Rediscovering My Purpose

Photo of me with my daughter Chelle and her cat Salem. Chelle took this with her phone on a timer.

So much of our identity is fused with our jobs, function, and company. That isn’t all that bad.

Ephesians 2:10, NIV: "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Early in my career, I was paying the dues working at The Hickory Daily Record, honing my craft of visual storytelling through the skill of photojournalism.

Shot on May 24, 1985 while working at The Hickory Daily Record.

In life, we put a lot of emphasis on dates, periods, and milestone anniversaries. We often tell our stories as a timeline. After a while, you will learn to see a theme in those milestones. For me, those milestones included learning to listen to people and hear their stories firsthand and then helping to tell those stories using impactful visuals with words.

Philip Newberry almost died of meningitis just before his second birthday. As the missionary child recovered, his hands and feet were amputated because of gangrene. An antibiotic after surgery caused 70 percent of his skin to slough off, but he was recovering two weeks later. Philip with his mother, Jan, and with his sister Amy.

I quickly turned my storytelling to my faith. I worked on the church’s most successful magazine during the 1980s, The Commission Magazine. It told the story of international missionaries for the Baptist. However, by the end of that decade, controversy in the denomination impacted giving, and I lost my job through a layoff.

Microneedles give painless shots. The smaller the hypodermic needle, the less it hurts when it pierces the skin. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed ways to manufacture solid and hollow metal, silicon, plastic, and glass microneedles that range in size from one millimeter to one-thousandth of a millimeter.

I went back to school for my master’s in communication from a seminary. I believed that this would help me become a specialist in humanitarian work. Well, I graduated, and the only job I could find was to work at Georgia Tech.

This was one of the few advantage points to capturing divers and the Olympic Logo for the Centennial Games in Atlanta.

I told the stories of researchers, athletes, administrators, and more for ten years at Georgia Tech. I lost that job.

There were seasons when I was helping a particular genre of people’s stories. It helped me develop skills such as lighting, cross-cultural understanding, and learning to listen better and better. I am still learning how to listen even better. I think that will be a lifetime lesson.

Surgeon Danny Crawley is in theatre doing a hernia operation, and Comfort Bawa, the theatre assistant, helps him at the Baptist Medical Centre in Nalerigu, Ghana.

I never stopped telling missionary stories, which morphed into telling humanitarian stories. Humanitarian work promotes human welfare and social reforms. The goal is to save lives, relieve suffering, and maintain human dignity.

Just Coffee and Frontera de Cristo [NIKON D3S, 24.0-120.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 4000, 1/1000, ƒ/6.3, (35mm = 62)]

I was helping tell the story of migrant workers who wanted to stay in Mexico. They could if only they could cut out the middle man [the roaster] and form a cooperative of coffee growers. That story helped the cooperative grow and more coffee growers to join and change their community.

The president of Honduras came to the US to thank the organization and all they have done to improve their country.

The President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, meets with President Jimmy Carter at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

I was trying to survive by shooting anything, covering the Peach Bowl in 2008. Greg Thompson met my wife Dorie in the press box during that game. He was shooting the game with his son. My wife gave him my card and told him to look me up on the sidelines. He didn’t meet me then, but he went to my website and shortly after asked me to help him as a consultant with Chick-fil-A’s corporate communications team.

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl 2019 [NIKON D5, 120.0-300.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 11400, 1/4000, ƒ/4, (35mm = 195)]

For the next twelve years, I worked on that team and worked a great deal with the family.

Video Shoot for home office Tour Truett Cathy, Dan Cathy, Trudy Cathy, Bubba Cathy

In March of 2020, I found myself sitting at home was, needless to say, a very unusual feeling. The pandemic had shifted my career as much as any other job change had done in the past.

I believe God gave me the gift to help tell people’s stories better than they could without my help.

[DJI Air 2S, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/1000, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]

I studied and got my FAA Part 107 Certified Commercial Drone Pilot license. I started helping Chick-fil-A, real estate people, and businesses use this new perspective to engage their audience. It was another arrow in my quiver.

I have always done headshots for actors, business people, and many counselors.

Dubbed “the new handshake,” professional headshots are now the first introduction to you, your business, and your brand—shouldn’t that intro be the best it can be? With 93% of HR professionals and recruiters tapping into LinkedIn to find quality candidates—plus candidates—plus 2 in 3 on Facebook and more than half utilizing Twitter—that headshot has countless applications in your professional life.

What have I discovered?

The issue was that I needed to sit with myself. With my thoughts. My emotions. My feelings. I had to do “the work.”

“The Work” was to understand how I truly feel. To do this justice, you need time. This past year–I had plenty of time. I created a Zoom call group every Friday for the past year. It was due to no longer getting the FOCUS group together in person; why not do it online. [FOCUS – Fellowship of Communicators Uniting Socially]

I learned that I thrived at helping people have the space to share their stories. I found myself coaching people before they were to share. “People want to hear your story,” is what I was telling them over and over. Then I would say to them what I thought was their story. Often they commented how much this process was helping them.

All this time, I thought I was learning how to listen and help people tell their stories so that the audience’s lives would be impacted. Little did I know that this process was cathartic for so many.

My purpose is still to help people and organizations tell their stories in an impactful way. While the audience will be impacted, it is often the subject that is transformed the most.

Tip for You!

Everyone will be enriched by doing the same thing I do. Take the time to listen to a person. Listening is active. You will need to ask questions. You don’t have a list of questions as much as genuinely listening to a person; you will need to ask qualifying questions.

Verify that story when you think you got that person’s story, just like a journalist will do. Tell the person their story as you understand it and ask if you missed anything.

When you listen, you will awaken your own story and learn to connect in new ways with people.

Do This In Remembrance Of Me

photo by Don Rutledge

Memories are essential in our lives because they allow us to grow and learn to be a better person. Our recollections can teach us necessary life lessons, demonstrate skills and abilities, and can make us feel happy and entertained. 

By having memories, we will know what is right and wrong. We can remember where we made our mistakes and learn from them.

Chelle’s 21st birthday celebration in Columbus, GA

We have birthdays as a way to celebrate and remember the year that has past and the clean slate we have going forward.

Carmen & Reaves Newsome 25th Anniversary Party

Wedding anniversaries are where we gather with our friends who helped us in our journey. We can celebrate because our friends and family helped us through those moments where it was difficult and also the times that we observed.

Rebecca Sills 20th Anniversary Party

I loved that at Chick-fil-A corporate offices, they celebrate work anniversaries. Every five years, they celebrate. On your 20th anniversary, there is a big party thrown by your department. One of those traditions is getting a cartoon drawn of you and surrounding you are things you are known for contributing to the brand.

My mentor, Don Rutledge, helped me understand how important photography is to humanity. It helps capture moments and tells stories. Sometimes we need to be sure we capture our own stories and families.

John Howard Griffin & Don Rutledge

Maybe when you were in school, your English teacher assigned you to read “Black Like Me.” My mentor Don Rutledge traveled with the author John Howard Griffin in 1955 as he did his research for his book. He photographed him when he took drugs and, using makeup, transformed himself from a white man to a black man to be able to write about what it was like to live as a black man in the south.

I did my master thesis on Don Rutledge. If you want to read it, here are the links to the chapters of the book:

I gave a copy to Don. Just before Don retired, he had mini strokes affecting his memory. After retiring, he had a few powerful strokes and couldn’t remember much. When I would call to talk to Don, he told me how much he appreciated my work in telling his story. He was reading it repeatedly to help him feel good about his life but couldn’t remember. Here is an article I wrote for NPPA News Magazine.

My daughter Chelle’s Pre-K class trip to Alpharetta Children’s Dentistry

Now while you might not be photographing or creating videos of content that goes onto a newspaper, you are recording history. Sometimes the most critical documentation is that of your family and friends. I have been doing this for our family.

Here are examples of photos of my daughter through the years

We all need to remember our past, the good and the bad. We celebrate not just the good times but also that we pushed through and overcame adversity.

Remember, if you are a leader, you celebrate those who work for you. Celebrate those work anniversaries. Remember to tell those stories of how your people overcame obstacles and grew and helped your team succeed.

I believe one of the best ways you can celebrate is by using photos and videos to play back some of those memories. Sometimes for us to “Seize the Day,” we need to remember we did it before.

Bracketing With DJI Air 2S

When taking photos with the drone, I noticed there wasn’t enough dynamic range in the RAW files. The cool thing is you can take 3 to 5 bracketed photos with the DJI Fly More APP.

Using Adobe Lightroom or PhotoShop, you can let the software do an auto-merge, or in PhotoShop; you can put them in layers and do a custom blend.

By shooting RAW with AEB set to 5, I have five different exposures to pick from rather than constantly merging multiple ones into a photo.

Often I am just picking the best exposure and tweak that photo.

[DJI Air 2S, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/90, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]

Anytime you have something moving in the frame, you need to do a custom merge or pick the best exposure. So I decided on the best exposure and edited it in Lightroom for the photo of these Brown Pelicans flying in the picture.

[DJI Air 2S, 22.4 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/80, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]

Sunset is a great reason to use the Auto Exposure Bracket [AEB] to hold such a wide dynamic range together.

Anytime you shoot and can shoot various exposures, you give yourself many more options in the editing.

Not For Decisive Moment

Shooting people or moving objects trying to shoot a bracket and get the best peak moment isn’t realistic. Instead, shoot RAW in these types of situations. However, it is a good idea to shoot a bracket of exposures to then pick the best exposure that you will use when in a condition for shooting people.

Real Estate Flambient

The photo above is a mixture of Ambient Lighting and Flash Lighting––Many call this Flambient

The “flambient” method combines both flash and ambient light in shots. It is one of the fastest-growing techniques for shooting real estate images. … On the other hand, shooting using pure flash can result in an image that looks fake, with shadows pointing towards the windows instead of away.

Here is just the Ambient of the photo above.

Ambient

While it takes time to do this compared to just shooting one shot, it is even better than HDR without flash. You tend to get more accurate colors.

Flambient

Now here is the before with just ambient.

Ambient

Here is one more example from a room I did for a client.

178 Brighton Blvd Woodstock, GA

Now notice the color of the fabric and the windows, as well as the kitchen, which is far from the window light is dark in the ambient photo.

Flambient

I love the Flambient approach to real estate.

Time Of Day Can Be Everything

[DJI Air 2S, 22.4 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 840, 1/8, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]

I believe one of the best times of day to take photos outside is Twilight. Compare this top photo to this one from a different time of day.

[DJI Air 2S, 22.4 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/250, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]

This can be summed up as the difference between everything in the photo getting the same amount of light or, like a spotlight on the stage when you light just some of the scene is more appealing.

[DJI Air 2S, 22.4 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 1690, 1/4, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]

Again another Drone shot from a different perspective and different time of day to compare.

[DJI Air 2S, 22.4 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 110, 1/320, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]

Another difference is the type of light during the day also can make a difference. This one below is with tiny clouds. The one above it is with cloudy conditions.

[DJI Air 2S, 22.4 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/5000, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]
[DJI Air 2S, 22.4 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 1130, 1/4, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 22)]

My suggestion is whenever you can take pictures at twilight.

Could we live in a world without rules?

The FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate tests for understanding hazardous attitudes. They have a list of five:

  • Macho – “Let me show you what I can do!”
    • Antidote – Taking chances is foolish.
  • Impulsivity – “Do it quickly!”
    • Antidote – Not so fast. Think first.
  • Invulnerability – It won’t happen to me.”
    • Antidote – It could happen to me.
  • Resignation – “What’s the use?”
    • Antidote – I am not helpless. I can make a difference.
  • Anti-Authority – “Don’t tell me what to do!”
    • Antidote – Follow the rules. They are usually right.

Some will rail against rules being an affront to our freedom and argue that they’re “there to be broken.”

Woodstock Park Roswell

Yes, some rules are unjustified. Someone gets in power and doesn’t like something, and then since they sit on the city council, create a new ordinance or law because they don’t like something their neighbor is doing.

Rules are the essence of sport, games, and puzzles – even when their entire purpose is supposedly fun. But haven’t you seen a fan lose it when their team is called off-sides.

I teach many workshops worldwide, and the organization I work with starts each workshop by going over some ground rules. At the end of going over each direction, the leader said, “Please don’t do anything that makes us create a new rule.”

I think we would want to encourage everyone to learn the rules so that we can all enjoy flying our drones for commercial and personal enjoyment without having someone create a problem that needs a new direction.

Rules, like good policing, rely on our consent. And those that don’t have our permission can become the instruments of tyranny. So perhaps the best advice is to follow the rules, but always to ask why. Learn why a law was created.

I learned a lot this past year when I jumped onto the Drone Bandwagon. Most of the rules the FAA has created make it safer for all of us. In addition, it helps all of us enjoy this as a hobby and as a profession.

Water tower in Roswell, Georgia

Forced To Shoot Old School Style

Buttigieg visits Georgia to promote the Administrations scaled-back infrastructure plan
[NIKON Z 6, 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/400, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 24)]

I had the privilege to cover Pete Buttigieg, The Secretary for the Department of Transportation, visiting Atlanta, Georgia. There were so many government representatives meeting with him. A few names were Senator Jon Ossoff, Senator Raphael Warnock, U.S. Rep Nikema Williams, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and many others.

Challenge & Solution

The digital media guy for the Department of Transportation asked me to send him photos that he could put up on social media throughout the day. Here are just three of the many challenges I was faced with on that day.

  • Packed Shooting Schedule
  • No Time to ingest into laptop & edit images
  • Anything I would send would have to go unedited

The solution for me was to use the Nikon APP SnapBridge. While it can do a great deal, I used the Bluetooth connection for my answer.

I could shoot RAW with my Nikon Z6 and have the camera download every image I took as a 1620×1080 jpeg to my phone or chose which ones. I started by downloading it all automatically; even when I turned the camera off, it continued to transmit to my phone.

My setup using the MagMod Magsphere on the hot shoe Flash [Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM, Mode = Manual, ISO 3200, 1/80, ƒ/4, (35mm = 40)]

In many of these situations, I realized that I would normally edit a RAW file to get better skin tones––But NO TIME. So I decided to use more fill-flash than I ever do on a job these days.

No Flash

There were many situations throughout the day where Secretary Pete Buttigieg was often backlighted with very little light in front of his face. This is one example. It would have been a disaster if I sent that to the client to post.

With flash using the MagMod MagSphere

Back in the days of shooting film, this is how I had to shoot chrome film. In a film like Kodachrome & Fuji Provia, you had to get exposure to the camera.

While I didn’t turn the flash on all the time, I was very keenly aware when I needed it.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg walked through a new train tunnel being built at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.

In this scenario, Secretary Pete Buttigieg is wearing a hat and walking in a tunnel with light at the very end. While there were lights on the wall, as he walked, he went from good morning to backlit over and over. Waiting for the best lighting moment does not work well with the best moment capturing what is going on. Using the flash helped immensely with this situation.

See how many photos you can recognize that I used the flash. You might be surprised that some I didn’t use it.

So do you think you could shoot and transmit photos on an assignment with no chance to edit?

I know I wasn’t so sure. So the days before the shoot, I practiced doing this throughout the whole process. The DOT gave me a Google Drive Folder to upload my images. We tested it together the day before. This not only calmed my anxiety but the client’s as well.

“Thank you all for the amazing work. Stanley, your photos are phenomenal. Can’t wait to see the rest!”

DOT Social Media Manager

I got that at the end of the shooting that day and before I had then gone home and processed all the RAW files from my three Nikons. I was using Nikon D5 w/ 14-24mm ƒ/2.8, Nikon D5 w/ 28-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 & Nikon Z6 w/ Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4 Art lens.

Here is one of the Twitter Feeds from the DOT that day with my photos:

Flash Makes A Difference

I will not say that today’s cell phone cameras are no match for a regular camera; that isn’t true.

When you take photos outside in the daytime, all cell phone cameras do a great job.

Chick-fil-A Roswell Town Center at dusk. [DJI Mavic Air 2, Mode = Normal, ISO 790, 1/3, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 24)]

My DJI Mavic Air 2 has a Sony IMX586 48MP sensor also used in the Galaxy S10 phone. So these phones do a pretty good job.

So one of our friends took their phone this past weekend and had me take the picture. They had the benefit of having both and choosing what to use. Here are those two photos:

Then here is my photo using off-camera flashes.

[NIKON Z 6, 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/125, ƒ/8, (35mm = 48)]

The cell phone is acceptable until you see the difference using flash. All cameras do a better job of reproducing colors under flash than you get under other light sources like fluorescent.

Besides a better color, the noise is a problem when shooting in low light with a cell phone. Using the flash, I am shooting light equivalent to the sunshine outside. I can shoot at ISO 100 and fast shutter speed as well.

[SM-G970U, , Mode = Normal, ISO 250, 1/39, ƒ/2.4, (35mm = 26)] photo by Dorie

Dorie also took photos to show my setup so I could see her settings for the camera.

Now there is one more difference worth pointing out. When professional photographers set up using flashes, they put the lights usually at 45º to the right or left of the camera. Then they also put the light about 45º above the person’s eyes.

The lights in the ceiling are directly over their heads and create what I call “raccoon eyes.” These are the shadows around the eyes.

Here are the benefits that all the people who paid me to take their photos in the Ring at the Citadel:

  • Full Spectrum Color Light
  • Lower ISO ~ less noise
  • Better light direction on faces
  • 24-megapixel images so they can get large prints made

While you can get your cell phone pictures, there are times when it is worth going for quality rather than good enough.

“I Wear The Ring”

In the prologue, Pat Conroy’s The Lords of Discipline starts with one of the most potent sentences that Conroy ever wrote, “I wear the ring.” Four short words: Once you finish the story, understand why wearing a ring from a military school is such a big deal.

Ordering and Receiving a Class Ring {For The Citadel ~ from their website}

  • While any rising senior cadet may in the spring of the junior year be measured for and order a class ring, to be eligible to receive a class ring, a cadet must meet these two conditions:
    • Have an academic classification of 1A.
    • Have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.000.
  • To participate in the Ring Ceremony, the cadet must:
    • I have passed the Corps Physical Fitness Test outlined in Chapter 5 of the White Book.
  • Cadets who have met academic requirements to receive the ring but have not met the Commandant’s Physical Effectiveness Requirements to participate in the Ring Presentation may pick up their rings on the Monday following Parents’ Weekend at the Holliday Alumni Center.
  • If a cadet fails to meet the requirements to receive the ring with their class, the Alumni Association will typically hold it until the end of the following spring semester.
  • If the cadet has not met the requirements to receive the ring by that time, it will be returned to the manufacturer.
  • The cadet may not order the ring again until all requirements to receive the ring have been met.
  • The eligibility of cadets who failed to meet ring eligibility in October of their senior year will be rechecked in January.
  • The rings of cadets who have not yet received their rings but will receive their diplomas in May or will be eligible to participate in the commencement ceremony will be cleared to receive their rings before commencement.
  • No other cadets will be cleared to receive their rings until after commencement.

These are minimum requirements and will not be waived. Students should see the Registrar confirm eligibility.

[NIKON Z 6, 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/125, ƒ/8, (35mm = 48)]

This is the largest group I have seen with the ring. It means a lot to the family when a cadet not only wears the ring but has the logo facing them while she is still attending school, and at graduation, the entire class turns their rings to face out. They are now graduates of The Citadel.

Usually every October the senior class gets their rings and has a big blowout ceremony.

This was when our son Nelson Lalli got his ring during Ring Weekend for the seniors at the Citadel on October 8, 2010. [NIKON D3S, 122.0-300.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 3200, 1/80, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 300)]
After they get their ring, they run the barracks where the lower class cadets in their company have prepared special toasting for their seniors. [NIKON D3S, 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 280, 1/8000, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 24)]
[NIKON D3S, 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 280, 1/8000, ƒ/2.8, (35mm = 14)]

Traditionally, after a few other celebrations that evening, they get to walk through a large ring with their date; often, the tradition is their mother.

Dorie Griggs with her son Nelson Lalli and his date.[NIKON D3, 122.0-300.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 6400, 1/100, ƒ/3.5, (35mm = 122)]

After the ring, they walk through the Sword Arch.

Ring Weekend for the seniors at the Citadel [NIKON D3S, 24.0-120.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 10000, 1/80, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 78)]

Then COVID-19

The Citadel Class of 2021 missed this tradition as well as many others. This year Taylor Skardon went out of his way to try and make up for what was out of The Citadel’s control by having the ring set up in the Alumni Center for any graduating seniors on their graduation day.

Taylor Skardon served in the Navy for 30 years. The 1982 Citadel graduate is currently an adjunct professor and head of The Citadel Parents’ Program.

Here we are set up in the Alumni Center for the day, taking photos for any cadet that wants photos. [photo by Dorie Griggs]

All the students at The Citadel during COVID-19 have missed out on traditions, that is why most of them chose to go to The Citadel. Many have read Pat Conroy’s The Lord’s of Discipline and decided to have a similar experience for their college years.

While there are many traditions that incoming classes had no idea would be happening to them, so too have these students who have endured more than a “Hell Week!” For them, COVID-19 has redefined what it means to be part of The Lord’s of Discipline. No one truly admires those college years as much as with hindsight. This class has a unique 2020 hindsight.

Real Estate Photography

Today’s Real Estate market is geared toward people browsing photos and videos of properties as the first step toward finding a home.

Many people will not even contact a realtor until they have searched to get a feel for the homes on the market. One of the places that many go to is Zillow.com.

The good news for most selling is that the market is so hot that most properties in my North Metro Atlanta, Georgia market are in need for a short time. Some houses have multiple offers within minutes of going on the market.

235 Founders Mill Court Roswell, GA [NIKON Z 6, 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/80, ƒ/8, (35mm = 14)]

You would think with this hot market; photos are not needed. However, if you have photos, people will possibly bid on your house just from seeing the images. They cannot risk losing a place waiting to schedule an appointment.

I like taking all the essential photos of all the rooms, but I also believe most homes would benefit from a couple of drone shots.

Taking photos from the ground doesn’t always show off your property in the best way.

It would help if you still had all the shots of the home.

I like to shoot many of the rooms from opposite corners so that you can get a feel for the space.

Besides those inside shots, I try and get the outside views that people are looking to see.

Estimates Require Bottom Up Thinking

Bottomup thinking is said to take place through taking in details and building up from there. The fragmented bits and pieces are structured and categorized, and then induction is made—a process that brings rise to something.

Topdown processing, on the other hand, refers to the perception driven by cognition.

In the best of situations, those asking for estimates are often in management, and the key to the project’s success is when they realize calculations require conversation.

This past week I have worked on four very intense and convoluted projects. The client is coming to me with a project they often try to complete. Most of the time, the management has already set a budget. When this is the case, we spend time going back and forth to see what we can do within their budget.

I have one client that came to me looking for the Bottom-Up approach. They are in the budgeting phase for a significant project. I helped them with a similar project in another part of the country. They are asking me to duplicate that in a new location.

The problem is that the person asking for the Estimate was not involved in all the parts of the last project. I have to educate them on the details of the estimate that are much more involved than what they think was involved.

Honduras Outreach Estabian Olancho

When most people see a video of an interview that is under a minute, they think that is all it took to get that interview. This is one of the parts of the estimate I had to explain to the client.

Here is the gist of my education on the topic of a video interview.

While you may see a 30 to 90-second interview, almost all the ones you noticed that we produced took about 3 to 4 hours to shoot. That includes the time to set up the cameras, lights, and microphone and take it down. The actual time we interviewed was about 30 minutes.

I then take those interviews for a first rough cut. I take out all the questions and significant pauses and create a video that is often first reviewed by another team member. That person is often the writer/editor. Then they send back time codes, and we put together the first actual edit. This includes the lower third graphics. Then this is shown to another person up the chain before we offer it to the main client.

The video has usually gone through about 4 to 5 revisions when the client sees it and makes their changes. This is usually about 8 to 10 hours of editing and reposting this online for the team to review.

The purpose of all this is to help explain why what they think is just a few minutes will be a couple of days of work, and that is why the estimate must reflect the behind the scene position they often do not see.

This is Bottom-Up thinking.

The problem with those who do not understand the importance of the Bottom-Up thinkers working with Top-Down thinkers is that the American Automobile declined from the 1960s till almost the 1980s. Meanwhile, Japan overtook the market around 1970 with the help of Dr. William Edward Deming.

William Edwards Deming (1900-1993) is widely acknowledged as the leading management thinker in the quality field. He was a statistician and business consultant whose methods helped hasten Japan’s recovery after the Second World War and beyond. He taught that by adopting appropriate management principles, organizations could simultaneously increase quality and costs (by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition, and litigation while increasing customer loyalty).

Today most people know his work at Total Quality Management and link this to Toyota rather than Deming, who created it. He broke it down into a cycle.

The Deming Cycle, or PDCA Cycle (also known as PDSA Cycle), is a continuous quality improvement model consisting of a logical sequence of four repetitive steps for continuous improvement and learning: Plan, Do Check (Study), and Act.

Estimates are only as good as the information given to the person creating the forecast. Deming understood that as you work on something like a car, it is often the front-line worker who will first see a problem. They need the power to stop the assembly line to be sure the customer gets the best product.

Estimates are needed for Ex Nihilo [out of nothing] work. This is where something is required to be created versus buying something already in existence.

Bottom Line Take Away

Working on estimates can be pretty frustrating to everyone. They are so disappointing because the customer is asking for the estimate. They cannot go forward with the project if they don’t know what they are getting and the cost of it. For the one writing the estimate, they need all the information to create it, but most of the time, the customer doesn’t know all they need to know–this, they are asking for an estimate.

Customers need to be realistic about the process of creating an estimate. They should never think they can continue asking for revisions without compensating for this work.

The one doing the estimating is doing some of the work you need to be done to go to your bosses to give them the feedback they need for budgeting and making decisions.

If you are the one creating estimates, I believe there comes the point in the process of revisions that you are perfectly entitled to compensation. You are doing all the heavy lifting, and the client can take all your work and shop for someone to implement your estimate for a lower rate.

Most of the time, the one doing the estimating is doing the most creative work for a project. They need to be compensated. Also, don’t forget that people will not pay for your first estimate. There will be some give and take, but at some point, the client needs to compensate for all those revisions if they want more clarity in the estimate.

Civil Twilight

At the beginning of civil twilight, just after Sunset, the colors of the sky change most rapidly. Clouds in the west are illuminated by orange-red sunlight, while the ones in the east remain blue and indigo. Generally speaking, civil twilight lasts for about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the season and latitude.

While Civil Twilight is technically 20 to 30 minutes, the best possible moment to get that perfect balance of the city lights with the night sky is more of a “Twinkling of the Eye.”

52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:52
Seattle Skyline

As you can see, back in biblical times, people understood that some of those things we see are like a shooting star and happen so briefly that if you are not paying attention, they will disappear.

It is considered an icon of the city and the Pacific Northwest and has been designated a Seattle landmark. It was located in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood and was built in the Seattle Center for the 1962 World’s Fair, which drew over 2.3 million visitors. [NIKON D4, 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/6, ƒ/8, (35mm = 95)]

I believe that the Civil Twilight is the best time to photograph architecture. The second best time is “Civil Dawn,” which happens at Sunrise.

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built as a weighted catenary arch, it is the world’s tallest arch, the tallest artificial monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri’s tallest accessible building. [NIKON D750, 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 20, ƒ/16, (35mm = 40)]

What you quickly realize is that during these few minutes of Civil Twilight, artificial light values come into the same exposure range as the sky. Anything that doesn’t have a light will slowly go to a silhouette.

Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People, is a cable-stayed bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was designed by TriMet, the Portland metropolitan area’s regional transit authority, for its MAX Orange Line light rail passenger trains. [NIKON D750, Sigma 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 13, ƒ/8, (35mm = 35)]

To get the best photos of Civil Twilight requires a tripod. The best photos are generally taken with the lowest ISO. This makes your exposure time for the shutter speed take seconds, not a few seconds, as you can during daylight.

Pier at Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina during Civil Twilight [NIKON Z 6, Sigma 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 30, ƒ/11, (35mm = 105)]

When you use these longer exposure times of 30 seconds, as I did photograph the Pier at Ocean Isle Beach, the water turns into foam.

Pier at Night Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Leary Family Vacation [NIKON Z 6, Sigma 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 30, ƒ/8, (35mm = 52)]

What happens as the light from the sky becomes darker? The light fixtures are no longer distinguishable; you see the light emitting from the institution.

Fireworks 4th of July Ocean Isle Beach, NC [NIKON D4, 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Manual, ISO 200, 30, ƒ/8, (35mm = 14)]

The other popular thing to photograph is the fireworks after Civil Twilight. They want the fireworks to stand out in the night sky.

4th of July Fireworks at Roswell High School [NIKON Z 6, 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 4, ƒ/11, (35mm = 24)]

Most everything becomes, at best, a silhouette, and challenging to make out what is on the ground.

4th of July Fireworks at Roswell High School [NIKON Z 6, 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 4, ƒ/11, (35mm = 24)]

I worked on this photo in Lightroom to open up the shadows to reveal some of the nighttime skies, but it also introduces a lot of noise.

Portland Skyline [NIKON D750, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 8, ƒ/8, (35mm = 24)]

Tips for Twilight Photography

Sunrise or Sunset ~ Before considering going, determine if this is better as a photo. Do I want the sun shining on the front or back as it sets? In some locations, the sun will be to the side, not in front or back.

Pack Tripod & Bug Spray ~ My friend Morris Abernathy and I went one evening to capture the Fort Worth Skyline; the best location was where mosquitos ate us up. It would help to have a sturdy tripod for the camera and lens you plan to use.

Arrive Early ~ Civil dawn is when the sun’s geometric center is 6 degrees below the horizon in the morning, and Civil dusk is the moment when the geometrical center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon in the evening. That is 20 minutes after Sunset and 20 minutes before Sunset. So, whatever the time is for Sunrise or Sunset, you must be in place with your tripod and camera setup at least 15 to 30 minutes prior.

Stay Late ~ I recommend planning for 45 minutes before Sunrise or Sunset.

Take lots of photos ~ don’t just shoot those few minutes of the best light. Shoot some with the sun still up and when it is pitch black sky. Sometimes, these are also great photos.

Second or Third Camera ~ Some locations you may want to compose differently. Rather than miss a great shot, if you have extra cameras, tripods, and lenses, make use of them.

Cable Release or Radio Transmitter ~ Use a cable release to get the sharpest photos. If you shoot on a DSLR, locking up the mirror will help with sharpness. Using a radio transmitter can help you trigger numerous cameras simultaneously if you are using multiple cameras.

Portland Skyline [NIKON D750, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 4, ƒ/8, (35mm = 35)]

There are many times that daylight will reveal things like mountains in the distance that dusk or dawn can hide.

Portland, Oregon [NIKON D4, 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/400, ƒ/8, (35mm = 200)]