Ad placement on Social vs Search sites

After my last post about experimenting with the ads on Facebook, I had a hearty FB convo with a friend about how ads on Facebook are almost always less relevant than what could be presented to a user if they're doing a search (Google, Bing, etc). It's interesting, since I sort of had that in the back of my mind, but it didn't click until this friend mentioned it and then I couldn't get it out of my mind.

In fact, I asked others on Twitter as well as Facebook about this and EVERYONE said they avoid the ads on Facebook. The most common reason I heard is that they're just not interested in looking at them while on Facebook and many said that when they did look at the ads, they were usually not very relevant. This general marketing malaise is pointed to in this article about brands shutting down their Facebook stores since users don't seem to go beyond clicking 'Like'.

As I've thought this through, I broke this down as follows:

On Facebook (or any social site for that matter), the user is very casual. They're likely on there to share something about themselves (status, photo, check-in, etc) or see what others are sharing. While they may stay on the site for a long time, the casual nature of their usage means they're not there for any particular reason. So even if an ad is relevant, it may not be relevant at that moment in time. If that's the case, then it can be very difficult to convince that user to spend more than a moment even glancing at the ad let alone actually click on it.

My friend's comments about FB ads

It may happen sometimes, but it's rare. Just to note how rare it may be, I've provided a screenshot of a friend's status talking about the ads she sees on Facebook.

On Google (or any search site), the user is typically very transactional. They're likely there for something very specific and want to get the most specific answer or result. The search results may be what the user is after, but an ad with dead-on relevance can be very important for the user. So even if they generally try to avoid ads, the ad placed at that moment can be exactly what the user is looking for.

I've got some thoughts about why ads aren't relevant in the moment when on Facebook, but I'll get to that in a future post when I talk about "big data"

This all seems so obvious now that I've mulled it through, but it does make me wonder what kind of ads could ever work in the context of a social site?

Well, lo and behold in the last two weeks we've actually seen some glimpses on Facebook itself and at their Marketing Conference (fMC). I saw the first instance as is described in Ryan Spoon's post about a sponsored Macy's ad which shows up at the top of the news feed. When I saw this ad, I was actually kind of confused by what I saw, but I think it's something we should (and will) get used to seeing. Here's a liveblog of the fMC from last week which goes over a lot of the direction that Facebook's headed. In some sense, they're breaking new ground in the ways that ads are presented to users and the ways in which they allow brands to use the platform to build awareness and potentially even sell.

And that for me is the key thing. It's very clear that a brand can build awareness through smart usage of social sites like Facebook. Whether it's a specific ad placement or an on-going engagement with users, I do think users will pick up brand messaging while they're on Facebook for casual, social purposes. However, I'm still very much wondering if that casual user can be converted into a transactional user who will do more than click 'Like' but will also go on to purchase something. That conversion is pretty clear on search sites, but I'm keen to see how that plays out in the new social web.

In future posts on this subject, I'm going to try and tackle the ways in which "big data" could be used to provide more relevant ads. I've got some thoughts on that, but I'd prefer to have further discussions with friends to help crystallize my analysis. For now, I hope you've found this interesting!

What are your thoughts on ad placement on social sites like Facebook? How do they compare to search sites? How does your mindset on either type of site affect your impression of ads?

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Facebook Ads and monetizing engagement

After the Facebook IPO filing, I got to thinking a lot more about what significant things Facebook would do beyond what we currently see on the website. Instead of thinking, as I normally would, about what functionality they would add, I figured I'd focus on how to better monetize what they have.

In my mind, what Facebook has is engagement. Whether it's "social" or not, they've got people scrolling, clicking, and moving their eyeballs all over their website. I didn't really see how they've actually made huge money except through deals with companies like Zynga. But what I had forgotten is that I had been blocking ads on Facebook for the longest time using AdBlocker.

So I turned off Adblocker and started seeing ads in the usual spots along the right-hand side. The odd thing is that the ads didn't really seem all that relevant for me in the here and now. I kept seeing ads for  products and services that professional photographers would use. This isn't surprising since I had a photography business for years and still run a photography site. But for the last 6-9 months, I've hardly said anything about photography.

So it didn't quite make sense. If Facebook was poised to make so much money off ads, how could they be presenting me with ads that haven't been all that relevant to me for the last year?

Then I started seeing ads for things related to internet technology and jobs. No surprise since I've been in the technology world in Silicon Valley for 12 years. Then I started seeing ad polls relate to the Lakers. Not surprising since I'm very active in a Laker Fans group on Facebook. This was getting better, especially as compared to the ads to buy Photoshop actions.

But then I kept seeing the same ads. Over and over.

What was going on?

The quick question I got after choosing to hide an ad

I finally decided to hide the ads using Facebook's function (to hide a specific ad or all ads from that advertiser). Then I started seeing where Facebook was taking things. Upon asking to hide the ad, I'd get a quick question about why I wanted to hide it. Then I was asked to help find more relevant content by telling Facebook what I liked.

Facebook as a site was basically engaging me with a few simple questions. And I didn't really have a problem answering them. The questions didn't confront me as pop-overs or cover up other content that I actually cared about. So I answered them and moved on.

The response after answering the above question

Very quickly I started seeing ads more relevant to my current interests. Like within an hour. Damn, they were already leveraging the simple questions I answered to provide me more relevant ads. That actually encouraged me to take a look at the ads (and hide them if I didn't like them along with giving them more knowledge about what's relevant to me). There are still a mix of photography & technology, but it's way more relevant and changing more often than it was just 2 weeks ago. Compare this with the weird ads I got years ago like a head-shaving razor (yeah, to shave my head), hunting camouflage, and pregnancy stretch-mark cream. Right now, I see an add for a business-technology conference, the Lakers, and Customer conversion through social engagement. Sounds on-point to me!

Of course, along this way, Facebook is learning more and more about me and is looking to make money off me. But the simple way in which they are getting me to look, click, and engage intrigues me. Amazon does a very good job with finding relevant content to show me on their home page (based on my previous buying and product research habits). Facebook is not nearly as good at providing me spot-on content, but I can already see it getting better. Given the amount of data they have on my habits & likes and my friends' habits, I expect the ad content to get more and more relevant.

So I'm leaving AdBlocker off and plan to look at the ads I'm presented every time I login. I probably won't click on them, but it's something I'm keeping a very close eye on this evolution. It's amazing to think it's still in its early stages, but given the speed at which I've seen improvement in relevancy, I can only see that Facebook will be making a lot more money (and very soon) off of the level of engagement its users have with each other and with the site itself.

BTW, as I finish off this post, I checked Facebook one more time and here's the ad I got. Relevant? Well, I love cooking and I'm Indian...so it MUST mean I need a tandoor in my life and kitchen! Right!? Let's just say it's not a perfectly relevant ad, but I see where it's coming from :)

I'd love to hear your experiences with ads on social sites...leave your comments here!

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Personas on Twitter - Part 3

Closing out on the topic of personas on twitter, I wanted to talk about what never feels right to me or like it doesn't work. (You can read my previous two posts on what DOES work in Part 1 and Part 2 here)

Now, I personally get annoyed by some individuals on twitter, but this post isn't about individuals, it's about what can backfire in terms of getting a following and maintaining engagement.

To keep it simple, as a business, the last thing you want is for your twitter personas to feel like it's made up in the back cubicle in your marketing department. Sure, the account can be used as a marketing tool, but it's so easy to come off as doing nothing more than bragging about your company and nothing more.

Being upbeat about your products is great, but if that's the only layer you provide to your presence on twitter then it's not something which will get much engagement. It might get some eyeballs, but they'll stray quickly to more interesting or more useful personas.

I was going to put examples here, but let me instead explain a simple way I have of thinking about this: If you only tweet what you have already said/posted/documented elsewhere (eg, your website, your marketing pamphlet, YouTube, etc), then you're not building anything useful to you or to potential followers; you're simply creating noise. Certainly, there's nothing wrong with tweeting those things as part of your stream, but you've GOT to do something more.

Now this may seem quite obvious, but many times, I just feel like companies don't get it. They just want to be on twitter, but don't think anything more of it once the account is setup. Or they may overthink it: They send out tweets only after multiple rounds of review by people in marketing or legal or They setup robots to tweet out headlines. Or they just constrain what their twitter account could be used for.

I'm not going to call out any specific twitter accounts here since, to be honest, I just unfollow such accounts. However, I hope this helps explain what I feel doesn't work in an environment as dynamic as twitter.

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Personas on Twitter, Part 2

Following up on my last post about brand/company personas on Twitter, I want to focus on bloggers...

I'm actually going to focus on Sports bloggers who go above and beyond writing posts on websites and keep an active dialogue on Twitter. They typically include a variety of NBA game re-caps, league summaries/opinions, and real-time game tweets.

I'm just going to list a couple of accounts that I think do a good job and explain why I think they maintain a great presence and persona on twitter (and not just be tweeting a lot)

@HPbasketball
@LakersNation

Now, LakersNation is obviously an account for fans of the LA Lakers. with 48k tweets to their names, they obviously keep things busy on twitter, but they do it in a variety of ways. Not only do they tweet what every Laker fan might be talking about during a game, but they keep things going in between games. Not just with thoughts about recent and upcoming games, but also about Laker history and trivia. I think it's a great way to keep fans engaged before, during, and after games. And since I'm a huge Lakers fan, it's no surprise that I follow them!

HPBasketball, it could be argued, hates the Lakers (not really), but he keeps followers engaged in a lot of ways. Again, there are blog posts and in-game tweets, but there's a lot going on between games. Some of it is analysis of the whole league, some is specific topics or nits that he needs his followers to understand. A lot of it may rub people the wrong way, but somehow, through 140 characters at a time, he manages to explain himself. There's a lot of times where I don't agree at all with his opinions, but the fact that he gets his thoughts out there and manages to explain things 140 characters at a time keeps me a follower.

So what's to learn about personas from these two accounts? It's fun to live tweet games, but the followers will only stay if you manage to keep their interest throughout the week. It takes more than linking to your game recaps or team/league summaries. And being a passionate fan of the subject shows off in how you engage your followers.

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Personas on Twitter

Lately I've been thinking a lot more about what works and what doesn't work in the social media space, specifically on Facebook on Twitter. The reason I started thinking about this is because I had noticed some "random" photos on Facebook being liked and/or shared thousands of times. These viral photos may be one-offs, but more often than not, specific websites/account would get large numbers of likes over and over. Anyways, it piqued my curiosity and lead me to look at my twitter timeline as well.

Now, I'm no social media expert and this post certainly isn't aimed at being instructive about how to increase twitter presence. I'm just going to focus on a few examples and tie them back to personas and try to understand why I think they're successful. I was originally going to do this all in one post, but I realized, it would end up being really long, so I'm going to split this into a few posts.

I'm going to break it down into a few types of personas. Note that I don't call these brands even though some of them are. A twitter profile can be a brand, but I don't consider it to be interesting or worthy of following unless it goes beyond just being a brand. That means I don't follow celebrities or product brands unless they do something other than advertise their products. That also means that the twitter accounts I really look out for establish their personas in strong, unique ways.

So let's start off with the persona that got me thinking about this whole thing:

@littledebbie - Very random that I start with this, but the person(s) behind this profile are definitely having fun with it and show they understand that a brand can provide factual info and help their customers, but also create a connection with the twitter-verse. I won't go into all of the details, but based on some simple tweeting with @Questlove in December and joking about their brand, a lot of people in the twitterverse noticed the tongue-in-cheek humor behind the Little Debbie account. I definitely noticed the fact that they go beyond just responding to "help me" tweets (in this case about nutritional contents). Before this, I hadn't thought of Little Debbie since grade school when my mom would pack a snack cake in my lunch bag. Now? I think they're maintaining a pretty cool persona on twitter. That is reason enough to say they've done a good job establishing themselves as something unique on the social internet.

More brands have done a pretty good job:

@eyeficard - They run a pretty standard support profile, but they have employees with other jobs also man this profile and get to the bottom of customer issues. From what I've seen, it's allowed them to provide consitent responsiveness in a world where waiting 10 minutes feels like forever! For a small company like this, I think it shows that you can establish a helpful presence for your customers no matter how big or small you are. Besides all this, I walk my dogs past their office all the time and they look like cool folks :)

@comcastcares - Back before twitter was a household term, this account became known as a place to go for help with Comcast issues. The reason it got noticed is because it seemed to be more responsive than the Comcast phone lines. That's actually a bad thing to say about the normal Comcast support process, but a really good thing when it comes to leverage the internet. It may not seem like it now, but Comcast was at the leading edge of this. The account content itself is kind of boring, but I think they've established themselves well as a consistent place to go for real help.

So my takeaway for these company/business/brand accounts is that just getting on twitter doesn't do much for you. However, there's a variety of ways to make a name for your company. It can be as simple poking fun at your brand or as another way for your customers to ask for help. The point for me is that some companies do a pretty good job at maintaining consistency in the persona they've chosen for their brands and that consistency is key.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm going to get to more interesting personas in the next post so keep an eye out!

[UPDATE: Check out the next post on this topic here: Personas on Twitter, Part 2]

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Continuous, Iterative Improvement (or The Hacker Way)

Over the past day, a LOT of attention has been focused on Facebook's IPO filing and it's actually pretty interesting to see the numbers behind FB's business. One of the areas that caught my attention though is the cultural focus on continuous, iterative improvements. In Mark Zuckerberg's words, it's "The Hacker Way"

This post on Startup Lessons Learned has a nice summary and way to think about this.

Whether or not you call this a way that hackers think about their work, for me, it comes down to a commitment to iterating and improving at every step. Facebook's a great example of that especially since they are clearly pushing the envelope of Social but bring their users along for the ride and improving based on their inputs. I've lost track of how many big changes we've seen to the timeline and other features, but in the end, what I see when I login there today is FAR better than what I saw in 2008.

So by total coincidence, before the IPO announcement yesterday I had talked to some folks at work about accomplishing big things over time using fast steps. On one occasion it was in regards to an organizational announcement which was solidifying the work that a small team was doing around trying out new "innovations" even if it required a lot of manual work to start with. The idea was that it's better to test it out and see what you can make of it, but not get too bogged down by the need to make it everlasting. If it works, great, we can figure out a way to make it last. If it doesn't work, not a huge deal since we tried it out and quickly determined there may be better ways of spending effort. Effectively, this is The Hacker Way even if it wasn't in the context of hacking code.

To be honest, this org announcement sort of surprised me, since this ethic isn't all that common where I work. In fact, it goes counter to the way that most things get done around here.

And that was the second time this idea came up in conversation. In doing some planning, I felt that the group was trying to do too much and it may make sense for them to decide, example by example, whether something should be in scope or not. My take was that it didn't make sense to put something on a release roadmap if you had very little confidence in getting it done and especially if it would require such a long timeframe to plan & execute it. I wasn't suggesting to think smaller or to drop the idea, but to think more tactical and not get stuck in the idea that everything that could possibly be aligned to their goals should definitely be in scope. If it's such a great idea, we can probably find someone else to take it on while we focus on the goals at hand.

The response I got was interesting since it was a bit of the Hacker Way of thinking since they were suggesting that if they can get it done, they should give it a try. I still don't agree since "it" was just one of 20 other things they wanted to get done at the same time. Lending even more reasons for me to believe that "it" wouldn't get done and it would be better to find another team to give it a shot.

About an hour after this, Twitter blew up with news about FB's filing and I got to thinking about these two conversations. My takeaway is that the iterative, continuous improvement way of working is definitely a winner, but you have to keep that in the context of not trying to get too many disparate things done at the same time. Trying to get too much done will likely cause you to lose focus and incorrectly think that all the mad-crazy work you're doing is actually getting you to your goal.

More on the REAL Need

I took my daughter to a dance class yesterday and somehow I left with a reminder about how technology can address fundamental needs in creative ways, but still connect people with something they know and are comfortable with.

As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed parents lining up to sign their kids on for more classes. Near the end of each conversation, a credit card came out and the organizer swiped it through her Square reader hooked up to her iPhone.

Forget about the mind-blowing nature of this transaction. We all know that five years ago, nobody could have imagined such a thing. What clicked in my mind was how second nature this transaction has become in Silicon Valley. Whether it's a dance class instructor or a food truck driver, people are willing to hand their card over to be swiped through this device.

Now, I know there's a level of comfort people have simply because they're more comfortable with technology and everyone seems to have a smartphone nowadays.

But what I started thinking about was why people seem to be so willing to finalize a transaction in this way. Afterall, who knows what could be on the dance coordinator's iPhone screen? She could have been stealing the info for later use.

I think a lot of this comes from the fact that this mind-blowing technology is couched in something we're all familiar with:

• The physical card itself
• The swipe to pay.

We whip out our cards and swipe away at the grocery store, the gas station, and the ATM. At those locations, the machines are hard wired devices with presumably high levels of security to prevent theft. The mental leap of doing online transactions is actually pretty big if you think about it. There's good reason to distrust random websites and avoid entering in your CC info there. But there's something about the physical swipe of a CC that lends an air of security. Nobody typing in your CC info. Just swiping and you get an email to confirm.

There are lots of payment solutions out there. However, I believe part of the reason Square is succeeding is by tying their payment method back to something everyone understands: the card in your wallet and swipe through a device. Of course they've made things easy for small business owners too, but ease of setup & standardized fees can only go so far if the consumer doesn't feel comfortable using that payment method.

And that's exactly what Square is addressing...the REAL need isn't simply the ABILITY to pay, but having confidence in the WAY to pay. And the way they're providing that confidence by tying it to something that's been in our pockets for years.

Making Social Networks Something Constructive

In my last post I mentioned that I was practicing my coding my building a simple task-list and connecting it to Facebook. This gave me the chance to learn a lot more about Facebook's Open Graph and see examples of how it could be used.

Most of the FB-connected apps I've seen are cool and potentially useful, but typically not constructive. Spotify's connections into FB are slick and I've found new music or re-discovered stuff I hadn't heard in ages just by seeing what my friends are listening to. And I don't need to go anywhere except down my FB ticker.

But let's face it, something like Spotify's postings are cool, but far from constructive. And I know my task-list is similar. It's cool to be able to assign tasks to friends, but it's not going any where if that's all there is. That wasn't my point anyways since it was just coding practice. But as I was building it out I really started to think about how something really useful or constructive could be built to leverage FB's Open Graph or Twitter, G+, etc.

So this morning, I started playing around with Votizen and it's one of the first times I've seen something take advantage of the simple aspects of FB's Open Graph and make it potentially very constructive. Now that I understand more about FB's Graph, things started clicking in my mind as I went through a few pages on Votizen. Simple things like pulling in my friends' Likes of Political candidates or their frequency of voting is something which can be built upon and made into something much greater.

I won't get into what may scare people in terms of whether they want a site to track their voting preferences since there will always be detractors who don't want personal info shared out. Those folks needs to figure out what's personal to them and avoid posting or talking about it. Meanwhile, I'm happy to tell people who I plan to vote for and I want to know what my friends plan to do in that regard too.

Back to the idea of building something constructive on the back of FB's Open Graph...

I see Votizen as trying to change the paradigm of candidate endorsement. Rather than focus on famous or well-connected people or newspapers endorsing political candidates, let's focus on who WE want to endorse. Let's focus on who our FRIENDS want to endorse. Sure it'll be nice to know who Jerry Brown or the LA Times endorses this political season, but I see Votizen as a wonderful way to leverage the social networks we built-up so well and use it for a constructive purpose of getting and staying engaged about political matters. And rather than just seeing endorsements on my FB ticker, I see this as a way to build engagement amongst friends about this.

I look forward to what Votizen has to offer this political season.

I also look forward to what other constructive ideas are built upon our social networks. It's what will take FB/Twitter/G+ from a simple "time pass" activity to being way more useful and meaningful.

What's the Real Problem?

My friend Maneesh posted this article about BIG problems and, interestingly enough, it got me thinking about SMALL problems. Well, more like fundamental problems, whether they're big or small...


The problem with startups is that they can’t solve the big problems.


I've been putting together a simple to-do list for a little coding practice and it got me thinking about what it could be used for. While thinking about that, I found countless task list applications (web apps, mobile apps, etc). While they each tend to have a compelling feature and some are more elegant than others, I realized that the PROBLEM isn't about the task list itself. I mean, a piece of paper (or txt file) is more than enough to keep track of things that need to get done. Even the prioritization of those things isn't the problem. Again, you can just add a number in pencil to each item and change it as you please. The problem that I think most people are looking to address by using a to-do list is more around actually GETTING THOSE THINGS DONE. The tasks could be in the most elegant app with the coolest font, but that doesn't change things when there's a lack of motivation or thought process around actually getting those things done. Sure many apps add in functionality around helping to organize those thoughts and prioritize to just the most important things (thereby helping with motivation I suppose), but in the end, if the person writing those tasks down (or typing them up) doesn't actually follow-up, then what purpose does any part of the app serve?

So what's my point?

Well, from my week of looking at task lists, I've found there are great apps out there which are clean, elegant, & simple to use. But they gloss over what most "to-doers" likely need (eg, the problem they're trying to solve). They're not looking to write down their tasks. They're looking to get them done. And continue getting them done.

So maybe less fluff in a task app helps focus on actually getting things done and automated reminders can help with the on-going motivation, but I think that unless a solution actually helps clear the way to getting those things done, it may as well be a simple sheet of paper (or text file) with numbers noting priority. Anything beyond that is fluff and doesn't actually get at the real problem.


In the case of task lists, I think a "Getting things done" philosophy is way more important than any app designed to help you track your tasks. I can attest to this since for several years now, I've followed it religiously and it keeps my inbox to a minimum and my tasks keep getting done. So while many app developers may think of great ideas to make managing tasks a little easier, I don't think they're addressing their users' fundamental task oriented problems unless they push David Allen's GTD philosophy.


Of course there's not much money to be made in just pointing to an existing approach or website. So it's no surprise that developers keep trying to re-build task lists. And in the meantime, people will continue to hunt for the perfect task app to solve their real problem.

I'd love to hear more about your thoughts how apps can focus more on the real problems that people face, thereby solving those problems.

Just write it down

I had drinks with a friend today and we got to talking about how much I'm learning as I delve into the world and people behind startups. A lot of it is eye-opening. However, the key thing I told Asad is that my mind is finally racing with thoughts based on what I'm reading.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not having epiphanies or anything. But I feel like I'm finally thinking about things other than my daily tasks. And it's exciting.

So Asad suggested I should write these things down.

So that's what I'm doing.

I've used this blog for various topics over the years. Now I'm going to use it to note down my thoughts as I read and learn. I'm going to try to keep the posts short, but knowing me, I'll end up with long posts since I want to articulate my thoughts and I become wordy in the process.

Anyways, I hope to post short-ish entries many times a week. I may simply comment on an article or I may write down my crystalized thoughts on a huge topic. But I'll get it in writing for all to read.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you continue to do so!

Taking you there

What's a few months between posts? :)

I wanted to share a couple of visual things which just "take me there"...I tend not to share a lot of this stuff, but I was surprised by how powerful both of these vignettes are.

The first is a slideshow called "A Day In Varanasi" with photos that are uncommonly good, don't linger on the "usual" photos you see and really make you feel like you've spent a day on the river banks experiencing all the little things. It comes via The Travel Photographer who manages to share the work of a tremendous number of great photographers. Have a look:


A day in Varanasi from Matjaz Krivic (www.krivic.com) on Vimeo.

The second is sort of a highlight reel of a day spent jumping off cliffs! VERY different than the Varanasi scenes, but something which nevertheless, puts you at the feet of these daredevils. My first reaction was that I'd love to see this on a huge IMAX screen and maybe even in that Hang gliding ride at Disney's California Adventure. Have fun and don't get too scared!


Last Walk Around Mirror Lake - Boom Bip (Boards of Canada Remix) from FroschYankee on Vimeo.

Photos that Changed the World

I can talk on and on about why some photos really strike a chord with me, but this 6 minute presentation at TED from earlier this year does a great job and connecting the dots.




(via Digital Wedding Forum)

The Passing of a Photography Legend

As an avid photographer, I just love imagery of all kinds. However, I tend not to dwell on things and just try to take more photos. Every once in a while though, I'm reminded of how big the photographic universe is and the kind of legendary photographers & work we've been blessed with in our lifetimes.

A photographic legend died a couple of days ago, and I'm sorry I didn't even know about him until his passing. If you've never heard of Jim Marshall, I'm sure you've seen his work. Anyone familiar with musical legends like Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, or Thelonius Monk has most likely seen his work.

Whether you like his work or not, the guy had amazing stories about his adventures at the crossing of music and photography. He was like a musical Forrest Gump! Just amazing stories about how he ended up in situations to take such iconic photos of musical legends we all know.

For example, he was in jail on drug charges and the bail bondsman who helped him get out of jail turned out to also be Carlos Santana's band manager. He asked Marshall to take photos of Santana and that lead to some iconic photos of Santana's first recording session. Or the time at the Monterey Pop Festival where Jimi Hendrix was sound checking with just his band and an empty amphitheatre.

The guy had been places and seen things.

While I wish I had known more about him before his passing, I'm happy to have learned about him nevertheless. Have a look at his work. Even if you don't love the photos, I'm sure you'll find something really interesting in the stories behind the photos.

RIP Jim Marshall.

Moving (and Paying) It Forward

It's been so long since I last posted on this blog. More than 15 months, in fact. A few weeks ago, someone even asked me if he could take over this domain. And I immediately thought...well, I've still got stories to tell! Just because this blog has been dead doesn't mean there haven't been stories and thoughts running through my mind.

2009 was really a year of transition as far as I'm concerned. Figuring things out. Making (sometimes) tough decisions.

2010 so far has been a year of movement. Moving forward based on decisions made. And Paying It Forward to others who may benefit from my experiences and decisions.


Perhaps the biggest decision of last year was one related to my photography. Photography has been a huge part of my life for a number of years, and in the past couple of years it has perhaps been more a part of my life than either me or my family would like. The number of weddings I photographed and the time spent dealing with a bustling business really added up to a lot. Too much.

So I'm no longer booking any more wedding photography.

No more getting up at 6am and returning at 1am. No more missing my daughter's ENTIRE day. No more leaving her sleeping and returning to her sleeping.

And while I thought it would be tough to step away from the photography that I love, it's been so utterly and surprisingly easy. It's been a huge load off my chest. I feel like I can breathe again.

I feel like I can spend a day with my family just...doing...nothing. Or maybe go fly kite. We did that a couple of weekends ago. Or draw chalk on the sidewalk with my daughter. I did that yesterday. Or plant an herb & vegetable garden. I did that tonight.

Amazing, huh? It's the simplest things that mean so much.

And believe me, this decision was simple. And it has meant everything.

So what of my photography?

In many ways, I feel like stepping away from weddings has really let me mind wander and find creative images. I'm still doing professional photography...children, families, and couples, but avoiding all day affairs like Indian weddings really lets me concentrate my creative efforts in the span of a few hours and spend more time away from photography thinking about new ways to use my equipment. I'll avoid the technical stuff and just say that the engagement portraits I did yesterday felt so refreshing because I spent the last 2 months photographing things completely different: cupcakes, sunsets, fog, oak trees, mustard blooms, rain, wet streets. It's not as if this is the first couple I've photographed in months, but I really felt like all that other type of photography helped me to actually focus on this couple is such different ways.

What's more, now that I've stepped away from the weekly schedule of spending all weekend at weddings, I've realized just how much I've learned from photographers around me (in real life and virtually). So I've decided that this is the time to pay it forward. The people I've learned from would have no expectation of being paid back. I know they would prefer that I pay it forward to others who may learn and benefit from the same types of things.

So I'm trying to take a lead with a group of photographers. Telling them my "secrets" of people photography. I set up a wiki to learn about photography last month. I lead a free portrait workshop yesterday. I don't know what knowledge I'll impart next week, but I know it'll be my way of helping everyone to improve their own photography and to capture their own memories.

11 weeks into this year I know this: This is my time to Pay it Forward. This is my time to Move it Forward. These 3 months have been just the beginning. And there's a lot more yet to come.

A Time of Reckoning

Trying to get back into this blogging thing, the topic which has most been on my mind has, of course, been politics and tomorrow's election. A friend and I were talking last night about a variety of things related to the election.

Some of the key things we both already agreed upon were:
1) An election is not the start, it's not the end. It's just a beginning for much more.
2) The GOP needs some serious introspection about the kind of politics its leaders support & really, the kind of leadership its leaders show

More on this...

An election is just a beginning...the funny thing is that both my friend and I saw an awesome Starbucks ad which ended up offering a free cup of coffee for all voters. But the message was really, really, REALLY key. Got that? It's about the most important message any voter should take away from this election season...

An Election is just a moment in time. Yes, it's a chance to make your voice heard. But November 4th shouldn't be the first time your voice is heard. And it certainly shouldn't be the last time your voice is heard. It's just a moment in time. And the real work happens in between elections. People, we can't just exit the voting booths on Tuesday and smile at ourselves for a job well-done. We need to realize that the real work has not yet even started.

Here's the ad in case you're interested:


On the second point, this is actually what my friend and I spent more time talking about. It was similar to a conversation we had during the last big election cycle in India. At that time, we both agreed that the party which had been in control in India and had spent it's time in power to create hatred & incite racism & fundamentalism needed to look upon itself. The leaders needed to think about what devastation they had wreaked upon the soul of Indian democracy. They would need to re-think their method of leadership and the reasons there was so much wrong with it. Not surprisingly, my friend and I saw many, many connections between the BJP party in India and the GOP party in the US.

The really interesting thing is that the GOP seems to be in that spot now. It's time for introspection. Their time of reckoning has arrived. Even if the GOP somehow manages to keep some sort of power, John McCain will have some serious soul searching to do. As the leader of his party (in name only, since there are obviously many other people in the role of king maker), he needs to think about what he has allowed to happen in his name just to win a campaign. Moreover, the leaders of the party need to come to terms with the fact that they have encouraged this season of hatred (seriously, can you imagine openly calling for the murder of the other parties candidate?!) and self-service (I've lost count of the number of instances where "it's only wrong if the other guy does it" is the theme for the day). Additionally, and really critically, the party needs to move away from this idea that being an idiot and ignoring any facts that don't support your guy or your side is okay. And let's be frank here...the great masses who support any party are just followers. They can be lead any where, including off a cliff. This stands true for conservative as well as liberal followers. Sheep are sheep no matter the color. But just like the BJP, the GOP has taken some latent tendencies and stoked those embers into full blooded fear (of Muslims & Arabs) and hatred (of Communists and anyone that's different).

The fact of the matter is that any analysis of the BJP's leadership and the havoc they wreaked on the Indian sub-continent could very easily re-purposed to describe what the GOP have done here in America.

So my friend and I wondered why the BJP had never really done any introspecting after their resounding fall from power. I tried to explain it away talking about the multi-party system in India which require the Indian National Congress to create a coalition just to stay in power and that the BJP could just lie in wait and not really have to repent for their sins.

But we still thought that the GOP would have to re-think things after Tuesday.

No. Matter. What. Their day of reckoning had come.

So this morning I was ready to post about how a win for Barack Obama would not just be wonderful news because of his leadership, but also because it would force the GOP to spend some time thinking about the monster they have created.

And then I read Paul Krugman's opinion piece in today's NY Times. And it's alarming. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Just a quick bite from his piece:

You might think, perhaps hope, that Republicans will engage in some soul-searching, that they’ll ask themselves whether and how they lost touch with the national mainstream. But my prediction is that this won’t happen any time soon.

Instead, the Republican rump, the party that’s left after the election, will be the party that attends Sarah Palin’s rallies, where crowds chant “Vote McCain, not Hussein!” It will be the party of Saxby Chambliss, the senator from Georgia, who, observing large-scale early voting by African-Americans, warns his supporters that “the other folks are voting.” It will be the party that harbors menacing fantasies about Barack Obama’s Marxist — or was that Islamic? — roots.

Despite my concerns about what Mr. Krugman has said, I hope to god that my anxiety about who wins tomorrow amount to a lot of worrying over nothing. And beyond that, I hope that leaders across the board realize what we have in front of us...a great opportunity for change and for moving forward.

Here's to the importance of tomorrow's election day.

And here's to the reckoning that we all need to confront.

If we care enough about the leader of this country, we need to care enough about the cliff we're about to jump off without some serious thought.