Death of an F (or the Final-ity of a Users Group)
Update and clarification: None of the film editing users groups mentioned in my original posting are dead. Some have simply changed their names. I received some feedback on this article from some concerned readers that by simply looking at the headline title of this post in a web search, it could result in some confusion about [...]
Doug Menuez talks at TEDx about photographing Steve Jobs and the Geeks of the 80s and 90s – The Beginning of Modern Tech Success
I’m taking a small break today from writing about my wonderful adventures in Todos Santos Mexico to talk about a great photographer. Doug Menuez is a friend, mentor and genius humanitarian. One of Doug’s recent projects is a photo book on how 20 Ugandan AIDS orphans have come to be a incredible dance touring group [...]
Part 9 of 50: More of the Photographers of ZoeFest
This is part nine in a series of blogs on my recent artistic adventures in Mexico. As I mentioned in the last entry, ZoeFest X 2011 was loaded with talented photographers. Lots of different styles and ways of working. And although we did bump into each other from time to time at the various locations [...]
Part 8 of 50: The Photographers of ZoeFest
This is part eight in a series of blogs on my recent artistic adventures in Mexico. I thought I would take a moment from the BillyShow here to give some well deserved attention to my photographer colleagues at this year’s ZoeFest. As I mentioned before, Zoe Wiseman, the incredible photographer behind the Fest that bears [...]
Screw Smelling the Roses, but Remembering to Stop Anyway
I forget to stop. I’m not really sure why I’m wired that way. Maybe it was the way I was brought up. Maybe I’m trying to prove something to myself. My friends tease me about how many hours I work in any given day. It’s true. They’re right. I do work too much. I do [...]
Yes, I Love What I Do: Finding the Enthusiasm
“Wow, you really love what you do.” I get that a lot. A few months ago, I was out shooting a long time lapse project with a great client of mine. We were going to be out there for five hours watching the cameras click away, every eight seconds, so we had a lot of [...]
Professor Billy teaches DSLR Filmmaking at fxphd.com
If I didn’t have the opportunity to do what I do, I’d probably be a teacher. I love knowledge sharing. And this summer- in fact, this week- I’m beginning to teach a 10 week course on Digital Filmmaking at fxphd.com. The good people at fxphd and I have been trying to get together for a [...]
Yet Another FCP X Opinion From a Pro Editor – It’s not you, it’s me.
Nothing like a little crisis to get people talking. In the last two weeks I’ve had more editing discussions with my fellow pro editors from all over the country than I have in the last two years. Sharing information and viewpoints is always a good idea. Any regular readers of my blog will know that [...]
Building the Brand of You. How Giving It Away Helps You Get Something Back.
The first time I heard that a person could be a brand was way back in the early 1990s. Anyone remember MTV’s House of Style with Cindy Crawford? I met her when she was promoting her book, Cindy Crawford’s Basic Face. She discussed the concept of Cindy Crawford being a brand. She talked about how [...]
Now With 25% More People!
I’ve been meaning to write a blog about new things going on at Billy Sheahan Photography for some time. It’s been difficult though because of all the new things going on at Billy Sheahan Photography. One of these new things, or at least more than usual is that I’ve been shooting a lot of people [...]
One For the Video Editors – June is Square 1 Month with FCP X
As many of you know, in addition to being a photographer, I’m also a video editor. We used to be called film editors, but I think the last time I received film dailies was back in 2009. So why talk about video editing on a photography blog? Because if you’re a photographer, your future skill [...]
Getty Images Pounds it’s 800 Pound Gorilla Chest with New, Bad for Photographers Contract
It seems we photographers are spending a great deal of time these days going over updates of contracts and Terms of Service agreements with our clients, social media sites and stock agencies that sell our work. This time it’s Getty Images that has the collective photography industry furrowing their brows. Getty has amended their contributors [...]
The TwitPic Backlash – Are Social Networking Sites Selling Your Photos Without Paying You?
UPDATE: The ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) is advising photographers not to use TwitPic as of this week. They too are recommending MobyPicture to share photos from your Twitter posts. It seems like never more than a few weeks go by before Facebook has made some sort of privacy change and we all have to shift [...]
More Praise for ASMP… a Photographers Best Friend
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I value my relationship with the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). Any photographer of any skill level can benefit from all of the information that the ASMP puts out there, from copyright registration, to model releases, to bidding, to better business practices [...]
In Praise of a Good Accountant at Tax Time
This should probably be one of my Billy Sheahan Photography School Courses. But for now this will have to do. I’ve had the same accountant since 1993 when I got my first real financial scare. I had been working a lot of freelance work the prior year and didn’t understand the importance of putting some [...]
The Beauty of Failure and Why it Should be Embraced
In my last blog posting, Photography Class 103 – Finding Your Style, I mentioned how failure was an important part of my early process as a photographer and how I still rely on a degree of failure in my current creative process. But before I completely move on to the next topic, I’d like to [...]
Billy Sheahan Photography – Class 103 – Finding Your Style
Billy Sheahan Photography Class 103 Finding Your Style This is part three in a series of photography discussions to help you make the most of your photographs. If you haven’t read Class 101 or Class 102, you may find those interesting. I’ve been sharing the technical aspects of making photographs in previous classes, but most likely [...]
Billy Sheahan Photography Class 102 – Choosing a DSLR Camera and Lenses
Billy Sheahan Photography Class 102 Choosing a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) Camera and Lenses This is part two in a series of photography discussions to help you make the most of your photographs. If you haven’t read Class 101, it will probably be easier to follow Class 102 if you do so first. DSLR [...]
Marc Hauser vs. Billy Sheahan – My 2011 Portrait
Here’s a riddle: What do Michael Jordan, John Waters, Woody Allen, Julia Roberts, Yo-Yo Ma, Cindy Crawford and Billy Sheahan have in common?
Answer: We’ve all been photographed by Marc Hauser.
It’s always fascinating to be photographed by another photographer. The tables are turned and it makes me positively giddy to be on the other side of the camera.
The Survival of Photography as a Career Depends on Every Photographer
A fairly old statistic offers that only 1 in 500 photographers looking for a full time career in photography will actually achieve it.* The odds are probably much worse than that today. I begin this entry with that sobering statistic not to scare, but as a call to do something positive about the nature of [...]
Être à Paris, To Be In Paris – a Photobook by Billy Sheahan
Around July last summer I really began itching to finish one of my many projects that were ongoing in some state of completion. One on my list was my book that I started writing in 2007, got about 70,000 words into and needed to walk away from for a bit to clear my head. But [...]
Keeping Photography Imaging Fresh in the Digital Age
Digital is a funny animal. It certainly took a while for it to look as good as its analog ancestors. But it does… looks as good now, in my opinion. It has come in very tiny steps though and will probably continue to evolve in ways we can’t imagine. Those steps can be a bit [...]
Taming the email Inbox… a few tips
Email is a wonderful thing. It’s also a horrible thing. It’s gotten to the point where people get so much email, they’re not even reading it any more. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said to a colleague, did you get my email about the such and such, and they just look at [...]
Protecting your Labor this holiday weekend: backups, passwords and more
As we all enjoy this three day US holiday weekend, consider this my public service announcement to protect all your hard labor this past year and into the future. Taking a few minutes now to refresh yourself on proper backups and password protection will prove to be worth it in your digital future. Hard Dive [...]
