EDITOR’S NOTE:
this is a guest post by Lassal and Haik, two BURN participants who have organized a birthday surprise from all involved with BURN Magazine…
After a few weeks of conspiracy, Lassal’s and Civi’s unrelated cryptic comments it is time to unveil.
Operation “BURN plot” was made by BURNIANS for BURNIANS and is to celebrate BURN’s first birthday.
Happy birthday to BURN. David, thank you for making BURN a reality and thank you for making it a home for us.
We present BURNIANS.COM – the site dedicated to celebrate BURN magazine by all BURNIANS. Most of us have put a little into the site and it became big. BIGGER than we could imagine.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BURN – FROM BURNIANS !!!
Please join and share your day and celebrations with the rest of us by emailing your photos to live(at)burnians.com.
With the rest of BURNworld … With the rest of BURNians …
MR.HARVEY,
we are very very sorry for the loss…
BUT you know our SPACECOWBOY have spotted him …
drinking green tea with Andrew Wyeth …WHAT NOT TO LOVE !!!
LEE GATHRIE,
you have already given the answer…Civilian mass audience…Audience
P.S I can take the back seat now…YOU BURNIANS are finally United …just be yourselves and enjoy
the ride … (MAMA MARYANNA is driving PANO’S mustang…vroom…vroom)
Tom Chambers – love your burn photo! But am REALY glad to read it is a montage.
Thodoris – very clever
Audrey – toi et moi, meme idee!
Carrie Roseman – stunning first shot!
Frostfrog – very nice, great design.
Laura Boushnak – wow. did they actually look the site over?
Kelly – love it
Kathleen Fonseca – gorgeous, really.
Gyula Sopronyi – is that real?
Eric Espinosa – still laughing. please use that as a Christmas tag for your gifts :)
David Ryder – very cool
David Bowen – EXACTLY (with lightstalkers on the edge)
CIVI – so sweet!
and on and on to all you lovable burnians!
and one more smooch for Lassal!
BURNIANS
My goodness but this community really knows how to rally round one of its own! I really do feel our healing energy swirling around me. With your help I’ll be pain-free in no time. Thank you so much.
MARIANNA H
I am touched by your kind words and positive response to my work. I know David respects your opinion greatly and so do I. Thank you so much. Have a grand time with the family and try not to beat your son too badly at dominoes. Don’t want to discourage him ;=)
hugs
Patricia
I had to come back for this one…
E-mail from a Beautiful soul named …LASSAL…please read…it’s for YOU BURNIANS…
LASSAL wrote…
“…Please, if you go online again in the next 12 hours … please tell everybody hi from me, and thank you for all the comments and to please enjoy these wonderful days. A big High Five to all! I am very happy that we did manage to celebrate all together. I LOVED the parties and got some feedback that there are still pictures to be uploaded (because people did not have the possibility to access the internet). There is a time stamp on the images, so that would be fine.
And many thanks to the wild party in Bergen, that even managed to lure a little Tor Santa to participate! I loved it!!!!
Will write as soon as my brain is connected to my hands again. Right now all is in idle mode.
But I hope that everybody is happy. I am.
A big kiss and hugs to you Civi and to all the BURNIANS out there in the world!
What will the next celebration be about? I hope about successful hard photography work!
Now it is time to roll up the sleeves and not wait until the light gets good but to MAKE the light be perfect!
What is a wonderful magazine without wonderful content?
Let’s work hard to have a perfect reason to party hard again …. very soon.
My love to all,
Lassal …………..”
well…LASSAL …I am SPEECHLESS…again…
P.S Did I tell you BURNIANS that you are good looking too…oime
How can my civilian eyes …hold this much …BEAUTY…??? How…
Yes Erica, there are some really great photos at http://all.burnians.com/. Many people expended quite a bit of hard work and creativity (I wasn’t one of them) to give back at least a little to burn. I particularly liked yours and Bjarte’s and David Bowen’s and Laura Boushnak’s and Katharina Hesse’s and Angela Bacon-Kidwell’s and all of them really, I shouldn’t name names without naming all the names. What a great tribute…
Anybody here who can offer advise would be really helpful.
I’ve been photographing for the love of it since mid 90′s, and have built up a large archive ranging from street photography to documentary, to travel. 90% of these images are from Asia so I understand that there must be a mountain range full of images already, but what I’m wondering is, if I would like these images to be found by others amongst the truck loads already out there, what advise would you offer.
I’ve browsed around photoshelter and see many images similar to mine, but also I have many images of places and events, that are not there. I have a free space at photoshelter at the moment which I filled very quickly, (even there I made a mistake in that I did not reduce the image size, so very quickly filled the free space) and am thinking about putting in the time needed to open up a paid site on ? photoshelter seems to be one of the best value. Not wanting to make similar mistakes due to ignorance as I did with ‘image size’, I appreciate any advise,
does anyone have advise on how best to display images as far as being able to be found amongst the 100,000′s of images already there. How does it work. Will mine automatically end up on the last page of any list they may fall in to? or other there other factors.
how would you guys advise me on title words?
Can anyone just download images off photoshelter making it necessary to have water mark?. What are the alternatives.
Excuse me but I’m asking these questions because I ‘m so computer illiterate, finding it very hard to get my mind around the jargon.. and I would like the many images I’ve built up over the years to come to some use, not just as a form of income for me, as I’m not so naive to think that I’ll make much from it income wise but I do want other’s to appreciate them, as far as seeing and appreciating things I’ve appreciated and chosen to photograph purely o share that with others, which I know you guys understand.
Sorry about being so long winded about my question.
Peter – typing on phone, so briefly…my understanding is that a paid photoshelter acct is searchable and a lot of how well the images are found depends on your keywording. Be specific and broad and be thorough. Have you also considered placing some of the work with a stock agency? You can find one that is rights managed.
Michael – I know, I found it very touching how much work people put in. Mine was meant to be more grand but one of the layers of the cake didn’t turn out right. Don’t know if anyone caught it but each of the images on the cake is birthday related. The ones from Victor’s burn essay are obvious, but the others are david’s; girl at her birthday (quinceanera), boy in car after his birthday party, etc.
Hi emcd.
Thanks for that. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I have thought about sending my work to agency but as most are in Europe and the U.S., I am hesitant as all of my photography is on film. So now I’ve got myself a scanner I can digitize and load up on to internet. Then I guess I can send requests for Agencies to look at my Photo site.
thx again emcd and look forward in seeing your photography up here.
Peter.
Peter – yes you’ll definitely need to scan. When the Develop site is up I’ll have a whole list of stock agencies listed in the online library. I’ve been contacting many of them to help clarify their submissions process, just for you :) but you’ll still want to get your photoshelter site together. You asked about watermarking – you can control what is watermarked and how, what can be downloaded and what can’t.
About you looking forward to seeing my work on burn, I have an essay (the dark light of this nothing) up, if I recall correctly I think you saw it, I’m Erica McDonald.
excuse me Erica, but I didn’t realize you were one in the same. Yes, of course I remember your essay. I loved it in the sense that it was so authentic, obvious that you lived there in Brooklyn, or where ever it is, with all those minorities that probably settled there 2 generations ago. I live a long way away from there but felt very connected while looking at your images. And stylistically I liked it very much too, as well as holding information they looked good to look at.
about the agency directions, I’ll appreciate any help you can offer.
Now I’ve got a connection to your acronym. Thanks for that. Peter.
I’ve wondered previously what emcd stands for? hope not so strikingly obvious I feel like a fool for asking?
Not foolish at all – something from childhood I guess, pronounced like eee mc dee ( e for Erica, mcd for mcdonald)
Feel free to remind me of the agency stuff when you get closer – Develop won’t launch till February at earliest anyway…
And thanks about the essay.
Sleep well all
No, my thanks are with you Erica. As I say I really appreciated the essay.
I already have a free site which is photoshelter/user/petergrantphotograph.
So as there is an offer at photoshelter I’ll will get a paid site as I have so much I’d like to show. I’ll certainly let you know once I do.
Thanks so much Erica. Peter.
Ah – I should have written pronounced like Eee Mick Dee
Lassal & Haik, thanks again for all of your hard work on the Burnians site! I was pleasantly surprised at how slick the site is (it blew my socks off:-) ! I hope that you will keep the site up long enough for DAH to fully explore, given his schedule.
Thanks to all of the Burnians that contributed! I find myself going back again and again looking at the images sent in. I was tickled to see Civi contribute as well, so that I had another civilian (the Original) to keep me company…
Patricia L-D: sending good mojo and (virtual) hugs your way!
Lassal and Haik thanks for all the hard work to make it happen, great stuff.
LASSAL….HAIK…ALL
well, i have just now gone through everything…the whole bit…all the pictures…from everyone….i just do not know what to say….i mean really…speechless….such a tour de force of well, something i cannot imagine….this is the net?? this is something else…this is some kind of special bonding that cannot really be described…i am so humbled, so flattered..so, so…no words..sorry…
hugs, love, david
PETER GRANT….
if we have a chance to skype and i can see your whole body of work, it should be fairly easy for me to put you in the right direction for either a stock agency or an assignment agency…many do both…easy to find, not so easy to actually get involved…it is a long and difficult process of building significant work and not for the feint of heart…the next couple of months are going to find me on long assignments , so i will be difficult to pin down, but please know that i do get around eventually to all who ask…but, the main thing is this…most photographers are looking for an agency or contact info, when all they really have to do is to really really get involved with their work…few are ready for the contacts…those who are ready with a solid body of work will find getting the proper contacts not as difficult as they might think…everyone is looking for fine photographers..all the agencies, all the publishers….the door is open for those who “have it”….
cheers, david
i think i “have it”.
i need a doctor.
thanks David.. of course I’m very keen to talk to you, and its this reason I’ve been holding back not wanting to waste my chance with you without anything ready. Its been a very slow process for me as the scanning has been creating such large files slowing down my computer until I get to the point of having hundreds of unorganized images all over my desk top. But I am determined. Hopefully something to show very early in the new year.I know your busy too.
Always appreciate you noticing and getting back to me.
Cheers to you. Peter
David and his new mmmmmmmmmmm nine toy…..skype December 23, 2009 at 1:something am http://www.etrouko.com.au/im.htm
the live-photo room is great.. would be cool to have it as a permanent fixture
DAVID BOWEN…
yes…we should keep burnians.com up somewhere…i have some pics for the burnian scrapbook too…
LEE GUTHRIE…
where oh where have YOU been?? last i heard from you was with the 50 pictures you sent to me of you with your new boyfriend in Chattanooga (shoulda edited down a bit)..well, boyfriends come and go , but we are always here for you….seriously my dear, do not be a stranger…
CATHY SCHOLL…
well you were right…yes, i said it…you were right…i had NOT seen everything…but, i have now and trying to catch up….
IMANTS..
you are one of a kind…not sure which kind, but one of a kind….i have a pretty cool shot of you on the screen , but i cannot find my card reader…when i do , i will post the picture on burnians.com…man are you ever FAST at putting things together…totally tech savvy you are and with FLAIR……always a pleasure to talk to you….
cheers, david
Likewise chatwise David ……all this is easy with the right access plus this household dog included(food and walks only) pretty much runs on “If you are going to do it then do it”
Lassal, Haik,
congrats !
David ( DAH),
Merry Christmas from Katharina and Susetta ( the BKK workshop nightmares :)
O.K. That was fun. Now can we stop with the navel gazing and get back to the regular programming?
Jim have you heard of the famous story of Scrooge…….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Scrooge
Seasons greetings
Ian
DAH,
Just read your post to Peter……
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on agencies etc, I have a few stories in mind that I want to work on. I am trying to diversify into the more “story telling”/documentary photography and would be really interested in approaching agencies. At the moment most of my stuff is shot to brief for commercial clients etc.
I am also working on a fairly large personal project in Portugal at the moment and getting a little confused over as I keep flipping into “what does the viewer want” mode (its a hangover from shooting with clients in mind) rather than shooting/editing for me.
Have a great festive season.
cheers
Ian
Peter,
you might want to read this article, but make sure you read the comments as they are very accurate.
Art Wolfe is a big name and good marketeer so he might have some agreement with photoshelter, he has a team to help promote his stock sales. So working as a one man band it could be tricky to get your images to rise to the top of search engines.
You could look at Alamy.com but then again buyers are swamped with thousands of similar images, they have some kind of alamy ranking which helps you get to the top but it is really complex and has to be constatntly monitored because they keep on changing criteria so you have to go back through you images re tagging/keywording resubmitting etc etc.
I have a stack of images with http://www.johnwarburtonlee.com they inturn have them listed with Alamy, to put it bluntly sales through these sites hardly pay for my phone bill. It is also a numbers game, the more pictures you have in a library the more chance you have of being selected. I don’t know much about the reportage/documentary market and channels to market, Dah would be able to help with this.
chers
ian
oops missed the link out for the article.
http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/more-how-to/get-into-the-stock-market.html
IAN AITKEN..
the stock agency game is often a nightmare….i was with two before i joined Magnum…one of them, and i am very tempted to publish their name, cheated me and others out of thousands of dollars…i am almost tempted to think that many photographers, given the net resources, could do much of it on their own…but, i am not 100% sure of this…in any case, it is tricky at best…balancing personal work with work for sale is always the slipperiest of slopes, but it is what we all have to do….i would love to talk to you in person about it…i am also trying to figure out a tech way that many of us could conference call simultaneous…some way where i could set aside a particular time to go over issues with many…my one on one skype calls work, but by definition only for one at a time…anyway, i am thinking on this…
ALL…
the incredible success of just the fun of looking at spontaneous pictures from this audience on burnians.com leads me to believe this should be some kind of regular feature…a place for this audience to publish whatever they see fit…or from a theme that i throw out there …we did it once before on Road Trips…anybody remember the self portrait exercise?? anyway, thinking about that one too…i certainly enjoy seeing reader photographs which are simply fun (although not everyone likes fun) or are intended to illustrate a particular theme…this was the theme of Burn birthday, but we could surely do others…only downside i see is who in the world can manage it…or, maybe it can self manage..thinking about this too…
cheers, david
David
I think this the time you should submit your birthday picture to burnians.com
it is still not complete.
:)
peace and love for Christmas.
All,
I know this is only for a part of the world but anyway… Merry Christmas.. or Happy Holidays… or Happy Weekend :)
peace and love for everyone
David, the conference call idea sounds great. It’s possible I could help arrange it. I have access to professional call-in audio equipment, though we might be limited to a total of six callers. Could easily produce a podcast from that though and everyone could hear.
Erica
The tattoo was temporary, but the artists are real ;)
Oh, and clicking on my name these days will get an example of a short slideshow that illustrates a theme and is meant to be fun, though there is hint of seriousness as well. I’m not putting that out there as a great example of photography or anything, just playing around with different ideas for narrative photography I’ve been getting out of these ongoing conversations.
DAH –
Really want to know what’s up with Cindy H?
She’s here, I think.
http://www.classmates.com/directory/public/memberprofile/list.htm?regId=8684836742
speaking of Skype….
i just finished a 40min conversation with Thodoris…
It was fun and i confessed lots of secrets and anecdotes…
Thodoris seems to be pretty cool…
Burn community is definitely real…flesh and bones…
DAH yes,
can skype multi task?
i know iChat can but not everyone has a mac…
there must be a skype way also …for a multi conference
kinda thing…
big hug
Jim, this IS the “regular programing.” Burn is, always has been and always will be much more than just a photography mag. Burn is a community, a large, ever-changing and evolving group of individuals from across the world who gather here because they care about photography. Some are vocal but many more remain silent. But vocal or silent, we are all in this together. Like any community, we like to celebrate, and Burn’s first birthday deserves to be celebrated.
Now maybe this isn’t your thing. That’s fine. Just don’t rain on our parade, OK? Lassal and Haik went to extraordinary efforts to make this celebration special. As did lots of other folks. I think of the Burnians who got together in Frankfort and London. They braved blizzard conditions to get there, and several had long distances to travel.
I guess I don’t understand why anyone would call such a birthdy celebration “navel gazing,” but each of us sees the world in our own unique way. That’s what makes it interesting. The key is to respect our differences not to put anyone down because they don’t share our perspective on things.
I hope I’ve respected your position, Jim. I’m glad you’re here. You always say it like you see it and I admire that.
Patricia
…hmm.. from what i read here on my skype window (click on CALL, scroll down to CONFERENCE call), it seems it can do it, up to 24 people plus host.. not that i’ve ever tried though..
From the skype chat with Panos…
http://www.tzalavras.com/Random%20pics%20for%20Web/Panos_Skype_Dec-23-09.jpg
Right back at ya..
Ladies and gents…below is sexy Thodoris..(holding his xmas toys)
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Desktop?authkey=Gv1sRgCOzO17OUsLWrSw#slideshow/5418443117320273890
Sexy??
Did you forget to confess something??
:))
Patricia, I thought the celebration was great. But, enough already. We going to spend the second year of Burn celebrating the first?
Regarding the possible conference call about agencies, or whatever, it’s not 100 percent sure, but it’s possible I could set it up as a live internet radio broadcast. You could have a couple experts on phone lines and a few open lines for callers. That would also produce a podcast which could be accessed by everyone. Audio quality would be professional whether it went off live or not.
Regardless of how you manage though, I hope a podcast is produced so everyone can hear. That’s a simple thing to record and link to.
Jim, it looks to me like we’re moving on now with all the talk of agencies and possible conference calls/podcasts. And DAH only saw all the pics on burnians.com this morning. After all it IS the holidays so things might be a bit slow around here for awhile.
Speaking of which, happy holidays, all!
Patricia
David AH..
First—-sorry for the loss of your friend and mentor, Masaka Okada. i hope you found his family in Japan and that you were able to express your condolences. Again, so very sorry that at this time of year of joy and unity and birthday celebrations, you should suffer grief..
Second—-saw your stunned expression of gratitude and joy when you finally were able to look at all the photos on Burnian..i am so happy i was able to participate..it gave ME great joy to do so..somehow it was so comforting being an integral part of this wonderful project organized and put together with blood, sweat, tears and sleepless nights by Haik and Lassal. And i mean that, it was comforting and gratifying to me in deep and profound ways. So David, I am personally so very thrilled at your reaction.
Third—-i wrote to your e-mail at Burn..no response. I know this is the worst possible time and i would never in the world impose yet another task on you but if you could check your e-mail this morning, i re-sent my e-mail asking for the Loft´s mailing address and zip code so i can send you a Christmas card (handmade) and also perhaps, if you were serious about letting me camp out there, directions for finding the key..maybe, maybe???
Again, many thanks and best wishes for a continued joyous holiday.
Best
Kathleen
Erica
Thank you! was super nice to see your comment on my Burn pic. I left one for you on your essay..am not here much right now because am so so so busy but i made sure i saw your essay. It blew my mind. It was absolutely perfect and so very touching. Your essay was a true labor of love and your soul was evident in each and every photo..and the audio was simply incredible.
Merry Christmas, grrl
Kathleen
At the suggestion of a friend…
Here are a couple of pics from festive Nicosia:
http://www.tzalavras.com/Random%20pics%20for%20Web/Tzalavras_Dec-19_001.jpg
http://www.tzalavras.com/Random%20pics%20for%20Web/Tzalavras_Dec-19_002.jpg
Family photographs are wonderful things, or so people keep telling me, but I have very little use for them. I will admit to a certain amount of prejudice in the matter, as family photographs of the Clan Bashmachkin invariably include members of the eponymous clan (and I know this for a fact, too; I’ve seen some of those photographs and there are family members in each and everyone of them). Given that I do not want to see these people in the flesh, a phenomenon that ineluctably leads to my handing out money I will never see again, I do not care to see them in photographic reproductions in either color or black and white. To be honest, I find the idea of willingly looking at those people more than a bit nauseating, if not actually perverse, a vile and unnatural act akin to putting spicy brown mustard on chocolate ice cream or rooting for the Red Sox.
I cannot say with metaphysical certainty when I developed this aversion to my own flesh and blood, but I am pretty sure that it arose in utero, when I learned that I was not going to be Bill Gates. I was profoundly nonplussed when I got the news, an understatement if there ever was one. I thought the interview had gone well and I knew that I’d scored high in the swimsuit competition and I was sure that things were going my way, so finding out that not only was I not in the running anymore, but that some little dweeb from Washington State had beaten me to the job did not make me very happy, as you might imagine. I knew that there was some chicanery afoot and I immediately demanded a recount, but alas, it was not to be. In such matters knowing the people who count the votes is much more important than having the voters on your side, and under the circumstances I had no choice but to concede. I didn’t like conceding, not by a long shot, but sometimes you’re just stuck with a bad hand. What can you do?
In any case, the folks who decide these things did not take kindly to my challenging their decision and, in their infinite wisdom and not at all in a spirit of malice, payback, or making an example for others who might think that they got a raw deal as well, they dropped me into the Clan Bashmachkin, as ill-fated a crew that ever stepped into a pile of bad karma while walking down a city street. The relatives keep telling me that things could have been worse, which is an Irish way of keeping things in proportion: no matter how positively awful the bad thing that just happened to you was, it could have been much, much worse. They will then regale with a story about their Uncle Liam in Mullingar, who had a stroke in a barn while trying to saddle a horse and couldn’t move or call out for five hours and had to lay there up to his neck in chicken crap while the pigs ate his left leg down to the bone. The story is usually pointless: Uncle Liam is back in the saddle now, the stroke was minor, and he never liked his left leg when he had it nor does he miss the limb now that it’s gone; and even if the story is not entirely pointless, which is only true in a miniscule number of cases, I find that this is usually the sort of willful denial of reality that I would prefer to skip without hearing the punch line.
You find this sort of denial everywhere these days if you really know where to look. Take squirrels, for example. Squirrels are homicidal little bastards, not that you would learn this from the press these days. Squirrels are one of the many species protected under the terms of the Disney Dispensation, which declares that all cute, furry mammals are cuter than a bug’s ear, an idiom I’ve never really understood, since if you could see a bug’s ear, assuming the bug in question has ears at all—some don’t, you know, even the ones who used to work for Richard Nixon—you would probably find the bug’s ear just as repulsive as the rest of the bug. Bugs, as a rule, do not fall under the protective folds of the Disney Dispensation; they tried, even picketing Disney Studios to get themselves included, but Walt brought in the strikebreakers—the Beagle Boys did the dishonors, as Uncle Scrooge McDuck was in Howdoyoustan that week foreclosing on a dung beetle—and broke the union; and now everyone everywhere may slaughter bugs in droves, hordes, masses, or whatever other collective adjective you wish to use without your conscience bothering you in the least.
Squirrels, by contrast, are too damn cute for words. I realize that cuteness has its place in the world, preferably a place as far away from me as possible, but I should point out that no one thought the Nazis were cute either, except for the occasional lonely Naziette. I realize that this bit about Nazis has nothing to do with squirrels and their effect on twenty-first century American social and political reality, but it does give me the chance to use the neologism Naziette in a sentence. If you don’t like Nazis, Naziettes, or neologisms, just skip this sentence and move on to the next one. It’s a pip… not this one, the next one. Cute or not, it is difficult to get Americans to see squirrels for the vicious and violently territorial critters they really are. Your average American will look upon a knock down, drag out, winner take all grudge match between two squirrels over who gets an especially big acorn and smile and tell themselves, oh, isn’t that cute, look at those two sweet little squirrels playing with one another when what is actually going on is that the squirrels in question hate each other’s guts and are trying to sink their teeth into each other’s necks. I also doubt that most mothers in this country would want their offspring to hear the profanity laced abuse these two squirrels are heaping upon one another as this fight gets nastier and nastier. Like modern twelve-tone Moldavian folk opera, one appreciates the spectacle better when one doesn’t understand a word anyone is saying. Knowing only spoils the mystery.
The same is true with your average family photograph. You’d never know from looking at them just how much your Uncle Harry hates his deadbeat brother in law who lives in the cellar of Uncle Harry’s house because his wife says so or how many people in a wedding picture know that the father of the bride is not the man in the aisle walking arm in arm with the blushing bride, but the older gentleman with the incredibly fake looking toupee two rows behind them on the left, who is leaning over and whispering something into the ear of his fourth wife, a once and future ecdysiast who did not get the memo on what to wear to a wedding and consequently looks like she’s just looking for a pole to leap onto. No, when the photographer is around snapping away everyone’s just one big happy family and don’t you forget it, buster, even if the family involved makes the Borgias look positively warm and fuzzy by comparison.