The place to start your day

I stopped by Dosie Dough (West Lemon at Concord) yesterday to grab a few quick shots. I was blown away by the casual randomness of the place. It transported me back to San Francisco in a heartbeat. The food looked wonderful and Amy, the owner, was a delightful chat.

I’m going back for breakfast soon.

February 29, 2008 | Filed Under new work, personal | Leave a Comment

Thinking fast enough?

Apple announced that iTunes had become the number 2 music retailer in the U.S., behind only Wal-Mart.

“We’d like to thank the over 50 million music lovers who have helped the iTunes Store reach this incredible milestone,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We continue to add great new features like iTunes Movie Rentals to give our customers even more reason to love iTunes.”

The rankings are based on NPD Group’s MusicWatch data. iTunes has sold over four billion songs, with 20 million songs sold on Christmas Day 2007 alone. iTunes has overtaken Best Buy which previously occupied the #2 spot.

Keep in mind what a change this is. The second largest seller of music in this country is a computer company. A company that many people refer to as still having an insignificant market share. My purpose here is not blowing them up as a computer seller my point here is to highlight how much this entire market has changed in a very short time and what an different direction it went. The markets are changing much faster than the brick and mortar stores and most hardware makers are.

Thinking ahead of your customers means you’re ahead of the market, considerably. Thinking in time with the market means you’re, at best, a little behind. Thinking that what worked last year will work this year and even result increases over last year is dangerous, at best.

February 27, 2008 | Filed Under marketing news, marketing thoughts, music | Leave a Comment

Goodbye old friend

Polaroid announced that as soon as they have produced enough film to last through 2009 they will cease production of their legendary instant film. For more than sixty years Polaroid has been the name in instant photography.

I’ve owned a half dozen or so Polaroid cameras over the years. Given my penchant for instant gratification photography, Polaroid was the only answer. I love Polaroid.

Four exposures on one sheet of film shot with the Minolta Instant Pro

I think what many people miss about photography, not snapshots but photography is that it is an abstracting medium. I think people assume that since it’s not paint or pencils, it’s just a matter of reproducing something from real life. Just grabbing a moment in time is a snapshot. Understanding the level of abstraction possible in with a given photographic tool is part of photography. A great photograph is both more than real and not real at all. Polaroid was a wonderful tool for great photographs.

The Minolta Instant Pro. I’ve owned three of these and I quite literally shot them up until they wouldn’t shoot anymore.

I have a 12×18x12 box full of Polaroid sheets. Thousands of images taken, mostly with the Minolta Instant Pro (above) and a small percentage with the Polaroid ProPack (a later version of the venerable Polaroid 150, folding, sheet film camera).

This is sad on so many levels I’m not really sure where to take this. It’s sad that an American business is going away. It’s sad that a great product is disappearing. It’s sad that photography is taking one more step away from mechanical and chemical processes.

Matthew Sweet performing at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California in 1993.

There are millions of moments in time captured on Polaroid but come 2009, that will end.

Goodbye old friend and thanks.

A very tolerant and patient Sarah McLachlan on the day her “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” album was released.

February 12, 2008 | Filed Under from my older work, personal | Leave a Comment

Everyone knows it’s Windy

The forecasts said gusts of up to 50MPH. I was out this afternoon and it was easily that. I’m not a small person by any means and the wind was moving me around. So of course I had to go out with the camera and see what I could grab. Sure, it’s a silly idea to photograph the wind but it was fun.

And I think it worked…

The sun ducks behind some fast moving and very dark clouds

This stop sign was not only bent back from the wind but the sign itself was vibrating from side to side like a child’s toy.

In front of the old Hamilton factory building. I saw a lot of rather large branches and limbs being blown off the tree as I shot this image (and some others, which you can see here)

February 10, 2008 | Filed Under new in the Flickr Gallery, personal | Leave a Comment

A visit from Governor Rendell

Governor Ed Rendell visited Lancaster this week to repsent his “Rebuilding Pennsylvania” plan and talk to various city officials and groups about it. Afterwards, there was a private dinner at Checker’s Bistro on Mulberry Street.