Enlightened Tripod 10Enlightened Tripod 10 The “Enlightened Action Word” …. Jab: To strike or thrust at To punch sharply One of the greatest examples that I have ever heard regarding problem solving was demonstrated by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. He said that he would put the problem into an imaginary balloon and float the balloon above the table. He would then walk around the table poking and jabbing the balloon to find the holes or create the holes and eventually solve the problem, correct the challenge, or deflate the original problem into very manageable pieces. The “Enlightened Quote” Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed. Irene Peters Another side of this would be: Just because it has always been done this way doesn’t mean that it needs or should continue to be done in this fashion.
The “Enlightened Business Plan”… Joys of Joining Business Organizations Starting a business on your own is hard. Starting a business with a caring, knowledgeable support group looking after you every step of the way is easy. By joining photographic associations, business networking organizations, service clubs, and business associations you leverage your knowledge, abilities, and gain valuable connections. 1. Networking Networking with anyone and everyone is essential to the growth of any business. We all prefer to do business with someone we know, and we all appreciate the opportunity to meet multiple potential customers and clients at one time.
2. The ability to work and learn with fellow members Organizations have wonderful leverage to make learning new and exciting techniques and business ideas affordable and local. Another viable benefit is the sharing of workload and cross referrals with other like minded members.
3. The chance to get involved in new ventures. Often new ventures are born and organized in business groups. The trend today is to work in collaborative teams and naturally when you network with others you get to learn their strengths and skill sets. By being a member of an organization and staying involved, you become visible to your fellow members and thus may be requested to become involved in the new project.
4. A great way to make new friends. Often photographers are working from their homes and the same thing is applicable to a host of other business people. Isolation can become an issue and often causing you to stagnate on various levels. Being a member of any organization often results in making new friends.
5. And finally, Members benefits Options for health insurance, car rentals, mobile and long distance discount programs reduced event and publication costs and "Member to Member" discounts on a wide variety of business services exclusive to Members. In the long run, being a member of an organization has many benefits. Life is not always a competition and being in competition with all sorts of other businesses. By working together you can build the industry as a whole, your business, and you joy in life.
The “Enlightened Technical Corner”… Joys of Jewelry Photography
When collaborating with Jewelers and Gemologists we get to go to parts of the world that are often rarely seen and truly unique. Think about it, jewelry and precious stones are costly and artistic creations. Often these pieces exist as a one of a kind item and as such have great personal sentiment to the artist. The photograph of these art pieces should not only capture the material qualities, but also the richness and rarity, the artistic combination of stones and diamonds, as well as the idea of the designer, the feeling of form, and the purpose. This can be quite a challenge considering the highly reflective nature of the item and the subtle colors. Needless to say, this challenge is enhanced when a black and white image is required. The great danger is that all lightly colored materials will look alike, dead white with black shadows. The keys to fine jewelry photography are sharpness, lighting, exposure, feeling to form, imagination and in the case of gemstone photography, trying to create some sparkle. Lighting and Background The first rule for almost all jewelry photography is that strong lights are useless. In my opinion, all too often most forms of photography are ruined by having lighting that is too powerful and the subject is over lit. This is particularly a challenge with jewelry photography because the darker stones and metals or parts that are in the shadow at the same time must not be underexposed. This is exactly why most commercial photographers work with a light tent. A light tent provides nice soft lighting for jewelry and makes for a pleasing image. However, the light tent may not provide the direct lighting necessary to "light up" faceted gemstones. Faceted gemstones like diamonds need to be illuminated by a light source that is positioned at nearly the same place as the camera. Light tents can be commercially bought or easily made with a variety of materials. Muslin, opaque Plexiglas, rip stop nylon, or even polyethylene can be used. You basically set up a frame work in the shape of a rectangle (open box) and have the open end facing the camera. One tip that will save you many headaches in trying to color correct your images is to make sure that all the lights in the room except for the lights you are using to take your pictures are turned off. To take the photographs you can use tungsten, blue bulbs, halogen, fluorescent, and quartz to name a few. Some time to give extra sparkle I will use an old slide projector.
For advertising “tent” photographs are exceedingly dull. Even though they do show shapes and forms and workmanship, they lack brilliance and sparkle. There are two ways to get around this difficulty: one is in the choice of background, the other is to redirect light by using small pieces of tin foil and/or small mirrors. Focus- For close-up jewelry photography, you need a camera with good manual focus capability. Use a tripod.
Exposure- Cameras tend to underexpose images when capturing subjects with white or very light backgrounds. The easiest way to prevent dark, underexposed images is to use exposure compensation. Most digital cameras have fairly easy-to-access exposure compensation controls (labeled as "EV" for Exposure Value). If your images are too dark, try adjusting the exposure compensation. A setting of +1 is a good place to start. Set-up
Wax is a great invisible hand when it comes to standing up small pendants/charms. 1. Just place a small bead of wax on the bottom of your charm or pendant to stand it upright. 2. Instead of using a bust, drape the chain in a meandering fashion around the charm. I use a makeup brush to push the chain into place. 3. Be sure to clean your jewelry first 4. Spend some time on the composition
“Enlightened Marketing” Judge Photo Contests Now how in the world would that help me with marketing Chuck? There are lots of camera clubs and organizations that hold photo contests looking for judges. By adding your name to the list you add credibility to your expertise, you become better known in the community, you increase your favours bank account, and you get to meet new and interesting people. What does it cost you? It costs you nothing, but your time. What do you gain? Everything already mentioned including more opportunities for you to speak at groups by letting them know that you are willing to speak. What else can you do in this vain? How about hold your own photo-contest or organize one? This is a great opportunity to get together with other businesses to cross promote an event. Let’s say you want to do a best looking garden, or nicest car, or baby photo contest. There are as many ideas as there are stars in the sky. Let’s say we do the baby contest, brainstorm all of the businesses that have anything to do with babies. Newspaper Radio Station Hospital auxiliary Drug stores Department stores Clothing stores Florists Chocolate stores etc. etc. You get the picture (ha-ha) Go to all of these business with a plan and get them on board for different categories of participation; sponsor, donation of gift, judge, or business listing. Each has a figure associated with it. Pick a date and occasion. Advertise in the newspaper, on the radio, and have posters in a variety of places. Hold the event and reap the rewards. Your rewards are in the exposure and the giving of prizes from your studio. Where do you actually make money? You make money by each person who participates in the contest will receive a prize, and from there you will be able to up sell the client. You will give a nice gift for first, second and third place; followed up with an honorary mention gift to all the other contestants, say a photo session and a 4x5. This may seem like a lot of work, but it really isn’t. The rewards vastly outweigh the effort expended. “Enlightened Living” Jet Lag Jet lag is a sleep disorder that occurs when the body's biological clock does not correspond to local time. This commonly occurs when traveling across different time zones. With more and more people traveling longer and longer distances, medical science is finally starting to focus on a better understanding of what exactly influences the body’s clock and how to speed its adjustment to a new time zone. It appears that the body’s clock is influenced by the secretion of an amino-acid derivative hormone, Melatonin. This is made by the pineal gland in response to the lack of light. Stated simply, when it is dark, the pineal gland makes Melatonin, and the rest of the body responds to the Melatonin, saying, ‘ah – Melatonin. That means it must be time to go to sleep.’ Our bodies are programmed to be active and alert during the day and to sleep at night. Traveling across the earth's time zones disrupts these natural rhythms, resulting in extreme tiredness. Other symptoms can include insomnia, stomach upsets, aches and pains, and a sense of disorientation. Here are some tips to help prevent jet lag: • Maintain a sensible bedtime schedule prior to your trip. Don't avoid sleeping in order to make yourself tired. • Consider going to bed earlier for a couple of nights before leaving if you are traveling east. Go to bed later for a couple of nights if you are traveling west. • For short trips, maintain a schedule of eating and sleeping at your usual time, if possible, while at your destination. For longer trips, try to adapt to the time schedule to which you're traveling before you leave. Set your watch to the new time as you begin the trip. • Yes, water! Drink lots of water on any flight - a generous cup of water every hour would be ideal. The dry atmosphere on a plane causes accelerated dehydration, and one factor of jet lag is just the body's stress response to drying out on the plane. Drink as much water as you can.If you exercise regularly, continue to do so at your destination. Avoid exercising late in the evening, because it can keep you awake. • Changing your watch to your destination time as soon as you board the aircraft and to eat little during the journey. • For important events or meetings at your destination, try to arrive ahead of time to allow for the time difference. • When you arrive, going for a nap is the worst thing you can do, because it sets your body's rhythms back to home time. Staying active on arrival will help the body adjust to the new time zone. • During the day, try and expose yourself to as much sun as possible, so as to inhibit Melatonin production that might otherwise occur. • In the evening, take a supplementary dose of Melatonin before going to bed. Melatonin, a hormone sold in supplement form at health food stores, may help decrease jet lag. Try taking 1 - 3 milligrams of melatonin at several hours before bedtime for several days once you arrive at your destination. Melatonin is not universally acknowledged as being a guaranteed cure for jet lag, and neither is it universally considered to be harmless and safe. For a while in the mid 1990s there was a large group of 'experts' proclaiming Melatonin as a 'wonder drug' that would prevent aging, treat cancer, improve one's sex life, and also cure jet lag, but this enthusiasm seems to have tapered off. Melatonin may or may not work for you. If you are taking other medicines, it might be prudent to check with your doctor or pharmacist to ensure there are no interactions between Melatonin and the other drugs. However, all 'science' to one side, I can truly report that Melatonin surely does work for me!
Yours in Health, Happiness, and Success Your Friend Chuck Groot BFA, F/PPABC, MPA
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