Adorama Rocks! Lens and Learn just got a big shot in the arm!

Hey all ...

Buy camera gear from Adorama. Heck, get prints from them too! Pictage needed a partner to make equipment more accessible as we've had demand from Boys and Girls Clubs around the country. I reached out to everyone I could think of and then someone reached out to Adorama on our behalf. Joel Meisel (twitter @adoramaused) and I met in NYC. He came to the UberPug we did there with Joe Buissink and then I met with he and Brian Green, their VP of Marketing the next day at Adorama. They were able to do a deal for us on the cameras that made it possible for us to just go ahead and buy the 20 we needed. We're looking for a road case and some other gear, but this will mean that we can take our Lens and Learn program across the country, essentially anywhere there is a Boys and Girls Club that wants to do it and anywhere there are photographers who can help. (which in my experience is just about everywhere!).

We'll also be using these cameras for other functions involving teaching disadvantaged folks how to use them in fun and rewarding ways. While we were prepared to go it alone, it is a real thrill to have a partner like Adorama. These guys are the real deal.

Twitter thanks to them @adorama! They deserve a real pat on the back!

Thanks so much!

JC

Inspiration at Ground Zero for America's Economic Condition

This is all Joe Buissink’s fault. I don’t know if you all remember, but way back in February or early March Joe twittered that he wanted to do a free seminar to give back to the photography community he loves so much. I was at my desk early and I saw the tweet go by. I thought - ok - this will be interesting. Within minutes he had requests from people all over the country. I think it was a shock to Joe. (which is why we love him so much). When I called him later that day he had settled on Detroit and he’d called some friends, including me, to see if we’d pitch in. How could we not.

So I arrived in Detroit yesterday afternoon, picked up my rental car and came to my hotel in the New Center area of Detroit. Directly across the street from GM’s old head quarters, “The Cadillac Building,” and down the street from Henry Ford Hospital. Fellow Pictage Employee, and Community Chief, Scott Anderson picked me up at the hotel so we could drive downtown to the Detroit Institute of Arts (built and funded entirely by the Ford family in the 20’s and an architectural wonder to behold) where “GetCandidDetroit” will take place later today.

On the way downtown it started to sink in. There was something strange about the landscape. It’s a big city, but it didn’t feel like it should. It took a while, but then I noticed it and it registered. There is no one here. The buildings are boarded up. Many buildings are quite literally windowless. Not ramshackle streetside huts or single family residences, although I’m sure they are too. 25 or 30 story apartment buildings, empty to the concrete core, loom over deserted streets. On one, hauntingly, a “Move in Free” banner, probably hung ten years ago, sways in the beautiful afternoon breeze. Welcome to Detroit, ground zero for America’s current economic condition.

Even more hauntingly, in the middle of downtown at 5PM there is no traffic. No signs that a city’s lifeblood of commerce runs through its veins. GM’s new headquarters on the river is a towering complex, but those who work inside vacate the city when the days fade in evening light. It’s a lovely city and the architecture, and in particular the deco architecture is quite stunning. It’s a place you have to see, but if you see it now it’s going to haunt you.

The speakers, all deserved luminaries, Bambi Cantrell, Jim Garner, Ken Sklute and of course, Joe’s good friend Denis Reggie, arrived yesterday evening and we drove through downtown together for an epic meal at Detroit’s own Opus One and we all saw these things together and I think it had an impact on all of us. These folks are here on their own nickel. No one is paying them a dime. They aren’t selling anything. They aren’t promoting seminars or hocking products. They’re here to listen and to share and hopefully to provide a breath of much needed inspiration. They’re here because they care. They’re here because they’ve been a big part of building an industry that is different because it’s participants, even in the middle of competition are willing to help each other. They’re here because Joe called, but they’re also here because of who they are.

The price of admission for the attendees was a question. People who registered for the conference had to submit a question, something they wanted these people to answer. The questions themselves are a stark reminder of the challenges faced acutely here, but around the country as well. Over 7 hours today these folks will attempt to answer most of the questions we heard.

There’s one more thing about Detroit. There’s a warmth here and a friendliness that penetrates the veil. Every single person I’ve met, from the folks who run the Institute, to the folks at the restaurant and the hotel and even passersby on the street has said a friendly hello. They may mourn the passing of what was. They know the challenges. But somehow their spirit is there. They’re figuring it out. They’re moving forward. Frankly I’m not sure they even need our help, though they’ve indicated their gratefulness. Here’s the thing folks. There’s a lesson we can learn from them. If they can do it, in the middle of all of this. If they can pick themselves up and move forward and support each other and work toward a better tomorrow... Then we can too. What’s next is what’s important.

Onward.

Time for a change in the gulf.

“Please Mr. President, take over and make things better.” While I sympathize with this quote from another blog on the gulf oil spill, I have to say that the thought of the government stepping in is chilling to me at best. Why? Because the government stepped in on the Exxon Valdez disaster years ago and the Alaskan shores still bear too many sad reminders of what was then the worst oil related disaster in history. The government also stepped in to make things better in New Orleans after Katrina and one has only to drive a few minutes from the French Quarter to know that all is most definitely not better. There’s a better solution ... and it’s a workable one.

The government should step in and this disaster should be taken away from British Petroleum’s now financially failing hands, but the answer is not a full take over, it’s a blue ribbon commission that oversees a repair and recovery effort funded by all of the major US Oil Companies who drill off the coast. Over the last several years, while Americans have suffered through a painful financial collapse, petroleum sales revenues have created sickening profits on the part of the major oil companies. Each quarter we hear about the billions in profits these companies bank. To make us feel better they create beautiful mini-movie commercials to tell us that they’re exploring to find new clean energy sources or that they’re providing healthcare around the world. While I laud these efforts, I can’t help but see them as a little ironic in the face of one of the worst disasters an industry has ever perpetrated on the environment.

This is no longer BP’s problem. Sorry fellas. According to the ‘Journal’ you’re probably headed out of business because of what is happening here, but you yourselves said right from the start that you didn’t have the resources to deal with it. If out of business is where you go that’s fine with me, but I don’t see this as your problem anymore. This problem has rocked worldwide confidence in ALL oil companies. While you all may work hard to avoid mistakes, your history of dealing with it when you do isn’t great. In this case you need to step up, pool your resources and a share of your ENORMOUS profits (tax free if need be) to not just cap this leak, but invest in the years worth of rebuilding that will be necessary to make what you’ve ALL done here right. BP may have been leasing this platform, but if they hadn’t been one of the rest of you would have been and instead of pointing fingers and talking about a competitor’s irresponsibility it’d be your face on the evening news saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ and talking about how the latest fix didn’t work.

The people of the gulf coast have had a rocky few years, first from Katrina and now from this mess. Do I want Uncle Sam to fix it? No. He/She has enough on his hands at the moment and I’d rather not see my tax dollars pouring into solving a problem that the oil companies are much more likely to be able to fix. But would I feel just a little better about the rest of you if you stepped up, pooled resources, capped this leak, made sure the rest of the platforms are rigged with the proper fail safes, and then funded a grass roots effort among the very people who’ve been put out of work by this calamity to restore the gulf coast to it’s pristine, beauty? You bet I would and I wouldn’t even change the channel when the ads that say you’re doing that come on TV.

That’s my two cents.