A Rant, But With a Positive Twist

by Skip Cohen

Like most of you, I'm tired of dealing with the pandemic. It's the topic everywhere. Even commercials on TV have changed to a social distancing theme. One company after another wants to assure us we're all in this together...but the reality not everybody is!

All of us as an industry might be in it together, but the number of stupid people on the planet seems to be growing. I had some fun this morning and Googled "stupid things done during the pandemic." I found a treasure chest of gems at buzzfeed.com.

They shared 19 stupid things people have done or said. Here are two more of my favorites:

The Darwin Awards, year after year, have recognized stupidity. This year they should have a boatload of nominees, but I guess I want to go the other way. I want to get back to photography and business. There are a lot of good things happening with artists ​sharing ideas and creativity. ​

I'm putting a few of my favorites below:
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• When it comes to raising the bar on your skill set in lighting, check out this video featuring Bobbi Lane and Tony Corbell. They went through some of their favorite images and the lighting involved in each one. If you want to go straight to Bobbi and Tony's images, they start around 21:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcQ8ocJ8wso
• Steven Gotz shared a brilliant idea about turning images into coloring-book pages for your clients with young children. I love this one because it hits almost every specialty. https://www.skipcohenuniversity.com/scu-blog/a-great-shelter-in-place-project-for-photographers
• Just released yesterday, check out the new Tamron Recipes with Erik Valind. The link to the first part of his series is below, but in the new podcast, he talks about how he's gone back to past clients and their images. He's licensing usage rights for his commercial work, and the need for images hasn't slowed down. https://www.skipcohenuniversity.com/scu-blog/tamron-recipes-photography-with-erik-valind
• Todd White, a LUMIX Ambassador, worked with the Project Graduation in his community and put together a program to photograph seniors in their prom attire. "Porch-traits" created an opportunity to help recognize this year's graduates. https://www.skipcohenuniversity.com/scu-blog/photography-spotlight-todd-white-and-porch-traits
• J.P. Elario is doing online portraits, and the idea is brilliant. His Dad Joe and partner in Elario Photography wrote: "New twist on J.P.'s Pop up Portraits & they're waiting in (virtual) line both U.S. & Canada ." https://www.skipcohenuniversity.com/scu-blog/downtime-motivators-theres-so-much-help-available

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With Father's Day and graduation still in the timeline, there are so many opportunities to start getting back a small piece of your business as a photographer. There's no question it won't be easy, and business has changed, but many of you just need an encouraging first step to getting back on track...and this is where we are, all in it together.