Fioricet prescription. Fioricet and blood work. Generic fioricet online….

And no, nobody but the bean counters likes it.

It’s pretty easy to sit outside the big markets and complain about how incestuous they are. Then you step into those big markets and you realize they contain whole universes. The competition is fierce. No, talent does not always rise to the top. But professionalism often does. A temperament and a capacity for managing the business environment, the clients and their often wacked out notions, peers, reps and agents, editors, the egos of all concerned, so on and so forth — and then on top of it to get shots: that’s what will get honed in those contexts. You don’t have to like it; hell, many of the people who go through it don’t *like* it. But most of those who manage to negotiate it one way or another will acknowledge they got something out of it, and that it made them “better” in some sense of the word.

Art, or voice, or vision, or whatever you want to call it, happens as an accident in this world. Everybody in the business is interested in it to some degree, but it’s rare that any of them get the chance to foreground it. Someone else’s expectations are always driving the car, and someone else’s credit card is always putting gas in the tank. Getting the job done — whatever the job is perceived to be by the ones who are paying for it — becomes priority one. Time matters; familiarity with the game matters; proximity matters; track record matters. You can’t blame people for minimizing risk when that’s part of what they’ve been explicitly charged with doing by the guys who put bread on their tables.

Also, the fact is that there are so many people working in those big markets that you often don’t *have* to go outside them. I guarantee you there are 20 young photographers in Brooklyn who don’t just know Nebraska (or wherever) but actually grew up there, and are willing to fly there tomorrow and work for a song. They are as hungry as anyone else, and a few of them might prove to be as talented. It may be vicious, but it’s also real.

Someone earlier nailed what may be one of the best strategies: do your time in a big market, endure it, get your game on, then take it to a smaller market and clean house. I have a good friend who did exactly that last year, leaving NYC after several tough but productive years and going to a smaller market, where he’s not just surviving but thriving, in part due to all he picked up.

Everything is politics, everything is about making yourself look good in the eyes of the people higher up on the corporate ladder. So of course you’re going to want photographers from the cool cities like NY, London, and Sidney.

There are some non-NY shooters who are used, but they tend to live in places like Vail or Ojai and only get used for special projects.

It’s all about image. Do you have the right hair, do you have art directors up for weekends at your casually stylish farm in the Hudson Valley, do you dress head to toe in slightly beat-up Prada?

If not, it’s time to make some changes.

Great Blog. Thanks.

Professional photography is not always about the best image in the world.
It is about to be able to really deliver with a clear line about what it will
cost and how long it will take.

“Can you do this for sure?” is what most of the guys ask after
being in a rut. Guarantee to deliver or bail out.

And yes, last minute shots involve money man to kick it at some point or another. I involves guerilla tactics hit and run style because you have no permit (no time for it) and it involves to be very fast in setting up and folding down. Getting a permit and everything together in weeklong preparation and drive there with one assistant like picknicking is giving you more profit than improvising and hiring people and stuff on the spot, not to speak of bribery. The latter surprisingly enough often without proper tax deductable receipt….

Truth is though, New York is no different a market from anywhere else, it just has a higher population. Go to your biggest local manufacturer, and if you’re lucky they use a local shooter. Chances are, he’s not as good as you, but he knows the CEO, CFO and a bunch of other people. He will continue to get the work because he’s mustered time and again, and that is more worthwhile then anything else when money is the bottom line.

Just to announce it, the brass ring, ladies and gentlemen, is money. And like all busiensses, it takes money to make money. And the single most concentrated economy in the country, period end of story, check your last census, is New York City.

So when I feel that I have elevated my craft, I have made my initial contacts and enlarged my penis, I will move to the big apple and I will do my best to get a bite. And if that doesn’t work, hell, I’ll print my own money doing senior portraits.

APE- I hope one day we meet, and you’ll smile having read this, and I’ll make a fool of myself hunting for work. Do you actually meet photographers face to face?

LA is interchangeable with any city a shoot happens to be. The point was more about trusting someone to bring it home, knowing it’s a tricky situation.

Conceptually wouldn’t that activity be the what you want/should do to find a great match of photographer to story. But I’m sensing PE and colleagues are to busy parceling out and managing assignments that finding exactly the right photographer has been pushed way down the priority list. Consequently PE and AD’s and other creatives develop sufficient chops (tricks) to keep a lid on everything and keep everyone happy until someone who hasn’t shortcut this process shows up and blows them out of the water with the next new vision/style.

For better or worse not all work gets treated equally and this case may be one in which APE has deemed it worthy of a quick solution. Lets hope that other assignments get more attention or we all be looking for some cardboard and a corner to stand on.

Just for the record – the NYC snobbery doesn’t bother me a bit. I grew up in Long Island and worked in NYC for a short period. I get it. We all have decisions to make about our desired lifestyle, but I also think us “outsiders” need to push you guys to examine your shortcomings: “hey, want to do a shot on the beach” – come on down, I know people, places and a good time.

It turns out the subject started to get cold feet about hanging out with a photographer. They wanted the photographer to take a picture and get out which in my opinion would result in crap photos. All I had to do is send a link of the photographers work to the subject and after he saw that they truly understood what was going on with this person he agreed to hang out with the photographer.

Oh yeah, photographer lives in NYC but thats not why I picked him.

If you look at this discussion, the terms “editorial photographer” and “celebrity photographer or fashion photographer” are interchangeable.

I’m glad I know how to shoot a real person and make them interesting or even more, to tell the truth of the situation. Or, god forbid, shoot a landscape without a crew of people to back me up.

Seriously, has editorial become all about the production and celebrity? Do stories not count at all any more, or are they just fodder to sell more celebrity pics or advertising?

Now we’re getting into the meat of this discussion. It’s about hiring a crew that’ll certainly bring home the bacon. And it’s about hiring a crew that shows up in my Blockbuster lot carrying green hundreds. Now we’re talkin.

it’s friday afternoon and we get a call to shoot in LA. nothing is confirmed until saturday. need to produce a shoot for monday from an airport. find assistants, gear, hair and make up, locations have to be approved by the publicist before the shoot. oh yeah you get about 30 minutes with the subject. and the story is a pretty big deal.

fly to LA on a Sunday, scout locations with no time to get a permit, and it has to be near the subjects hotel, sweet talk the lady manager at blockbuster the morning of so you can park your RV in their parking lot, get kicked out of your first location before you start shooting, move to the backup spot and finally the shoot gets rolling. the police show up to cite us just as we wrap and the subject leaves.

from the PE’s point of view, it’s good to know you flew someone there from NYC who you trust to handle the situation. the photos turned out amazing, everyone was very happy. often times its not what amazing image you can create out of nothing, but rather what you can make out of the circumstances. that experience, which i’ve been a part of first hand over and over, confirms my decision to move to NYC as the right one…