Nate Ludens • Creative Communications

If you’re in the creative industry, (unless you live under a rock) you have probably noticed in the last few years or so, most professional Graphic Designers have successfully adpoted the use of quality photography and the way it is utilized in advertising. We rarely see low-resolution photos in print anymore, and more often than not, the images are using correct exposure and beautiful depth of field, therefore lending great imagery to commercial projects.  Now, I’m issuing a challenge on behalf of designers: Photographers, its time to raise your design game.

This is the week the WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers) Convention comes here to Vegas. It’s always a great show.  On behalf of my city, I’d like to welcome some of the best photographic talent in the world.

I have attended the last 3 or 4 WPPI conventions, and it’s clear that my email and mailing address has been cycled through several mailing lists.  Let me tell you – there’s something awry with much of this massive load of photo-promotions. It’s not just email marketing, either. Many of the trade publications, sites, signage, and mail pieces, too. Most of it’s really, really poor.

Look, typography is a science in itself, so don’t be surprised to learn that cute font that came with your wife’s Dell just doesn’t cut it. While you were in the darkroom, Designers were in their second semester of color theory. Look at the “big guys” at the trade show. They have beautiful booklets, great logos and packed booths. Not a coincidence.

Investing in porfessional design shouldn’t be hard to grasp for shutterbugs. And its certainly not meant to sound condescending or offensive. All of us creatives need to check our egos and take a critique from time to time. The experienced Designer’s mantra is identical to yours, Photographers: when your clients hire true, experienced professionals, they get top-notch results. Designers carry the same responsibilities as Photographers, too. Deliver results on behalf of your client, or your phone may not ring again for awhile. In this, the era of facebook and twitter… word gets out about poor service in a short moment.

I’m as aware as anyone of the financial challenges both industries face, so my advice is this: Buddy up. Professional photographers should seek partnerships with Professional Designers and vice versa.  Build it in the budget. Find a way. Work out trade deals, retainers, industry-rates…  hell, issue frequent flyer miles if you have to!

This week, I was graciously invited to be the co-manager for the Las Vegas Photoshop & Print Users Group, or, VegasPUG. What’s that, you say?

“Vegas PUG exists to introduce or reacquaint  people with Adobe’s powerful desktop and web applications for Print design. Our meetings are structured in “show-and-do” lab format, giving attendees an immediate opportunity to put what they’re learning to use right away as well as tapping into the knowledge of our PUG Xperts as they roam the room answering questions and providing individual instruction where needed. Quarterly advanced labs will give seasoned users an opportunity to expand their skills or to share a technique with the group. Meetings are held monthly and are free for members”.

I’m excited to connect with this new community (I’m a community type of guy) and share some of my tricks with Photoshop and all things Adobe (big fan).

Over the next few weeks I’ll have some more news about upcoming programs and – who knows – maybe some other really exciting stuff to share.

Here’s a link to the group page on Adobe’s group pages. Currently there are 59 members. Are you one?

Be smart about Social Networking. It’s a concept that some people aren’t familiar with.

Go where your clients are. i.e. if they’re on Facebook, be on Facebook. Don’t just “keep up with the Joneses” – find new, innovative ways to utilize these social tools. Be creative! Don’t just have a MySpace page for your business just to have one. I used MySpace to find models for photo sessions, Facebook to invite people to events, Twitter to tell someone your plane is delayed. (Side note: I used to think “who gives a shit if you’re stuck in traffic or going to lunch?” when I saw someone’s tweet. Now I get it. Hey – Social Media is all opt-in, after all).

Old-School businesspeople are up in arms (it seems) about “Is it making you money?” You will never see a dollar = time ROI from Social Media. It’s ridiculous to expect one. Just as it’s ridiculous to expect every person who sees your billboard to buy your product. It’s different in that you can engage your clientele like a billboard never could – so engage. Or get the hell off Facebook and concentrate on updating your company website or design some new business cards or something. Lots of creatives use Social Networking in brilliant ways (proofs, feedback, events, tips, etc.)

Oh, and it’s FREE.

*Part of this post was originally content from my comment on this blog post by FreelanceSwitch. FreelanceSwitch is The Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Resource for Freelancers. If you don’t subscribe, you should. Go there now. Thank me later.

I read an outstanding article on Rob Hahn’s blog today telling us why social media might be all hype. It was excellent. Please feel free to go read it and come back here when you finish. On the same note: while attending Blogworld Expo last week, I attended more than one course focused on trying to make sense out of this phenomenon – is social media a fad, a.k.a “all hype?” Or, is it legit. Is there a return on investment – and how do we profit? After a few weeks of swimming in social media, I wanted to share my conclusion: It’s not all hype. It’s just an over-analyzed, tech-driven revolution.

Social media’s popularity has grown side by side with society’s intolerance for bullshitters. We want to trust authority, but we just can’t. Its high time for a revolution in reliable messaging.

I don’t need to tell you how badly Americans have been bullshitted into this current economic depression. You already work harder than ever for less return. You pay more taxes than ever, and have very little influence on anything remotely democratic through “trusted” traditional arenas. (Election recount, anyone?). So we use our computers and social media as our collective voice. Obama won the last Presidential election in large part by trusting a young visionary who took a leave of absence from his other job – at Facebook. (Brilliant, in my humble opinion). Sarah Palin’s doing it now, too, so says Mr Hahn’s blog post. John McCain has 1.5 Million Twitter followers! Read that again. It’s kind of funny to see an old war vet politician tweeting. Still, that’s one beauty of social media – everyone’s finally created equal.

Social sites are shifting retail like crazy because consumers don’t want crap! We prefer quality, but we don’t trust advertising bullshitters because we don’t have much money and we need to stretch our dollar (due to the afore-mentioned political bullshitters), so we read User-Generated Content (UGC) like product reviews and ratings. There’s bullshitters there, too – but for some reason, it’s more genuine, as a whole, to read these reviews. (There’s numbers to prove this stuff if you want them, go to YouTube and Search “socialnomics.”)

These are a couple examples of the allure of SM and how it drives technology. There’s countless others: newspapers, magazines, sports, renting movies, real estate, the classified ads, ordering a pizza, porn (the pioneers, probably) and the ten o’clock news.

Middlemen are an endangered species because of social media. They’re synonymous with bullshitters, to me, in most cases. Middlemen get in the way, they can filter the truth, add cost, and frankly, they just slow us down.

The new consumer wants it now, and if you tell us that we can’t have it now – we’ll control-alt-delete your ass and find a way to get it directly and immediately. It = everything.

In summary, there’s no way in hell this is all hype.

Congrats to my friend and favorite Photographer’s Assistant, Ally, on the launch of her new portfolio website:  http://www.alessandraavellanet.com/

Ally helped me with multiple sessions in recent years and I’m thrilled to see her doing well as a very talented makeup artist in LA. If you need someone who is skilled, savvy and has a great time on set with the talent, call and book Allessandra Avellanet.

Cheers Ally!

Recently, my work has shifted into a more fun speed – as you can probably tell from the new tone of this site (thanks for all of the kind words, by the way, to those who are enjoying the more laid-back style) and this winter is going to be a fun one…

There will be some updates in the coming weeks about upcoming action sports events, new apparel designs hitting the streets, as always – concert coverage, special events and other exciting adventures.

This is going to be a fun Fall and Winter season. And, from the looks of this story, it’s coming quick.

This is a sweet machine, and I hate to get rid of it, but I have opted to keep my Mac Pro Dual 3GHz instead.

If you, or someone you know is in the market for a slightly-used iMac with 2GB RAM, please send me an email and I’ll get you the details. I will reformat it so its brand new OSX will be as if you just opened the box.

you can DM me on twitter @natevegas, or email me at info -at- blackdiamonddigital.com.

Thanks!

Dear Adobe: I’ve been furious to the point that I’m sick to my stomach today because of this technical glitch DISASTER with Lightroom 2.4 and CR2 raw files. I recently upgraded to 2.4, and I wish I didn’t.

Though I take the responsibility for not making immediate CD copies of these files, I was holding for an order from the client, and moved on to other projects. There were 343 CR2 images, and now I can use about 5 of them.

I have posted questions and images below. Please – someone give me an answer?

1. Why were these files mysteriously moved to the trash?

2. Why were these files corrupted?

3. Why can I preview in Bridge, but the data is corrupted when I open the file?

4. How can I prevent this and tell others to do the same?

5. When can I stop feeling like puking?

Varaluz Lighting assignments are some of my favorite projects. There are always unique challenges when shooting lighting – reflections, lens flares, wires, prototype issues, etc. Here are a few samples of recent work that I shot for Varaluz. Check out their website and read their manifesto: “We stand for fun, approachability, and originality.”

Here are some samples from recent glamour assignments. They may or may not be “work safe.”

There are other samples on Model Mayhem. Click here to see those.