I need all of these to sync in addition to another backup Macbook Pro [Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 2000, ƒ/4, 1/500]
Having my email, contacts, and calendar on my Macbook Pro, iPad, and Android phone was at one time working, then Apple introduced Mavericks OS.
I learned from one of my clients that Microsoft Exchange works great doing this. I had an account with the client, and everything synced great, no matter which device I was on.
When Apple stopped supporting syncing of their calendar and Contacts with Outlook 2011 with their Mavericks OS, I had to find something.
The solution was simple, find an exchange hosting solution. Since I was already using Godaddy, I checked out their Office 365.
Watch the video here, and you will get a basic idea of what it does for you.
One more thing I am now doing that I could not do before using my backup Macbook Pro running Outlook. Now I can use my backup Macbook Pro without fear of screwing up my email, contacts, or calendar.
Since I already had an account with Godaddy, the additional cost was only $3.99 a month. So I went ahead and paid for two years for $95.
I use Outlook as my assistant. It keeps me organized.
Saturday’s Headline—Daylight Saving Time: Set Your Clocks Ahead Tonight
Did you get all your clocks set forward? I know it usually takes a couple of weeks to remember all the watches around me.
One that many photographers forget is the ones on their cameras. So be sure you take the time today to adjust your camera’s clock.
My Nikon D4 lets you even set the Time Zone you are in. Using the Time Zone is excellent when traveling; you need to show the time zone you are shooting in.
Many people use this time each fall and spring to remind them to do more than change their clocks. Therefore, I recommend everyone add to the list of things to do around clock changes each spring and fall.
Every so often, here is something for photographers to check on, not something you must do all the time.
Firmware Updates
For your camera
For your lenses
For your flashes
Software updates
Here are two links to check if you have a Nikon or Fujifilm camera.
The reason you want to get everything updated is to get the best performance out of your gear.
Why should someone trust you with their story if you cannot tell your own story? You must be able to tell your own story before telling another person’s story.
Acts 1:8 New International Reader’s Version (NIRV) 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. Then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. You will be my witnesses in all Judea and Samaria. And you will be my witnesses from one end of the earth to the other.”
Since the church has been telling stories for centuries and doing so very well, I am using its storytelling to teach the principles of good storytelling.
In the Christian church, when one decides to follow Christ, it is done by a statement of faith. Many of the denominations do this during a confirmation class. Often, we use questions to help people formulate their ideas and develop their thoughts. Here is one example:
Some questions to think about: 1. In What ways have you seen God work in your life? 2. Were there events that tested your faith? 3. How did an event draw you closer to God or keep you further away? 4. How was your spiritual life strengthened (weakened) then? 5. What is important to you about being a Christian? 6. What is important to you about being Presbyterian? 7. What are your hopes for being a member, how you would like to serve, what gifts you bring, and how do you want to grow?
Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 4500, ƒ/5.6, 1/100
The power of a first-hand witness is their authority. Their testimony has absolute power if they speak on what they know rather than speculation.
One of the best examples in the Bible is this one.
John 9:25 New International Version (NIV) 25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see!”
While the lawyers questioned this formerly blind man, he stayed with what he knew. The power of the testimony was irrefutable. The power of the story is the before and after. The man was blind before he met Jesus; after Jesus healed him, he could see. One sentence is the testimony. What’s your story? Only expect others to share their stories with you if you are willing to share your own. We do this every day. You meet someone for the first time, and through the introduction process, you either do a great job telling your story or a poor one.
Nikon D4, 85mm, ISO 8000, ƒ/2.8, 1/100
One of the best ways to learn how to tell your story is to read to others. In the church, we even sing songs that help us practice storytelling. Here is one that is an excellent example of storytelling. It is called Jesus, and it is all the world to me. Here are the words:
Jesus is all the world to me, My life, my joy, my all; He is my strength from day to day, Without Him, I would fall. When I am sad, to Him, I go, No other one can cheer me so; When I am sad, He makes me glad, He’s my Friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, My Friend in trials sore; I go to Him for blessings, and He gives them o’er and o’er. He sends the sunshine and the rain, He sends the harvest’s golden grain; Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain, He’s my Friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, And faithful to Him I’ll be; Oh, how could I, this Friend, deny, When He’s so true to me? Following Him, I know I’m right, He watches o’er me day and night; Following Him by day and night, He’s my Friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, I want no better Friend; I trust Him now; I’ll trust Him when Life’s fleeting days shall end. Beautiful life with such a Friend, A beautiful life that has no end; Eternal life, eternal joy, He’s my Friend.
Here is my challenge: create a 2-—to 3-minute elevator speech that is your story, not an elevator pitch to land work.
Here is my story: I was born with Autism. I did not speak until I was three years old. It would be well into my adult years that I would finally learn that I had Asperger Syndrome. People with Asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted. Those with Aspergers find it more challenging to communicate and interact with others, leading to high levels of anxiety and confusion. I have felt a fundamental disconnect with people for most of my life. While there are similarities with Autism, people with Asperger syndrome have fewer problems with speaking and are often of average, or above average, intelligence.
My difficulties early on were with speech. I had to have tutoring to improve my pronunciation, and reading was extremely difficult for me before my school years. While in high school, I felt this call to go into the ministry. In hindsight, this could not have been the poorest choice I could have made based on my Aspergers.
My father, a minister, recommended I get an undergraduate degree in business or social work. He said churches would want you to have a master of divinity degree, and majoring in religion for an undergraduate would be repetitive. I chose social work, and I am so grateful I did. Social work helped to train me in how relationships work and what is essential in healthy relationships.
While in college, I was taking photos for the school and had an uncle who was a former photojournalist and had a portrait studio. I would take my work to him for review to improve my hobby. Studying body language and interpersonal communication skills in social work, combined with my uncle teaching me how to capture these moments with the camera, was instrumental in my being a photojournalist today. I believe that it was due to God calling me into this profession to use my most significant weakness of communicating and interacting with others as a strength. You see, for me to share, I must work at it. It doesn’t happen; I approach communication from my head, not my heart. I must work at thinking through a process and why it should work.
Due to my wiring from Autism, I cannot take it for granted; I will likely screw it up. Asperger’s people learn best by seeing relationships and using the camera; I could break this down into decisive moments and even micro-expressions.
Because I had to break down each element and then learn to recognize it later to capture it with the camera, I can now teach this skill to others. In addition, because I am susceptible to people’s attitudes, I have learned to pick up on this when teaching and ask questions to be sure the students and I are together.
One of the traits of Aspergers is the ability to learn complex concepts quickly yet struggle with easy skills. Over time, I knew I had to work on the details because they were essential. I managed my lifelong struggle with Aspergers through years of learning and people with compassion who mentored me.
However, today, my most vital gift for teaching visual storytelling came from my weakness due to Aspergers. It is because of my brokenness of Aspergers that I must get up each day and work hard. It is not curable. Aspergers has helped me to be more patient with others who struggle to learn these concepts. My weakness is now my strength.
So, What’s your story? If you tell your story as well as you can, it will invite people to want to know more. Isn’t this what we want to do with our photos? My mentors taught me that the audience will want to read the caption if I make a compelling photo.
Writing an effective caption will encourage the reader to continue the story. WARNING! When you tell your story effectively, you will become transparent. Transparency engages the audience more than the story’s topic.
Fuji X-E2 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.5, 1/90 photo by Greg Schneider
I spent much time talking to students and pros this past weekend. So many were asking for my advice on their career path. I ended up asking them many questions and hopefully helped some get better traction for their journey.
Fuji X-E2 55-200mm @ 200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/20
Here is Larry McCormick, a photojournalist for The Tennessean who was one of the speakers at the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference. He inspired us to love every assignment and treat every one of our subjects with honor, dignity, and respect.
Fuji X-E2 55-200mm @ 200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/10
James Gregg, Staff Photographer, San Diego Union-Tribune, was another speaker who walked us through many of his assignments. He is working predominately as a multimedia producer these days.
Fuji X-E2 55-200mm @ 200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/30
Greg Thompson, Sr Director, Corporate Communications, Chick-fil-A, challenged us to be more client and audience-focused. The story is not yours, it is the subjects, and you share it with an audience.
Fuji X-E2 55-200mm @ 200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/40
Ron Londen, Chief Creative Strategist, Journey Group, opened up the weekend by telling stories. First, he started with stories where he made mistakes. Then, he challenged us to connect with people and tell stories.
Fuji X-E2 55-200mm @ 60mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/20
All weekend I shot with the new Fuji X-E2, and when the speakers were on, I mainly shot with the XF 55-200mm lens. I think it is incredibly sharp, and the image stabilization is the best I have ever used. Look at those shutter speeds shooting from the back of the room. Shooting zoomed to 200mm is the same as shooting with my Nikon full-frame camera with 300mm. These are all handheld and sharp.
Fuji X-E2 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/2.8, 1/125
We did have some good Chick-fil-A sandwiches at the meeting, and the Cow visited. Most everyone was getting their photo made with the Cow.
Fuji X-E2 18-55mm, ISO 2000, ƒ/2.8, 1/500
I was capturing fun moments with everyone enjoying themselves.
At every conference I attend today, I am passionate about “Storytelling” and “Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.”
I don’t think this is all that new, but what is new is the focus on moving from bullet lists on a PowerPoint presentation to telling a story instead.
We have always done this, but now we are more aware of the power of an authentic story.
However, with all this emphasis, I am still not feeling the stories that people are sharing. The reason I am not feeling it all that well is pretty simple. The storyteller forgot all about me.
I can tell they got lost in the story and the subject and forgot all about the audience.
I am sure there are many ways to connect with the audience, but let me talk about one that I believe is the most powerful way to connect your audience and subject in a truly engaging way.
Andrew Silk, lecturer at California Baptist University [Fuji X-E2, XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.2, 1/200]
Authenticity
Preaching to me turns me off, primarily lecturing about what I need to do.
Here are what I think are three elements you need in storytelling to engage an audience.
Tension—You need to have the audience asking the question about the outcome of the subject. The narrative of your story must incite the audience to want an answer. Many a screenwriter talks when an account is not moving you along that you need a “dead cat.” You are missing the tension, and then there is no need for the audience to need to read the story.
Unpredictable—I think of Disney’s latest movie, Frozen, and how the ending has a twist so different than all the other princess movies I have seen. This twist has people talking and loving this movie. As a visual storyteller, I sometimes use visuals to help create the unpredictable. The unpredictability should be full of suggestion, foreshadowing, and recall. Not gimmicky shots and tricks; instead, One should design the video to tell a story in a not predictably sequential way.
Personality—The salesperson sells himself before they can sell the product. The narrative must have a warm and inviting style, not boring and dull.
Mike Martin, pastor [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 2800, ƒ/10, 1/2000]
The last one on personality is often where the subject reveals their flaws. The best stories are where the main issue is flawed and not a perfect Barbie Doll or Ken Doll.
Too many people will go to a church revival, and the testimony of someone who had a terrible life moves them. They were on drugs, beaten, or even raped, and the power of their story about how awful their life was.
I often hear people say I wish I had a story like that. They even may jokingly say they wish they had a drug addiction. But, they feel like they don’t have an account because they don’t have a “dead cat” in their story.
I know of people who are the most attractive people you could imagine that appeared to have it all who attempted suicide. The key is not that they tried or thought of suicide, but the power of the story comes in the authenticity of why they thought their life was not worth living.
Giraffes at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center [Fuji X-E2, XF 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/4.5, 1/200]
You see, they compared themselves to their siblings or someone else who had what they thought was a successful life. They maybe had older siblings that were star athletes or straight “A” students. In their eyes, they are a failure.
The key to this person telling their story is not in how bad they thought they had it; the power tells the story of how they are a broken vessel.
I think great leaders are the ones who do share a little of their humanity and do not try to appear that they have it all together.
Every person feels adequate. They all feel they are not as good as those around them at some level—even those who are the most successful in life struggle sometime during their day as missing the mark. Learn to connect to the audience on how this story you want to tell is similar to their account.
When we tap into the audience and where they are in life, we will have a better time engaging them in the story. Nonprofits can tell their story as long as they connect to the subject’s struggles and how the audience can make a difference. But to do this, they must establish how and why the subject cannot do it alone.
They must show how the audience can make a difference and connect the emotional part of the story to the message.
[Fuji X-E2, XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/7.1, 1/25]
Knowing more about the audience before you work on the story can help you find those emotional connections between the two. Appealing to an entrepreneur to help support microloans or even macro loans to help another entrepreneur achieve their dream changes the world. But, first, they must establish why they cannot get a traditional loan.
If your organization is struggling, I would guess that one of the primary reasons is they forgot about their audience.
