22nd February 2010

To Do List

Travel
© 2007 Todd S. Klassy

A little red shed is nestled beneath an old oak tree outside of Stoughton, Wisconsin.

1. Sign lease for home in Havre.

2. Inventory my belongings and make a list of things I need.

3. Finalize budget.

4. Get a trailer.

5. Box up everything.

6. Donate everything else to St. Vincent-De Paul.

7. Get a cage for Steve.

8. Buy more tuna.

9. Deliver new prints to customers.

10. Get some new clothes for work.

11. Finalize paperwork for X.

12. Get a copy of my birth certificate.

13. Get a copy of prescription for my contact lenses and Steve’s cat food.

14. Get a cellular Internet card for computer.

15. See if I can get my mom to make me kalberwurst one last time.

16. Forward mail to new address.

17. Start saying good-bye.

19th February 2010

A Place to Stay

Montana
© 2007 Todd S. Klassy

An old sedan parked outside during a snow storm in Brooklyn, Wisconsin.

Finding a place to stay in Havre is proving more difficult than I thought.

Housing in Havre is inexpensive by Wisconsin standards, but finding someone with a place to rent is much more of a premium. I also need a place with a garage so I can store my truck and motorcycle. Temperatures in the plains can drop to as low as 30 degrees below zero (before calculating the wind chill) and in the summer days are often over 90 degrees.

I also need a place willing to accept Steve (the cat). I don’t know why anyone would object to Steve. He sleeps a lot, and unlike other cats, he is now accustomed to sleeping at night. He is talkative, but still very obedient as far as cats go.

I have a lead on one place, but there are 13 other applicants ahead of me. It is 1/4 the size of the house I live in now, but Steve and I don’t need a big place. There is a shed outside to store my motorcycle, but no place to park my truck under a roof…only an electrical outlet “to plug my truck into in the winter.”

I don’t even know if my truck has a plug.

18th February 2010

Stupid Photographers

Flickr,Photography

© 2008 Todd S. Klassy

I licensed this image yesterday for as much as I would have made in several months selling most of my best photographs at Getty Images. Licensing images without a stock photography agency is much more profitable.

P.T. Barnum is credited for once uttering the words, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

I don’t know how many photographers are walking the planet, but given what I learned these the past few years in the photography industry, I’d be willing to bet P.T. Barnum seriously underestimated the real number of suckers out there. I was reminded of this fact again this morning when I saw an article this morning on TMZ.com with the headline: “Tiger Woods Screws the Paparazzi.” And the paparazzi isn’t the only one who got screwed. Whether he knows it or not, the poor sap who snapped those photographs of Tiger Woods jogging also got screwed.

The images of Tiger Woods jogging somewhere near his home in Florida were taken by photographer Sam Greenwood. They were the first photographs of Tiger since the scandal hit the tabloids back in November. And while it was a major coup for Getty Images, the stock photography agency now peddling the images, Sam Greenwood probably lost out on a million dollars or more. And the paparazzi, which has been laying in wait like a bunch of hungry deer hunters for the past several months, is not the least bit happy.

Greenwood was hired as a staff photographer by the PGA back in 1990 and has been selling photographs of the PGA, NFL and NASCAR for several years now. He should have known how much those images would be worth. Yes, it is possible Greenwood was working as a shill for the PGA, Tiger Woods, and/or Getty Images. After all, each stands to profit from Tiger’s return to the professional golf tour, including Getty Images, who recently inked a new imaging agreement with the PGA according to CNN.

Tiger’s much anticipated press conference (and mea culpa) is scheduled for tomorrow. Releasing those photographs to the public prior to everyone seeing his crocodile tears on TV is probably a smart public relations move…especially since Woods was living under a rock for the past three months. Greenwood had access to the PGA and Tiger Woods, and given his solid (yet unremarkable) career in photography, it seems plausible someone called him and asked him for a favor…a million dollar favor.

I don’t know the man who took those photographs of Tiger Woods, but I do know plenty of photographers like him; both amateur and professional alike. The have all the talent and opportunity to photograph amazing images, but lack the business savvy when it comes to selling them. Stock photography agencies are selling photographs for a fraction of what they were once worth. Likewise, photographers are making much less, too. There are just too many people out there with a camera. Some know how to take a good photograph, and those who don’t? Well, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while.

Many photographers give away their images or sell them for next to nothing. And it really is a shame because they often have no negotiation skills and seriously underestimate their true value. This alone accounts for the biggest erosion of value in the stock photography industry. And the stock photography agency, the middle men of all middle men, are preying on everyone’s stupidity.

We might be suckers for believing Sam Greenwood stumbled onto a chance encounter of Tiger Woods jogging on the quiet streets of Orlando, Florida, but the bigger sucker is Sam Greenwood and all of the photographers just like him who license or give their images away for next to nothing.

UPDATE: Some are writing that Sam Greenwood is “pretty famous.” I might call him “accomplished,” but wouldn’t call him famous by any means. There are also some who think he is a staff photographer for Getty Images, which makes the likelihood of this photo op being much more staged than is being reported anywhere. If true, Sam Greenwood is a bigger sucker than I first imagined…and a shill.

17th February 2010

Going Missing

Travel

© 2007 Todd S. Klassy

I should have plenty of time to drive snowy roads in Montana yet this year.

Plans are pretty much in place for departure west. I have only two-and-a-half weeks left in Wisconsin to wrap things up, pack all of my belongings, and drive 1200 miles to my new base of operations in Havre, Montana.

Today when I awoke  I realized for the first time how much I need to do before I leave. It is just a little daunting. The fear of not having enough time to do everything I need to do is surpassed only by my concern for Steve (the cat) and how he will handle the long trek west. Both hurdles will need to be seriously addressed in the few short days ahead.

Yesterday I put together plans for my first photo expedition after landing in Montana. The weekend of March 13th (weather permitting) I will explore Glacier National Park. From Havre it takes approximately two-and-a-half hours to drive along U.S. Highway 2 to the gates of Glacier. Most of the roads inside the park will be snow covered and won’t be plowed until April. But that’s okay; I like the snow. And I plan on getting lost.

Later that same weekend I will plod along U.S. Highway 89, which is not a direct route back to Havre, but it will give me a chance to get a better feel for that portion of Montana. Who knows what I will find? I might even spend some time in Great Falls. We’ll see. It all depends on what I find and how much time I spend finding it.

One thing is certain; I won’t need to rush myself. I should have plenty of time. After all, Big Sky Country is my new home.

9th February 2010

Success!!

News

© 2006 Todd S. Klassy

A red cardinal sits peacefully on a branch near Fitchburg, Wisconsin.

Good news. I received word this week that Getty Images terminated my agreement with them. I am no longer beholden to Getty, who is contributing to the decline of the stock photography industry.

I call it the Walmartification of stock photography. Photographers labor long and hard to create beautiful images and then peddle these images to a middleman, such as Getty Images. The middleman peddles the images online with a less robust web interface than even Flickr and collect 70 to 80% of the revenue in return. What’s worse, they have developed new ways to sell these images, which means less and less revenue for photographers.

Do you know the difference between a photographer and a large pizza? A pizza can feed a family of four. Combined with the proliferation of digital SLR cameras and high-tech photography equipment in recent years, stock photography agencies have been preying on the amateur (and professional) photographers who lack the savvy to know the difference between a good deal and a bad one. I was one of them and feel stupid for even entering into agreement to have someone tie-up my images for two years so I can make as little as 62 cents on each sale (as I did recently when Getty sold one of my best images to China for this paltry sum). I would need to sell that image 6500 times in order to afford a new camera! And that doesn’t cover my cost for lenses, lighting, fuel, computer software, computer hardware, and my time. At 62 cents a sale I would much rather keep my images to myself than sell them at all. While I do not consider myself a great photographer, I do know my images are worth more than 62 cents…to myself if no one else. I think good toilet paper costs more.

The only thing worse than stock photography agencies are the photographers who allow themselves to be raped by them. I was one of them. Slowly, but surely, photographers are destroying their own trade. They reveal their secrets to anyone who listen to them and they whore themselves to stock photography agencies. In the process they are destroying a once proud industry.

I still consider myself an amateur. I am not a seasoned pro. But I would much rather enjoy taking photographs for myself, not making a dime, and flip burgers as my full-time my job than let someone else peddle my images for next to nothing.

I’m not saying; I’m just saying.

9th February 2010

Circle, Montana

Travel

© 2010 Todd S. Klassy

The side of a service station and small grocery store in the small town of Circle, Montana. Located in the middle of nowhere and in need of fuel, this gas station was a welcome sight.

I took a brief journey to Montana last week, which means I spent more time in my automobile than I spent in Montana. The trip gave me a chance to get a feel for the area and what I might expect living there in the days and weeks ahead.

There were photo opportunities all around, but because I was on a tight schedule I didn’t stop often. I instead made a mental note and hoped each of those scenes would be just as pristine and remarkable when I return.

When the author John Steinbeck drove across the country and detailed his travels in the book “Travels with Charley” he wrote, “I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love.” I have not yet made it to the most beautiful corners of Montana just yet, but I already understand what Steinbeck saw in the “Treasure State.”

Montana has such a vast and wide open landscape; one of the reason they also call it “Big Sky Country.” As I drove across Montana along the Missouri River I wondered aloud what Meriwether Lewis and William Clark must have thought when they first explored the same corridor. Only 200 years removed from their overland expedition to the Pacific Ocean, much of the land remains and looks exactly the same and is largely untouched by the steamroller of man. There aren’t many places in the United States where that is still true. And where man has made his indelible and unfortunate mark, the places are older and more antiquated than what I’m used to seeing.  It was like a time warp for me.

I truly look forward to photographing this beautiful state.

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