Who is a freelancer?

A freelancer is an entrepreneur. Could also be called a sole-proprietor or a consultant. Or, it could mean that they are out of work. Simply unemployed.

Saying your a freelance writer, photographer, artist, etc. means different things to different people. I've never heard any say freelance lawyer or freelance actor. Lawyers have their own "practise." And you may be on the cast, but the show ends and you are on your own, auditioning for another role --- freelancing.

Webster's New World dictionary defines FREELANCE as " writer, musician, artist, etc. who is not under contract for regular work, but whose writings or services are sold to individual buyers. Is this good or bad?

For photographer Bob Sacha it is good, he worked for newspapers, corporations and on staff of production studios, but he always comes back to being a freelancer. He quit his staff job in December because he wanted to be creative and do his own work. Editing other people's work wasn't as much fun.

I think it takes a certain type of person to be a freelancer. For one, the freelancer needs to come up with ideas. It is coming up wit ideas that get them in trouble when they are on a staff and want to do things differently, but it is the reason editors like using freelancers. They like getting fresh ideas.

The staff gets into routine and is afraid to change, the freelancer is looking for new angles, something different to pitch to editors and get noticed.

Good ideas isn't the answer, editors have given assignments to freelancers with good ideas and then never seen the story. The editor wants a professional, someone they trust to come back with a story that can be published. Saying you freelance can mean that you just graduated from college and can't find a job, and being unknown to the editor they probably won't even look at your story idea. You need to network and get in with the editor, so they trust you and take your ideas seriously. This often means doing stories for free, simply to prove you can do it.

So freelancing means different things to different people. In Dallas, Texas, we formed the Freelance Alliance which meets to here about the best practice for managing a business, and ethics. To the banker it means I'm unemployed. So many of my friends look for new titles, some forming businesses so they can put LLC after their name or add "media consulting, or "editorial consulting."

Consulting is for IT industry and technology, freelancing is for creativity and nothing to be ashamed of.

The photo story in the 21st century

Covering energy I pulled together photos taken of oilman T.Boone Pickens at a book signing combined them with photos shot at a town hall meeting in Fort Worth and posted it as a "picture story" at the "citizen journalist" web site Demotix.

A little photo story like I use to do for the San Francisco Examiner and the Aspen Times. Photojournalism tells a story and is a series of photos. It works with words to tell the whole story.

I've been looking for this type of web site, I tried Flicker, which is a snapshooter paradise, landscape photographers and digital artists. It maybe nice for families to communicate, but not journalists.

Facebook helps share my images with friends, but Demotix is photo reporting. And, you don't have to pay them a monthly rent, if the photos sell they get 50%. It reaches both online and print pubs and I look forward to posting more picture stories on energy.

Just like the good old days.

Pickens Plan story

http://www.demotix.com/news/pickens-plan T.Boone Pickens acknowledged that he's old (80 yrs) and has plenty of money (billionaire), but isn't going to sit back. Although he has nothing to prove he sees importing oil as stupid. Not good for the economy, because foreign powers simply can stop the supply and force the government to comply with their wishes or it raises the prices. Take advantage of what we have, natural gas, wind and sun.

Left my lens cap in San Francisco

I was there in "Bagdad by the Bay" as San Francisco columnists called San Francisco. In 1971, some called a suburb of New York City because a lot of writers lived there but worked for publications based in NYC. It was home of the Rolling Stone Magazine, which had to move to NYC. This was where Bill Graham presented huge concerts at Filmore. Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island, Black Panthers marched in Oakland, Xerox invented the desktop computer in Palo Alto, there were weekly war protest. It was an interesting time to be in San Francisco.

I'm wondering if this was happening throughout America or was San Francisco and the Bay Area unique. I don't remember any other spot in the country where so much was happening. Bay Area Rapid Transit was almost ready to begin service, and Castro street was starting to hop to a different beat.

The Church of Scientology was booming and holding meetings in warehouses south of Market which were being converted to artists lofts. San Francisco was unique and different from the other parts of America. I wonder if it is still on the cutting edge? The paper covered press conferences called by unknown groups protesting this and that.

I photographed roller derby, veterans returning from Vietnam, protest marches, occupation of the Vietnamese consulate, Patty Hearst's kidnapping, along with festivals, sports, as well as, the traditional newspaper assignments covering fires and accidents for the San Francisco Examiner. I won California Photographer of the Year in 1972, and at the time I didn't think my portfolio seem to be much different than what a photographer anywhere in America might have seen.

For a newspaper photographer the portfolio was judged on versatility, ability to come back with a publishable sports photo, portrait, news photo, feature shot and picture story. Tri-X and be there.

Now they admit it, we are low on oil

Now they say it. Story in The Guardien newspaper in United Kingdom reports on International Energy Commission report on how we have peaked on oil reserves. Move over oil, let natural gas take over.

I'd like to see:

1.) Company fleets, trash trucks, UPS, etc. get off diesel and onto compressed natural gas, CNG.
2.) New homes and existing homes come with CNG hook ups
3.) More CNG passenger cars/vans/pick-ups on the market.
4.) Tax incentives to make the switch to CNG
5.) Every gas station have CNG pumps.

It isn't that complicatied or difficult to get off oil and move to more environmentally safe natural gas. I'm interested in helping show how easy it is with words and pictures, online or in print.

Kanza Folk Art is tied to the land

http://dgorton.com/liggett/m_t_liggett.html Mountains aren't going anywhere, but when you see a folk artist's you have to take a photo.

Creative and inventing figures out of scrap iron, but Liggett wants to speak out and rather than writing letters to the editor he uses art.

Photographers are inventors.

Every once in awhile someone will contact me about how I invented the Domke Bag. The secret is that a lot of photographers had the same need and I was lucky. Right place and the right time.

I had been looking for a better bag since I was in college, going to army surplus stores and sports shops looking for bags that might work for camera gear rather than fish. I was satisfied with the Orvis fishing bag, but it wasn't perfect. Nothing would have happened until the Philadelphia Inquirer director of photographer, Gary Haynes, hadn't gotten tired of replacing camera bags and was willing to buy enough for the entire staff.

Instead of trying to find someone who knew how to sew to make just one bag, I was looking for someone to make 20 bags and a local awning shop could make money filling the order. Nobody wanted to make just one bag.

As far as the awning shop was concerned, it was a chance to use up some scraps they had lying around. But we wanted the camera bag had to be stronger than the Army surplus bags that the paper was replacing every few months, when the strap or seam ripped. #8 canvas duck, heavy industrial sewing machine and sew the strap all the way around the bag.

I never thought about making it a business, but with the large order from the paper, I'd converted my fishing bag to be a real camera bag. Dimensions had to be changed to better fit cameras and lenses, rather than fish. Also, why not put pockets on all the sides (including the top flap)! Leather was too expensive, so keep it in canvas. It just needs to be strong, rugged bag. Nylon was too light, adding padding takes up room and reduces flexibility.

The timing was right, there was a real need, and my boss was cheap. Competing with the Philadelphia Bullitin the accountants were trying to hold down costs.

He also wrote a weekly photo column for the Inquirer and got the idea that he could sell the bag to readers, like the paper sold photos, it would help cut photo expenses. He had to buy film, chemicals, paper and cameras. By selling the camera bag to readers it would help reduce expenses.

Over a 100 readers sent money for a "Inquirer Bag," and the camera stores used it as an excuse for not advertising in the paper. The advertising department was furious, Haynes had to stop ASAP. But more people wanted the bag, I wanted to take photos.

I had one photographer tell me that if I wasn't going to do anything, they would. They hadn't done anything to help so far, so I'd do it. Then the paper went on strike. I was out of work, but the bag could be a part-time business!

J.G. Domke Enterprises, Inc started with a post office address a block away from the newspaper and working out of the house. Ordering 20-50 bags, it was good business for the awning business.

No planning, it just happened, the timing was right as new SLR's and accessories came onto the market, beating out Kodak's launch of the compact Disc camera. Picture quality won out and photo dealers liked selling extra lens, flash and a camera bag.

For the serious photographer he needed to carry lots of film, and lots of lenses to get the picture. The magazine photographers had to shoot one camera with color and then another camera with b/w film. A lot of gear and we exchanged ideas about how to get the most gear into the bag, taping film cans together helped, and gluing lens caps back to back helped.

I always worked with a bag, it wasn't a storage container, but something I needed to have so I could get the filter, flash, film, etc. ASAP and get the picture. For the newsphotographer seconds matter, and you can't come back the next day, you need to get the best picture and make the deadline. A professional camera bag is a tool.

More about cameras bags and inventing to some . . .