Happy Holidays! We had another landslide of entries in our November contest. Next deadline is December 31st, just in time for the new year.
Nitro Bulk by Lukem for best video $150
Spider Valentine by kbwolfman for best music $150
Baby & Mama by MalaMilanova for the GRAND PRIZE of $300 and best photo
CONGRATULATIONS to our November winners! Please email babette with your full name and mailing address. Next contest ends December 31st.
Wild Mountan contest extended due to lack of snow!
There’s still time to get your video in and win a season pass to Wild Mountain. Lack of snow made it pretty tricky to film a snowboarding video, so we extended the deadline. But hurry up, contest ends December 31st snow or no snow! Go to wild mountain Contest.
Do you know… If our URL is a mouthful, you can also find us at dykwia.com. Find ongoing news on our newsflash page.
By NovaStorm
Wow I joined in on chat here last nite with professional photog Tony Nelson. What a great venue for networking and learning from the pro’s!
Being able to ask questions and get responses from someone with Tony’s background can really shorten the learning curve and keep you from heading in the wrong direction with your own work. I came away with some great information which I plan on using in the near future.
Tony in pointing out his own experiences certainly dispelled some ideas I had for my work and I would like to extend a big thank you to Tony, Jason Jones-DYKWIA founder and Babette for giving us such a great opportunity.
Here are some excerps from last nites meet and greet :
(11:09:10 am) Babette: Ready?
Tony Nelson: ready if you are’
NovaStorm: :) perfect
NovaStorm: should I print or send out
Babette: whatcha mean Nova?
NovaStorm: If I want to put work into a shop
NovaStorm: should I print and frame it or do they
NovaStorm: I am pretty new to this as you can tell
Babette: ah, i understand your question. any thoughts Tony? if he wants to display his work somewhere, how does one go about that?
Tony Nelson: I’d think you’d want to submit samples digitally first before going to any printing expense
NovaStorm: ahhh ok that is great to know
Tony Nelson: Though galleries will like to see the actual print eventually
NovaStorm: How did you start shooting for magazines. Did they contact you initially? or Is it a good idea for me to be contacting them introducing myself and maybe directing them to my web site or here as I do not have my own site…
Tony Nelson: You have to contact them first. Some sort of direct mail piece is best. I know some email out promo stuff but you don’t want it to look like spam.
Tony Nelson: Maybe make some simple promo piece to mail and have a web site you can direct them to to see more.
Babette: Who do you send it to at the magazine? like “attention photo editor?”
Tony Nelson: Best to find out names first
Tony Nelson: some mags the Art Director is the guy. others its the photo editor, others some other editor. big ones have assistant photo eds that cull out stuff first
Babette: so how did you get into it, after you graduated?
Tony Nelson: Got a job in a pro photo store & learned more about commercial biz & equipment as my degree was pure fine art > Met a lot of photographers there who would free lance as assistants & started getting that kind of work while building a better portfolio.
Note: At this point in the chat, I had to leave for short while. So left Tony with a group of questions in case it was over before I got back! Here are the questions, Tony’s responses and any other relivent info ~
NovaStorm: 1. How do I know what to charge to do a wedding for example. Computer time + Shooting + materials?
2. Can I work freelance without having a studio. I live in a small apartment.
3. Should I be paying a model, to add another perspective to my portfolio. Would that be an advantage. Also might it be a good learning tool for wedding and personal shoots.
4. Should someone have a web site for there photography right away starting out. Or should you get a few commercial shoots under your belt first.
Tony Nelson: 1. weddings – prices are all over the map. time & expenses are a factor. your time is the variable. you have to gauge the market you’re in first
Tony Nelson: If you have something unique to offer, you can charge more.
Tony Nelson: I’ve seen work that’s virtually identical to others but the fee can be 5 times more if they’re really busy & popular.
Tony Nelson: look for sites online that list their fees for a start.
Tony Nelson: 2. no studio, no problem Some work requires it, others might not.
Tony Nelson: I do 90% location work. I have a studio that I share with 2 other shooters, for that one day a week or so that I need it and to store bulky gear but most of my work doesn’t require it.
Tony Nelson: No one in NYC has a studio but they have many options there for day rentals
Tony Nelson: 3. Models – Depending on the kind of work you’re looking to do, you may or may not need to hire someone. Most people building a portfolio tend to find models who are at a similar stage of their career & swap their services with each other
Babette: Do you recommend building a fairly specialized portfolio, or something that shows a range?
Tony Nelson: People will always tell you to specialize and I generally agree
Tony Nelson: It’s good to have a range though
Tony Nelson: I sometimes see sourcebook ads that have one portrait, a product shot, a food shot, etc. They may be good but it doesn’t say anything about who you are Or so the theory goes
Babette: Yes, I think of you as “rock and roll” guy, but you actually have some amazing fine art pieces
Tony Nelson: Thanks, I try to keep doing art for art sake but sometimes get overwhelmed with the trying to make a living part, so I have to motivate myself sometimes
Babette: So what was your first big assignment? how did you get into the major magazines, i imagine it’s pretty competitive?
Tony Nelson: First big jobs were through word of mouth or references from other photographers who were on to bigger jobs sometimes
Tony Nelson: I got a little known through the rock & roll shooting as a guy here in Minneapolis so when national mags needed someone here for some reason they found me
Tony Nelson: I always tried to follow up any magazine work – for the music mags at least – by sending promo stuff to the publicists or mgmt or record label people and they all move around to other magazines & labels & such so that would lead to more work.
jasonjones: tony is most your work in mn
Tony Nelson: Yes, most of it is here. Some travel but most of my national clients use me as more of a regional person
Babette: what has been your favorite assignment Tony?
Tony Nelson: Shot GWAR on location for a wedding themed issue of a music magazine
jasonjones: what r you working on now
Tony Nelson: Just finishing up on a big brochure/ad/catalog for a local music college
Tony Nelson: Working on some “art” for my studio when they have a sort of open studio art crawl in a few weeks
Babette: Who was the Viking that you were taking pics of today Tony?
Tony Nelson: Jared Allen for the tattoo mag last week. then I had to shoot him & Adrian Peterson when they made some appearances at the Mall of America – another client of mine
At this point I had gotten back, but due to some technical issues we had to cut things short.
So as you can probably see it was a very rewarding experience. Again thanks go out to Jason, Babette and especially Tony for there time and energy. Look forward to being envolved in some more of these. Rgds Robin ~
Join us in the chat room THURSDAY OCTOBER 15 at 7:00 PM Central time. Meet pro rock photographer Tony Nelson.
Tony Nelson has photographed for Spin, Rolling Stone, Interview, Minnesota Monthly, The London Times, Minnesota Magazine, Rockrgrrl, The Austin Chronicle, Live, B-Side and both Cake and Toast magazines, where he served as Photo Editor. He has clicked pics of legendary artists such as Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, and Gwen Stefani for record companies including MCA, Capitol, A&M, V2, Sony, Windham Hill, Caroline, Sub Pop, Lavolta, Restless, Bella Union, Clean, Warming House, Cell, No Alternative, Stand Up and Oar Fin.
Join us Tony and the DoYouKnow team in the chatroom for a meet and greet, and bring questions about getting known in the photo biz. Mark your calendar now, and message babette “I’m coming to the chat!”
Contest Winners
Our winners are
In photography $250 – Untitled, by Seibert Photography
In video $250 – Lady Gaga Parody, by Erin McFadden
And with a tie for the Grand Prize
$500 to GBOY for Ima Just Be Me
$500 to Phil Bridges for No Better Time than now
Deadline for next contest is October 30th at 12 noon, Central U.S. Time.
A word about voting
If you have joined the site just to vote for who you want to win, you are very welcome. HOWEVER, please be sure to select FAN as your profile type when signing up, and not a talent category. The most important thing we all want to do is support our talent, and we want to make sure the right people are showing up in our talent searches. Also, be sure to fill out your fan profile completely, with pictures and info., so we don’t have to look at a bunch of empty grey boxes. THANK YOU for your help. Please feel free to delete your current profile if it is in the incorrect category and re-create it using the FAN category.
Photographers or other artists, please message babette if you’d like your profile switched to our new photographer or artist category.
Do you know… If our URL is a mouth-full you can also find us at dykwia.com.
Well, we are growing. At warp speed, in fact. People are catching on and we’re drawing in more and more fun, talented artists – focused people who are ready to take their careers up a notch. Giving prizes and sponsorships is just a small piece of what we do and while we’re doing our bit we encourage you to keep connecting and helping each other too – after all, that’s why they call it social networking! Together, we can accomplish amazing things.
Wanna help? Contact Jason and we’ll send you T-shirts and other goodies to pass out.
Sponsorships here, sponsorships there.
As you know we took Mike Schultz to the X Games in LA last month and he cleaned up with a tidy second place finish in the motocross event. Nice! We are also sponsoring Jerome Kuntz, a super sick snowboarder.
While in LA…
Jason worked his charm on a couple of Hollywood casting agents. They love the site and we hope to hear more from them soon about how they can help our members. Stay tuned!
Meet & greet in the chat room
We want to meet you!!! Please join Jason & co in the chat room Wednesday, September 30th from 8:00 – 8:30 p.m. Central time. Just show up, stay as long as you like or as little as you like. We want to hear who you are, what you’re up to, what you need, and how we can help.
Contest wackery
We are really sorry about the goofs with the contest last week. We had to take the site down for some maintenance and somehow a few entries got wiped. We did our best to restore entries but please re-enter your stuff if you don’t see it by now. You still have until October 31st to get your votes back up! Also, as the song goes, winners never cheat and cheaters never win. Just so you know, we will eliminate your entry if you’re found to be cheating, so it’s just not worth it! There’s going to be lots of contests (we’re going to do them more frequently after this one) so why piss off the judges now? :) Plus, you know you’re awesome, you don’t need to cheat!
See you online.
