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Where I don't usually let life and the fandom cross over...
14 years ago
Okay, so here's a <del>kind of</del> not at all concise synopsis of where I'm coming from and what I'm doing:
Prior to my car accident I was dead set and driven on leasing a studio space in a most bohemian art studio and open up with the business of glamour and light fetishist model photography. I opened up an account with Model Mayhem, had a quartet of girls ready to help me break in the space once I had it set up, things were in position to happen and it was exciting because I was going somewhere with my passion. Then the literal day before I would have signed the lease I had that little tango with the reaper and he was a shitty dancer so I said "fuck you" and he said "no bitch" and blah blah blah all that stuff. Point is, I didn't get the studio, and because my insurance has a pretty high out of pocket minimum I've been throwing most of my money at medical bills, leaving none available to make the studio viable in the short term. Whole thing bummed me out for a while, but that's okay, because then a couple nights ago I decided to try something else.
I've been keeping a public blog about my exploits in the world of photography and how the down and dirty of real life mixes in with it (photography is a pretty integral part of who I am if you couldn't tell). It's gotten a bit of attention that was never really intended, namely Olympus (the company whose cameras I use) cross posting my blog entries on their twitter feed because I write about their gear. It's successful in that it has developed a reader base, but it's missing the participation factor, and I want it to spark conversation. Some of that is due to the writing I'm sure, but it's also due to the tendency toward silence of the majority of small audiences - I need to conjure a crowd and hope there's one outspoken fellow to break the ice and spark the conversation.
In stark contrast, my gallery on Flickr which hosts my photography receives super-massive amounts of traffic, referred to by such sites as The Inspiration Blog and Base Digital Photography (as well as managing to get me published in books). It's flattering and outright awesome to have my visual media so well regarded, but I would like to somehow introduce the content of the blog or maybe even a more specific theme of writing to accompany the images I produce. It's not enough to me to just have a well received gallery of images. There's a greater idea I want to bring attention to. Something I want realized.
A couple nights ago, in a fit of boredom, I started mucking around making a banner for the blog, something simple and direct. I started fooling with type, combining it, editing it, making it more than just standalone letters. Making them an image. And it sort of clicked in one of those stereotypical epiphany moments. Before my accident, I was seeking to make a business. I had a list of clients lined up, an "office", all the monetary and physical basics of a straightforward business lined up. But there was something missing, something that money couldn't buy and that I simply hadn't given thought to yet. Having the resources to run a business is one thing, like a person with a camera has the resources to take a picture. But if the story stops there, then after the picture is taken, the person is forgotten. There is no face to the act, no telling friends, it's done and gone from thought. Tapping into my subconscious recollection of my time spent studying graphic design in college, the crucial element I neglected slapped me in the face like a slimy wet fish. A brand. A logo. A recognizable, stylized name that appealed to the intended audience of the material. And so I designed a logo, and it was good. But it was only good to me. There was another part missing. Marketing.
So I went on the war path. I came up with a logo to go along with the name. I tied the blog into my Flickr account, and then tied them both to a Facebook page made specifically to market the brand I had created. To make life easier for the mobile user, I ever burned the blog into an RSS feed. And to pump up awareness of this brand I allocated funds to Facebook to advertise the page and thus my gallery and blog. Like some wickedly wonderful trifecta, the traffic of any one source links to the other two, and each source reaches a completely different audience. And so this is how I'm developing my own kind of brand awareness, with a Facebook page to cater to an audience of my peers and whatever traffic the ads pull up, a blog to serve as my forum for thought and hopefully spark critical thought in the audience pulled in by reference from other photography resources, and a Flickr gallery serving both as my portfolio and the ultimate destination for those interested in the "product" of my brand. It's all quite lovely.
I know I am going to lease my own studio space in the future. As soon as my medical bills are 100% dealt with (likely when a settlement is reached in my case to fund my medical needs in the future) I WILL lease my studio. And once that studio is mine, I will reach out to the modeling crowd again and invite them to collaborate with my business to our mutual benefit. But until then, I will not be able to pursue that pedigree, and will continue most enthusiastically with my avid portrayal of Western decay. And there is no reason that I should not create some kind of brand recognition in that direction, as even when I am photographing models in the studio, I will still be photographing rust on the pipes, and if the rapport I can build with those models peaks on the positive, there's no doubt that we would take the shooting to the rotten asbestos jungle. But for now, I will play a good little participant in Web 2.0 and continue on with my "free" content in the hopes that the recognition it achieves leads to greater opportunities in the future.
Put simply, I want to reach more people and I want discourse to blossom with and among them, because it is never enough to simply have what you know - it is critical to have those who you know.
Now, those paying attention probably read the title before reading the rest. Much as I never used to post my photography here on FurAffinity, I never much intended to elaborate on my idealistic little business plan either. Though a large base of my friends are furry, though furry is a pretty critical element of my personal life, my photography pursuits have always been something I've mostly separate. Not necessarily for fear of awkward posters or immature interactions suddenly plaguing my blog, not even because I feel the need to hide my chosen status as a furry from any supposedly sensitive individuals (my parents, my friends, my coworkers, my BOSS know about the furry thing and know I'm a part of it and it's not even a topic of contention). I have a natural tendency to segment my life into manageable categories, and I don't often allow the two to mix because it's easier to protect oneself from fallout if one division should somehow rupture. My FA page used to be host to nothing but old drawing I'd done in past years and I saw no need to incorporate my photography into it when photography is typically off-topic from furry anyway. But, seeing as FA has become more and more of another sort of DA with a targeted user base, I began letting choice photos slip in. You've all received my work very well, and very much flatter me with your compliments, especially from those in the face of whose work I am humbled. And although I am likely to continue to publish choice works on this site to share with this niche but artistically enlightened crowd, I have decided that I would like to extend the invitation to those following me to participate in the current marketing experiment that is my newly assumed moniker - Kneejerk Imagery.
There are three areas that are the core focus of participation:
The Blog: http://kneejerkimagery.blogspot.com/
The Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kneej.....97795970252330
The Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/studioseiko/
There's also the burned RSS feed on http://feeds.feedburner.com/KneejerkImagery but I'm not too savvy with RSS yet and thus it is still a veritable work in progress.
The blog is the canvas laden with words for my general thoughts and musings. It's primarily intended to focus on concepts and experiences while crafting an image (though lately I've drifted off topic into bringing up personal matters more than once). At the moment, it is the primary focus of this brand, intending to summon discussion on matters of image manipulation, photographic technique, marketing and business strategy as related to the imaging industry, and of course the occasional gear review (but I'm no Ken Rockwell so those will probably be sparse).
The Facebook page is simply an avenue to grasp the general idea behind Kneejerk and to redirect into the blog. I will also make random blurb posts to the wall of that page in regards to gear or intended pursuits and shoots. It is not particularly necessary to the goal of Kneejerk, but the fact remains that it is among the best, most direct avenues to keep users abreast of updates and serves as a stellar marketing tool.
The Flickr gallery is the host of my photography, the real material, the meat of my business. It is the art I produce, the direction of my eye, the catalog of my adventures. Though I will post specific material to FA, there will always be legions of more images to enjoy within the Flickr gallery. And if the reception is at all akin to what my photography has received here, I will take the time right now to thank you all preemptively.
And so that's all, really. Some of you may question why I felt the need to elaborate so heavily on this whole thing considering it's not actually half as big a deal as the preceding paragraphs might try to make it out to be. I simply wanted to share the fundamental driving factors behind my intent to drive Kneejerk as a brand before a business. Though this isn't my first time planning the pursuit of a recognizable business, this is the first time the drive to realize it has been accompanied with this kind of clarity and, most notably, been resilient enough to endure a major setback yet still be a motivating enough concept to pursue. More so, the entire logic behind Kneejerk is less about the bland, direct construction of a business and more the effort to commodify myself and my work in a marketable fashion that may be seen by some unknown other(s) as having value. Yes, this is the selfish, selfish attempt I aim to play to effectively SELL myself. I can't lie, can't deny it, no matter how it is approached or seen that is the undeniable ultimate goal. And if you've read this far, I hope you can understand my interest in doing such a thing as being benign and genuine. I don't NEED to cater to my friends here to morph myself into some kind of fame monster. That kind of intoxicating attention has already shown at my doorstep and I've addressed it as sensibly, as responsibly as I could. I am not trying to whore out furrydom for attention. I am coming forth, with my plans and intentions laid out in very frank and transparent fashion, to humbly request that those who read this and think they may have some level of interest in yet another blog from yet another photographer please read my entries, think critically on what I had to say, and make meaningful comments that urge others with their own ideas and opinions to reply, creating a real environment for higher thought on the topic at hand.
So before I lose myself in another diatribe, I will close off this journal. Thank you if you've even had the patience to get this far as I have a terrible habit of rudely slapping people with an almost trademark Wall of Words. I do have one more request, however - knowing that some of you who may read this are versed in business, branding and/or design, if you have a point or suggestion you would like to make, I would love to indulge in the idea in the comments of this journal.
One last hurrah - thank you.
Prior to my car accident I was dead set and driven on leasing a studio space in a most bohemian art studio and open up with the business of glamour and light fetishist model photography. I opened up an account with Model Mayhem, had a quartet of girls ready to help me break in the space once I had it set up, things were in position to happen and it was exciting because I was going somewhere with my passion. Then the literal day before I would have signed the lease I had that little tango with the reaper and he was a shitty dancer so I said "fuck you" and he said "no bitch" and blah blah blah all that stuff. Point is, I didn't get the studio, and because my insurance has a pretty high out of pocket minimum I've been throwing most of my money at medical bills, leaving none available to make the studio viable in the short term. Whole thing bummed me out for a while, but that's okay, because then a couple nights ago I decided to try something else.
I've been keeping a public blog about my exploits in the world of photography and how the down and dirty of real life mixes in with it (photography is a pretty integral part of who I am if you couldn't tell). It's gotten a bit of attention that was never really intended, namely Olympus (the company whose cameras I use) cross posting my blog entries on their twitter feed because I write about their gear. It's successful in that it has developed a reader base, but it's missing the participation factor, and I want it to spark conversation. Some of that is due to the writing I'm sure, but it's also due to the tendency toward silence of the majority of small audiences - I need to conjure a crowd and hope there's one outspoken fellow to break the ice and spark the conversation.
In stark contrast, my gallery on Flickr which hosts my photography receives super-massive amounts of traffic, referred to by such sites as The Inspiration Blog and Base Digital Photography (as well as managing to get me published in books). It's flattering and outright awesome to have my visual media so well regarded, but I would like to somehow introduce the content of the blog or maybe even a more specific theme of writing to accompany the images I produce. It's not enough to me to just have a well received gallery of images. There's a greater idea I want to bring attention to. Something I want realized.
A couple nights ago, in a fit of boredom, I started mucking around making a banner for the blog, something simple and direct. I started fooling with type, combining it, editing it, making it more than just standalone letters. Making them an image. And it sort of clicked in one of those stereotypical epiphany moments. Before my accident, I was seeking to make a business. I had a list of clients lined up, an "office", all the monetary and physical basics of a straightforward business lined up. But there was something missing, something that money couldn't buy and that I simply hadn't given thought to yet. Having the resources to run a business is one thing, like a person with a camera has the resources to take a picture. But if the story stops there, then after the picture is taken, the person is forgotten. There is no face to the act, no telling friends, it's done and gone from thought. Tapping into my subconscious recollection of my time spent studying graphic design in college, the crucial element I neglected slapped me in the face like a slimy wet fish. A brand. A logo. A recognizable, stylized name that appealed to the intended audience of the material. And so I designed a logo, and it was good. But it was only good to me. There was another part missing. Marketing.
So I went on the war path. I came up with a logo to go along with the name. I tied the blog into my Flickr account, and then tied them both to a Facebook page made specifically to market the brand I had created. To make life easier for the mobile user, I ever burned the blog into an RSS feed. And to pump up awareness of this brand I allocated funds to Facebook to advertise the page and thus my gallery and blog. Like some wickedly wonderful trifecta, the traffic of any one source links to the other two, and each source reaches a completely different audience. And so this is how I'm developing my own kind of brand awareness, with a Facebook page to cater to an audience of my peers and whatever traffic the ads pull up, a blog to serve as my forum for thought and hopefully spark critical thought in the audience pulled in by reference from other photography resources, and a Flickr gallery serving both as my portfolio and the ultimate destination for those interested in the "product" of my brand. It's all quite lovely.
I know I am going to lease my own studio space in the future. As soon as my medical bills are 100% dealt with (likely when a settlement is reached in my case to fund my medical needs in the future) I WILL lease my studio. And once that studio is mine, I will reach out to the modeling crowd again and invite them to collaborate with my business to our mutual benefit. But until then, I will not be able to pursue that pedigree, and will continue most enthusiastically with my avid portrayal of Western decay. And there is no reason that I should not create some kind of brand recognition in that direction, as even when I am photographing models in the studio, I will still be photographing rust on the pipes, and if the rapport I can build with those models peaks on the positive, there's no doubt that we would take the shooting to the rotten asbestos jungle. But for now, I will play a good little participant in Web 2.0 and continue on with my "free" content in the hopes that the recognition it achieves leads to greater opportunities in the future.
Put simply, I want to reach more people and I want discourse to blossom with and among them, because it is never enough to simply have what you know - it is critical to have those who you know.
Now, those paying attention probably read the title before reading the rest. Much as I never used to post my photography here on FurAffinity, I never much intended to elaborate on my idealistic little business plan either. Though a large base of my friends are furry, though furry is a pretty critical element of my personal life, my photography pursuits have always been something I've mostly separate. Not necessarily for fear of awkward posters or immature interactions suddenly plaguing my blog, not even because I feel the need to hide my chosen status as a furry from any supposedly sensitive individuals (my parents, my friends, my coworkers, my BOSS know about the furry thing and know I'm a part of it and it's not even a topic of contention). I have a natural tendency to segment my life into manageable categories, and I don't often allow the two to mix because it's easier to protect oneself from fallout if one division should somehow rupture. My FA page used to be host to nothing but old drawing I'd done in past years and I saw no need to incorporate my photography into it when photography is typically off-topic from furry anyway. But, seeing as FA has become more and more of another sort of DA with a targeted user base, I began letting choice photos slip in. You've all received my work very well, and very much flatter me with your compliments, especially from those in the face of whose work I am humbled. And although I am likely to continue to publish choice works on this site to share with this niche but artistically enlightened crowd, I have decided that I would like to extend the invitation to those following me to participate in the current marketing experiment that is my newly assumed moniker - Kneejerk Imagery.
There are three areas that are the core focus of participation:
The Blog: http://kneejerkimagery.blogspot.com/
The Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kneej.....97795970252330
The Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/studioseiko/
There's also the burned RSS feed on http://feeds.feedburner.com/KneejerkImagery but I'm not too savvy with RSS yet and thus it is still a veritable work in progress.
The blog is the canvas laden with words for my general thoughts and musings. It's primarily intended to focus on concepts and experiences while crafting an image (though lately I've drifted off topic into bringing up personal matters more than once). At the moment, it is the primary focus of this brand, intending to summon discussion on matters of image manipulation, photographic technique, marketing and business strategy as related to the imaging industry, and of course the occasional gear review (but I'm no Ken Rockwell so those will probably be sparse).
The Facebook page is simply an avenue to grasp the general idea behind Kneejerk and to redirect into the blog. I will also make random blurb posts to the wall of that page in regards to gear or intended pursuits and shoots. It is not particularly necessary to the goal of Kneejerk, but the fact remains that it is among the best, most direct avenues to keep users abreast of updates and serves as a stellar marketing tool.
The Flickr gallery is the host of my photography, the real material, the meat of my business. It is the art I produce, the direction of my eye, the catalog of my adventures. Though I will post specific material to FA, there will always be legions of more images to enjoy within the Flickr gallery. And if the reception is at all akin to what my photography has received here, I will take the time right now to thank you all preemptively.
And so that's all, really. Some of you may question why I felt the need to elaborate so heavily on this whole thing considering it's not actually half as big a deal as the preceding paragraphs might try to make it out to be. I simply wanted to share the fundamental driving factors behind my intent to drive Kneejerk as a brand before a business. Though this isn't my first time planning the pursuit of a recognizable business, this is the first time the drive to realize it has been accompanied with this kind of clarity and, most notably, been resilient enough to endure a major setback yet still be a motivating enough concept to pursue. More so, the entire logic behind Kneejerk is less about the bland, direct construction of a business and more the effort to commodify myself and my work in a marketable fashion that may be seen by some unknown other(s) as having value. Yes, this is the selfish, selfish attempt I aim to play to effectively SELL myself. I can't lie, can't deny it, no matter how it is approached or seen that is the undeniable ultimate goal. And if you've read this far, I hope you can understand my interest in doing such a thing as being benign and genuine. I don't NEED to cater to my friends here to morph myself into some kind of fame monster. That kind of intoxicating attention has already shown at my doorstep and I've addressed it as sensibly, as responsibly as I could. I am not trying to whore out furrydom for attention. I am coming forth, with my plans and intentions laid out in very frank and transparent fashion, to humbly request that those who read this and think they may have some level of interest in yet another blog from yet another photographer please read my entries, think critically on what I had to say, and make meaningful comments that urge others with their own ideas and opinions to reply, creating a real environment for higher thought on the topic at hand.
So before I lose myself in another diatribe, I will close off this journal. Thank you if you've even had the patience to get this far as I have a terrible habit of rudely slapping people with an almost trademark Wall of Words. I do have one more request, however - knowing that some of you who may read this are versed in business, branding and/or design, if you have a point or suggestion you would like to make, I would love to indulge in the idea in the comments of this journal.
One last hurrah - thank you.
Congrats on the clarity! To be able to further look into your photographic world, especially your Flickr, is very awesome.
I wish I could give more than that, but I don't know a thing about business, branding or design (even though I'm dating a graphic designer, go figure). Definitely appreciate you sharing your photography through other means though, it's always great to see your work!
Thank you, by the way, because you seem to have come out of nowhere with the comments and I appreciate them greatly. You're a talented artist yourself, with a style of work that's pretty much right up my alley, and it's kind of cool that we can appreciate each other for our pursuits in different mediums. :)