Trey’s Variety Hour #23: Wearable Cameras of the Future
Daniel Suarez (author of Daemon) joins me, Leo Laporte, Kevin Kelly, and Gordon Laing to talk about Augmented Reality, Drone Swarms, Cameras and Art in the Future, and much much more.
Facebook Subscribe and the New Timeline
My Facebook page has been getting more and more subscribers lately, so if I was unable to friend you because I hit the 5K limit, this Subscribe option will work out well for you. I also activated the new Timeline, but I notice not everyone has yet. Have you done it? I think it is kinda cool, even though I know there are a few FB-haters out there.
Daily Photo – The Old Market
I have another Disneyworld trip coming up, and I was reminded of this place. This is Epcot, one of the best spots for photography at sunset and into the evening.
This area makes me long to go to some of these places for real. It’s all so wonderfully fake around Disney, but that is nice in its own way. I have several more places in the Middle East to visit, and I hope to make that happen over the next few years. Before I actually decide on a place and land on the shores of Tripoli, I’ll be sure to blog about it!
Thanks again for all the recommendations! So many of you recommended that we visit Akaroa on our visit to New Zealand, and it was a great suggestion.
You can walk along and see most of the commercial part and the harbor in less than an hour. One end is a long dock where they launch a few ships per day. Just as I got out to the end, this sailboat was pulling away from the dock.
This photo came from a single RAW file. There was way too much movement to let me do a multiple exposure in this one.
Not yet on Google Schemer and want a free invite? Just click this invite link: goo.gl/RoxQg
The event is open to all skill levels. Even bring your mobile phone camera! And it’s also a family-friendly event, so feel free to bring your kids. See you soon!
Stuck on Earth Community Hangout
Last week we had a fun Stuck On Earth community hangout where we talked about new features as well as many other tips and tricks for using the app. We even had Zack, the community manager for Flickr, come join us!
Daily Photo – The River Wild
This is one of the rivers in Argentina that was uncrossable.
I really wanted to get to the other side because I knew there were some angles. I hiked up and down both sides trying to see if there was some way to make it happen, but it was just impossible. Oh well! It was a pretty walk if nothing else…
New eBook! 10 Photoshop Skills Everyone Should Know
Get it here now. A new one! I wrote this one for “Beginners and Beyond” because I know how intimidating Photoshop can be to people. It’s full of all kinds of useful stuff to make you more successful (and have more fun!) in Photoshop. Enjoy!
Daily Photo – Colorful Cambodia
Many of my Cambodia photos ended up going in more of the monochromatic direction. I like the black & white look + sepia treatments. They make it all seem sort of timeless and nice. But when I was processing this one, I decided to have the sunrise colors shine through.
I remember at this point in the morning, my lens was finally fog-free. This was a hard lesson to learn, but now I no longer go from AC environments to muggy outdoors in the same way. If I have to go through this situation, I normally keep my camera inside a big ziplock baggie, which ends up getting most of the condensation when I go back outside.
As this future becomes more and more plain to me, I see a rapture of sorts, where old-school photographers clinging to the old-fashioned ways of doing things will be “left behind.” So much of the irrational behavior and anger is usually based in fear (fear-of-change, specifically), but it doesn’t have to be that way.
When it comes to sharing your photographs online, you can go in two directions. You can put small images online, watermark them and then spend some or all of the week chasing down people that have used them inappropriately.
Or, you can be like me.
Offer up all your creations in maximum and beautiful resolution to the will of the web. The web, and the universe, has a certain flow to it. You can become one with that flow and enjoy the ride. You can let the opportunity of what-can-be motivate you rather than the more poisonous fear-of-loss.
Join Me on Pinterest
I’m at pinterest.com/treyratcliff/. I have boards with my stuff, places I’d like to visit, other favorite photographers, and design ideas. Link to yours in the comments if you want to share.
The Big Picture – The Now of Sharing
Sharing isn’t the future; it’s the now. Before we talk about Pinterest in particular, let’s discuss an overall digital sharing strategy. Forming a solid philosophical foundation will help keep you from feeling like you’re always flapping in the latest digital breeze.
A pure artist has two motivations: creation for the sake of creation and sharing for the sake of connecting with the world.
In this recent talk at Google, I talk about the importance of sharing as an artist. Skip ahead to 7:22 for my sharing strategy or 11:50 to hear about Creative Commons.
Sharing your artistic creation with one person is better than zero. Sharing your artistic creation with 20 people is better than 10. And so it goes. Furthermore, if you want people to see your work in all its glory, it needs to be available at maximum resolution with no watermark. This is my opinion. Personally, if I see an image with a watermark, oftentimes all I can think about is that annoying watermark. Maybe this is just me.
The Results of My Open Sharing
I’ve been doing this for over five years under the Creative Commons Noncommercial license, which means anyone can use my images for personal reasons such as blogs, wallpapers, etc., but they must contact us for commercial licensing. It has resulted in my images getting 100’s of millions of views in the past few years; and emerging in the last six months in Google+, where open sharing has helped me to get over 3 million followers. When I share images there, the results go crazy because of the multiplication effect. For example, the “End of the World” image below has been viewed more than 35 million times.
This photo has over 35 million views thanks to Google+. When Google+ got started, many photographers were also upset about copyright issues. But not me.
None of this would have happened if I had the opposite attitude towards sharing. There are many other photographers that know exactly what I mean and get a lot of pleasure out of people seeing their work. It doesn’t matter if it is 100 people or 1,000 people that see your work. The point is that sharing (aka communicating your vision) with others makes the artist feel more alive.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is window-shopping on steroids. It is said, in a generally dismissive manner, “Oh, women really like Pinterest.” Fool! Women rule the world! In the great interwoven networks of our Dunbar 150s (wikipedia) , it’s the women that form most of the connections between and across groups.
> Techcrunch sites that Pinterest has over 10.4 mil users and 97% of the likes are from women. Article.
I say it is like window-shopping because it is a very visual and eye-darting experience. Women have a particularly good eye at finding something that is “interesting.” Now that doesn’t mean it’s good or bad necessarily, it just means that they are interested in it. They have an ability to “gather” interesting bits – a skill that still baffles my befuddled male-hunter brain. Then, almost effortlessly, they can “pin” it to their own board — their own “window.” This window-shopping then spreads at an algorithmic rate as different users with different Venn-diagrams of interest start building their own windows, all of which adds to the growing meta-mind-share of interesting images.
> “My wife used to have an interest in my interests, but now she only has an interest in her pinterest.” – Trey Ratcliff on a lonely night…
Why are some photographers anti-Pinterest?
Many photographers fear Pinterest because anyone can “pin” an image of theirs and all copyright is stripped away. This isn’t necessarily true, because the link to the originally pinned location is still there. So, you can think of it as a hyperlink that just happens to be a visual thumbnail instead of boring text like “Awesome Photo of Disneyworld.”
Instead, now I think of Pinterest as sort of an amuse-bouche. If people are interested, they will follow links to find out who actually took the photo. Perhaps they want a print. Or maybe they would like to license the image to use for an advertising campaign or on a commercial website. Either way, people that are willing to pay you money will do their best to track you down.
Free traffic leads to real revenue
Most people in the world are good people. If they find digital art they want to buy for a print or use in a commercial campaign, they will figure out a way to get you money. 99% of your traffic is truly “window-shoppers.” They will look at your goods, take note, enjoy them and move on. But 1% will want to make a personal or business transaction with you.
Despite what fear-mongers have told you, everyone will not steal your images. Most legitimate companies will work out a proper licensing arrangement with you. Even though I use Creative Commons Noncommercial, I still license my images with the Copyright office. This enables us to sue companies that do not go through the proper channels. There was a well-publicized case lately where we sued Time for using my images in an ad for their iPad app. But that is another story. The point is that most people do not steal, and on those edge cases where it does happen, you have many reactive options.
Pinterest accounts 15% of our Traffic
StuckInCustoms.com has healthy traffic that grows every year thanks to good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. We don’t advertise or buy links or any of that stuff. So I depend on the Internet and nice people like you to link back to the site and tell your friends that you find something unique and cool.
Last month, we had 714,143 Pageviews and 234,107 unique visitors. 15% of this traffic came from Pinterest. Amazing! If Pinterest didn’t exist (a reality some photographers would prefer), then our traffic would be 15% less. Choosing to switch-off innovation is a fool’s errand, especially in today’s world. It reminds me of the scene in Anthem where the council of candle-makers becomes rather upset at the invention of the light bulb.
New Styles of Human Communication
Increasingly, we have a new way of talking to one another. It’s not through voice or text — it’s through photos. They are like Chinese characters taken to the next order of magnitude. It’s strange to think about, but I can quickly show you five photos and communicate an idea, a story, or a complex thought. There wasn’t an easy way to do that 5 or 10 years ago.
Someone on Pinterest can make a board called “Feeling a bit blue,” and they can fill it with cool-colored melancholy photos. Isn’t this just another way of making a poem? If I built up this pinboard and sent it to a friend, it’s nothing but a visual poem in a new medium. It’s just as powerful, and, in many ways, more accessible.
Pinterest is simply another way (a newer, evolving way, mind you) for humans to communicate with one another. It is increasingly the job of digital artists to inspire, share and bring more beauty and communication into the world.
Discussion of your opinions on the matter
Whenever I discuss the subject of copyright in the evolving Internet, there is more than enough vitriol that gets spewed into the comments. That is fine.
Our show this coming Monday night will have Daniel Suarez (author of Daemon), Leo Laporte, Gordon Laing, and maybe Kevin Kelly will join us too. We’re talking about “Wearable Cameras of the Distant Future.”
I hope you enjoy the show! Don’t forget to tell your friends 🙂
Option 2: It’s not in “podcast” form, but you can subscribe to My YouTube channel.
Option 3: There are other subscription options avail on the TWIT page at http://twit.tv/tvh
And thanks very much… every time you download, we go up in the rankings. Here’s a screenshot of the visual arts category — so thanks again!
Daily Photo – Old Car in Argentina
On one of the final nights in Argentina, I went out to an older area near the town which had recently been flooded. There were many abandoned cars, homes, and other lost things falling apart here and there. It made for a fun series of short hiked from one little abandoned thing to the next.
I’m looking to rent a house for my family for a few weeks in April. Any suggestions?
Daily Photo – Boat in Feng Huang
It was a cool and calm afternoon in the ancient and impossible town of Feng Huang. It’s an old town, wreathed in many legends.
On the old river, you can occasionally see a boat passing here and there. The boatmen come in all shapes and sizes, but many wear the same hat and style. It is absolutely like a warp of time…
Secret Google Schemer Invite link: goo.gl/RoxQg <– shhhhhh!
Date: Saturday, March 10 at 2 PM.
Location: The hidden G+ lot (TBA!) Note: SXSW badge NOT required
No SXSW badge required!
We’ll have great prizes and more… stay tuned!
Daily Photo – The Endless Night Streets of Tokyo
The streets are like this all night long. So, how can you possibly go back to the hotel room? There’s never a good breaking point. It is very very hard on my body here, actually, because I usually go back at the point of sheer exhaustion or hunger-breakdown. The last thing I am thinking about is eating or sleeping… but then, once I give in to my body, that’s ALL I can think about.
Trey’s Variety Hour #22: Patrick Rothfuss – The Name of the Hangout
Don’t forget you can subscribe for free in iTunes: http://goo.gl/ZAKd8 (or other options at http://twit.tv/tvh) if you want to get these first, or have them available later on your computer, iPhone, or iPad.
This show was a very special one for me (sounds like a very special episode of Blossom, when she gets a visit from Aunt Flo), but you’ll probably detect this while watching. During the first bit, we talked about art, sharing, the human condition, and unexpected benefits of creating art in a vacuum. In the second bit when Veronica Belmont joined, we started going off on all sorts of fantasy tangents. This may or may not have included dipping our wicks into Vaginal Fantasies.
Want to know what book of his to get first? Just get “The Name of the Wind” (Amazon or Audible) and thank me later! 🙂
Daily Photo – The Gentle Rays
On my first evening in Yosemite, the sun did some amazing things. There as a big group of Google+ people converging on Yosemite, but I arrived a day early for a little “me” time. Nature must have felt my mojo because it all conspired to create some interesting results as the rays tumbled across the valley floor.
The podcast of the latest show should come out today. You’ll get it first if you are subscribed at http://twit.tv/tvh or iTunes Link: goo.gl/ZAKd8. And tell your friends!
This most recent show was a little bit different… a conversation with another artist outside of the realm of photography that is very influential to me.
Daily Photo – Old London From Above
It’s a long walk to the top of St. Paul’s. And by long walk, I should throw in that there are a lot of stairs. But, after you finally arrive, you’re greeted by a wonderful view of the city. As long as you don’t have too much of an issue with heights, you’ll be in for a treat.
Even though I saw all sorts of stuff while I was up there, I enjoyed working on this photo too. I was able to zoom into 100% and look at all the details and little buildings/bridges/shops once again. It reminded me of walking around many of them at ground level.
