Artist Profile: Jordan Jansen

You never know who's watching. Got an email out of the blue from New York agency Electric Feel Management. They had just signed a young Australian artist named Jordan Jansen and wanted me to shoot his promo pics for his US promo. After reading the email I realised Jordan lives around where I do, and is in the same class as my daughter in school! Small world!
Initially thinking that I was refered by Jordan or his family here, I later found out that they had never heard of me and the referral came from the US! So I'm thinking I gotta thank my web and marketing guru Mike. Thanks Mike!
The shoot went fantastic, and its great working with someone who is a natural performer.  Gotta thank Electric Feel Management and of course Jordan and his family for working with me on such short notice.
P.S Jordan, thanks for tweeting me a shoutout to your 11000 plus followers on twitter!

Final images to be released soon!

Stay tuned for more from Jordan, word is he's gonna be huge!

For the Techies here is the equipment list of what I used:
Canon 1DsMkIII
Canon Lenses, 17 - 40mm, 50mm, 20mm
Gridded Alien Bee AB800 hooked up to a Vagabond II battery pack
Triggered by Cybersyncs

It's what you do on the way that gets you paid

Been doing a lot of networking lately with other industry people, doing the "rounds" so to speak. Namely advertising agency ceative directors and promotional representitives. During one of these networking meetups, I was talking with someone about what people are actually paying for, is it the equipment I own, my ability to focus, my knowledge of lighting properties and shaping light? To a certain extent, yes. But are those things essentially what people pay for? Absolutely not. Here's why:
Taking a photo is actually pretty easy. Most photos are taken with up to 3 lights max, some technical knowledge of camera and lenses, and click! in as fast as 1/8000th of a second, you have your image...pretty simple huh?.
Now, if you're one of those that think that if you get all the same gear, punch in the same settings, and you're going to achieve some great shots and get paid a decent amount, you gonna be pretty disappointed. And the reason why is that clients aren't paying you for that. On that level photography is incredibly easy.
What you're being paid for is what you dont use the second you click that shutter. The planning, concept, research, direction etc etc, all the way up to the point that you push the button to capture it. That is what makes you a pro.
Take the photo above for example, one light, one click of the shutter. Model Kaylyn's shirt said "All the Plans We Made Are Going to Fail". Luckily for us her shirt was wrong.
View the whole series here

And the Winner Is.........

Jai Mitchell and the Grassroots Street Orchestra!
First of all a massive THANK YOU to everyone who applied, emailed, said they're were going to apply but didn't, and even booked fully paid commercial gigs but didn't apply (true story) over the last month.
There can only be one winner so Jai's appication takes the cake for a few reasons:

• His initial post on my Facebook Wall "Yo Kenny, save a mofo a penny" showed personality, creativity, and a personal favourite of mine, swearing without actually doing so.
• Then he sent me a message saying him and the GSO liked what I do and how I do it....flattery will get you EVERYWHERE.
  
• Next, his follow up email detailing his proposal of WHY he should win was perfect. In 4 paragraphs he told me about his band, their vision, and the fact that they had blown all their resources on hiring top end studios cutting their first record and were out of money to pay for much needed promo images for their advertising; a sign of a creative obsessed with achieving excellence in their product, I like that A LOT. He even included links to their Myspace page so I could check out their music online, and I DIG it. He ended by giving me a list of all the gigs they had coming up locally so I could check them out live.........A+ for delivery.

Congrats Jai, let's DO THIS