Reflecting before the review

First attempt at a self portrait with my Olympus E-520

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I'm always ready to photograph whatever crosses my lens. But one thing I never shoot is myself.

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It's 1:15am and I'm still organizing my ads for tonight's portfolio review. Sorting through my work got me in a reflective kind of mood, hence the self portrait.

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Did I learn anything while peering within?

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I've done some good work. I'm more creative than I would've given myself credit for a few years ago and I have A LOT to learn when it comes to self portraits.

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As far as the photo goes, I had a lot of trouble with the light. In the end I created a makeshift diffuser by hanging a bedsheet around my ceiling fan. This softened the light overhead, which reduced some of the harsh shadows I had been facing.

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My kit lens also wasn't focusing in the low light and I kept having to point the camera to the window, press the shutter (to start the 12 second self-timer) reposition the camera on the tripod, run over to the couch and strike a pose each time I took a picture (the excuse I settled on for why I look like such a dipstick).

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Lastly, I wanted to apply a little trick I learned over the weekend and make it rain (using Photoshop). I tried two different methods and although I'm not thrilled with the end result, I had a great time and learned some new things.

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I actually bought a silly business book when I graduated college and got my first job, it's called, How to become a rainmaker. I finally figured it out.

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You can learn anything in online tutorials these days!

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I better get back to organizing my ads. I have a lot to go over with my professors tomorrow and I want to make the best use of my time (that means no sleep for me tonight!)

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Joe

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http://twitter.com/joeyz101

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P.S. Check out Stephen Poff on Flickr. He wanted to learn about self portraits so he decided to take 1 self portrait a day for an entire year. Hundreds of people, maybe thousands, have followed his journey and resolved to do the same, its a Flickr revolution and it's pretty cool!

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Peace, love and paper cuts

I took this shot on my hike along Bash Bish river this past weekend

Hello world,

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Good news, my "Band Aid" ads were well received, with two pieces making the wall. I jokingly called my campaign "Peace, Love and Paper cuts" because I developed ads making fun of the fact that little cuts aren't the end of the world (you have to actually see the ads to get the whole 'peace, love, paper cut' thing!). I got great feedback and am hopeful that I can turn what I have so far into a solid "book worthy" campaign.

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But the best news coming out of last night's class was the announcement that next class will be our portfolio reviews.
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This is where we, the students, have the opportunity to review our best work with two guys in the business. So what am I hoping to get out of the review?

• Which campaigns my professors like the best
• Honest feedback on my best concepts

Today I looked back on the work I did for this class and realized that I've had 11 ads stay up over the course of 7 assignments. That means I need to be as organized as possible to get the most out of the review. That's the goal for the week!

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I had an interview today for an internship working at an entertainment company.

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I get a kick out of interviews and I think it went pretty well. It's a young company and they have a lot of projects going on. I would work to help them market and advertise their work.

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The company is located on Lafayette and Astor Place, an area full of buildings with character and people with funky clothes.

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Whether I get this internship or not, I'm going back to that neighborhood soon to take pictures, that place is a goldmine!

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Ever since I made the decision to focus on advertising full time I've been thinking a lot about the big picture, life, and all those philosophical things college freshman talk about in dorm rooms and common areas in the wee hours of the night.

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Thanksgiving is Thursday and aside from the fact that my family can cook, I'm really thankful for the opportunity to make my dream come true. I hope that you take the time to give thanks for all the great stuff you have going on.

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joeyz101

http://twitter.com/joeyz101

P.S. Thanks for the emails and comments, you keep me fired up, I owe you one!

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Is enough enough?

One of my walking tour of NYC shots yesterday.

Enough is enough, or is it.

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I stayed up on the wall again in yesterday's class. I'm very happy about that but I want to better understand the meaning of "the wall" and how it relates to the ads I choose for my portfolio.

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Now that I have an intial draft of my portfolio I'm looking to make it better and I want to be sure that every ad in my book (book = portfolio) is stronger than the next.

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Last night we were only allowed to show 2 ads that we did for Milton Bradley. I came to class with 7 so I had to quickly choose my 2 favs. Here's the headline I wrote that stayed up:

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Headline: Come together as a family and bring the leader down.

Tagline: Milton Bradley. Know who you're up against.

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Milton Bradley games are all about having fun and coming together with family and friends, I wanted to show that its still also about winning and the friendly competition that exists between family and friends. Basically my ad says, "Hey cousin of mine, I love ya and I'm happy we're having a great time together but I'm here to win so get ready to lose!"

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I like this concept but I worry that it might be too safe or not impressive enough for my book. Let me know your thoughts on the line, I'd be interested to know!

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My professor said that he liked the line, which is good since he works in the business. And being the competitive nut that I am, I think I have enough to turn this into a funny "Family Competition" campaign.

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In other news, I walked all over Manhattan yesterday searching for new shops with "Grand Opening" signs in the window. I only found one and it wasn't what I had in mind.

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I was surprised because (in my head) I always see loads of new stores popping up all the time. These days I guess it's too risky to remove the safety net and try to go it alone in the cold cruel world.

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Err, then what the hell am I doing out here in the cold cruel world? Mommy?

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For my next photography challenge I have to capture an image that represents a country creatively. For example, it's a stereotype to use an eagle to represent the USA but there are plenty of other images that can be used to represent this country.

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My idea is to take a picture of a storefront with a "Grand Opening" sign because to me, people coming from all over the world to chase the American dream by risking it all is a large part of what this country has been about. Hopefully I can find something today (the deadline is midnight!)

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I'm also going camping this weekend. I think I need to get away for a bit, work has been crazy lately :o)

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I have some preparing to do, cold weather camping is no joke (when I was little I got hypothermia but that was because I was using a summer sleeping bag in the dead of winter, thanks mom and dad ;p )

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joeyz101

http://joeyz101.blogspot.com/

Leaf piles

I've been in a pretty great mood these last few days.
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- I spent the weekend focusing on my best ideas (of the week) and was disciplined enough to ignore the rest (that were way off target!)
- One of my best friends and I took some nice autumn pictures with our SLR cameras and watched videos of our semester in Italy
- I had way too much fun raking leaves in the backyard
- My ads stayed on the wall last night (for Fellowes Paper Shredders)

I've been on quite a roll as far as staying on the wall in class. This week I am working to put together a rough draft of my portfolio, a collection of Joe's "Greatest Hits" and see if it sells or flops. Either way feedback is good and the outcome will help me to understand exactly how far (or close, I could be close!) I am from making this career move a reality.
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Going back to the leaves, I'd like to explain why I had so much fun raking them this past Sunday.

The photo challenge for this week was to capture a photo in which symmetry is present. After coming up short all week long I was asked by my parents to help rake the leaves. I started with the leaf blower and actually had a lot of fun with that until it ran out of gas.
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At this point I had two pretty big, not yet huge piles of leaves. Then it hit me, or so I thought, I'll make two huge piles of leaves (kind of in rows) down the center of the backyard and I'll have my symmetrical picture. My idea was to rake all the leaves into two large long rows and have a bench at the end of the row and lie down on the bench with the rake in my hand and make it look like I raked my way straight through a (red) sea of leaves.
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So after raking like a maniac for a few hours I set up the shot, mounted my camera on the tripod, set the self-timer and took a bunch of pictures. Unfortunately, it was already getting dark and my lens wasn't wide enough to capture how cool my leaf piles actually looked, that and I kept moving on the bench before camera snapped the picture! Below is the best shot I got:
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Since I wasted so much time sculpting leaf piles, I found my self in danger of not fulfilling my promise to bag all the leaves. And bagging them is what led to all the fun.
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I was picking up leaves the slow way, scooping them by the rakeful, when I started thinking about how much fun it was to dive head-first into these mounds when I was growing up.
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Before I knew what happened, I was knee deep in foilage, as happy as a kid who just found out that everyone gets out of school for Yom Kippur, Jewish or not.
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It reminded me of a short video I watched the night before from my semester abroad in Italy. My friend and I happened upon this old man one day while walking past the Duomo in Florence. He seemed crazy to us that day, but his smile was infectious and as I look back on this video now I realize that he is so full of life. That's how I want to be, always.

Next time you see a leaf pile, jump in, don't worry who sees. When you smile, people notice and they never forget it.

joeyz101

http://twitter.com/joeyz101

The wee hours

I come up with some of my best work late at night, under pressure, when the "chip people" decide to put down their chips, and it's starting to irritate me.

Don't get me wrong, it's a rush, producing under pressure, but I am trying to do the right things, take a consistent approach with my assignments and it can be frustrating to feel like I'm waiting around for that big idea until crunch time when it falls out of the sky and bops me in the head.

Maybe I shouldn't complain. It's just that sometimes big idea isn't enough. I need time to shape a great thought into a really great line.


Last week I had another ad stay up on the wall (for the Budget Dream Car Rental Assignment), which means that I've had work "stick" for 3 out of the 4 assignments given this semester.

In full disclosure, I should mention that the professors ripped my ad in half, threw away the headline and kept the visual and tagline on the wall. They thought my headline was clunky.

It was.


Where can I get a waterproof notepad?

I get plenty of ideas in the shower, ideas in the dark, ideas when I'm driving, when I'm conversing with friends when I should be listening.

Seems like ideas come to me whenever I'm not in front of my computer.

Curse the creative process and it's lack of structure! Fortunately the iPhone helps me (not in the shower though, that's where I either have to frantically dash out of the shower as fast as I can or spend the remaining duration of my shower repeating the thought over and over again until I finally decide I actually hate it).


This week I've been working on ads for "Fellowes Paper Shredder" and I think I have some good ideas. Today is the day I want to turn my highlevel thoughts into rough headlines so I don't get all fahklumpt* as I rush to do it in a panic on Monday.

As usual, I have only one goal, to make the wall, I'll keep working and let you know.

joeyz101
http://twitter.com/joeyz101


*Did you know that the Nanny is on just about every night at 2am?

Shaking up those creative juices

Over the weekend, I shook things up by participating in two online digital photo contests, or challenges as they are called by the actual website.

Photography is one of my hobbies and as a relatively new DSLR camera owner (Olympus E-520) I think these "challenges" are an awesome way to learn new techniques and have fun along the way.

The challenges are actually a lot like my ad assignments:

• You get a project
• You brainstorm
• You post your work online (the virtual "wall" if you will)
• And people vote and critique

Take a look at the photos I submitted below and let me know what you think by commenting below! I can take the criticism, but be gentle, because I just lied about being able to take criticism!


Challenge - Tilted II
Make use of an unusual angle to create design or movement in an otherwise ordinary photo.



I wasn't sure what to do for this challenge, so I started grabbing random objects and looking at them from all different sides. Finally I grabbed this coffee cup rack and when I looked at it from the angle you see in the photo above it looked (to me) like the back of some Tuscan coffee cup transformer, and it looked like it was running away, but from what?

How about making it run away from bad instant coffee! A cup rack, instant coffee and a sugar bowl morphed (in my head) into a high octane (or is it caffeine) chase scene. The coffee cups are totally making a run for it and they'd rather dive off the counter top than bear another drop of that nasty instant coffee. I entertained myself for a few hours and really had a lot of fun with this one!


Challenge - Animal / People Interaction
Capture an image that depicts some kind of interaction between people and animals. It might be friendly, it might be antagonistic, or it might be something else. Be creative and communicative.

Since I no longer have any pets, I went to the zoo. After an hour or so of walking around, shooting a bunch of llama portraits and talking to the chickens I was about to call it a day and give up the goat when I saw this cute little girl introduce herself to one.
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I politely asked the sun to hide behind a cloud but the sun did not comply. Even though there is some harsh lighting in this shot (particularly on her forehead) it is for the most part well lit and it is an overall happy little moment.
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I'm glad I was there to capture it! 0
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Tomorrow is my ad class and that means I'll find out how my "Budget Rent-a-Car Dream Car Rental" ads do. I've asked loads of people what there dream car would be and what they would do if they had it for a night or two. I think that I'm clear on the product benefit and have some pretty good ideas. I'll be up for the next few hours polishing my thoughts.
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Hopefully something will stick.
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joeyz101
http://twitter.com/joeyz101

P.S. Some of you have told me that you get a message saying that your comment cannot be submitted. If you see that message after typing a comment just click the 'submit comment' button again and your comment will go through. If not, DM me on twitter and let me know.