Warhol Museum; Andy's Lion

Spent a fabulous weekend with my fabulous husband who allowed me to do some fabulous editing work. In the photography phases of my life,  subject matter may change like the weather but one thing remains constant; I am shooting or I am editing.  To be editing provides the brain (right or left?) with much needed solace.  Not unlike the creative part of shooting, you are creating an entire new body or project.  Whether it’s a portfolio, a book, a marketing campaign…they all benefit from tight photo editing.

My mind wanders through the myriad of images we have taken at Aerial Innovations or through my own archives.  Once I have seen them several odd amounts of time, I can almost review them from memory. The strong ones remain, the weak ones fall away.  Once back with the thumbnails/contact sheets cut apart, it turns into a big memory game…which ones go together, making secret little matches.  More weak images fall away, several new surprises happen, until it is cohesive and tells a story.

I keep in mind from the beginning the skeleton of this story.  What are the images trying to say, who are they saying it to, can they complete the thought or do they need more help?  All of these componants go into the story.  If you understand, I have been successful.

Three Bars

..in with the New Year. I began this blog earlier in the year to share archives of photos that had been sitting on my hard drive.  I was able to accomplish about 1% of that goal (not a bad start!). I got a little sidetracked as I delved into book publishing (see previous few posts) and keeping our companies’ blog up to date (www.aboveitall.wordpress.com).  So as we head into 2009, I need to reinvigorate or reevaluate my initial goal of creating an archive of personal work.  The plan will be to bring new work as it is created, reveal past work as it goes through my updated workflow and continue to share accomplishments in the commercial world.

It may be difficult to keep this blog as a pure archive as this year holds new challenges and commitments including the desire to continue producing photography books and our company’s upcoming show at the Nashville Airport (coming June 2009).  As our company’s role in the construction market continues to grow, we also face challenges as the construction market has seen a slow down with speculation and hope being the biggest motivator and topic of discussion.

One goal within the realm of our commercial work is to attract more assignments with creative goals and clients. Whether this is within the construction industry or with new clients in creative industries, we are committed to the same mission – high quality custom photography. To attract the opportunities, we have also been very involved this year in establishing an online presence to present our talents.  This includes (but is not limited to) updating our web site, maintianing the blog, getting the stock site more under control, driving traffic to the bookstore and continuing to develop our email and direct marketing.  So, not a lot of time to reminisce on old photos!

I will leave with one new posting, some photos I took today (first of the new year!) while Rodger and I were visiting a renovation project by Global Outreach Development.  It’s an old Middle School in Hermitage where this world-wide and world-helping organization plans to have their “home base”.  They are still in demo phase so the school has many interesting juxtapositions, along with wonderful light and construction imagery.

Cheers to all and Best Wishes in 2009!

Wendy

Icon in the Gulch is a mega project.  Over 400 units, two pools, soaring architectural details and miles and miles of concrete.  The photos from the construction started before the site was cleared and are will finish with a series of interior and exterior lift shoots in the next few weeks.

I have been fortunate to have an insider’s view to many of the construction mile stones. As completion draws near, I have begun the task of putting over 450 images together into book form.  (not really an excuse for not posting to this blog in a while but one reason of many.)

My goal is to keep a few notes as I go about the progress and process of the book.  Right now, the images are filtering themselves into good and great images as well as categorizing themselves by stage of construction.  Most books would form along a timeline if photos were only taken of specific events.  Because I tend to wander in my image making, the photos are sorting along broader lines.  For example, the lines and forms of the tower cranes caught my eye on several occassions…so they get a whole chapter, whether they are being erected, moving material or being jumped.

One of the most amazing thing about reviewing months of photos (both mine and several of the photographers that have helped along the way) is how the story begins to tell itself.  Yes, we took the images to tell a story but through juxtasposition, editing & layout, the story is told through the project that we were witness to.  Hopefully I will stay as optimistic about storytelling as I go into the image correction phase!

Stay tuned for more.  Below is the most likely candidate for a cover image.

Posted by Wendy Whittemore, Co-owner Aerial Innovations of TN, Inc.

Top spire of the Icon

I am supposed to be doing research on stock photography sites. Instead, I have set up my blog, created a blog mission, uploaded several sets to Flickr and prepared several others. Also, updated the iPhone and prepared content for the blog. Anything but research stock sites.

What have I learned so far about stock sites….

Most are like overstuffed couches upon which you can only site for a few minutes before feeling uncomfortable and wanting to get up and leave. A clean, easy to navigate site, options for viewing images and creative information seem to be lacking in most. Several seem to be a collection of images only accessible if you know what you are looking for. If you just want to browse by your fancy, you will have to dig hard and be creative.

It has been advised to me recently to attempt a three-tiered approach. This gives you the ability to work your photos great and poor alike, stretching them across all tiers of stock. The top earners go to Rights Managed Sites where they can be coddled like top athletes. Royalty Free are not the top image but they get the chance to work at a lesser fee..the blue collar middle class image bank. Outakes similar to your other work but not as spectacular, send them to a microstock agency…they will still earn, dollar by dollar, and that will make them feel important. Will, that’s a great analogy!

Web Sites, Stock Sites, Photo Sharing sites are still all about the image..showing it, protecting it, categorizing it…and hardly at all about the viewer or, potentially, the consumer. I love to look at photos. I love to buy photos. Viewing them online has always been an either exhilarating (yes! they got it) or entirely disappointing experience. Wasting time wading awkwardly through sub par images. And I am guilty of adding to the muck, no doubt. But shooting a million images to get that one good one is different than looking at a million images to have your DSL go down.

Send great presentation sites!