-by Geo

This past weekend, an event called “Art al Fresco” happened in Columbus, Ohio. Artists made spontaneous art in public places, starting conversations and evoking responses from people passing by. I was proud to be a small part of this, when 3 B&W photos from my “About Face: The Art of Being Human” series were chosen for display.

Additionally, these photos are “teasers” for another upcoming community building art effort, the “Columbus: Inside Out Project.”  It will be a group endeavor as part of the worldwide initiative known as “Inside Out.”  Inspired by the artist/photographer JR, winner of the 2011 TED prize, who said “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…INSIDE OUT.” Six other Columbus-based photographers and I will be capturing portraits of local volunteers from all walks of life this Saturday 9/17/2011 at COSI from 10am until 12pm.  The resulting prints will be posted around town in public places. The hope is to create a feeling of community through the display of these portraits in areas accessible to all.

More info about the Columbus:  Inside Out Project at http://tedxcolumbus.com/2011/09/inside-out/

More info about JR’s global Inside Out Project at http://www.tedprize.org/jr-2011-ted-prize-winner/

It may be the big buzz in our industry right now, but this pair of dimes shift seems pretty old school to us…

And this one even older!

But that’s just our two cents…

-by Jules

Summer is a great time to capture evocative images. Everyone can relate to the sweet simplicity summertime brings to mind.  School’s out, days are long, temperatures are pleasant.  The livin’ is easy!

It doesn’t get much simpler than fun times in the sprinkler.  Just ask this boy.  Hopefully you won’t have to, maybe the picture tells it all.

-by Jules

©2011 Julie Schirmer

A recent article in the New York Times advertising section reports a new nomenclature in the ad agency and PR firm setting.  Of course, reorganization and renaming are nothing new to our industry. But some of the monickers that we’ve come to know, love and understand are being replaced with more current, relevant titles. Here’s a primer so we might recognize who we’re working with.

Out with the Old, In with the New!

Out: Account Executive, In: Strategist
Out: Account Supervisor, In: Catalyst
Out: Designer and/or Writer, In: Creator
Out: Vice President, In: Executive Director

GolinHarris, a PR firm with 700 employees and owned by Interpublic Group of Companies, is formalizing this shift as of this week. They say it is in response to changing consumer behaviors “most notably the public’s fast and fierce embrace of digital and social media.” Apparently, new hires had the skills to be useful, productive team members, but the old job title system just didn’t seem to fit the bill anymore.

No mention of a new title for Photographer. Any ideas?

We’ve all heard the phrase “Thinking Outside the Box” so much that it’s become a cliché. I was surprised to find the college students in my photo class didn’t know the brain teasing puzzle that started this concept. Follow this link to learn more about the puzzle. But I want to go a bit further.

A very astute and engaged designer friend, Crit Warren, has spoken about producing work that fits an audience’s “Circle of Understanding”.

The Circle of Understanding

The dot inside the circle represents a common group knowledge; everyone in the group “gets” what’s in the dot. The circle represents the outer limit of understanding of that particular group. Our messages need to fit the group and their knowledge.

For instance, if we need to show how to operate a fire extinguisher, our message and visuals had better be in the dot for everyone. When I talk to my photo students about photo styles and techniques, I will assume they have a larger circle of understanding.

Crit had said, and I agree, that good advertising should be right along the edges of the circle for your given audience. Make your viewers think a bit, and they will be engaged. No one likes boring.

Each audience is unique. We all have our own levels of vocabulary, and our visual vocabulary is no different. The internet and smart devices have enabled anyone with the resources to access a huge volume of imagery and data, expanding our limits of understanding. We can be edgy and still engage our audiences. As our viewers become more visually sophisticated, our opportunities as photographers just get more exciting.

For photographers, making something appear to be simple can actually be pretty involved.  Here’s a 2.5 minute video from the above shoot where the object was to photograph some community members with the wind turbines they helped engineer and facilitate…caution, there is a soundtrack so you might want to adjust your volume settings!

Behind the Scenes with George C. Anderson Photography from George C. Anderson on Vimeo.

-by Jules

I saw a piece on the Today show recently which featured an author of a book I did not know. Apparently everyone else on the planet has heard of this writer’s book, which stems from his blog, but in case not, I wanted to share here. It holds some basic truths that I think can be helpful to creatives who own their own small businesses and sometimes suffer not only the economic challenges shared by all small businesses, but also the extra difficulties of staying positive and producing creative ideas when forces in life may seem to be conspiring against you.

The author was Neil Pasricha and his new book is called “The Book of (Even More) Awesome.” The way he tells it, he had started a blog just chronicling little everyday events that brought some kind of simple joy to his life. He didn’t think anyone would read it. His first fan was his mom and then his dad, then his dad’s friends and so on. ‘Til the blog had a ginormous following and now, he’s a bestselling author.

Why go on and on about this fellow and his story?

When we make our income by parlaying our creative gifts into tangible, communicative messages, it’s not always an easy path.  Yes, it’s all hunky-dory when you’re booked solid and budgets are ample.  But when the calendar is lacking and every budget feels parsimonious, we have to find ways to appreciate the small things in life.  The bigger stuff will work out.  It always does.  And in the meantime, it’s important to buoy yourself up, because the best creative comes from a well within each artist.  And feeling satisfied helps feed that wellspring.

For example, this morning,  I realized I was wailing away to a song I was listening to in my car.  I like to sing, and I don’t always even realize I’m humming along to something on the radio…but today, I actually took note of how much pleasure I was experiencing in the moment.  Plus I’m pretty sure the guy in the car next to me at the stoplight got a big chuckle from my antics, although he was probably thankful it’s not warm enough for open windows just yet here in Ohio…

In the fast-paced world we all live in, and the occasionally ego-crushing creative business we’ve chosen to work in, try to remember to stop once in a while and revel in something simple and fulfilling.  Maybe it will inspire your next photo?  Maybe that something little can be the start of your next big thing?

by Jules

There is no denying that texting can be efficient, emailing unobtrusive and smoke signals…well, uh…pretty?

But as visual collaborators, there is nothing to beat a good phone call or personal meeting to hash out the how-to’s in a shared creative endeavor. As photographers, it is typically our role to execute others’ vision, research and layouts. A good conversation can go a long way to making this whole experience more satisfying and successful overall.

When interpreting others’ aesthetics, can we really get the full description as quickly and thoroughly via text rather than talk? Let’s admit it, most creatives got into this business because they are image people, not necessarily word people (our friends, the Copywriters, aside of course). Many times, they are also hunt-and-peck keyboardists who struggle to scratch out a few lines of text. How dreary it must feel to attempt tapping out all the subtleties they could better describe in even a brief chat!

So, when you are working with someone and are going to be the photographer who ultimately stands with your trusty camera at that critical moment in time and “makes it all happen,” I hope you’ve been able to have a previous conversation with your client. There will be things you’ll discover that simply can’t be communicated and discussed any other way. And you’ll do a better job for having a better understanding of your client’s wishes.

I know we’re all pressed for time and the natural inclination now for so many entering the working world of the communication arts may be to reach for their inter-planetary mobile device and send a message, even if the recipient is just across the hallway.

I encourage us to seek conversation. Audio, visual, person-to-person. We can keep it short, to the point, and in the process, perhaps we may remember that in fact, the spoken word can be more efficient than we ever realized.

-by Geo and Julie

Some photos look like they were easy-as-pie to do. Some look extremely complex. This is a story about one that is not as straightforward as it may seem.

When we get calls from clients, they are often looking for partners in solving problems and achieving guaranteed visual results.  This means whenever we’re up for a job, we have to shoot the whole thing in our heads to figure out just how we’ll be able to assure the finished product.

In this case, the client asked us to produce a “Balloon Garden”; a photo of two young girls, outdoors, in a group of helium-filled balloons arranged as large “flowers”. Shouldn’t be too tough, right?

But as we got started considering the how-to’s we realized there were a lot of tricky factors to anticipate.

Our biggest concern was wind. We shot this in mid April, and it can be darned breezy in Ohio in early Spring! Did you know that helium-filled balloons on strings just lay down in the slightest of breezes?  Neither did we ’til we did a location check with our intern holding some balloons on site.  One tiny puff and over they went.  Hoping to minimize that effect, we found a suitable back yard, well protected by trees and garages, with a perfectly tended yard in lovely green condition. We also chose to shoot as early in the morning as the light would allow since wind typically builds through the day.

In case wind became an issue, we had tested some securing tactics that would allow us to place balloons into exact positions relative to the camera for post-production digital combination.  Since our product was translucent balloons, we arrived at the solution of using hand-held pleixglass “paddles” that could be taped to the backside and not compromise the translucence of the balloon.  They could be held in place by an assistant, and the paddles could be easily retouched out of the scene later.

The girls were cast from a previous audition, so we knew how energetic and cooperative they were. Some colorful wardrobe options made for a great start.

On our chosen day, we had a nearly cloudless sky at dawn when the crew was on location inflating and assembling balloon flowers.  We actually had another shot that was even more wind sensitive before this shot! That had gone quite well with very little wind, and we moved over in the yard to the primo spot for the Balloon Garden.

The breeze began to pick up, and the careful balloon arrangements were easily disturbed and twisted out of place. The girls were perfect and were holding up as well as kids their age can be expected, but we soon realized  it was highly unlikely we were going to “get it” in one shot; we needed to be capturing elements to be assembled later in Photoshop.

We made sure to get great shots of the girls’ expressions, with a good “base” of balloons. Their expressions really made the “cuteness factor” of the shot so we were sure to focus on them and deal with the balloons as best as possible. Assistants then held balloons in place with our tested clear plexiglass “paddles” to be sure we were capturing an array of balloon orientations as options for later.

An Assistant Holding Flower with Plexiglass Paddle

Another Element for Combo Later

After combination in PhotoShop, the final result still appears “normal” and quite believable. But on a day that turned out to be rather windy, making what looks to have been simple was actually pretty challenging.  And this does not even address the magical PhotoShop work Pat Dignan provided, working in the elements we shot and finessing a great combo job.  We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, “Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance Perhaps!”  Easy as pie!?  Well, sort of…

Final Shot Before PhotoShop Combination

Final Balloon Garden Image After PhotoShop