After the Make Better Pictures, and Show the Right People talk I did last week in Portland, I decided to share my recommended reading list with you all in blog form. This is a list of books that have helped shape my perspective in life and business.

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferazzi
This book was amazing in learning how to best network and build relationships with people. Keith focuses on giving and helping people without any pretense for reciprocation. Built on a philosophy of when you give to people it will be given back to you. Maybe from someone else or that person. It’s an idea of something I truly believe. If you give and help people it will come back to you. This book is one of my faves. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/ee2Hpr

The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris
This one is a great concept of designing your life and having it’s elements work for you to what you desire. Some of his concepts are a little overboard, but overall the book is a great read and changes the way you think about designing your life and lifestyle. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/evJYol

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
A basic well done study on economics of business and the culture of how trends/products hit their “tipping points”. Malcom talks about the different types of people that aid in the process. A good mind shifter in thinking big. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/fJ6ceF

Outliers by Malcom Gladwell
Yet another fave of mine. Malcom does a study on successful people, why and how they’ve become that way. He talks about opportunity, hard work and talent. One of my favorite chapters is the 10,000 rule which many people have come to talk about. The idea that it takes 10,000 hours of practicing your craft to hit your tipping point of where enter into professionalism and success. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/hzW6g7

A Million Miles and a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
A book recommended to me by my homie Jeff Holt. This book shapes your perspective on creating better life experiences, essentially a better story. Experiences come through in our art and the more we make memorable moments in our lives the better our stories become. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/i4Vp2j

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kawasaki
Robert has many books on the subject of money, but learning and understanding how money works is a key essential in running a business. He talks about learning to see cashflow and how it works. This series of books goes hand in hand with the 4-Hour Work week. Learning how to use money to give you financial freedom and design the lifestyle you want to live. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/ffIdiO

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Creating a life of art isn’t an easy process. In The War of Art, Steven talks about the resistance and how it keeps us from creating. The resistance being that thing inside of us that makes us want to be lazy instead of getting to work. A perfect read for any artist. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/f0GmXb

The Brand Called YOU by Peter Montoya
In the business of a freelance artist, YOU are the brand. Everything you do is a projection of who you are and what your brand represents. This is a great read to help understand the idea of a personal brand and it’s outlets. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/faG2Ot

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck
Yet another great idea, but a little over the top in some areas. Still a great quick read on using the world of social media, blogging, and the web 2.0 world to boost your brand. Youtube stars have taken this idea to a whole other level. Pick it up here: http://nonk.it/h6kPhj

I just stumbled upon this amazing interview with the 3rd richest man in the world, Warren Buffett and the amazing Jay-Z on Forbes.com through my buddy Michael Trainer’s tumblr. This hour long interview completely inspired me to keep thinking big, and even bigger than I’ve been thinking. It’s amazing to see Buffett & Jay-Z bring two completely different worlds of success together.

They share things they’ve both learned along the way. I’ve always admired artists like Jay-Z for the fact that they are entrepreneurs, using their art combining it with business to do bigger things than rockstardom. In this interview, Jay talks about growing up in the projects, and overcoming where he grew up to make it.

A few highlights that really impacted and inspired me:
•Stay true to who you are as an artist. People lose longevity because they try and jump on the next hottest thing.
•You can’t make art with business in mind. At some point it has to be real when they touch it.
•Adapt your business to the way the landscape is changing. Use technology to your advantage.
•Under promise, Over deliver.
•Have a philanthropic side. Give back.

Watch the interview here. http://nonk.it/JayZ_Buffett

Bring it on 2011!

A quick little note, just to say that life is short and family is important. Sometimes we glide through life in our younger years and forget about our families. In this world of photography, it can become all consuming, and easy to lose sight our priorities. In any adult working world, our lives become so busy time just flies by faster and faster.

I became an uncle about a year and a half ago, and being able to see this little man(Isaiah) only a few times a year and how fast they grow, you don’t want to miss it. When it became this close to me, it made me realize how important it is to be a part of my family’s lives even from across the country.

No matter how good/successful of a photographer we end up to be, what truly matters is our relationships and the legacy we leave with those we love.

Making Better Pictures, and Showing the Right people

1. Shooting better pictures is ultimately what gets you hired and is YOUR product. You must have a great product to sell.
A: Curating your vision- Curate great photographs that you like, and break them down to why you like them. (inspired.nickonken.com)
B: ABS Theory- Always Be Shooting. This is the only thing that will make you better. Clicking the camera. Expanding your Default. Exercising the Decision Making muscle
C: 10,000 hours of hard work- Malcom Gladwell’s theory of putting in the time to take you through the artistic journey.
E: Testing- How to Set up a Test
F: Shoot Vertical, Not Lateral

2. Showing the right People
A: Getting your ducks in a row first- Create your portfolios, your website, your brand(developing a visual style before you invest in branding), and working with a consultant
B: Hiring a graphic designer
C: Editing
D: Creating a client driven website- Breakdown of my website, and what features I included and why.
E: Creating your own Branding Imagery- Iconic images you’ve shot that represent who you are. These are integrated into your promo pieces and brand extensions.
F: Promo Pieces- e-promos and Printed Promos. Samples of what I’ve done in the past
G: Creative Buying Decision makers
H: List creation- Agency Access

3. The Creative Journey
A: Transitions, Passions, and Sacrifices- Juggling the beginning years to get to where you want to be. Sacrificing and fitting the puzzle pieces together to make achieve the end goal.
B: There’s no such thing as Fairy Dust, Only you can make Shit happen, You Gotta Wannit- Pushing through the resistance. Making it is not easy.
C: Lifestyle Design: Inspired by the 4 hour work week, designing your lifestyle as to what success means to you. Everything stems from this.
D: Creating Personal work- mine is travel photography. creating my book, and the process of. Photo Trekking.

4. Business & Numbers
A: Big Jobs, and little jobs- Difference in mentalities
B: Get Producer
C: What Low-Balling does

ASMP info and Register here:

http://asmp.org/education/event/info?id=149
The Event will be held January 11th at Michael Jones Studio, 1937 N.W. Quimby St. Portland

After an inspiring conversation with my homie Jeff Holt about finding things that inspire you, and putting them in once place. Being inspired is a huge piece of being creative, and being creative on a consistent basis.

This whole conversation inspired me to create http://inspired.nickonken.com, which is really a public scrapbook of imagery, videos, quotes, and other things that inspire me. I’ve talked a little bit about this in my Vision Board post a while back. Curating imagery that inspires you is a way to help you hone your visual style. I think it’s a great exercise that teaches you to see. Curating is similar to editing in the fact that you are culling together images that are appropriate for a certain outcome. This outcome being “what you’re inspired by”. You can then break down what it is you like about this palette of imagery and integrate elements into the way you see your for your work.

Jeff showed me his tumblr blog, and the tumblr blog engine finally made sense to me. It’s an extended version of twitter in the fact that you can follow people, reblog their posts, add your own posts, and search the tumblr databases. I had my tumblr interface custom coded by my friends in Mexico, GL Pepper. I wanted a mood board/magazine style format that has a lot of images on the page so it creates a feeling. The great thing about tumblr, is you can scroll through your past posts, and one of my favorites is viewing your archive. http://inspired.nickonken.com/archive It thumbnails everything (like this screenshot). You can find the archive here: http://inspired.nickonken.com/archive. Doing this in a public fashion will allow me to find imagery through the tumblr community, and be able to access it anywhere. I really found it great on this last editorial shoot we just did this weekend, in the fact I could pull it up on my iPad and have the images as reference right there for the team. I think it will be great to see as an ongoing log and evolution of what inspires me, and in turn, share that with a community.

http://inspired.nickonken.com

The lovely thing is, that if you actually do love it then you’ll never work a day in your life. (well, the dirty office work like accounting always seems like work, but you can keep working to the point that you can hire other people to do that stuff). I feel blessed to wake up every day and think “What can I create today?” My TO DO list is filled with things I love and want to be doing. That my friends is a personal choice, but along with putting in the hard work in the earlier years, things become easier as you grow.

I know realize that when I was a graphic designer, I never loved the actual craft as much as I do with photography. When I started doing photography, I knew exactly what I wanted to be doing in the end. That gave me the passion, and motivation to get there.

The artistic evolution and journey is a long one. If you truly love it, you will ride it and do what it takes to get there. Transitions, sacrifices, successes and all.

The winner is… Alejo Henao.

Alejo wins a trip to New York City for the Photo Trekking book release party, a night stay at the Ace Hotel, and a signed copy of Photo Trekking!

The runners up will also receive a prize. Congratulations to you all for making to the finals.
2nd Place: Nick Keating will receive a 1 hour phone consult and portfolio review with me, and a signed copy of Photo Trekking.
3rd Prize: Stephanie Mcbride, a signed copy of Photo Trekking
4th & 5th Prizes: Annie Fredrigo & Kathyrn Page A signed copy of Photo Trekking

If you didn’t see their photos, click to the previous post here to view them.

Thank you all who participated!

In December, I had a chance to go with my friend in Manilla to a place called Smokey Mountain. I saw things I’ve never seen before. Smokey Mountain is a landfill where squatters live. They live on the landfill, so they can pull all the recyclables out of the trash to make money. Usually the happiest are the kids. They get creative with their toys. They make the best out of the situation they have. The squatters set up almost a small town within the landfill. They even have little stores, one of which have what’s called “brush off food” where they sell food items they’ve found in the trash and “brush off” the dirt. Definitely gives you an idea of the circumstances.

Another big realization is the waste of plastic bags. It made me really think of how many plastic bags we waste in the US, and how much they can actually recycle. The photo below is a grand illustration of the waste. I’ve made a better effort to not use plastic bags as much as I can, using reusable grocery tote bags, etc. It’s something I think we should all make an effort to do. Seeing all this really made me realize how wasteful we are, especially in a city like New York.

All in all, even photos don’t describe the experience of actually being there. The five senses really bring it to reality. The smell of the rotting trash decomposing in front of you, the sounds of the kids running around, the sight of trash for days, and the crunch of trash with each step. These photos don’t do justice to the actual experience, but you get the idea. Click here to see the whole story.

I am excited to be guest speaking at the New York workshop on March 22nd. I’ll be talking about my story of my journey over the last few years. The Transitions, Passion, and Sacrifices it took to get to where I’m at now, as well as a Q&A. We’ll be talking more about the artistic journey of doing what you love than the technical side of photography. I will also be giving away 2 signed copies of my Photo Trekking book at the workshop.

Check out the MTH 2010 site for more info. Would love to see you there!
http://laracasey.com/mth2010/

My homey Jeff Holt turned me on to this book "Crush It"(an easy 130 page read), which speaks exactly to this point. The driving message of the book being "Make the decision to live your passion whole heartedly no matter what it is because in this day in age if you do it right, you can monezite it" but the point is that it has to be your passion. This idea resonates in one of my favorite quotes by Confucius "Choose a job you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." With technology these days, you can make a living creating a business out of anything you want to. You just have to have the ambition and hustle to do it. Now, I never said this would be easy, but if you are truly pursuing what you are passionate about then it will never feel like work. I feel lucky enough to do what I do. In reality? I work probably 60-80 hours a week without a blink of an eye. The thing is, I feel like my life is a vacation. (which many of my friends think it is too) The process to design this lifestyle took a big transitions, living my passion, and sacrificing like hell to get to this point, and it's an ongoing process.

Another key to making things happen is to surround yourself with the people that are motivated hustlers. The people that inspire you to be a better person, to be better at what you do, how you approach life. Your support system is key, but this in itself is a conscious decision to surround yourself with these people, and on the flip side, what are you doing to inspire others to want to hang out with you? I think attitude is a key factor. People like to spend time with other people that inspire, and encourage. Some have different styles of being more vocal, or just being inspiring by what they do. In fact, to me the act of "Doing" inspires the hell out of me. A big reason for my move to New York. My level of influence of people doing amazing things, hustling, and succeeding has upped significantly. Something that this city has in it's DNA. I'm a firm believer in moving the things and people in your life that bring you down, drain you, hold you back, etc. out of your life, or to a minimum. I believe in helping others and giving back as much as possible as well. Only you know when you're being the influencer or being influenced though. Take the victim role and you'll never get anywhere in life.

It's funny how conversing about these things brings with like minded friends creates inspiration and opportunities. I know many people have asked if I do workshops and such, and at this point I haven't planned any, but I will be guest speaking at my good friend Lara Casey's Make It Happen NYC seminar in March. I been hearing rave reviews from the last few. This seminar is for anyone in any industry wanting to "make it happen". Check out the seminar details here.

What do I want out of 2010? A well balanced passionate life with great people, great food, and great wine. I want to be a better photographer, grow my business, start more business, build better relationships, and much more. Live life for the epic moments. Life is short and who knows how long it will be.