andydidyk.com

…and go spend your precious time with family and friends. Merry Christmas!

Currently one of my more popular stock photos, taken in the Smoky Mountain National park near Mount LeConte.

Lately, I’ve been spending more of my free time on reading about improving my photography, and I think these lessons apply to any creative pursuit. Here are five great things I’m learning:

1. Be patient with yourself
   Great paintings take time, and so do great photographs. Whenever I’ve been assigned to take pictures of something or someone, I have to fight to keep calm and to take my time, almost as if I expect myself to be fast because I’m supposed to be “good”. Preparation, scouting, and lighting have a lot to do with having more consistent outcomes, but all of those things require time.
2. Mental toughness is key
   Shooting when you’re tired, hot, cold, or just creatively drained can be a real exercise in mental toughness. Buckling down and forcing yourself to carry on can result in some amazing imagery.
3. Get it right in the camera, whenever possible
   The old, “ahh, I’ll just fix it in Photoshop” saying usually has a really negative impact on my creativity. What this is code for is, “I’m lazy, and I’ll fix it later”. However, there are so many aspects of a photo that simply can’t be fixed later, such as realistic depth of field, blown-out highlights, and overall composition. Plus, even though I’m pretty handy with Photoshop, getting it right in camera usually only takes a few minutes, whereas I can tweak the image for hours in Photoshop to try and achieve similar results.
4. If you get one incredible image a year, you’re doing well
   The above statement is paraphrased from Ansell Adams, and I learned of it via another photographic genius, Ken Rockwell. You simply can’t come home with masterpieces every day, and that’s okay. But keep trying, and eventually you’ll hit that one in a million shot because you actually took a million shots.
5. Spend your money on good lenses
   Good lenses help to ensure that when you get something right, you get it really right. I’ve learned this the hard way, where I’ve gotten some great images on a crappy lens and then had a hard time selling them. If you can’t afford the top of the line, that’s cool, keep using what you have until you can afford what’s right for you. But if you’re serious about photography, save up and buy the good stuff. I’ve never regretted a purchase for photography gear that was top-of-the-line.

Please be patient with me…upgrading the look and feel of the blog over the next couple of days, and getting my WordPress upgrade completed. Feel free to comment and read on, but not everything may work from a navigation or presentation standpoint. Thanks!

Oh, and yes, I do know that I should use a test URL for doing this, but that’s just too much work. Thanks for understanding.

Okay, so lots of people are talking about presidential candidate Ron Paul. I’ve read about him quite a bit, and can’t say I agree with everything, but one thing I really appreciate about his campaign is that he is easily the most forthright and defined candidate when it comes to national issues. Again, not saying I agree with all of them, but you won’t find a lot of wishy-washy political speak on his site, and that’s something that a generation of people who are seeking genuine experiences can appreciate, whether you agree with Ron Paul or not.

At any rate, what I found most interesting recently about his campaign occurred when I viewed his LinkedIn profile (and yes, you too can be LinkedIn with the likes Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, or Dick Cheney (although poor Dick is currently listed at 0 connections)). This caught my eye, so I copied and pasted it directly from Ron Paul’s “Experience” section on his public LinkedIn profile:

“I have stronger Internet support than any other candidate of either party (as of 11/24):
• Most campaign website internet traffic (Alexa.com)
• Meetup: 67,000 Ron Paul Supporters in 1,230 Groups from 958 Cities
• MySpace: 87,000 friends
• Facebook: 46,000 friends & 40,000 supporters
• YouTube: 6+ million views, 38,000 subscribers
• Technorati: consistently a top blog-search term ”

This is amazing. I’m reminded of Sally Field’s oscar acceptance speech, “You like me, you really like me!” Let’s be honest…achieving this kind of internet notoriety is an admirable feat, especially for a political candidate. Communities in social media tend to err more on the side of being genuine than not in their interactions and support of one another, so this could be a really good indicator for Ron Paul. His polls are rising nation-wide, and his single-day fund raising record had everything to do with online support.

But shouldn’t it strike us as at least a little odd that a qualification for President of the United States is that you have 87,000 “friends” on MySpace? I mean, if that’s really a qualification, then the venerable “Tom“, with over 214 million friends, should rule the world for sure. And if 6 million+ YouTube views are important, the candidates better move out of the way for this guy, with over 68 million views. I think that touting statistics like Ron’s are just another example of the world not quite understanding the true impact of the social and information age. We’re still not sure what to do with all of our new toys, and it’s only by experimenting and living with them that we’ll eventually settle down a bit into a new status quo. I hope.

Until then, I’m going to keep Linking In, although probably not with Ron Paul. And who knows, if this blog gets popular enough, maybe I’ll run for local office. I can see it now, “Andy Didyk. Strength. Leadership. 87 LinkedIn connections. Zero MySpace friends. A blog with moderate readership. For America.” Look out Ron and Hillary…here I come!

Who can forget LeVar Burton, with his inspiring, chop-block haircut or his famous “you don’t have to take my word for it” toss to elementary school students’ review of popular children’s books? While LeVar will always be with me, my parents are both avid and voracious readers of their respective interests, and I’m afraid I must credit them, rather than LeVar, for my insatiable desire to read anything I can get my hands on. But still, it did feel really good to track down an 80′s version of their logo and put it on this blog. Thanks Wikipedia!

I’m currently plowing my way through 1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies. It’s another installment in a fascinating run of historical books (by a variety of different authors) that are gradually turning what we were all taught in elementary school about pre-Columbus times into unfounded, Anglo-centric fantasies. 1421 asserts that magnificent, imperial China discovered the New World and was the first to circumnavigate the globe; Columbus, Magellan, and De Gama were all just following in China’s footsteps. Another great read, 1491, makes the case for the pre-European Americas brimming with advanced civilization and culture, rather than being sparsely populated with savage tribes.

So why the post on reading? The answer is simple. In a world where, as Steve Newton often laments to me, “no one reads long blog posts anymore,” reading across a variety of subjects is one of the things that keeps me successful at my job. Account Directors and Executives, unless they are assigned to one giant account, typically have to deal with a large variety of clients, and within those clients, a large variety of personalities and interests. Being a broad reader helps me to better relate to everyone I come in contact with, and I have to believe that it makes me a better writer as well. Plus, I’m gradually coming to terms with the fact that I am, indeed, a huge nerd (more on that later), so reading for me is just plain fun.

Given China’s booming economy and history of being a resurgent global power, I’d highly recommend we all brush up on our Chinese history and culture. I have more to say on this subject, but I’ll keep it brief this time in order to keep my twittered audience from information overload. Thanks for reading.

Okay, so this is an interesting idea, and the new frontier for social media/social rating networks: employers. RateMyEmployer.ca is a new, Canada-based web site that allows registered and non-registered users alike to rate their employers on a variety of scales, including pay, work/home balance, stress, and others. Boasting a tagline of “Who said background checks and Pre-Employment Screenings should be reserved to employers only?”, this site stands in a great position to further empower the average employee.

I recently attended the 2007 Forrester Research Consumer Forum, and social media, along with rating systems, was at the forefront of everyone’s minds. It’s the future of online marketing, because it works: 67% of purchases made online cite a direct referral from someone who had experience with the product or service as the main reason they felt comfortable with the purchase (source: WOM report, 2006).

Huge companies like Dell are paying a lot of attention to the way that customers have rated their products, and Dell’s head-on approach to meeting the challenges that were revealed has resulted in a true success story for both the consumer and the company. But I’d bet my lunch that employers, particularly large employers, are not nearly as comfortable with having their performance reviewed in a public setting as employers.

To some degree, the risks are the same to the employer as a product review: some people will post negative reviews, plain and simple. However, with good, retainable talent already at a premium, and the astronomical costs of fixing a dysfunctional work environment, this move could really have employers on the fence. No one likes to have their dirty laundry aired, especially big companies. I would suspect that a movement towards increased transparency and true reviews of a work place should ultimately result in a better work environment for employees and more honest companies, who will be motivated to fix glaring issues pro-actively before their reputation is slandered.

Of course, it could also result in a lot of libel lawsuits as well. Only time will tell. Until then, I say keep the ratings coming, and for your own protection, your username very, very private.

Arresting headline, isn’t it? This was taken directly from a LinkedIn question by someone far-flung in my “3rd degree of separation” network. For those of you not yet in the know, LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals (which, by the way, seems largely dominated by those in the ad/marketing industry), and it features an “Answers” section where people can ask personal or professional questions of those in their network. I like to answer questions from time to time and to read what others have posted, although I have yet to ask a question of my network.

This question, however, threw me for a loop. Three quick things:

1. This question was listed under the “Personal Debt Management” category. Weird. I would think there was a better place for it, although getting a divorce involves answering a lot of personal finance questions.

2. Interesting that a freelance journalist would choose such an open forum for asking a question that would become the basis for an article about relationships. I guess anyone who has been in a relationship has something relevant to say, but this is also another facet of the social media revolution…we’re all experts about something. What will mark the capabilities of a true journalist, as well as the successful consumer, in the coming age, is how capable she/he is of sorting through and filtering everyone’s “expertise” that is becoming available.

3. Here’s my tip for the LinkedIn user: don’t separate from your spouse if you can avoid it. Measures for not separating from your spouse can include, but are not limited to, honoring your commitment to him/her, swallowing your pride, being the first to say “I’m sorry”, getting some counseling, stop being selfish, and work on your marriage actively before things get bad. Separation is devastating, and sadly at times unavoidable. However, a great cause of the rampant divorce rates in our country is selfishness.

Alright…off the soapbox, on to more questions.