Using Visual Media to Fight Back

Too often companies ignore their customers, the people who pay their salaries. Wonderful opportunities to improve the business or create a raving fans for the business are lost because the company ignores the most important people, their customers. Customers just want to be respected and treated fairly and that is so easy to do so why do companies blow it so often?

United Airlines is a great example of a company mistreating a customer to avoid dealing with a problem. When they refused to compensate a passenger whose guitar was broken by baggage handlers the passenger created a video about the incident and posted it on youtube. The story went viral putting a negative view of UA in front of tens of millions of people. 

Find out more here...

This persons use of social media has become a worldwide sensation and has led to the US government creating legislation to protect airline rights.

All images and text Copyright 2009 Brett Gilmour

Links to our articles are welcome.
If you would like to reproduce any part of this article written permission is required, contact Brett Gilmour Photography and we'll be happy to provide it along with hi-res imagery for any print or magazine requirements. Sphere: Related Content

Has Marketing Changed in 50 Years

Came across a clip about marketing on youtube today. This is a great illustration of why sticking to the fundamentals is always a smart move. No matter what technology is invented the most important tool in the marketing chest is an understanding of your customer. Watch the video for more.

All images and text Copyright 2009 Brett Gilmour

Links to our articles are welcome.
If you would like to reproduce any part of this article written permission is required, contact Brett Gilmour Photography and we'll be happy to provide it along with hi-res imagery for any print or magazine requirements. Sphere: Related Content

Brett Gilmour on Chase Jarvis Blog

Over on Chase Jarvis' blog there is a debate raging about what "pure" photography is. Surf over and have a read through the comments about what constitutes a "real" photograph. Look for my comment and replies to it about 1/3 of the way down the page.

The debate goes to the heart of an age old question, what is real? Whose version of history is correct? Do I see the same blue as you see, my colour blind friend always reminds me that he can't tell which 'blue' thing is the nice one. Whose God or Dog is the best? Is Dog real?

Too often we get caught up in the questions and debate instead of getting to the action of creating. Getting things done is the important part of life. Not many of us are remembered for our philosophical slant on a particular hobby rather we are remembered for what we contributed to this world. So go out and test, experiment, push boundaries and create things.

All images and text Copyright 2009 Brett Gilmour

Links to our articles are welcome.
If you would like to reproduce any part of this article written permission is required, contact Brett Gilmour Photography and we'll be happy to provide it along with hi-res imagery for any print or magazine requirements. Sphere: Related Content

Brett Gilmour Backdrop: How-to Create Time Lapse Interior Photography, DIY

Learn how to DIY with this Backdrop article. Backdrop is our new series of DIY photography articles where we give you a behind the scenes look at how we create photographs.

Our client, Waterfront, wants to show off the pocket doors leading to a bedroom show suite. The 420 sq. ft. condo doesn't have many options for camera placement or lighting so I suggested we create a video to demonstrate the clever dual pocket doors. You can see some of the photographs on their web site.



Step 1 . Establish the camera position
Choose a camera angle the best shows your subject and allows you to come and go without moving the camera.


Step 2. Set up the lighting.
We put Profoto Acute 2 head with a zoom reflector directly above the bed and bounced it off the ceiling using a Manfrotto convertible boom . Another Acute 2 in a 3'x4' softbox lit the kitchen , a 2nd Acute 2 with 3'x4' softbox lit the living room and patio, 1 Lowel DP 1000W tungsten light with colour correcting gel was aimed at the print in the hallway, 1 Lowel 500W tungsten light mounted at floor level lit the edge of the bed and the night stand.

Step 3. Shoot
The camera must be on a solid tripod for this to work. We used a remote control to make sure no vibrations or camera movement was introduced into the images during the shooting. We made exposures with the pocket doors in every combination of closed, open, and partially open. All images were made at the same exposure.

Step 4. Post-Production
Choose your favourite combination of images. Convert them from RAW to your favourtie archive file such as .tiff, .psd, .dng and create your Finals. Next create 72ppi jpeg images sized down to about 400ppi (pixels per inch).

Step 5.Turning Stills Into Motion
Combe a series of still images into a movie. I use Apple's QuickTime Pro. Quicktime creates the movie from a folder of images you select. Set the frame rate to a speed of your choice based on some trial and error. That's it, a series of still images can now be played as a video for presentations or on a website Sphere: Related Content