4.3 Million Dollar X Factor

This morning I am in Philly getting ready to speak tonight to GPPDV, the local PPA chapter for photographers.  I will speak tonight about going beyond just taking great pictures.  For the professional photographer it is not just about taking a pretty picture, because today anyone can take a pretty picture.  There are so many aspects of photography to learn and master and each takes time.  There are more people taking pictures today than any time in history but that doesn't mean the photographs are getting better.  I hope to do my part tonight to change that and help photographers everywhere become just a little better.

Some photographers seem to have the X Factor.  Last week at Christie's in New York City a photograph sold for 4.3 million dollars by Andreas Gursky.  Gursky is very well known and highly respected in the art world, and I like his work a lot.  If you don't know his work then take the time to view it before making a judgment call on this image.  I would love to see the original image as the web can sometime diminish the beauty of a photograph.  I know there's a lot of debate about this image, but the fact that this image sold for that amount should open our eyes to the possibilities available for photographers.  What if you're the next Andreas Gursky or Cindy Sherman?

Today in America, Occupy Wall Street's "Day of Action" is all over the news.  As I watch I think back to walking down to see the occupy wall street park area which is just blocks away from where the World Trade Center towers use to stand.  As I walked around the park one night I wondered how long the movement would last and how it will make it through the winter.  If you are able to photograph any of this movement it will be a great piece of history in our photo archives.

Thanks again to Sony and everyone who came out to all the speaking events in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Philly and tuned in online to watch Fashion and Beauty via CreativeLIVE.  If you are interested to see why so many people tuned in from around the world please read the 64 reviews about the Fashion and Beauty workshop.  Here are a few behind the scenes images from Atlanta's photo assistant boot camp.  We had a ball working with the students and some won some really amazing raffle gifts as well.

I head home tomorrow for the night and then off to a fashion and beauty shoot in Trinidad on Saturday morning!

Always Dream Big!