Sustainability [3 - conclusion]

Film and Photo
   Within film and photo there is little more that the practitioner can do to forward the sustainability conversation than to simply be as cautious as possible. The conversation for the materials used includes the majority of the materials that can be addressed already having been so, much of what is now done is digital (so there is the minimization of waste) and the bulk of what remains is intended to last forever (the antithesis of the biodegradable idea).
   Still, there are always nooks and crannies where one can seek out an opportunity for improvement. If you are manually photo/film processing, then you are back to the chemicals. Right off the bat this encourages a flurry of research: what needs to be ventilated, what can get recycled (and how), etc. If you are working around spotting, retouching and/or hand coloring (and the like) then you are equally likely to be back with the old-school chemicals and exposures (however, many have improved over the years). This holds true for anything aerosol as well (spray mount, etc.).
   One of the nice things about this industry is that old cameras and equipment tend to get collected, so much of this being embraced as sacred. However, some things become so old that they fall apart. If we are talking about brittle leather or scratched and dented metal casing, that is not so much an issue. But when we are talking about old celluloid, faded slides and unintelligible Polaroids®, then one owes it to oneself to contact the waste management in your area to determine the most responsible method of disposal.
   Finally, being conscious and doing what one can do on one's own seems always the default position. It is generally recognized that going on safari with the camera, as opposed to a rifle, is the environmentally friendly response. However, don't bring your morning coffee out to an African savanna in a Styrofoam cup that's going to take 400 years to decompose. The point here is, leave everything as you found it or better.

Multimedia (Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, Gaming Design and Animation)
   The reader is invited to review the previous section on film and photo, since at essence much of what was stated there tends to be true here as well. For example, if one does find oneself working on old-school animation acetate, the surface and the medium applied may or may not be environmentally friendly. Simply be aware and be as responsible as one can about one's own protection, what becomes of the finished piece and how best to clean up.
   The bulk of what really falls to this industry, when it comes to sustainability, (and this includes the television arts as well) is the responsibility one has to one's audience. There seems very little one can do if employed by someone else, besides doing the best you can. However, if you are opening up your own shop, please recognize the awesome responsibility you hold within your capability to influence others.
   This author recalls shepherding an entire class of this major through a capstone project. We cast about for ideas as to what to produce for much of our first class. The classic response seemed almost unanimous, it all had to do with in-artful and uninspired storytelling with the only goal in mind to produce as much gratuitous violence as possible. As someone with significant marketing experience the rhyme and reason of such was not lost on this author.
   Such is the low hanging fruit, and the large publicly held entities that have to create shareholder wealth have walked themselves into such a corner. Your little shop (a) does not have to proselytize for money, (b) nor can you effectively compete. Therefore, the real vision for this industry actually lays in your hands. Consequently, the opportunity to educate, uplift and otherwise add meaning to people's lives falls to the Independents. This comment is not altruism for its own sake, yet also includes the marketing value of creating your own space. In addition, if it is appropriate to weave in a green message, so be it.
   This section necessarily concludes with a mention, much like the concluding mention in the passage above (film and photo). If one does need to stage a kind of activity (say, a chemical fire), you are begged to do your due diligence vis-à-vis proper creation and proper cleanup.

Web Design
   If one reviews the last two passages one notices that there seem to be less and less opportunity for ways to be sustainable. These three industries have moved in-kind toward greater digitization. Now we find ourselves in an industry that is essentially, completely digital.
   The proviso in the last passage about the context of sustainable behavior certainly applies here as well. Yet what does that leave? There is still an opportunity. If you do work in web design, and something had been uploaded into cyberspace that is no longer being used, dismantle it. This may seem a small thing, and yet it still takes literal energy (by someone somewhere) to continue hosting it.
   Beyond that, the author invites any other contributions to this conversation (for web design or otherwise). It seems web design is, by its very nature, automatically about as green as it gets.

   The author wishes to acknowledge here that this is a first draft. Suggestions, insights, corrections, anecdotes, and other edits are all invited.

Positions for the Applied Arts (revised 09) Photography

Entry Level
Photographers Assistant
Lab Technician
Digital Retoucher
Freelancer
Portrait Photographer
Wedding and Events Photographer

Mid-Career/Pinnacle
Photographer


In all 10 areas as specified below*
Both full-time and freelance
Photography Teacher
Teaching at a school or university
Owning your own photography business
Examples: Portrait Studio
Content person for websites
Photograph items for multimedia firms

For all positions:
One must know Photoshop
All camera formats
Knowledge of color work flow and printing

*
1) Advertising, Fashion and Editorial Photographers
Advertising Photographers
Fashion Photographers
Editorial Photographers
2) Street Photographers (General Practitioners)
a. Social Photographer- Portrait Studio Photographer, School
Photographer, or Wedding Photographer
3) Commercial and Industrial Photographers
Commercial
4) Staff Photographers
5) Newspaper Photographer (Photojournalists)
6) Medical Photographer
7) Photographic Stylist
8) Photographic Lab Work
9) Televison, Film and Video
10) Self-employed (Freelance) Photographer

A successful Photo Business (a few thoughts)

   Toward the beginning of the history of photography, the photographer had a mysterious cachet. Everything was manual, intricate, and ostensibly shrouded in secrecy.
   As the technology progressed, although much became more accessible, much remained the secret purview of the Wizard (wielding all the strange pieces of equipment and hidden within the darkroom).
   Today an infant grabs a nearby cell phone and starts pressing buttons. It seems as if the universe has coughed up cameras into the hands of everyone. Moreover, since it is “all” digital, let's face it, you take hundreds of shots, even a monkey is bound to have one or two turn out. To say that the field has unprecedented competition is an understatement.
   As the profession itself has progressed, most all of the standard positions seem to have a line of people waiting to fill an already filled position.
   Such is the challenge for today's photo major. To spend nearly $100,000 and four years of your life to gain a baccalaureate degree, at first blush, would not readily seem a cost-effective use of one's time. Yet, if the student is serious, then a fulfilling career awaits.
   I have written before on the distinction between art and craft (search the blog). The serious photographer of tomorrow will constantly:
• be practicing the art
• be reviewing what has gone before
• be a student of what is currently unfolding in the industry
• be developing and maintaining a database of all players associated with the photographic experience
• seek new ways (stylistically/stylizing, software-based, etc.)
• schedule for oneself exposure through gallery shows on a regular basis
• expose themselves to every inspiration
• develop and maintain an online presence, both their own and within the online folios used by art buyers
• seek ways to design producing every result they will need
• look for ways to be ever more professional
   In other words, the photographic profession is not necessarily glamorous and certainly is real work.
   In the face of all this, what had been the "working class" photographer (of weddings, school pictures and Little League cards), has pushed even these expressions into a higher art.
   The most promising approach to this that I am aware of is not a new one. It is the capacity to be a specialist. There are photographers who make a very good living because they are the go to people when it comes to photographing produce, or cloth (or whatever). Certainly, if there is a man or woman out there specializing in produce photography, I am confident that they photograph more than just produce. My point is that their take on the photography of produce reinvigorates the mystery of old, the approach being akin to a research scientist desperately looking for the cure to a disease. Aside from all the obvious, such as different lighting, different backgrounds, they may play with different sprays to produce condensation. They may gently stroke a sheen of oil upon the skin of a grape. They might try applying simple syrup, instead of water, one droplet at a time.
   Let's say its electronics. How many thousands of ways has electronics been represented thus far? How many thousands of ways can you think of that have yet to be expressed? How many software manipulations have yet to be tried because they had not been around in the past?
   If I'm a print media guy and I want the best shots I can get of a new USB port, I'm going to want to hire a specialist.
   What do you bring to the table that is new, different, more, better? What special niche will become yours? If there were visions of traveling around the world or hanging out with gorgeous models and just clicking something in your hand, then you may want to rethink the profession. The exotic aborigines are now photographing for themselves!  Real art, real passion, real work, to produce real dividends as part of a real profession … if you can make it all real for you, and keep up with the ever unfolding technology, there is an as yet unseen tomorrow that you will help create for all of us.

College degrees that don't pay

By Blake Ellis, staff reporter

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/pf/1008/gallery.low_paying_college_degrees/index.html

Last updated August 06 2010: 3:41 PM ET; retrieved Saturday, August 07, 2010

   First the condensed version: Education, Social Work, Religious Studies, Athletic Training, Recreation and Leisure, Horticulture, Art, Interior Design & Culinary Arts. I’ve re-ordered them … do you see a pattern?
   Education, Social Work, Religious Studies = some of the greatest good a society can ensure itself … but we don’t need to reward such? Oh, it’ll be fulfilling enough.
   Athletic Training, Recreation and Leisure, Horticulture = playing outside. Honestly, I don’t see it as equal priority, either (except from an exterior design perspective).
   Then the applied arts: Art, Interior Design & Culinary Arts. The “art” used in Art was photography, so in actuality these are all applied arts. I guess we are supposed to pay our bills with self-actualization.
   So, in conclusion, another reason why our culture is wack. One third of the least of jobs are positions where we illuminate our culture through artistic expression, another third is where we hold up our fellow man directly. Yeah, let’s keep payin’ the mutual fund manager – he shuffles other people’s money (redistributing wealth / legalized gambling) producing nothing!