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An image by Alan Chin from the New Hampshire primary season. © Alan Chin

I’ve been collaborating with Michael for a number of years. Initially it was because he had picked up an image of mine that was in the New York Times while I was freelancing for them in Iraq. One day I had Googled myself and I saw [my photo] was on this blog. I saw his commenters were reading all these things into it and I wrote in and said, I’m the photographer and I want to answer some of your questions. I was very factual, just to give more context. Of course no one had done that before. It started this whole interesting conversation online. Somehow in the process Michael was like, I’m really interested in hearing what you have to say and I would love to hear some more.

And in the next few years, any time I did something that I thought was interesting, after it was published or if I couldn’t get it published, I would send him a picture to let him run it on the blog. I figured, if it’s already been published or it’s not getting published, then what do I have to lose. I might as well have it be seen and talked about rather than just sitting on my hard drive.

Then when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama officially announced their candidacies, both of them did trips in New Hampshire and I decided to go up and shoot that. And I’m not a political junkie; I’m not a Washington photographer. I’m not very well experienced in this, I’ve never been in the bubble, but I thought this was obviously a really important time. So I sent Michael pictures from that because I couldn’t get them published. And he loved it, and the audience of the site loved it. And basically he committed, he said, look, you’re having a problem getting assignments. How about I pay at least a little bit, so at least you don’t go broke doing this, at least you can afford to put gas in your car, and you can cover some of these primaries for me. More »

I was connected with Izan Petterle through Duda Escobar, the show manager for PhotoImage Brazil and the reason I’d come to Brazil in the first place. She invited me down to give the keynote address on wedding photography.

During the planning she asked if I would be interested in teaching a post-convention workshop with Izan in a Brazilian wilderness area called The Pantanal. I didn’t know anything about Izan and was a little nervous about jumping into something unfamiliar in such a remote area. I was also concerned about leaving my business for almost three weeks in August. Initially I declined.

After thinking about it a bit, I decided it was a great opportunity to get out and see a very remote part of a beautiful country. And after speaking to Izan I was completely at ease. Izan has been doing PhotoExpeditions for years and he is a wonderful, kind person. We decided to proceed with a PhotoExpedition after the PhotoImage Brazil conference.

Because I was so late agreeing to do the expedition, there was precious little time to promote the workshop. The day I left for Brazil, no one had signed up yet. Izan and I almost canceled the trip, but he kept assuring me that Brazilians are spur-of-the-moment people. He felt certain we would get some students.

In the end we decided to do the trip with or without students; it was a great chance for both of us to stretch our creative legs a bit. Since leaving journalism in 2000 I have mostly photographed women in white dresses each Saturday, and it was time to do something new. Sure enough we ended up with three students, all of whom signed up just a day or two before the start of the expedition! More »

Citizen journalist Janis Krums tweeted this photo minutes after a plane crashed into the Hudson River in January.

I came upon this story and this one the week the plane crashed into the Hudson River. The pictures are solid. As a professional photographer, I might have done a bit better, but I wasn’t there. Which got me thinking about what I would have done if I was. Typically, I would have used my upscale point-and-shoot camera, and then contacted whomever I could get a hold of at the whatever paper or magazine to transmit the image and get a quick sale. A sale that would probably yield anywhere in the range of a $100 to $1,000 — if I got the sale at all.

The competition would be a phalanx of mobile phone shooters all calling the tip lines of all the same publications as me. The photo editor would choose the first “solid” image to come across his or her computer screen in mad dash to scoop all the other publications and blogs.

Now think about a different set of priorities applied to the same scenario. I shoot a quality image, better than the mobile phone shooters, and upload it up to my photography branded twitter stream or blog. The fact that I call myself a photographer in these two internet mediums will already give me a splash of credibility. The subject matter of the photos will guarantee swift dissemination and trackbacks to my site. The trade off for the exposure to my web site is worth more than the money.

Lastly, think long and hard about being a gear snob. A photographer is defined by his or her ability, not by the gear he or she owns. Ultimately I think I would shoot my first few images with my iPhone and send them to the email account that automatically publishes posts to my blog, or I would send them to my Twitter account. Then I would shoot other images with my point and shoot. I’d start calling editors and point them to my blog or Twitter account.

The resolution required for a reasonable reproduction on the internet requires little more than an iPhone camera. It’s not ideal, and it certainly goes against the quality instinct of every shooter out there, but that’s not the point anymore. The world has changed and in these journalistic situations expediency is king. As skilled photographers that might find ourselves in the right place at the right time, understanding and adapting to the new world rather than complaining about it is the best way to get more notoriety.

Resolve: v. To deal with (a question, a matter of uncertainty, etc.) conclusively; settle; solve. n. Firmness of purpose; resolution.

I’m excited to introduce RESOLVE, a new photography blog from liveBooks. We don’t have to tell you that this is an important moment for photography — things are changing fast and there seems to be far more questions than answers. That’s why we decided to create this online resource for photographers, a place to come together with your peers, to get inspired by great work, and to learn from the experiences of photo professionals from every corner of the industry and the world. While giving individual photographers the tips and tools to build creatively fulfilling, economically sustainable businesses, we are also working toward positive RESOLUTIONS to some of the hardest questions facing the photo industry at large.

I’m not going to sit here and deny that the forecast often looks gloomy, but I also know that photographers and photo industry professionals are some of the most innovative, passionate, creative individuals I know. If anyone is going to figure out where the photo industry should go from here, it’s the photo professionals themselves (that means you). As the editor of RESOLVE, I’m mostly here (along with Associate Editor Carmen Suen) to help where I can: keeping things focused, helping visual people communicate in words, and exploring innovative modes of collaboration.

I hope that a few of you have seen my name floating around the internet before, but in case you haven’t, let me introduce myself. I am the Social Media Editor at liveBooks, based in often-sunny San Francisco, which I’m pretty happy about coming from a lot of cold Midwest and East Coast cities as I have. Most recently I was in NYC working as senior editor at American Photo, writing for the magazine as well as PopPhoto.com and the State of the Art blog. I have a degree in magazine journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago (serious brrrr) and grew up in Athens, Ohio. I like writing, sometimes I even think I’m good at it, but what I really love is helping people communicate, making connections with people (especially photo people), and using those connections to foster stronger community.

A few notes on how this blog works. Because we know you’re busy, we aren’t going to post anything that takes more than five minutes to read. Each post covers a few important points of a larger topic and is linked to earlier posts on the same topic (plus we’ll let you know when later posts are coming). That way you can dig in deep if you have the time — or jump onto the next thing that catches your interest.

At the end of many posts we ask additional questions, titled “Be Part of the RESOLUTION.” Any post is only one person’s opinion, and you can help us provide the best information possible by sharing your own perspective in the comments. Oh, and about those comments: We are serious about keeping them positive. We think it’s time to do more than complain about the way things are — let’s figure out how to change things into the way we want them to be. Healthy debate is always welcome here, as are constructive criticism, and even controversial and unpopular ideas. But we will not tolerate unproductive personal attacks on our contributors or other commenters, especially if they are anonymous.

I hope you’ll quickly start to think of RESOLVE not just as a community but as your community. The more people who contribute to it, the stronger it will become, so please get in touch with me (and Carmen) if you are interested in collaborating with us on one or several posts. Or maybe there is a question you can never find a good answer to. Send it to us and we’ll find an expert to answer it. And last but not least, if you hear about anything photography related that is innovative, cutting-edge, or just a great idea, LET US KNOW — even if it’s your own project. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

~Miki Johnson, Editor, RESOLVE