2007 Lancaster Sertoma chicken barbecue

It’s been a long time since I spent eight hours on a single shoot. And it’s been quite a long time since I had so much fun and got so many great images on a single shoot as well.

I’m going to add some more details and observations later tonight. So for now, here’s a link the 586 images in the Flickr Gallery (I shot a total of 725 images).

It’s a big gallery but there’s some great stuff in there.

Enjoy.

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Ok, the additional I meant add to last night…

First off, once again, I was really blown away by the overall friendliness and warmth of the Sertoma members and volunteers. In general, Lancaster people are friendly. It’s one of the reasons I love my adopted home so much. But as one might imagine, my MOOSE duties put me at a lot events such as the Sertoma Barbecue and there was truly just another level of friendliness and a spirit of teamwork I was really surprised. I had been there maybe an hour when more than half a dozen people had come up and introduced themselves and asked what I was doing. They would ask me if I needed anything, they offered food and drinks. It was unique in my experience. And since I had come thinking I may only be there an hour or so, the offer of something to drink was very much appreciated.

About that teamwork. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of events generally similar to the Sertoma Barbecue. Never before I have seen such a deep sense of pride in what was taking place and such an overall, well, happiness, during some very hard and very dirty work. It’s easy to be nice when your body isn’t pushed beyond its limits but consider just a few of the numbers I know. These folks were cooking 31,000 chicken halves with 16 tons of charcoal. All of that chicken and charcoal had to be moved by volunteers from one station to another. It’s a pretty fair assumption that most of these people have jobs and spent Friday working all day then, starting that evening, they spent another twelve hours or more, working their collective butts off to make the Barbecue happen. All of this took place in an atmosphere of friendly competition (amongst the various teams working the pits) and genuine teamwork. Keep in mind, I attend a lot of events like this and I sort of have a “nose” for problems. It’s what I do, document things. I didn’t witness a single incident of flared or frayed nerves or anger. That’s pretty unusual and I think it says something about how the Sertoma mission influences the members and the volunteers.

I was also somewhat surprised to learn that as many as 70% of the people working there were not club members but volunteers. They do it just to support the cause. In numerous cases I talked to people who had volunteered for more than one, usually a few, Barbecues.

Now this is somewhat obvious but I think it bears mentioning, I was continually impressed with how organized the entire process was. Sure, after 54 years, they should have it down but it’s more than that. Again, I’ve seen a lot of events like this and the level of organization; the break down of duties was impressive. It was almost military in its specificity yet, what it made room for was that everyone could enjoy themselves within that framework. It was an interesting combination of regimentation, organization and social engineering.

The inventions, yes, the inventions really amazed me. And maybe I’m wrong here, I’m no enormous barbecue expert but the things these people devised to specifically deal with the enormous amount of work that must be done was astounding. The specially designed and constructed carts that store and dispense the barbecue marinade (look for the beer kegs on carts in the images), the grill “racks” that allow for quick loading and unloading and simple turning, these were two things that really impressed me.

I had more than half dozen conversations with various Sertoma members and what consistently came through was their pride in what they accomplished each year. And this isn’t only about the Barbecue; it’s about the Craft Fair, the July Fourth concert and the Country festival. It’s about their work in Long’s Park in general. They’re very conscious of their contributions and I think that pride, rather than fueling some kind of arrogance, keeps them grounded in their mission of service. They have some big responsibilities (which they have assumed voluntarily) and that means a lot of work. And they are proud of that work, justifiably so.

As for the artistic observations, I have a few I’ll add here.

When I was preparing my gear bags for this I was thinking that sunrise would likely yield some unique images and right away, in my first few conversations with people there, that was confirmed. Once I saw the smoke and the way the pits were laid out and the trees that lined the area, I knew this would be a photographer’s dream. Of course, that changed my original idea that this would be a one or two hour job. But the temptation of capturing what the members had told about the smoke and then, in the morning, the sunrise through that smoke was far more alluring than just spending another comfortable night in bed. And it was well worth the reward.

I think the one thing I could have done better was capture the people involved. I was partially handicapped in this area having sent my longer telephoto back to Nikon for repair earlier Friday. So I had to be close to the people I was shooting and that removes some of the candid element. Also, shooting with a flash, you really cannot hide. The flash gives it away so you generally only have one shot to capture what’s really going on. If I am invited back next year I will definitely spend some more time focusing on the people involved.

The other thing was, I was really overtaken by the enormity of the scenes there. The huge plumes of smoke that billowed and curled over the pits were entrancing. So entrancing that yes, I focused on them more than the actual humans working.

And finally, why I shot what I did. I explained this to a few of the members I spoke with so here it is for everyone. I think the one thing that annoys me about newspaper work is that it’s so predictable most of the time and really, with all due respect to the fine photographers at the local paper, no place is this more true than at the Lancaster paper. And maybe it should be blamed on editors if so, then I’m fine with that. But I was shocked but not surprised that throughout the night not one other photographer was there to record, even briefly, what is surely one of the biggest annual events in Lancaster. So comfortable is the local paper with it’s supremacy that, apparently, all they needed to do was show up at noon, shoot the requisite picture of cute kid with a box of chicken or a long line of cars going into the park that they really missed a much more compelling side of the event. Well, not so much miss as ignore. And for that, I thank them.

So I could have stayed into the day but, in a sense, while my own record would have been more complete, I would only be duplicating what is already out there from other photographers.

Anyway, the real story here is what goes behind the whole thing, everything I’ve mentioned above. That’s what’s amazing. Without that story, without documenting that work the box of chicken has no context. It’s just a fairly inconspicuous lunch. With that story, it’s really something much more.

So enormous thanks again to all of the Sertoma members and volunteers who made my evening and morning so enjoyable, so educational and so rich artistically.

I hope in another year I’m posting more thoughts about the 2008 event with an even more complete record of the event.

Thanks for stopping by.

May 20, 2007 | Filed Under gallery news, new in the Flickr Gallery, new work | Leave a Comment 

Flickr

The Flickr gallery now contains more than 4,400 images. I still have several thousand recent images and a few thousand vintage images.

If you have a day or two, or even just a few minutes, check it out.

May 18, 2007 | Filed Under gallery news, new in the Flickr Gallery | Leave a Comment 

It’s mostly simple

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The most frequent advertising question I hear is, “what should I be doing?”

My answer, almost every time is, “something.”

Rather than digress into what venue for promotion works the best, gets the best ROI or trying to measure marketing investments by some other metric, I think the first thing to do is cover the basics. Generally speaking, this is also the least expensive and most cost effective way to build your business.

Do you have a mailing list? Do you contact your list on a regular basis? If you do, when you do send something to your list, is it important? Compelling? Interesting?

Are you using the net? Do you advertise there? What about your web site? Is it up to date? Do you regularly update it? Does it accurately reflect your business? generally speaking, net marketing can be some of the most effective and most overlooked out there, still, in 2007. Ten years ago ignoring the net was just not being a leader, now, it’s clearly putting you behind most everyone else.

Because of the type of market that Lancaster is sales and service follow-ups are also critical. You need to absolutely capitalize on everyone contact with a customer and use that contact firmly establish that your business is the unquestioned go-to source for whatever it is you do and there is no better time than when you are actually in the process of conducting business. Do you send out “thank you” cards to customers? Do you check back with established customers to tell them about new products and services? What about long term follow-up? Executing tasks like these will not only make your customer feel special (beause they are) but it will firmly esconce you in their minds in a postive manner. It leads to referrals and additional sales.

So before you take advantage of some exciting new promotional opportunity in one of the more traditional media, make sure you’re doing all these basic things perfectly. Then look to expand further with investing inother advertising.

May 18, 2007 | Filed Under marketing thoughts | Leave a Comment 

Go vote today

That’s all. Just go vote.

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May 15, 2007 | Filed Under personal | Leave a Comment 

Adapt or die

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I had an interesting conversation this morning. While discussing how client’s competitor was on the verge of filing chapter 11 we got around to one of their vendors being delisted from NASDAQ. In this case, a vendor whose business model has not changed while the market has changed, significantly, around them. And rest assured, this didn’t take Nostradamus to see. Their sales have been down every quarter since 2002 yet to look at their product line you would think it was 1995.

Businesses, especially entrepreneurial and small businesses love to say that success is reason enough. And while that’s true, it’s an exceptionally narrow view. It’s an unchanging one. It’s not a view that encourages introspection and thought.

No one owes you a successful business model. You have to be constantly re-evaluating the market and changing with it. As I said, adapt or die. The music industry is perhaps one of the most vivid examples of this. A once thriving and profitible industry, as a whole, is now mostly irrelevant because rather than change with the market, they tried, as most businesses do, to reshape the trends to benefit them. And we know how that is turning out.

Sure, there are exceptions but very few. Much more prevelant are the examples of those who the business version of Darwin wasn’t so kind to. The buggy whip makers, the town gas distributors and the like. Keep your eyes open. Listen to your customers and change with the market.

There’s another bunch of new photos up at the Flickr Gallery. Some racing stuff, some dandelions and some vintage material as well.

May 11, 2007 | Filed Under marketing thoughts, new in the Flickr Gallery | Leave a Comment 

New work

I’m in the process of visually unifying all the WeeBee sites. The first ones to be done are the racing site and the custom home site. I’m really proud of both as I think that within the same framework, they manage to convey the unique personality of both locations. I’m working on the mobile electronics site and the AJS Motorsports site now.

I’ve added some very simple flash to the Schwanger Bros site which we’ll be expanding very soon.

Other than that, the frostimaging Flickr Gallery continues to grow. I’ve added more than 3600 images, most of these shot this year but I am constantly adding archive material as well. I hope you find a moment to stop by and browse through my work there.

May 8, 2007 | Filed Under client news, company news, gallery news, new work | Leave a Comment