The last few months has been quite a growth spurt in the new New York office. Relocating here was a big jump, but even more so setting up a proper digital asset management system. Its a work in progress at this point. I got a big kick in the ass this weekend, when I found out my good friend Fred Egan had his house burn to the ground. Luckily his office was left in tact and he was able to recover his photography equipment and images, but I think it's a good in my face warning that it could happen to anyone, including me at any time.

I've hired Jeff Holt, to come in and help me build, set up an IT infrastructure, and implement a back up system both on site and off site. The above sketch is a general outline of what we have in progress of set up and it's still evolving. It's very intricate. Designing an IT infrastructure is very custom to what you have an how much you have to spend, but after this great awakening with Fred, it's pushing me even more to get things in order, especially an off-site backup.

The main idea is to have a mirrored backup that is onsite and that are equal sizes, then to have the same data mirrored off site somewhere. Hard drives go bad completely at random, so a constant mirroring of data on-site is a necessity. In talking with an Apple IT consultant friend of mine, he swears by tape drive backups because they last at least 30 years. Backing up on to secondary hard drives is great if you have a method of spinning them up once a year to keep the liquid bearings from drying up. If you let them go 3-5 years, they dry and the HD is toast. They're meant to stay in use.

The trick is to build a system that is expandable and accessible. Obviously if you're serious about being a photographer, the more you shoot, the more your digital assets are going to grow. Now a days with the digital sensors getting larger and larger the RAW images take up quite a bit of space. I am also constantly needing to access images for portfolio uses, projects, books, website, blog posts etc. so having a system where you can easily access everything easily takes quite a bit of design.

The system I have set up is 2 x 8 bay enclosures in a J-Bod(individual drives) setup with 1TB drives in each bay totaling 16TB. Each bay from one enclosure is mirrored to the parallel bay in the second enclosure for the redundant onsite data. These are the archive drives where jobs are dropped once they are finished and archived. We have a 2 bay enclosure with a RAID 0 that acts as a production drive for jobs that are in progress. The archived jobs will then be backed up onto tape and sent offsite. This system is hovering $10K.

Creating a system that is customized to fit your needs and budget can be pretty tricky and techie. Jeff has set up a few consulting packages to design the right system for you if you need it. His packages go from over the phone consulting to in-house setup. For more info send him an email: Jeff Holt

Another part of backing up is HAVING insurance. Unfortunately for our friend Fred, he had no insurance which resulted in a total loss. Irresponsible? Maybe so, but shit happens. I know I go through life thinking these things will probably never happen to me, and knock on wood they don't, but this is a sure realization that they can happen to anyone any time. I know what it's like to be strapped for cash and not finding the funds to pay for insurance premiums, but this is definitely a hard reminder. Our friend Jory Cordy has set up a donation page if you feel so inclined to help Fred out as he lost his living possessions.

In regards to insurance, one thing to be careful of is that a lot of renters/home owners insurances won't cover your gear if it's for business use and it values over a certain amount. It's good to have separate policies. I have a basic renters policy with Liberty Mutual, and a Business policy with The Hartford Agency. http://www.thehartford.com Business insurance gives you liability coverage and and inland marine coverage on your gear world wide. The premium for the business insurance varies on where you live and how much gear value you want covered. It IS essential!

The more I look around at successful artists, the more I see the common thread of their success. Maybe it's a secret, and maybe it's not. To me the secret IS, there is no secret.

But really, it all lies within that. The secret is "SEEING", which essentially is having a strong refined vision for. Definitely in your craft as an artist, but in other facets of life and business. If you can't see quality, details, and all the little elements that fit together to make a great photograph then maybe it's time to rethink. Success starts from the top. It starts from the decision maker's "Vision" because every decision that is made to execute that vision gets filtered down to the team that comes together to create it. You see this all the time in corporate companies. Look at the successful companies and the CEO's that have taken them there. Apple and Steve Jobs. He has a strong vision for the products and company, therefore that strong vision gets imprinted and controlled into everything the company puts out, including it's branding and advertising. Hulu & Jason Kilar. This month's issue in Fast Company talks about how Fox hired Jason Kilar to revamp what is now known as Hulu.com. He came in with a strong vision and turned the company around. Fired and hired a new crew. Implemented his vision, took risks and now Hulu is rapidly growing and successful. Nike & Phil Knight: Nike is one of the strongest brands in the world. Phil Knight created a great well designed product and had the vision to create a brand that matches and elevates the product. The vision to venture into new medias and try new things, but everything aligns with their vision.

How does this parlay into photography? It has everything to do with it from taking pictures to the business. You have to be able to see a good photograph to be able to make it. The WAY you SEE is WHAT you are hired for as a photographer. Seeing photographs is just one facet of the business, and if you want to make money at photography, you must build a business around it. You have to be able to "SEE" what it takes to have a successful business, so you can make the decisions and execute the elements of that. You must have the vision to hire people that are the best at what they do to make your business better. That especially goes for executing a photograph. Hiring people that do amazing work, only makes the photograph better and close that creative gap between what you "SEE" and what you produce. Seeing also comes into editing and retouching. Choosing the right images and having a vision for retouching is also key.

I have to admit, my technical knowledge is just now catching up with what I envision in my photos. Even at that, I'm constantly working on "SEEING" at a higher and higher level. If you can "SEE" at a high level and produce what you see, you'll get hired for those types of jobs. If you feel you have a hard time "SEEING", then practice. Practice by looking at magazines and good photography. Break images down to the details of what goes into them.

"SEEING" in business is similar. It's a learning and growing process. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to take a business class or connect up with mentors. This field is probably 80% business and 20% photography, that is if you actually want to make a living off of it. You have to be able to "SEE" all assets of the business, especially branding and marketing.

Photo Editor posted this today. An interview with one of my favorite photographers, Ben Watts. It's pretty inspiring to see his progression and to know he's been shooting for 15 plus years. The one quote at the end is the best:

“There’s no such thing as luck, you create your own.”

It's so true. You have to be a hustler to be successful in life. Talent will only get you so far.

A little new work I shot this summer that was just published in Seventeen mag. A little article on Flirtexting. Get your flirtexting on.