The Importance of Being Social

Social media is a intertwined within our lives so much that most of the time we don't even think about how we use it. Since moving to NYC i have learned how important social media is for businesses and for people in any creative field. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, etc. How you connect with people and how you get them to see your art and business is a huge business in bigger cities. I've learned much of this from working with FlyNYON and NYONair. Social media built their business into the well know helicopter company that it is today.

www.flynyon.com

www.flynyon.com

They cover every social media platform and it ends up being their main source of advertising. NYONair currently has 465,000 followers. Think about that from a business stand point. That is people all over the world seeing what you are doing. Now turn that onto a personal stand point. Photographers, painters, actors, basically anyone in the creative field has turned to social media to gain followers and find a way to share their art. These are all mostly free ways for people who would never have seen your work, to see it and interact with you on a daily basis. Also, there are more editors from magazines and the heads of companies searching these social media platforms for new employees.

@111studios 

www.ch3m1st.com

So for anyone who wants to go after a career in the creative, you need to look into social media and understand how they work to your advantage and how you can use them as tools to grow your audience. Create an Instagram page to get your work out, then create a snapchat to show the people the behind the scenes on how you get the things that you do. There are endless possibilities, get out there and get seen!

Inspiration Upon Inspiration

New York City, I knew it would be inspiring, but i never knew it would be as inspiring as it is. My camera is by my side, every single day. There is always a new moment to catch, a new expression to freeze, and a new fleeting moment that i am drawn to immortalize. At first I didnt understand why people went through the struggles that they did here. I wondered why people stick around this city, especially those of us that are starving artists. The answer is slowly showing itself to me every day as New York reveals itself to me and my lens.

I am currently taking more photos that i can reasonably share through the typical social media outlets, so i will be turning to this forum as a way to share. Feel free to keep watch to see how i see NYC and the rest of the world from behind my camera. And feel free to share with your friends on facebook.

~Joe

 

Street Photography #2

It would seem, I am obsessed with street photography. Every day, I shoot almost 150 photos, most of which are street photos. I love capturing every day life in NYC. The simple moments that hold so much power but disappear in a blink of an eye. These are moments that i want to freeze and make eternal. Moments that you can take a deeper look at and see the beauty within the mundane, everyday scene. Below are some of my favorite recent photos.

 

 

To Inspire

All I have ever wanted is to inspire people with my photography. I want to be like the greats who inspired me (Bresson, Errwitt, and so many more). I want for people to look at my images and think, "I want to shot images like him, but I want to do it better!"

What more could any artist ask for? Your name to be remembered and to go on to inspire the masses and future generations. This is what every artist strives for. Show the world itself in a way that makes it both beautiful and thought provoking and INSPIRING.

Go After Your Dreams....BUT......

We are told from a young age that we should go after our dreams and i have always been a big believer in that. But something that we are not told is that going after your dreams is going to be an incredibly hard journey.

Going after your dreams takes tremendous amounts of dedication, endurance, and most of all patients. You are going to do many thing on your journey that at the time, you dont realize they effect it, but they do. You will work jobs that you dont want to with long hours and not enjoyable atmospheres just to make it by. You will struggle to pay your rent, you will miss your friends, and there will be times that life just seems overwhelming. But this is all part of the journey, and every single one of these experiences shapes and changes you and pushes you towards your goal.

The journey will be long and it will be hard and it will be tedious, but every single moment and experience will be worth it.

Street Photography #1

I photograph almost every day and because I am the person I am, I need to share those photos. I have just run out of places to share those photos without spamming them. So here is my first post that is kind of like a photo dump lol. Here are some of my best street photography images that i have taken recently.

New York: Expectations vs Reality

New York has been an interesting combination of happiness, frustration, inspiration, and homesickness. It has been a month since i have moved to New York and i wish that i could say that all of my dreams are coming true, but thats not quite the case. Now thats not to say that amazing things are not happening for me, because they are, its just that its a lot slower than i first anticipated. I am still currently without a steady source of income, but on the same token, i have had a few awesome freelance opportunities. I assisted Jeff Westbrook for a shoot for Golf Digest for Conde Nast and i worked with NYonAir (a helicopter touring company). I am getting to tour all around the city and photograph pretty much every single day. And i am making connections that will be important later on in my career.

I was naive in thinking that things would just fall into my lap. I hate to say it, but i hadn't fully processed that this would be a different environment and it could take much longer to start making my mark. But in a way, i guess thats ok because it gives me time to think and focus on what i really want to get out of this experience and out of this city and what i am willing to fight to make happen. I am a little fish in a very large pond here. I have to hustle to make things workout for me. But they will eventually.