Daisy Gilardini Recognized at the Veolia Environment BBC Wildlife Photography Awards 2009

We are always proud to have our photographers recognized for their amazing work and Daisy Gilardini was “specially commended” at the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards 2009 for her photo “The Fairy Companion.”

© Daisy Gilardini

Each year the competition – considered to be the OSCARS of nature photography – finds the very best wildlife images taken by the world’s top professional and amateur photographers. This year the contest received more than 43,000 entries from 94 countries. Roughly 100 images were awarded and I’m extremely honored to be part of this small group!

Picture courtesy of Mike Kendrick

The Award Ceremony was held at the Natural History Museum in London in October.

Have a look at the images of the event on my blog : http://blog.daisygilardini.com

To view all the other winning images : www.nhm.ac.uk

Dee Ann Pederson Chosen to be Included in 2009/2010 Smithsonian Exhibition

Award winning photography from Dee Ann Pederson

For the third year Dee Ann’s wildlife photography has been selected from tens of thousands of entries to be included in the 2009/2010 Smithsonian Exhibit.

All category Winners and a selection of the Highly Honored images are displayed in the annual photo exhibition of large-format prints with captions telling the stories behind the shots.

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Jon Cornforth Wins “Highly Honored Landscape” in 2009 Nature’s Best Int’l Photography Awards

© Jon Cornforth

One of our talented photographers, Jon Cornforth, has won “Highly Honored Landscape” in the 2009 Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice International Photography Awards for his photograph “Torres Dramatic Sunrise.” Such a stunning image and we’re proud to represent award winning photographers all over the world. We’ll let Jon fill you in:

I created this image 2 years ago while backpacking in Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile.  Most trekkers who have visited this location have done so while multi-day trekking and usually only spend 1 night before moving on.  However, my only goal during my visit was to photograph the Torres in epic light, so I spent 5 days/4 nights camping in the same location so that I could photograph the spires each day.  My last morning was the most dramatic.

Congratulations Jon!

Be sure to stop by his website for some more stunning photography: http://www.cornforthimages.com/

Reinventing Yourself

We just returned from a very successful ASPP program that the West coast chapter put on in San Francisco, entitled “Ready for Reinvention.”

Photo by Tom Weir

I think the single most important aspect that  I came away from the program with, is that you just have to make the first huge leap of faith towards something you’ve always wanted to do.  Losing a job can lead to new opportunities to revisit what it is that gets your juices flowing–to revisit dreams and passions and make a career choices that are very different from what you have been doing.  When we dig within our souls we often know that unhappiness can result from settling  for something less than what we wanted.  We knew we should have been doing something else, but because we were already entrenched in our job or careers it was “easy” to just keep things the way they were.  These are the attitudes and self-talk that we often experience when we know deep down inside that we’d be happier doing something else.

So, you lose your job.  If there was ever a time to try something new, it’s now!  Find your reserve and go for it.  Surround yourself with supporters and make the first move toward your dream.  Then just keep it moving, one step at a time.  I can say this because I’ve done it myself.  My husband, Dave,  is also an entrepreneur and he has shown me over the years how to do it.  We’ve had many businesses.  Some of them work out, some of them don’t.  By being in control of your own destiny, however, you have a chance to do what you want to do.  You can be your own boss and make your own difference in any way you choose. Read on »

Some Favorites…

Over the years some images in our collection have stood out to our clients as extraordinary. They are the type of photos that are used again and again in a surprisingly wide variety of projects. We have taken the time to create a gallery of some of the  images that have received the most attention and peppered in a few of our favorites as well. Please click on any of the photos below to view the gallery. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do and that they help inspire your creative side.

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Amazing Amazon River Dolphins

© Kevin Schafer / DanitaDelimont.com

Years ago while traveling 3500 miles up the Amazon River on an expedition cruise ship, it was hard not to notice the  pink river dolphins surfacing everywhere.  We would go out on rubber zodiacs during the day with the naturalists, cruising up the tributaries  looking for caimen and other Amazonian wildlife.  The dolphins were quite distinctive and since then I’ve had occasional photo requests, but no images to offer.  Now our photographer, Kevin Shafer, has photographed these peculiar mammals for an article appearing in the June 2009 issue of Nat’l Geographic and we are thrilled to have gotton some of those images for our collection.  To see some of the photos we have, search our site for (or click on) the keywords  “river dolphin” or the Latin name “Inia geoffrensis” and you will find them.

Ready For Reinvention? ASPP’s Idea Packed Workshop for Creatives

If you’re a creative professional wondering what to do to keep up, stand out, impress and land that next gig in the Bay Area, be sure to join Danita and the ASPP this unique event featuring an extraordinary panel of career professionals who will provide practical tips, advice, tools and some useful forecasts for navigating the new creative marketplace. Danita will moderate the event, drawing from her extensive involvement in the photo and creative  industry to help get answers to the questions that matter most. 

This event happens:
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
at Blue Sky Rental Studios, 2523 3rd Street, Suite 434, San Francisco

A light lunch will be served and valuable door prizes given away including books and other gifts. Visit ASPP for more info.

Our Panel:

Erik Proulx spent nearly 15 years in advertising agencies across the country, including Madison Ave (literally) conglomerates, Main Street (literally) boutiques, and everything else in between. Today, as founder of Please Feed The Animals, he is an activist for those in advertising who have been laid off, including himself. He recently completed filming Lemonade, a short film about people whose unemployment was the single best moment of their lives, even if they didn’t realize it at the time.

Suzannah Scully knows her mission is to inspire others to discover and follow their passion. She is a career and small business coach in San Francisco who believes that what you do should reflect who you are. Suzannah challenges, motivates and holds her clients accountable to make positive changes in their lives and career. She also is the resident Career Coach writer for the SF Examiner.

Michelle Estrin as the former Education Program Director/Marketing Director at Communication Arts Magazine she designed special sections in the Photography and Illustration Annuals displaying award-winning artists. Michelle currently works at Creative Circle, a specialized staffing agency that represents advertising and creative professionals in San Francisco. She acts as a New Business Development/Account Manager/Creative Coach to candidates with different skill sets ranging from print, copywriters, account management and marketing to UI designers, Web developers and Web designers. When she’s not working she’s hiking, running and traveling.

Where: Blue Sky Rental Studios, 2523 3rd Street, Suite 434, San Francisco, CA  94107
For directions, please visit their site here.

Cost:    ASPP Members – $15
New ASPP Members – Free
PACA, APA, ASMP, AIGA – $20
Non-members – $25
Students (with ID) – $10

RSVP: Because of limited space, you MUST reserve in advance to attend this event. Please RSVP by November 6th to Michael Masterson at michaeldmasterson@gmail.com

Picture House NY / PACA 2009

How great to see so many of you at Picture House last week! We spoke with so many clients and had a great opportunity to renew our acquaintances face to face! With such a crazy digital environment we live in these days, it’s wonderful to put a face to a name after so many emails, phone calls and usage negotiations!

Dave Herbig and Danita Delimont at Picture House.

Thanks to those of you who were able to stop by our booth–we know how busy Picture House can be and we appreciate your time. We hope you got as much out of your time there as we did! When glancing at your badges, I was struck by how so many of you are now working for “Freelance.”  It seems like a pretty big company   Seriously though, we wish you all the best in finding meaningful work and projects that will fulfill you both financially and spiritually.

As the ASPP Co-President of the West coast chapter, we are putting on a program in San Francisco on November 7th about “Reinventing Yourself.” With so many people losing their jobs on all levels, we thought a program dedicated to the positive changes you can make during these down times would be great.  We’re bringing in career coaches and speakers that have tackled these scenarios and come out the better for it.  Now is the time to look within, find what really gets you excited and reach for a new star.  For researchers and editors, I would recommend developing some skills that include multimedia programming and footage editing.  These skills would be good to learn as much as you can in these ever developing website, advertising and educational uses of motion.

From Picture House NY, Dave and I headed on to PACA meetings at Miami Beach to meet up with our photo agency partners, many of whom came from far reaching areas of the globe. Comparing notes on how everyone has been affected this past year was valuable. Many have the feeling that we’ve turned the corner and business is definitely improving. There were lots of interesting sessions from “Social Media,” to the legalities of licensing and copyright abuse. One of the more interesting programs featured one of the Google “wunderkinds,” Matt Zitzmann, who at 23 years of age, is a Product Manager at Google, having earned three degrees from MIT! He spoke on some of the new semantic and visual search tools Google is making available.

Michael Masterson (ASPP President Elect), Matt Zitzmann (Google), Danita Delimont, Dave Herbig at PACA in Miami Beach.

We were thrilled that Google is taking an interest in our industry, especially with all the photos being indexed into their image searches. He heard a lot about our serious concerns about copyright and proper licensing and the need to put up some kind of notice on Google Images about copyright infringement. Nancy Wolfe, the PACA legal counsel will be doing her best to work with Google on that issue, as it concerns us all.  In this day and age with images so prevalent throughout the internet, it’s important to educate everyone that not images are free for the taking!

Now we’re back in the beautiful fall colors of the great Northwest.  We love to travel around the country for these various conferences throughout the year, but as many of you probably feel about your own areas, “there’s no place like home!”  Enjoy the Fall!

After the Show…

Being a radio talk show guest on Live with Vicki St. Clair on Monday gave me a chance to reflect on some of the overall thoughts on running a business out of my home.  I could offer up plenty of advice on working with clients and photographers, but personally, with any kind of business the following thoughts are paramount in my attitude:

In the studio.

Working out of a home office, I’ve found that if I get up, get dressed for the day and maintain a professional appearance, that I am much more efficient and business like–not only on the phone, but with emails and in my writing.  If you sit around in your pajamas and slippers it’s very easy to let the day go by without getting anything done.

Start an exercise program early in life. I waited far too long and have paid the price in that I have a bad back.  The regular exercise will give you renewed energy and make you more productive in everything you do.

There’s always more to do. You have to walk away at the end of the day so you can have a personal life.  Spend quality time with your family and more importantly, find the time to do things for yourself.  I have found a nice balance in that I cook.  I cook for myself and for my family.  It brings me a different kind of creativity and it gives me something to share with my loved ones and friends.

Talk to everyone you meet and be open to opportunities. You never know what connections will open up from a simple conversation, from all walks of your life.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to our full conversation online here.

The Real Story Behind Entrepreneurism: Featuring Danita Delimont

This Monday, August 17th, I’ll be joining Vicki St. Clair ton her radio show, Conversations Live with Vicki St. Clair. We’ll be discussing what it’s been like to build a business over the years as a woman, how to balance that with having a family, and much more.

You can listen live from 12:30 – 1:00 PM on Monday, August 17th. The show will be broadcast on KKNW, 1150 am, and FM 98.9 HD. A simulcast is also available on the web by clicking here.  If you miss the broadcast or would like to listen later, a podcast will be available on Vicki’s site along with other previously recorded shows here.

!! UPDATE!! The podcast has been loaded. Click here to listen.

Danita and Vicki - © Dave Bartruff

I first met Vicki St. Clair when I was starting up my new business.  She had gone back to school to get her journalism degree after serving as a bank manger for 15 years or so.  I needed someone to help organize and manage my new stock photo agency and she was perfect!  We made a great team and I was always grateful for her years of expertise that she was able to share with me.  Even  though I’d been working and selling stock photography for over 18 years, I’d never set up my own agency so I needed all the help I could get to put systems in place and bring in new photographers and clients.

I always admired Vicki because she really knew what she wanted to do.  At that time she was also teaching some of the Stephen Covey workshops and she told me how she would visualize her working as a writer and or radio host in the future.  I remember her telling me how she’d put up an easel in her room and write her daily/weekly/yearly goals on them, revising them all along the way.

I’m thrilled that she has realized so many of her goals from nearly ten years ago. The sophistication of her programs and the guests she interviews are significant  and to be invited to be a guest on her radio talk show is very special.