Here are a bunch fo Gary Vaynerchuck’s predictions for 2012 in his high energy clip, including the Instagram prediction. A few others may surprisse you. I’ll tell you what, I’m totally on board with his final point but it is unrelated to both Facebook and Instagram.

What do you think? Will Facebook Buy Instagram in 2012? Leave a yes or no ( or deeper thoughts ) in the comments.

Safer Shooting by Thomas Leuthard

When we look at the street photography portraits from “85mm Street” (aka Thomas Leuthard), we assume that he’s either asked permission, uses a really long focal length and is sitting miles away, or he’s fearless.  Rarely does one think about the slow build to comfortability on the streets.  This means slowly exposing yourself to shooting street photography over time.  Much like great ideas, we assume the originator of the idea came up with it during a euphoric moment of thought, had an epiphany, or simply got lucky.  Very few people will jump into something like we see in the video.  We often need to be told that the present moment work you’re seeing is actually the result of diligence and excellence over time.  In baby steps for street photography, I mentioned things like taking photographs of feet, going out and photographing one person, finding someone seemingly harmless and asking permission (while your heart beats out of your chest).

Each small experience with street photography portraiture builds confidence over time.  You go out with the goal of pushing your own limits just over the edge and soon enough you’ll grow your balls like Thomas Leuthard. Regardless of trying to please anyone, you are trying to excel your own work and growth. In my own experience, I’ve pushed my own limits and I am a pretty shy and quite dude.  In the past, I would tell myself that people photography, wedding photography, and more was just not for me.  I talked myself out of shooting scenes that involved people, especially involving people in a close space.  Do you talk yourself out of taking risks in street photography because of the underlying anxiety?  I suffer from depression and anxiety.  Yes, my medication is helping me greatly; however, I’ve looked at street photography as a way to self medicate and push myself through anxious scenarios.  Slowly my balls have been growing and it’s time to experiment as Thomas Leuthard does in this video.  I’ve learned that some of my favourite photographs are the ones that involve people in some form.

If you watched carefully, you’ll actually noticed that people celebrate the photos instead of freaking out on him.  No idea if Thomas does any kind of visualization or prayer before these kinds of outtings, but having enough experience, through testing his own limits, I bet he simply knew that he’d be fine.

Maybe you’re not ready to go out with the flash.  Most street photography articles will TELL you to turn off the indicator light on your DSLR so that you are even more stealth our there on the streets.  If you’re going for stealth, that’s a great tip.  If you don’t care or you’re ready to interact on another level, leave it on.  Realize if you’re talking yourself out of risking growth or if you really are purposefully hiding in the shadows.

Growing balls like Thomas Leuthard doesn’t happen overnight.  2 years of street photography prepared him for some of the cool experiments he’s doing now.

Small risks over time will get you there.  Be purposeful with everything.

Validation

Something interesting about this post is that I saw Thomas’ video on YouTube and I did not see his 500px blog post regarding the video.  I had been working on this blog post, titled and all, for a few days prior. The video sparked me to get this article finished, posted and shared! I go to Thomas’s 500px blog so that I can link to it and find the post for the video.  Sitting within his writing, I find a quote that perfectly aligns with my title:

The new technology and the night of a foreign city let me feel very comfortable. Maybe my balls have grown the past months that I’m not as shy as I used to be.

See what you’re capable of getting away with on the streets.  If you believe the myths, you’re only holding yourself back.  When in doubt, make sure there is a piece of glass between you and your subject (just like the image in this post).

The point of it all is to understand that your goals and dreams change. If you’re unhappy or feeling stuck where you are right now, perhaps it’s time to pursue your photography dreams. Claim your place with photography and explore those creative urges. I recently realized an intense fear and faced it.  The ego can take a blow and you’ll realize that since the ego is not part of the self, you survive and grow stronger.

Until I’m able to deliver content in the way the Conan O’Brien does, I’ll leave the amazing message to him.

Leave a comment with your reaction to the video and message!

A little bit of “wisdom” from Joel Bauer on business cards.   Can your photography business cards benefit from this information? While the interview is super ridiculous and had us howling, there are a few points to take from it.

If anything, we can all use a little comic relief on a day like today.

This guy probably wouldn’t like Moo Business Cards, but we still totally recommend them! Pimp your photography business cards with Moo.

Instamoto

I get this question asked ALL the time through e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Quora, snailmail, notes in class, and written on the dirt of my Nissan Cube. I want everyone to know that we’re listening! We’ve been actually trying to figure it out here at Nuwomb. After months of iPhone photography and Instagram madness we’ve finally got something to show you.

The above video is Instamoto in action! The guest room was occupied and once Instagram and Animoto were finished smushing, here’s what we got.

What do you think of the results? Should we continue to breed the Instamoto here?

Share this around and see if we can get word from Animoto or Instagram directly!

I usually don’t pay much attention to commercials. Perhaps marketing podcasts like Six Pixels of Separation are rubbing off on me. Either way, the Panasonic caught my attention tonight.

We absolutely loved this commercial! Hopefully other photographers can sit back and laugh with us. What’s so great? Well the photographer is doing a presentation and a group of snobbish professional photographers are asking questions about aperture, shutter speed, and dealing with lighting situations. The presenting photographer cannot properly answer the questions because he just went out and took great photographs with a digital camera from the Panasonic Lumix collection.

I’m not a digital media marketing guru like Mitch Joel, but I really do appreciate this commercial. In my eyes, the commercial and the way the presenting photographer is portrayed is amazing when you think about passion and vision. It’s also playing on the democratized creative renaissance that we’re experiencing.

As the tools for creative photography get better and better, everyone is capable of producing great photography. You don’t have to be a great photographer to get great photographs. You just need to get out there and get in front of more interesting subjects. We love the playfulness of the 30 second spot.

What do you think of this Commercial from Panasonic and it’s message about photographers?