New Print Portfolio

After nearly 6 weeks of hard work my brand new portfolio is finally finished. I owe a great deal of thanks to those who have helped me along as I truly could not have created something of this caliber on my own. One thing I have learned over the years is that you can only get so far with your own knowledge/expertise. So when I set out to create a new book I knew I wanted to work with the absolute best in the industry.

Prior to starting the project I decided to hire a consultant to help me with image selection. I knew taking my personal connection to the images out of the equation would ultimately allow for stronger body of work. Little did I know how much the experience would push me. After tons of research and preliminary conversations, I decided on Suzanne Sease since I felt a strong connection to the way she thinks and liked the fact that she had tons of real-world experience working in high-profile ad agencies. Suzanne challenged me throughout the process to let go of images I was emotionally tied to, making way for stronger images that more adequately conveyed my vision/style. Although difficult at times, I honestly cannot say enough enough good things about the process and the way she thinks.

Knowing I wanted my book to stand out from the crowd, I hired Scott of Mullenberg Designs to build me a one-of-a-kind custom portfolio and slipcase to display the new body of work. I’ve been a fan of Scott’s for a while so I was excited to finally get the chance to work with him. He is a true craftsman and artist in his own rite. The internal pages were beautifully designed by Cheryl at Isaacson Design and printed on Moab Entrada paper by Lincoln at PushDot Studio out of Portland, Oregon. The end results far exceeded my expectations and I could not be happier with the team I assembled to help me take things to the next level.

This summer I’ll be hittin’ the road with my brand new print portfolio in hand. I’ll be posting updates on the blog with specific dates and locations at a later date. For now plans are in the works to be in the Seattle/Portland areas in June, Denver/Boulder in early August and Chicago/Milwaukee/Madison/Minneapolis in mid-August. If you are in one of these cities and are interested in meeting up shoot an e-mail to mike@miketittel.com. I’d love to buy you lunch and share my latest work.

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2010 PhotoCamp Utah “Business of Photography” Panel

This past weekend’s Photocamp Utah was a huge success–an entire day of workshops for $15! Incredible . . . where else can you get a deal like that? Over 350 people signed up for the one day event here in Salt Lake City. This was my first year at the event, and I felt honored to be a part of it. As mentioned in a previous post I sat in on a business panel with Brody Dezember (wedding guru), Rich Legg (full-time micro stock shooter) and Zack Arias (Atlanta area music photographer). Questions and topics ranged from business plans and insurance to marketing budgets and accounting. It was a great start to a good discussion, but I left sensing there were many questions left unanswered. We could have easily filled up another hour. So . . .

. . . I wanted to offer a place for people to continue the discussion. If you have a question, leave a comment below. Nothing’s off topic . . . marketing, pricing, business plans, finding your vision, insurance, accountants and taxes, budgeting . . . whatever comes to your mind is fair game. Chances are if you are curious about a particular aspect of running a photo business, there are countless others with the same question. So please, don’t be shy. Fire away! I’ve contacted the other panelist inviting them to chime in as well. It’s an open discussion, so please share your perspective.

For those who don’t live in SLC or who were unable to get a ticket, all of the presentations in the main auditorium were streamed online. These included the keynote presentation by Zack, as well several other great sessions. You can watch any of these, including the business panel session, online here for free.

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PhotoCamp Utah

PhotoCamp Utah: An amazing one day event here in Salt Lake City for photographers of all abilities. Sadly this year’s event is sold out. However, for those who are interested all of the presentations taking place in the main auditorium will be streaming live here throughout the day. This includes the business of photography panel I’ll be chiming in on at 1:15PM MST and Zack Arias’ keynote presentation at 3:30PM MST. I feel honored to be a part of such an amazing event. Hope you can join us.

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Swimming with sharks

I’ve never really been one to heed warnings. More often than not danger needs to be staring me in the face before I react. On my recent shoot in Hawaii I spent countless hours bobbing in the ocean like a cork without a home. I was almost halfway through the two week shoot, so although this was my first time shooting with an underwater housing in the ocean, I was feeling extremely comfortable in the water by now. In my ongoing quest for outstanding locations I came across Snorkel Bob’s description for Olowalu: “This prolific reef will keep you busy for days or till lunch, whichever comes first. That’s Oscar’s lunch. OLOWALU IS POSTED WITH SHARK WARNINGS.” Blah. Blah. Blah. “Surely,” I reasoned, “the guide was written 10 years ago by some bloke who no longer spends any time in the water.” The location looked like it had lots of potential, and after seeing numerous locals in the water, I decided it was worth a look.

Despite Snorkel Bob’s warning and my wife’s strong opposition I bravely headed to the water’s edge. “Warm sun. No fins surfacing. Seems fine.” Then, less than 2 minutes after submersing myself, it happened. “Oscar” and two of his friends emerged in the distance. I guess that Snorkel Bob dude was right. Now I’m no oceanic expert, nor do I claim to know anything about shark behavior. But a shark is a shark in my book. And I wasn’t about to stick around to see if “Oscar” and his friends were an aggressive species or not. In all my time in Hawaii, I don’t think I ever swam as quickly as I did that afternoon to shore. Typically I can spend hours poking around in the water even when I say I’m only going to be a minute. So when I emerged from the water after only a few minutes, my wife knew but said nothing to save any ounce of manly ego that remained. (She’s cool like that.)

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A Little Perspective

Transform by Atlanta-based music photographer Zack Arias was one of the most talked about video posts in the photo community in 2009 for good reason. It’s deeply honest, heart filled and inspirational. Anyone in a creative field can relate which is likely what made it so popular. It spread like wildfire in the photo community and beyond. Although the video came out almost a year ago, I’ve sent the link to numerous people this week and thought it was worth bringing back into the spotlight. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Zack does an incredible job of putting things into perspective.

Also worth mentioning are the follow-up posts by Zack on his blog and the responses from his readers almost 6 months after Transform hit the web. If you enjoyed the video above and haven’t done so already, I would highly encourage you to check his related posts here (1st) and here (2nd). Make sure to read the comments as well. Powerful stuff for all.

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