Maybe you heard, Walter Cronkite died this last Friday. Maybe you missed it as I did due to the endless Micheal Jackson…er..coverage. I was a huge fan of Walter Cronkite. I grew up watching him on the CBS nightly news. In the early 70s father used to teach ROTC at a near by high school. On the weekends my dad would bring home a 16mm projector and reels (Yes, this was before DVDs and even before video tape!) of the old documentary TV series called Air Power hosted by Walter himself. My two best buddies, Steve Gray and Steve Rees used to come over and we would spend endless hours watching those old shows. It was one of those air battles in an Air Power show that I actually photographed off the projector screen and later did a little old fashioned darkroom magic on. I stained the the paper with coffee grounds, then while it was wet I bent the edges and cracked the emulsion. Later, as my writing was never good, I had my mom write appropriate captions on the back with bogus dates. It was a good thing I had her do it, as the photos were so convincing, so realistic that my when I showed my dad the photos and I told him I had made them he though I was lying. He was sure I had bought them in some old junk store or army surplus store.

I was also reminded by the death of Walter Cronkite that the greats from the 30s, 40s and 50s are almost all gone. Walter Cronkite was 92. The great news men and women, the great actors and of course the great photographers are all passing. Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Cornell Capa and Carl Mydans have all passed away in the past 5 year (with the exception of Eisenstaedt who died in 1994). I feel like I just missed them. Wouldn’t you have like to have met them? Talked with them over a cup of coffee and heard their stories? You can see the list of greats at a wonderful website by Sid and Michelle Monroe called aptly enough, the Monroe Gallery. I ran across the gallery while reading a bog post this week by Joe McNally. By the way, Joe is in the gallery as well and is very open to interacting with folks over twitter and his blog. So, thanks to the Monroes we have a place where all these greats live on. In fact, you can even buy prints of some of the the great images of our time over their website. Not sure how they do that or how costly these prints are, but wouldn’t it be cool to own an Alfred Eisenstaedt print on Gelatin Silver paper of “V-J Day in Times Square”?

Ok, I admit it; I am under conviction. I need to practice what I preach. I have been listening to Zack Arias critique websites, portfolios and images over the weekend and I feel I need to start being harder on myself. Zach made a really good point, a good image cannot make a bad image good. Likewise, a bad or weak image can do nothing but pull down a whole gallery. His philosophy is leave nothing but your best in your gallery and dump everything else into Flickr. So, this weekend I started the process of revamping my gallery pages. I am not done. But I have made a good start at cutting out some images that are not strong. Heck, I even tweaked my welcome page while I was at it. I completely deleted the old Malaysia gallery and renamed the Penang gallery “Malaysia” then added a few more images from outside of Penang to it. (Did that make any since?) I still have plenty of work ahead. But in branding we want to show only our best and be known for just those images, not the many mediocre images we have on our computer. Right?

Have you looked over your portfolio lately? I put Zack’s voice in my head and flipped through my gallery pages. Ok, so I am a bit schizophrenic, I have voices in my head (but don’t all artist?). At least this voice is helping me edit my work and cleaning up my image. Join me. It is time for spring cleaning!

So what this is all about is I went out yesterday and shot a few images at a local Burmese temple; Dharmikarama Temple and a Thai temple; Wat Chaiyamangkalaran. Nothing life changing, but I thought I would share with you the results. I have wasted most of the day trying to figure out how to make them pop up in Slimbox. So, enough of that! You can view them HERE.

1. PixelatedImage Blog - David is one of the best writers I know and is always inpserational.
   
2. Joe McNally – Joe is one of the best photographers out there and is always willing to share. And by the way, Joe’s blog was a stitch today!
3. Chase Jarvis – Chase is awsome. Talk about some who shares knowledge. This guy rocks and he produces some pretty mean videos as well.
4. The Travel Photographer – Tewfic El-Sawy always has some great links to some very cool slideshows.
5. Photoshop Insider – Scott Kelby is, well Scott Kelby a must read.
6. TED Blog – This is always a way to stay up on what the “world” fines important.
7. Gavin Gough – Gavin has great insight and I just love looking at his images.
8. A Photogrpahy Blog- Rachel Hulin digs up some great images and is always good for a hoot.

OK – Now it is your turn. Who do you read? I know you are out there, I see the states. So please don’t embarrass me and not respond. Or I am going to have to have my mom email for 50 different computers to cover my Arse!

PS One more I almost forgot to list. What the Duck. A must read. Not only is it funny, but it speaks volumes!

Most stock agencies sell images based on size and usage. So an image that is small and will only be used once in a limited small run may only cost you a few bucks. But an image that will be used on a hording (that is a billboard for us Americans) and plastered all over New York or London will run you big, big bucks. The photographer lets these agencies represent their images for “right of use”. He makes his money from a cut or a percent. It can be anywhere from 25% to as much as 50% of the image sale. Micro stock is different. These guys deal in volume and will sell your images for pennies compared to the large stock agencies. In fact you won’t even get a check till you have sold $75 to $100 worth of images. Not much profit for the amount of work that goes into imaging. So, the idea is to have large volumes of photos online and key worded so that when some one wants an image of a “crying boy” they key-in those words and your image pops up. That is of course, along with 150 other crying boys, so you still have to have great images that stand out above the rest.

So who are these micro stock agencies? Here are just a few. The most famous being iStockPhoto also Shutter Stock, Dreams Time, 123rf.com, Feature Pics. Feature Pics actually let’s photographers set the price for their images. Then there is Stock.xchng, these guys even have many images that are free! I found images on Stock.xchng that were priced images on iStock. Not sure how they do that, but for the end user it is a great deal.

At this time I have not taken the dive into the micro stock agency. I am represented by IndiaPicture. Of course they specialise in ..er.. Pictures …of India. One thing they have just started on their site, that I have not seen of the others is Live Support. Not sure how this is used but I guess it is at least fun to talk to someone in India for once about your image needs and not your credit card statement.

I am in the news this week so I thought I would do a little honking of my own horn today. Check out an interview done with me by a new website on India and travel called duniyagolhai.com (the world is round). Here is a short excerpt:

2. How in your opinion traveling influences the art of photography?

MB:I think traveling has had a significant influence in photography over the past 10 to 15 years. The fact that people can travel more, longer and further is a huge factor. People are going places today that were once thought only accessible by National Geographic Photographers or highly funded adventurists. It used to be that a unique image was good enough, now very little is unique so an image has to be exceptional. It needs to tell a story, communicate the vision of the photographer.There are a lot fewer barriers today for a traveling photographer than 15 years ago.Almost everyone has a digital camera and a photo lab in their computer. All these things have had a huge impact on photography today….

3. Your documentation of Kashmir is unique in capturing the soul of the place rather than the oft-reported violence. What motivated you to present the humane side of the place?

MB:There are so many photographers covering the conflict in Kashmir and doing a much better job than I could. I look at the work of Ami Vitale and am moved to tears. Her work is amazing, so why should I cover what is already being done so exceptionally well? I have always felt I wanted to show a compassionate side of the Kashmiri and Gujjar people. I am from the US and over the past few years since 911, many people in the West have developed a negative view of Muslims…..

Visit the link HERE to read the whole of the interview.

I received word that the fine people at the Indian Himalayan Club published a book review on my book “Kashmir, the Mystery”. Below is an excerpt from the review.

Kãshmir: The Mystery, published by Tara Press, New Delhi, with photographs by Matt Brandon and text by Marryam H. Reshii, is a fabulous and insightful collection of photographs that brings out the beauty and ethos of Kashmir in its entirety.

The photographer’s intimate connection with the land and its inhabitants, both human and animal, is very obvious from the type and quality of photographs, and Marryam Reshii’s authoritative text complements the photographs and provides a window into Kashmiriyat—the Kashmiri culture and society. Concentrating on the Kashmir Valley only, making it unique, this splendid book fills a big lacuna in the set of existing books on Kashmir.

For the full review go HERE and look for the Himalayan Club e-letter, vol. 13, July 2008.

Hi Matt,

I hope you’re having a happy holiday season!

Your website has been quickly fixed! Looks like there might have been a small server hiccup last time you were in your fluid galleries website admin area. It should be fine now.

Have a great new years Matt! Best wishes.

Regards,

Support Team
Evrium Incorporated

So all seems well.

Here is a sampling of some things to come. All these images are from the island of Cebu.

Filipino Christmas Parols (pronounced “pah-roll” with a rolling “r”)

Apparently a Rolling Stones fan.