a luddites journal

I’ve got some important news for fans of Roland Emmerich and the Mayans. 2012 is not going to be the end of the world! Thanks to Harold Camping for pointing out that the Mayans got the math wrong.

According to a recent article in The San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/BA8V1AV589.DTL) the world ends on May 21, 2011. Thank you for the good news.

I always get stressed out in May because my wife’s birthday is the 22nd and I never know what to get her.

Well I guess I can stop worrying next year!

If you don’t have time to read the article I’ll paraphrase and lay out the math:

The number 5 equals “atonement.”

Ten is “completeness.”

Seventeen means “heaven.”

Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.

Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that’s 1,978 years.

multiply 1,978 by 365.2422 days – the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days.

Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

Who doesn’t like math now!

Thanks again for the great news.

Thank you Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (picture provided by US Marshal’s Office, BTW nice casting photo) for making traveling by air even more fun than it has been since the events of 9/11. According to a report in Fast Company (http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/tsas-new-flight-restrictions-welcome-20th-century) travel restrictions will be moving backwards. What the F*#k! As a frequent business traveller you have made what is already a huge pain in the ass worse, so good job even though you didn’t kill people (including yourself). So this what you learned by attending some of the best schools on earth? I hope your time in jail will be as pleasant as flying to other countries has now become. Congratulations on also helping with racial profiling and people’s view of the Arab world as well as making everyone more paranoid than they already were. Oh, and by the way, there won’t be any virgins waiting for you in hell.

Some basic perception vs reality issues facing photographers.

PERCEPTION

1. The photographer is independently wealthy and only takes pictures because he loves photography.

2. The photographer is hard to work with.

3. The photographer is too slow.

4. The photographer is too expensive and makes more in a day than I make in a month.

5. The photographer is too good to work on your project.

6. The photographer is an asshole.

REALITY

1. The photographer has just as many financial problems as everyone else and sometimes more (studio overhead, equipment, liability insurance, medical insurance, workers compensation, plus employee paychecks and agent commissions).

2. Like any job, rumors about people sometimes are just that (and don’t forget that change is possible for most people).

3. With the current economic climate and dwindling budgets the time and money to properly prep leads to slower shooting.

4. Almost any photographer I know will work for whatever fee is available due to reality #1. A photographer rarely makes what you think in a day because of the time involved in actually making a picture (estimating alone can take up to 3 days depending on the difficulty of the project. Job prep, shoot day, wrap and editing add at least another 3 days. The photographer doesn’t always work every day or receive a regular paychecks as most people with regular jobs do. In the end, the apparently huge pay scale for a days work is really not a day. Don’t think photographers aren’t grateful though, I’m thrilled to make money doing what I love.

5. No photographer is too good to work on your project if reality #1 has spun out of control due to personal health issues or a financial crisis.

6. You won’t know until you call the photographer or work with them.

So perception vs reality boils down to changing the reality of the perception. The reality at the moment is that most photographers not only want to work, they need to.