How I wish for a button like this today more than ever in my life. I am writing this blog so that others who are also feeling this uncertainty will find solace in another who is on that same path with you.

I have gone through many disappointing times and trials through my life.

In 1971 my year started off with me having to be placed in traction for a month for a broken neck. Four weeks of traction and then another eight weeks as I recall in a body cast.

So 1971 I was out of commission for more than 12 weeks.

2020 has surpassed this and created an even more difficult emotion of so much uncertainty. It has created a sort of Battle Fatigue, which is an acute reaction to the stress of battle commonly involving fatigue, slowed reaction time, indecision, and other symptoms.

Friday, June 26th was a difficult day for me. It was the 2nd worst day for number of new coronavirus cases in the US and then the following day it went even higher.

The health crisis is the crisis. Addressing this will address the financial crisis. But in the US we put getting back to work over health. I understand it fully. I need to get back to work as much as every other person.

I don’t know how closely this resembles the Battle of the Bulge where American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. However that is what it feels like we are in the middle of right now.

I am marketing all my talents to an audience who doesn’t know when they will return to work. They don’t want to spend money now and have to change their messaging again.

I feel like the Grasshopper in “The Ant and the Grasshopper”, is one of Aesop’s Fables. The fable describes how a hungry grasshopper begs for food from an ant when winter comes and is refused.

The ants are looking out and see winter and there is no spring in sight.

Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

My Plan

While I do not know when this will end, I do know that some day it will. If I wait until then to start my messaging then I will have wasted the crisis.

“Never waste a crisis.”

Rahm Emanuel

While this is during the 2008 crisis that the White House was dealing with, the quote can be traced back at least as far as 1976, when M. F. Weiner wrote an article in the journal Medical Economics entitled “Don’t Waste a Crisis — Your Patient’s or Your Own.” Weiner meant by this that a medical crisis can be used to improve aspects of personality, mental health, or lifestyle.

Dr. Saj-nicole Joni, chief executive of Cambridge International Group, wrote an artical for Forbes Magazine titled “Never Waste a Crisis” and gave these tips:

• First, figure out how to survive.
• Second, ask yourself what you can do now that you couldn’t do before.
• Finally, no whining.

Those are great tips today. The Small Business Administration is handling the PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM which is a great place to help you survive.

I would change that second tip to “Ask yourself what your customers will let you do now that you couldn’t do before.”

Most of your customers have had their plate cleared of all those projects they were working on before the crisis. They also are grasping for the next big idea. They are more open now to listening to you than ever before.

Remember you are solving their problem and not your own. To do this effectively you need to know their problem as best you can.

Tap the power of purpose in your desire to help others. This is the time to brand yourself as the business there to help their business thrive. If you do this then sooner or later you will thrive as well.

Looking at some of the analytics for my video channels I thought I should share these, because the content hasn’t really changed and may help you with your photography.

Here are 8 videos through the years for you. Maybe this will inspire you today to work on something with your photography.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Roman philosopher Seneca

And while many people agree that luck does create some level of opportunity – a chance meeting that leads to a job interview or a boss quitting unexpectedly, opening a path to a fast-tracked promotion – nothing enables greater career success than working harder and caring more.

I relate career success to success in sports careers, and it is the same recipe for success: the harder you train, the more hours you put in, and the more you care about winning, the better you will become.

Getting these photos of Hawks means I must have a camera ready when the opportunity presents itself. You can make a photo with your phone, but the hawks would have been just specs within the frame. I had to use long lenses to capture these photos.

As I write this I am looking out my sliding glass door in my basement office. I see the Red-tailed juvenile hawks flying by and occasionally landing to hunt.

My Nikon Z6 with a 28-300mm lens is beside me. I went outside and already got a custom white balance. I am prepared and just need the opportunity.

What things are you doing today to be sure that if Lady Luck presents herself will you be ready? Are you prepared?

What can I work on today to be even more ready for finding customers?

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

wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

Jude 1:13

“Stanley don’t post any photos of me like this,” is what I hear each year when I am at the beach with my family. No one wants to have the world see them when they don’t look their best.

People take a lot of time in front of mirrors getting ready each day and now we have tons of videos on how you can look even better with some tips from the poster.

I have noticed that everything has times of the day when they don’t look their best. Just the middle of the night there isn’t enough light to see much, but the middle of the day doesn’t give you the best light either.

I find there isn’t a guaranteed best time of day to photograph everything. My suggestion for nature is to visit the same spot over time, with different seasons, different weather, and time of day.

Change the lens choice as well for the subject. Get close and then step back. Get low like a worm and high like a bird.

C.K. Williams said that his poem, The Hearth (in The Singing), took twenty-five years to complete. I can see someone returning to a location for years trying to find the right moment that captures what continually pulls them back to that place.

The concept of previsualization in photography is where the photographer can see the final print before the image has been captured. Ansel Adams dedicates the beginning of his first book to previsualization, and is often quoted as saying “Visualization is the single most important factor in photography”.

I believe even before previsualization a photographer is just emotionally moved by a scene. It takes time to connect the head to the heart.

Some places we return to are places where our earliest times are not even clear memories. The North Carolina beach is that place for me. My family has been coming long before I was born.

My grandmother rented a house for all of her 7 children and their families long ago. This is where I would first go and experience the beach.

So the beach for me is connected to family and the memories of my childhood.

When I see a man fishing in the surf it brings up memories of my day and my mother’s dad fishing along the beach.

I have always been fascinated by an image being able to conjure the past. Nostalgia is much more than mere reminiscing; it’s a feeling. “Nostalgia is the warm, fuzzy emotion that we feel when we think about fond memories from our past,” explains Erica Hepper, Ph. D., a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey in England. … A lot can be said for nostalgia’s benefits.

So last night I ventured out at sunset and photographed the Ocean Isle Beach pier. By using a tripod and low ISO I was taking long-exposure photos. When we are creating a long exposure shot, the camera averages what it sees over time. And if we are standing at sea level with unrest water, the camera sees the waves. … In the end, it creates a foggy effect – the water doesn’t look like water anymore, it looks like fog.

You rule the swelling of the sea;

When its waves rise, You still them.

Psalm 89:9

By the way, for these nighttime photos, people were walking through. If they stayed a while in a spot then they showed up as you see here.

This is a closeup of the photo above of the people staying somewhat still.

Leary Family Photo 2020 at Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. [NIKON Z 6, Sigma 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/1000, ƒ/8, (35mm = 24)]

Every year when my family gets together for our family reunion at the beach we do a family photo.

I always go out a few minutes early and setup my strobes. This year I am using the Flashpoint XPlor 600 HSS TTL with Nikon Z6.

While this isn’t my favorite time of day to shoot photos you quickly learn through the years that you are needing to pick the friction free time of the day.

Up till now i was always trying to do late afternoon near sunset. That tended to complicate dinner time.

This year 1:00 pm. Probably the worst time as far as lighting to shoot the photo.

I usually get my wife to stand in for some test shots before I have everyone show up.

Not a flattering photo, but works to balance the TTL flash to the sunlight. Here I have them set at 0 and the camera -0.3 underexposed for the photos.

We figured the far left and far right and a line in the sand for them to stand on. We were done in 20 minutes. I tried to keep it short for my mother and a couple others who had some difficulty with the sand and the heat.

It was easy to just switch folks out. Again we were celebrating my mother’s birthday today as well.

Had I been planning a photo shoot with a couple and just their children I would have done a completely different approach.

Hope these tips help you with your “family photo”.

Fledgling Red-Tailed Hawk in our Backyard. Every year we get a new nest. [NIKON D5, Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM Sports + Sigma 2.0x Teleconverter TC-2001, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 2500, 1/4000, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 600)]

This past week I have been reminded that there are many things beyond our control when it comes to posting photos on social media and if they get a few likes or even thousands.

First of all, I am fully aware that the content you publish has to be strong or it will not take off.

Just compare the first photo to the second one. While both show a red-tailed juvenile hawk in our backyard, seeing the wings spread is more interesting. So for the most part when these were shared on social media the one with the wings spread got much more likes. It is a stronger photo.

The key is to create great content using the “5 W’s & the H”.

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

These will impact how the audience responds. So this photo of the young lady protestor isn’t all that different than this one here:

Tapping into Social Media Influencers

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people, and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field.

Some of my followers have their own network that if they choose to do more than just like my post, but re-share it then this is where “Opportunity is Knocking”.

The difference was who my audience is on social media. Many of my followers knew people in the event with the young lady protesting in June 2nd photo, but not the same for the June 3rd photo.

The first event also was on the first night we were seeing protestors in Roswell, GA. After posting many people were commenting and sending me emails to know where the next protest was happening.

So once a few of my followers posted me on their social media my photos they took off. WSB-TV the local ABC-affiliated television station for Atlanta asked to use them as well as many other news outlets.

The Roswell Police Department also asked to use the photo since it was a Peaceful Protest and they wanted to show they supported the community.

That one photo of all the protestors laying down on their stomachs and hands behind their backs like George Floyd was shared so many times I cannot even begin to count. On my Instagram Page alone 385+ likes. Just my Facebook Page 100+. But then when you start adding up all the shares and their likes the photo has thousands of likes.

f/8 and be there is an expression popularly used by photographers as representing the importance of taking the opportunity for a picture rather than concern for the technologies with which one does so.

WeeGee
Ascher (Usher) Fellig

Being at the right place, at the right time, and having your camera settings so that you will get a well-exposed, in-focus photo is part of the equation. You must know in your head the “5 W’s & the H” so that you have the right lens, position, and composition to make a photo that connects with the audience.

when opportunity knocks

Clean Plate – You cannot take on new work if you have too much on your plate already. Make it a priority to always get your projects done in a timely matter.

“Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

― Benjamin Franklin

Observe what’s happening around you – You have to know what is happening in your community, state and world. Nextdoor.com is the best way to stay in the know about what’s going on in your neighborhood—whether it’s finding a last-minute babysitter, learning about an upcoming block party, or hearing about a rash of car break-ins.

Give people a reason to follow you – You should look to strategically use each social media channel based on its strengths and demographics, and give your target audience a good reason to connect with you on that specific network. What value are you providing? What are you offering that will entice them to stay tuned in? Think about the reasons people use each network, then formulate a plan to consistently post and share content that will resonate with your specific audience, wherever they congregate online.

Never, ever buy followers and fans – Some people assume that purchasing fans and followers is a shortcut to building a huge online community. This is not only bad practice, but it will largely end up being more of a problem than it’s worth.

Authenticity – At the end of the day, authenticity is what makes influencers influential to the public. Therefore, authenticity needs to be a top priority.

Here is a video from the first protest and the second. Which one do you think got more views & why?

Ever since we started to experience the pandemic of 2020, I have been reminded of the Serenity Prayer.

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can, and

The wisdom to know the difference.

One of the ways we have taken action these past few months was to 1) Wash your hands frequently, 2) Practice social distancing & 3) Wear a mask when you do go out into public.

While many have been practicing these CDC guidelines we still have the COVID-19 virus.

Then in the midst of all this, we have been reminded that this virus is affecting some in our community more than others. This is especially true of the African American community.

In the midst of this George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, & Breonna Taylor were all brutally murdered. Finally, enough is enough was being said by not just the African American community but my Roswell Community.

Gwendolyn Dukes, Richard Bonito, and their friends organized a peaceful protest on behalf of George Floyd at the corner of King Road and Hwy 92 in Roswell, Georgia on June 2, 2020. Dukes said, “Action speaks louder than words” as to why she and her friends wanted to get out and protest. Richard Bonito added, “We are not mad at the police, we are mad at the system.” They want to see changes for better policing, fixing systemic racism in our society, and encouraging their friends to get out and vote. While Richard Bonito voted in the last presidential election most in the crowd are closer to Gwendolyn’s age and this will be their first election.

My daughter’s generation is tired of seeing their friends mistreated. They want change.

I believe the timing of these deaths amid this pandemic might just be the perfect storm for bringing about change to fix systemic racism in our society.

Roswell young people in the protest realize that protesting alone isn’t enough. They know that this is part of the process to get their communities to make changes to the policies that allow for racism.

They are asking people to become informed about who is running in our elections and vote for those people who will enact change the changes tide of Systemic Racism.

Rather than being fearful of the rioting that has taken place, Peaceful Protestors are taking back the streets of their communities. They don’t want the rioters and looters to take over the conversation.

All over social media groups are forming to have peaceful protests. Go online and find a protest near you.

Plan to protest? Here are tips to reduce the risk of spreading #COVID19:

Wear a face covering

Wear eye protection to prevent injury

Stay hydrated

Use hand sanitizer

Don’t yell; use signs & noise makers instead

Stick to a small group

Keep 6 feet from other groups

Update. On January 4, 2022 Steve Hixon passed away. I did some minor updates.

This past week has brought back some of the words that Steve Hixon, my roommate from freshman year at East Carolina University, had challenged me. He had grown up in the racism of the deep south. By just being white I had no idea of all the privileges I had due to skin color alone.

I have never been pulled over just because of the color of my skin. I haven’t had people avoid me walking down the street.

I had not experienced not being looked at as a human being as Steve had been treated.

“Iceman” is what Steve Hixon’s nickname was on the basketball court. While we were put together as roommates at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, I saw “Iceman” more on the basketball court than in our room.

We were both Social Work majors. We both did our concentrations in Alcohol and Drug Abuse. However, while I went in the direction of using photojournalism as my way of helping people, Steve went on to work as a Social Worker in Richmond, Virginia.

Now Steve wasn’t my first African American friend, but Steve was the first one that I would live with and get to have lots of conversations with during our college years.

Steve said I would never have him in my home. Sadly that never happened. My home at the time was in Englishtown, NJ and I had just come home during the semester breaks.

This past week watching George Floyd being killed by white police officers while other police officers stood by and condoned his actions was sickening. What is sad is this has been played out over and over throughout my life.

I see people constantly treating people of color unjustly. The lady in Central Park treats a man based on the color of his skin alone with such disdain.

I think the response of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his op-ed piece in the LATimes is good.

Too many people are not realizing how not just the George Floyd case isn’t fueling this civil unrest. The COVID-19 Pandemic has opened up many wounds in the African American community. Do you remember the Brown vs Board of Education?

Children were not equal when it came to staying home and going online to do school work. Many don’t have computers or internet connections.

Without the schools, many of our children go hungry because they no longer get the meals through the school they desperately need. Why? Not because their parents don’t work, but because their employers pay them so little that no one can feed their family and put a roof over their head with these wages.

Then think of all the people who are working from home. Sadly there are many whose work cannot be done from home. This is hitting the minority communities the most.

This is where those of privilege have blinders. They fail to see how they got into a college not based on their grades alone, but because of legacy. A study of thirty elite colleges found that primary legacy students are an astonishing 45% more likely to get into a highly selective college or university than a non-legacy. Secondary legacies receive a lesser pick-me-up of 13%. [Article]

How do we fix this?

I do not hold the silver bullet that will answer this question. I can only say I can see some things we can do that could help.

• Open your homes – the eleven o’clock hour on Sunday morning in America has been called the most segregated time in America. We cannot just learn to work with people of different races. We need to truly create all-inclusive communities. This means we need to invite our co-workers and neighbors into our homes and build friendships.
• Get out of your comfort zone – Say yes to opportunities in your community. Volunteer for a Habitat for Humanity Build. Be intentional that you are looking for ways to move beyond your homogeneous circle.
• Challenge your Faith Community – See if your faith community could find another different faith community and do activities together to get to know each other. My church Roswell Presbyterian Church did a Race Reconciliation project where we were paired up with another socio-economic similar church that was African American. So we were mainly just different in skin tone and not economically. That was eye-opening for so many.

Steve Hixon and I talked a lot through college and this past year before he died, we talked by phone for a couple of hours. We were catching up, but the conversation went to our passions–helping people and our society. Steve didn’t have all the same opportunities that I had growing up. He was treated differently due to his skin color. I was also treated differently. If you don’t remember being refused anything due to your skin color, good chance you were experiencing privilege.

Steve realized we all needed to work together to overcome our past.

I believe tolerance and understanding are intertwined in the path toward human progress.

Let’s not let all the rioting make all of the white community uppity. Not much has changed since Steve Hixon, my college roommate, challenged me that I wouldn’t be welcomed into my home.

We must do as Keisha Lance Bottoms and Police Chief Erika Shields did on Sunday. They realized they cannot let justice be handled in the same way when it came to the night before when officers pulled two college students from their car on live TV and tased the male and roughed up the female student. They put everything else aside and reviewed all the body cameras from that event and moved swiftly and fired two of the officers. They put the others involved on desk duty for the time being.

Atlanta mayor: Two police officers fired over excessive use of force during George Floyd protest

It is time for action not more research on racism. I think Michael Jackson’s video Man in the Mirror hits perfectly.

“I am starting with the man in the mirror.”

– Michael Jacson

Okay people I need advice: Camera A or Camera B?

This type of question is asked over and over and over in every photography group I have been a part of in my entire life.

For all who continue to ask for advice, here is my response:

More Information

You need to give us more information or the advice you get will show you that those offering their advice know as little as you about it.

They make different cameras for many reasons.

1) Price drives so many people’s purchases that they make cameras stripped down to cater to those who price is the most important issue. If you have a budget range you need to stay in that is always helpful to know. There is the Best and then there is the Best you can afford.

2) What type of photography are you doing?
* Landscapes
* Headshots
* Events
* Sports
* Astronomy

3) How will the photos be used? This impacts the size of the sensor.
* Huge Prints
* Web

4) Available light or strobes? This also affects the type of sensor you need in the camera.

5) Do you need video capabilities?

These are just some of the many, many more things one considers when buying gear.

For example if you are doing headshots, the odds are high you will be using strobes. You don’t need a camera with high ISO and can get by with a much cheaper camera.

If you are shooting sports you need a camera with large buffer and frame shooting rate.

Anytime you ask for advice it is always best to tell us what you are primarily purchasing the equipment to shoot. The tell us where the photos are used. If you do this then the advice will be better for you.

Okay people I need advice: Lens A, Lens B or Lens C?

See advice above!

I am learning something new every time I use this software. It is packed with so many features. Personally I think it is ready, but I don’t have the inside scoop or all the possible things it does that might still be glitchy. For me it is awesome.

391864 is the total number of images I have put into the database of the program. Remember it is basically Photo Mechanic 6 + the database.

You can add the images when you ingest your cards into the database by just clicking the Auto Catalog option on the ingest screen. I am not doing this, because I am really only interested in a catalogue of the JPEGs that I have processed.

I just select all the JPEGs after exporting them from Lightroom and right click for this menu to add them to the catalogue. As you can see you can also remove them just as simply this way.

The reminder still pops up to let you know this is a beta version. I hope it comes out soon.

Like I mentioned last time the left pane looks the same with the addition of the Folder and Catalog tabs. Here I am in the Photo Mechanic 6 folders and basically not much different than what you are used to using.

In the catalog you can click on filter and then new and you will see this pop up as the default. I changed from rating to all the other ones and tested some of them. Works great.

I chose date created and got this menu. So you can find things easily by year, month and day by drilling down.

You can also get to similar searches through the browse tab on the side.

This is great for those who just want to drill down by different methods.

If you rate by colors you can see all those you have in a catalog that are rated any color. The same for number rating.

I think this is a great way to find your best work.

When you find photos they will appear the same as they do in Photo Mechanic 6 with one exception. There is a circle in the bottom next to the file name. If it is empty as here, you can see the image, but the image is offline.

If it is green, then the image is online and you can do more than just see it, you have access to the original image.

This one feature is what I think takes a while for images to pop up. The database is checking to see if they are connected.

For the photographer who wants to find what they have created this is awesome tool. I will be buying it once it is available.

I think I would love to see this integrated with online galleries like PhotoShelter, Flickr, SmugMug and all the other software that are part of your uploading process with Photo Mechanic 6. What I would love to see is maybe another circle or something that lets you know if you have this online for others to see.

I am just ready for the software to be permanently on my computer and no longer a Beta Version.

Sibling Red Shouldered Hawk is nesting in our Backyard in Roswell, Georgia. [NIKON Z 6, Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM Sports + Sigma 2.0x Teleconverter TC-2001, Mode = Manual, ISO 5600, 1/1000, ƒ/8, (35mm = 550)]

Humanity has always been connected to animals around them. Many of us have pets we feel connected to for love and support.

“Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
    and spread its wings toward the south?

Job 39:26

Some Native American tribes’ traditions provide that each person is connected with nine different animals that will accompany him or her through life, acting as guides. Each animal is symbolic.

If you frequently see hawks in your life, it may be a call to see things from a higher perspective and focus on your observation skills. 

The Hawk is thought to represent a messenger, intuition, victory, healing, nobility, recollection, cleansing, visionary power, and guardianship.

Having a Red-Shouldered Hawk nest in our yard each year has been so much fun. Right now, during this Pandemic, it is a good distraction.

SEEING HAWKS OFTEN CAN MEAN …

• Hawks can easily reach incredible heights and touch the higher realms, heightening your spiritual awareness.
• Hawks soar high in the sky and can view life from this perspective. We need to look at the big picture and not get too wrapped up in the petty details. This might mean deepening our focus on the tasks at hand and not allowing ourselves to get distracted by the more minor details of life.
• Hawks represent leadership and taking the initiative. Hawks, take action. Maybe this is to remind us to take action.
• Hawks observe their area before taking action. You can study your situation thoroughly before making rash decisions, as every action has consequences.
• Hawks means that you are on the right path in life, and your spirit animal is there to ensure you keep on this path.

For Native Americans, hawks will show up when you need guidance from the universe and support from something beyond yourself. The hawk represents focus, strength, and poise and can show you your hidden abilities to lead yourself and others to a more positive outcome. Hawks can also help you to see the bigger picture and avoid getting caught up in the small details, so look to this powerful spirit animal the next time you need perspective on a particular situation.