [...]
Summer Reading List from a Book Hoarder
Posted: June 26th, 2012
[by Kimberly Blom-Roemer] OK, I will be the first to admit, most of my “recreational” reading is heavily influenced by the fact that I am a photographer and small business owner. If you’re like me, being photographer isn’t nine-to-five… it is who I am from morning to night. Maybe I am not completely balanced… is [...]
Summer Reading
Posted: June 25th, 2012
[by Jenna Close] Influence by Robert B. Cialdini, Phd. A very well written book dealing specifically with the psychology of persuasion. It’s not as heavy as the subject implies and offers a lot of insight into behavior, influence and the science of skillful marketing. Echolalia by Timothy Archibald This is one of my favorite [...]
Trading Shoes
Posted: February 13th, 2012
[by Jenna Close] There’s nothing like the other side of the coin to put things into perspective. Earlier this year I found myself searching for a website designer. In the process, I learned a few things about being a client. It’s stressful… The client’s colleagues and boss will be judging THEM based on how YOU [...]
Recommended Reading
Posted: December 15th, 2011
[by Richard Harrington] I know a lot of photographers are thinking about motion and video. This is a complex subject with many interdependent skills. I recommend here several books that I personally use (or wrote) to keep my business running smoothly. The Visual Story, Second Edition: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital [...]
Turning the Page
Posted: December 14th, 2011
[by Selina Maitreya] As I wrote the title for this blog post, I realized that many of you are not turning pages you are “Kindling “your info these days. Regardless of the delivery, here are books that I suggest you consider owning. Do The Work – Stephen Pressfield A great follow up to The War [...]
The Lean Startup
Posted: December 13th, 2011
[by Jay Kinghorn] Like many businesses, our company is in the midst of adapting to a changing world by finding new ways we can support our clients and new avenues for income. One of the challenges we face is pinpointing which of the many ideas we’ve explored are the best opportunities with which to [...]
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 [...]
Books to Get You Going
Posted: July 1st, 2011
[by Judy Herrmann] Those lazy hazy days of summer yearn to lure you into complacency. C’mon, they whisper, soft and low, lie out by the pool, read a trashy novel or two, relaaaaaax. And before you were self-employed…Aaah, those were the days and that was the life. Now, though, we are on, 24/7, 365. So [...]
My Summer Reading List for People Adding Video to their Workflow
Posted: June 30th, 2011
[by Richard Harrington] I am often asked by photographers which books I recommend to learn video. There are several, but I wanted to offer you my top choices that I think are most helpful. The links will take you to Amazon where you can read reviews and the publisher’s description as well. The Visual Story, [...]
The Creative Process Illustrated
Posted: June 29th, 2011
[by Charles Gupton] Would you like to have the chance to get a peek into the process of some of the most respected creative minds in the advertising business today? In the book, The Creative Process Illustrated: How Advertising’s Big Ideas are Born, you’ll have that opportunity. The authors approached nearly 300 top creative directors, [...]
Summer reading for the type-A personality
Posted: June 28th, 2011
As an overachiever who doesn’t do well with heat, I like my summer reading breezy, but not mindless (I reserve that for air travel.) For me, that means stuff that I can dip into easily a bit at a time and still learn from — think “bathroom reading”, only useful. The Personal MBA (by Josh [...]
Summer Reading
Posted: June 27th, 2011
[by Sean Kernan] A great way to get inspired and to exercise your imaginative vision is to slip outside photography altogether. Which is why I recently disappeared into Isaac Babel’s Red Cavalry short stories for a few weeks. I lived in the grind and the confusion and the human-ness of partisan warfare. The experience raised [...]
Think Like Your Customer
Posted: September 22nd, 2010
[by Todd Joyce] There are a lot of resources out there on business that unless it’s about a photography business, we don’t seem to want to pick it up… I have news for you. If you’re not treating your business like a business, then you’ll likely be out of business soon. There’s a great book [...]
Liber Liberum Aperit (one book opens another)
Posted: July 2nd, 2010
[by Sean Kernan] I’ve been riding a long slow curve from the activity of making photographs through the question of why I pursue it so hard, visiting the question of how we create, and winding up (for now) at the question of why we create in life-size our versions of how everything should be, using [...]
My Number One Reading Recommendation
Posted: July 1st, 2010
[by Gail Mooney] #1 Reading recommendation: From Still to Motion by Richard Harrington – Peachpit Press Harrington has written 27 books on everything from Photoshop tips to Final Cut Pro and other software applications. In his current book “From Still to Motion” he documents a field case study creating a video with the hybrid camera [...]
Summer Reading List
Posted: June 30th, 2010
[by Jay Kinghorn] There’s no doubt that the business landscape is tough for photographers right now. Still, every day, green shoots are appearing in the publishing and advertising industries that will allow well-positioned and technologically savvy photographers to make and impact (and a good living) as the recession subsides. Here are a few books I’ve [...]
Our Data, Our Selves
Posted: June 29th, 2010
[by Judy Herrmann] Earlier this year, ASMP President, Richard Kelly, suggested I read Ken Auletta’s book, Googled: The End of the World as We Know It. Thought-provoking and packed with facts, quotes and well-researched information – I actually pulled out a highlighter pen for the first time in years – it is so well-written and [...]
Big Changes can Happen while Reading on Long Summer Days
Posted: June 28th, 2010
[by Carolyn Potts] Instead of a best-selling mystery or a trashy summer novel, pack one of these into your beach bag and you’ll have more than a tan when you’re done. You’ll end up with some different perspectives regarding where business is headed–and how you fit in. I think it’s essential for any small business owner [...]
I Highly Recommend “Free, The Future of a Radical Price” by Chris Anderson
Posted: August 24th, 2009
Chris Anderson’s new book is a provocative look at the growing economy of free. I know many of you may roll your eyes at the thought that “free” is our new competition, but do not judge this book by it’s title. Anderson provides a careful investigation outlining the history and future of this economic driver, [...]
Vision And Art: The Biology of Seeing
Posted: July 24th, 2009
Many of the corrections we make to photos, burning and dodging, and adjusting contrast or saturation, are designed to exploit quirks in our visual system. In Vision And Art: The Biology of Seeing by Margaret Livingstone, you’ll learn the biological and physiological foundations behind image sharpening, selective focus, contrast and the rule of thirds. This [...]
Summer Book : TRIBES by Seth Godin
Posted: July 23rd, 2009
It is summer 2009 and while some of us are packing the car for vacations to the sea shore or the mountains, many of us are choosing to “staycation”, or rather staying close to home or taking day trips to area attractions. Today’s economy is forcing us to re-evaluate, not just the family summer vacation [...]
The Lean Forward Moment: Create Compelling Stories for Film, TV and the Web
Posted: July 21st, 2009
If you’ve been following Gail Mooney’s multimedia and video posts and are beginning to experiment with video, you’ve found that video and multimedia require different approaches than still photography. The pacing of cuts, pans or zooms through the frame, or edits in a timeline are foreign concepts to photographers. In The Lean Forward Moment, Norman [...]
Book Review Week
Posted: July 20th, 2009
I love reading biographies and these three very different stories are some of my favorites. Limelight is a memoir by Helen Gee and traces her history opening this country’s first photography gallery. If you love photography and photographers, you will enjoy this immensely. It is a charming tale of Greenwich Village and the coming of [...]
This DAM Stuff Is Important
Posted: June 4th, 2009
Managing your digital images can be a daunting task. Imagine a world where you can retrieve a specific image for a client in seconds or pull up everything you photographed on a specific theme instantly. You will not only save time, but you will improve the quality of your customer service, your marketing materials or [...]
Don’t Ignore This Book Review
Posted: May 1st, 2009
The second edition of Tom Reilly’s Value Added Selling: how to sell more profitably, confidently, and professionally by completing of value, not price (McGraw-Hill ISBN: 0-0714088-19, 256 pages) boasts 70-percent new content from the first edition. I was given my copy by a fellow airline passenger who had finished it while on a flight we [...]
“Marketing Management is now Tribal Leadership” Seth Godin
Posted: April 29th, 2009
If you haven’t yet read TRIBES - We need you to lead us by Seth Godin, today is the day to do just that, at 160 pages it is easily a weekend read. The basic tribe concept is that groups of people form tribes around a person or an idea or a product to create [...]
