2009 Black Team video

If you don't know about the Eddie Adams Black team then you really haven't lived. Each year a collection of the top passionate people in the industry get together to create the Black Team at Eddie Adams Workshop. Sure the workshop is greta and all, but being on the Black Team is probably the most important life altering experiences on can have.

Anyway, one of the many many things that black team members do (other than mowing lawns, setting up chairs, driving VIPs from NY and other things) is a Black Team video.

Here is 2009's video which was accomplished even with the heavy economy hit. Simply amazing!!! Great job guys.

Living magazines are coming. Get over it! Love it!

If I ever here one more old (ph)ogie tell me that video convergence is a fad, I will just cry.

Watch this now!

Living Magazine Cover & Spread - Outside Magazine from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

Firemen rescue a cat. News at 11

So there was Anna, sitting on the corner of a street with all the gear, waiting for me to park the car. Then she hears it, meow meow meow. So she starts looking around and what do you know, right down a storm drain was this little baby kitten sitting on a ledge a few feet from the grate high above a ten foot cavern below.

So here I come walking slowly not to break a sweat before shooting another VIP when I see Anna waiving her hands and crying to me, "the cat, the cat." So I asked her. Did you shoot it? With an obvious look on my face like it was so obvious that why I should even ask the question. "No!!! Go get help!" She says.

SO I went to a bank nearby and asked if they could call the non-emergency number and within minutes this huge fire truck was on scene. Then I told Anna, "Here they are. Now shoot it!"

It took only a few seconds before the courageous firefighters lifted the steel grate and swept in to grab the cat. One of the ladies in the bank told me that if no one wanted it she would take it.

There you go. We saved the kitties day. And did a nice street portrait of the fire crew as a thank you. Now back to work as we photographed the owner of the Sun Sentinel newspaper. Oh, did I mention that the building next to us was the Sun Sentinel newspaper. Damn I should have brought the images to them.

Watch the video here.

an Iguana found me

This is just one more example of a fact to me that there is a divineintervention in my life. Recently I got the call again from a majorpublication that is interested in possibly a feature about my backyardproject. I won't mention the name (ng), but will say it will be a very cool part of my life.

Only problem for me though was I hadn't photographed a backyard creature in a while. It just seemed to dry up. I do feel like I send out radio waves that attract these things. How else can I explain that this giant 6 foot long Iguana appear out of no where. He showed up this morning right next to the porch. We had one apple in the house and a bag of carrots we were going to throw away. Anna cut them into pieces and we started tossing them to him. Because these guys can be very rough if threatened I chose to try not to catch him, but let him come into the house on his own. After about a few minutes of coaxing him to our open door, he just walked right on in. I was a little unprepared for this (mostly because I wasn't thinking he would come in), but I set up my Elinchrom Ranger RX battery kit with two S heads. One with a soft box and another with a grid reflector for some backlight. Because I didn't think I would have much time with him, I didn't even set up stands and just rested the lights on the floor or a nearby chair. As a backdrop, I used two pieces of giant 4x8 black foam core, cut to fold in half. He had no problem walking onto it and posing for me. As long as there was some carrots to occupy him.

Actually it was pretty freaky how good he was. Almost as if he was
modeling for me. Watch the video Anna shot of the event here.

What to learn from this? Take advantage of every opportunity God gives
you. No matter how trivial it may be. Don't get lazy. Just create.
This has to be one of the coolest shoots from this project yet.

Of course I could have done without the Iguana leaving a human sized
poop on my foam core, but I can't complain.

Socialnomics

Saw this on Ian Summers' blog and had to post it. It is very real and exciting. Just think about our parents and them saying, "If I only knew to invest in this or that company way back when..." Well, here we are on the edge of a shift and seeing the ones that are succeeding. What are you waiting for?

A conversation with Dave Moser

Recently I had a conversation with a friend, Dave Moser. Dave is a photographer based in Philadelphia and strong supporter of the ASMP. In fact it was he that pushed me to join and get involved. While we were on the phone I congratulated him on his latest marketing campaign and decided to ask him a few questions for a blog entry. Below is what he said.

A little background about Dave. He graduated #1 in his class from the University of Dayton with a BFA in 1990 and started full time in 94 after being the most booked assistant in Philly.

When you first started how did you do your marketing?

Marketing is something I have never really made enough time for. I was very fortunate to run a strong business based on word of mouth. I am now looking to grow my business and work more consistently with top creatives who hire based on style and collaboration rather then locale and price. In January 2008 I started consistent efforts by hiring a team to help. This has proven to be a great choice and I am now heavily involved directly with the marketing along with overseeing the team. The team consists of Ian Summers (coach), Anna Adesanya (marketing coordinator), David Samson of Adville (copywriter) and Partners Design (Design Firm). This allows me to wear less hats and do what I really love to do, take pictures! I have not only gained more time after delegating these things but have gained an enormous amount of energy as I am not bogged down with things that are not my strengths!

What influenced you to make changes (if any) to target very specific audiences? Unlike many others that apply a shotgun affect to their marketing.

I want to work for top creatives at Ad Agencies, Design Studios, and Magazines. I am less concerned with the "company" and more concerned with what I saw as great work from an individual. I am now seeking to build relationships with these individuals and looking to maintain them as they move from job to job. I believe this industry is about relationships (even more so then other industries) and this seems to be the best way of growing my business/marketing virally as well as keeping pace with such a transient industry.

What can you expect for the next year's efforts in marketing as we start to ease out of these 'tough times'?

I have received some really great unsolicited national press and really great feedback on my campaign but have been told that there has been very little work out there. Some of the strongest feedback has been about how memorable the campaign and my work is. With continued consistent efforts and follow up, I hope to be considered for the projects that are now starting to materialize. Just in the last three weeks work has picked up profoundly, and I attribute this to our marketing efforts.

What organization would you say helped you the most in your path to success as a photographer?

ASMP and Editorial Photographers. Since the beginning of the internet photographers are less likely to be islands and are more willing to share information. This has greatly empowered us as an industry. There is still much to learn from networking, thank you Aaron for this opportunity, and working together in numbers to insure the profitability and sustainability of our industry.

Anything else that you think a 'self-promoting photographer' should consider on their path?

I believe creatives are very interested in seeing our personal work and experiments along with our commissioned work. Our personal work shows not only where we are going but hopefully shows something new unique and exciting. This also provides a chance to expose them to our passion and why we entered and remain in photography.

Check out Dave's work at http://www.dwmphoto.com/

AA

Backyard project featured in October's Popular Photography magazine

October's issue of Popular Photography magazine is the Nature issue. So it is pretty much an honor to be presented so well in such a specific subject of a large magazine as this. Many thanks to Peter Kolonia for the text as well as Tim Barker who did the amazing illustration.

http://www.popphoto.com/

Click on the photo to see it larger.