6 AM in St. Louis
Two years ago I was wandering around St. Louis at 6 AM before one of the Social Fresh conferences. I had my digital camera with me, and was looking for interesting photos to take. Right around 6:15, I saw the sun start to come up. A look to the east revealed the reds and golds of a spectacular sunrise about to make its way over the horizon, even if obscured by all the local buildings. Amidst the urban clutter was the landmark St. Louis archway. A look to the west revealed my hotel, all 28 stories of it.
Sunrise was on the way.
If you’ve ever done any photography, you know that moments like sunrises don’t last for more than a few minutes. There’s a brief moment of magic when everything is just right, and then it fades as the day begins.
I broke into an all out sprint to get back to the hotel, racing inside to the security desk. The guard on duty probably wondered if someone had been murdered at the speed I ran up to him, but my only question was whether it would be okay if I went up to the closed restaurant on the 28th floor to take some photos. He called the manager on duty, who said yes, and the guard unlocked 28 on the elevator. Up I went.
I immediately had to perform some unplanned acrobatics. The cleaning crew had just mopped the black marble floors of the restaurant and as I dashed out of the elevator, I slipped and fell on what felt like the slickest black ice ever. Thankfully, lots of martial arts experience and luck kept me uninjured and my camera unbroken.
I managed to get to the window in just under 10 minutes from the time I saw the sky change and aim to the east. My luck held:
Be looking for opportunity.
Be prepared with the right gear and talent to take advantage of it.
Seize your opportunities with urgency, because they won’t last.
Be bold about asking.
Prepare to slip and fall, but be able to get up just as fast.
Take the shot.
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Believe none of what you see
Much has been made of various attempts at illustrating how distorted our sense of self-image is (especially for women’s self-image) by the trade media using programs like Photoshop. However, if you truly want to blow up someone’s preconceptions about how manipulated everything is, there’s no better way to do it than to do it yourself.
If you have Photoshop or access to it, fire it up and pick a good image of yourself. Like most things, the better the source image (from a technical perspective), the easier it is to manipulate. For fun, we’ll use author Julien Smith’s photo that I shot at Podcasters Across Borders. I want to emphasize that I am not a Photoshop professional. I’m at best an amateur who can Google and follow directions. Everything we do in this little example is something you can do with almost no training besides learning where the individual menu items are.
The authentic Julien Smith
To start, hit three buttons: Auto Tone, Auto Contrast, Auto Color. This will fix up 90% of photographs. Remember that at any time, you can hit undo if a change isn’t quite as good as you’d hoped.
Next, hit up the spot healing brush tool and click on any blemishes or skin imperfections. With just one tool, you can change someone’s appearance fairly drastically, if subtly.
Julien minus minor imperfections
Next, let’s make him clean shaven. We’ll hit up the Dust & Scratches box and simply melt them away by making 2 layers and “painting” over his stubble with the blurred layer.
Julien minus stubble
Now let’s get into some truly warped things. We’ll apply puppet warp to his face, pin down all the sections we don’t want to move, and adjust his jawline. This step is so easy that a six year old can do it.
Bone warp!
So in just a few clicks, we’ve altered reality significantly enough that the photo of Julien is no longer an accurate representation of that moment or of him generally. Doing bone warps changes the actual geometry of his bone structure, something that only drastic surgery could do.
The enhanced Julien Smith
Want to empower someone – including yourself – to understand how absolutely false our perceptions of body image are? Learn these simple tricks in Photoshop, try them out if you can, and then any time you see a photo of someone, look carefully at it. Ask yourself which of these techniques were used (I guarantee at least one, if not more, in every media publication), and realize that pretty much everything you see on the cover of a magazine is fake and has been manipulated.
Even better, teach your kids how to do this and then make a game of spotting the tricks when they see photos of celebrities and other pop culture icons. The secret of this is the same as a stage magician: once you learn how the trick is done and can do it yourself, it loses all of its power over you. You realize it’s just a cheap parlor trick, some digital sleight of hand, so simple that you and your kids can do it. That realization shatters the perception of perfection that the media outlets and appearance-based industries desperately want you to buy into.
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Happy Black Friday!
The sun’s rising over the horizon. The sales are on.
If you’re in sales, especially retail, did all your marketing preparation and campaigns pay off? Did you bust down the doors as a consumer? Did you sell out the shelves if you’re in retail?
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Hungry?
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Managing vs. leading
The difference between managing and leading is starkly simple. Imagine you’ve got a patch of woods that’s brambles, thorns, trees, and brush.
Leadership is being the girl or guy in front, hacking away at the foliage, making the trail.
Managing is being the team behind the leader that’s maintaining the trail, keeping it clear, keeping it free of the obstacles the leader has removed, for everyone else to use.
You cannot do both well.
If you’re leading, it’s counterproductive to go back down the trail and manage. If there’s no one else to do it, there’s no one else to do it, but every second you spend managing the trail is a second you’re not moving forward.
If you’re managing, it’s irresponsible to forsake your charge, wander off, and attempt to lead. You might not know where you’re going, and more importantly, the trail behind you will fall into disrepair quickly.
Neither is better or worse. Both are vitally important. If you want real success, know the difference between management and leadership, know which better suits your personality, and know which you’re more talented at.
Inspired in part by Ken Savage and New England Warrior Camp, which is where the photo was taken.
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