My friend and fellow sports photographer, Stacy Revere, got an opportunity that most of us will never get. Stacy got to fly over the Deepwater Horizon, the site of the now infamous Gulf Oil Spill. Unless you live under a rock, you’re plenty aware of the situation that is effecting all of us in the Gulf Region. It’s bad. It’s sad. And, well……..I’m not going to get into it. Stacy showed me these shots today and I was amazed. I wanted to edit them so badly and he obliged. Thanks Stacy. I really just wanted to have something to do with them because they are so cool. Stop by Stacy’s site often!
**update** Before you read this post I want to state that it is not meant that you should NOT do YOUR work. This post is simply saying to stop shunning other photographers and start working together sometimes.
image property of duckduck collective
Creative people, especially photographers, that’s right, I’m talking to you….put down your ego! Why am I saying that? In the world of photography, as Chase Jarvis has posted on his site many many many many many many times, photographers very much do NOT like to share their work. Share their secrets. They share nothing. Work together? Hardly. I, myself, know only a couple photographers who have, or would, work together on projects. Why? What’s the problem? As Chase said, and myself and Henry McCoy have talked about in person, if photographers start working together and sharing ideas, the work will be SO much better.
Take Ruston, LA for example. There was some talk of the photographers that live there, the photographers moving back to Ruston and the photographers moving away from Ruston (North Louisiana as a whole). Someone said that some photographers were moving back to Ruston and the surrounding area. The photographer who this was told too was CLEARLY uncomfortable with this situation. Competition competition competition, was all I heard after this. Why competition? If you can’t adapted to who is around you and make your work stand out from the rest, should you be a full time creative? I meant to say ‘creative’ there, because this applies to all aspects of creativity. Why would you be scared to have someone in the same city or region as you? You should embrace that and let it push you to the limit of your imagination. Anyway, I stray…
…with all this being said I want to talk about something I found this morning online. I found a group of photographers and videographers (creatives) online that not only share their work with each other…..THEY WORK TOGETHER! **queue brain melt**. The group calls themselves the ‘DuckDuck Collective‘ and they, from what I can tell, are out of Virginia. When I was digging through their site, I was simply blown away. The photography, video work and even design work is simply amazing. They shoot everything from high end video ads and other videos, to photography for ads and even weddings. That’s right, weddings. I want everyone to look at this work. All of it. Look at how amazing it is and then think about what it would be like if you got together with some of your creative friends and colleagues and teamed up. Stop whining about competition and who is around you and maybe reach out to them. Reach out to the world around you and make better work instead of YOUR work. Just an idea. Get off your pedestal.
With web traffic where it is, I want to take this time to do a quick shameless plug for myself. Hire me for your commercial, sports and portrait photography needs. Even graphic design. As Chase Jarvis says, I’m born and bred to create art, and I would like nothing more than to do it for you. So feel free to contact me at info@mattlange.com for any licensing, pricing or availability questions. And as always, thank you for stopping by and viewing my work and reading my thoughts.
Well, almost. I’ve found the next subject in my interview series. I have to get some interesting new questions together so SHE can answer them. Here is a hint. Very talented photographer from North Louisiana that, so far, is flying a bit under the radar. Any guesses?
