The Adventure of it All

A blog for all that inhabits me: Zacker Images, Papi Zacker, the Original Doug Zacker, Photographer, Turkey Rabbit My Website

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This Billionaire, Like You, Was Never Googled, Until Now

Imagine you’ve spent your life, which by now has spanned more than one hundred years, amassing an impeccable reputation. Part of that reputation is built on the inherent humility of avoiding the limelight despite being a billionaire within the crazy world of New York City real estate development. Then, out of the blue you are thrust front and center for being complicit in a scheme that earned New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver hundreds of thousands of dollars, led to him losing his leadership position in the assembly, and for which he is currently on trial.

All of a sudden your name is as well known outside of your profession as it is inside your profession. Well, maybe that’s a stretch since your name is legendary within your profession. The point is that articles are being written about you and your role in the scandal. And, what usually accompanies an article, whether online or in print? That’s right…a photo.

Having avoided attention for so long, few photos exist of you. In fact, a quick Google search reveals two photos: The first is a corporate head shot that has likely been provided by your company in the past. It is a nice shot that reinforces the stature you have earned. Someone in your office probably spent a lot of time convincing you that you needed at least one good photo just in case the need should arise. The second photo available is actually a series of photos that were taken three years prior at an event honoring you. Within the series you are standing next to everyone from your daughter to another honoree. News organizations are either using the corporate head shot or cropping you out of the event photos taken three years prior.

Here they are. I won’t even bother asking IF you can identify which one was cropped from a group photo.

If you had a choice of which photo to put into the universe under the headline “Developer Thrust into Scandal,” which would it be?

The man in these photos is Leonard Litwin. He is currently playing the part of you in the scenario I described above.

I would choose the photo on the bottom for what I believe to be obvious reasons - the biggest of which is that it is just a more flattering photo. The color is better. The angle is better. Mr. Litwin’s expression is better.

In the end though, this blog entry is not about Mr. Litwin. Take away the fact that Mr. Litwin is a one-hundred-one year old New York real estate tycoon who was thrust into the news by one of the biggest political scandals since Eliot Spitzer’s brief stay at the Mayflower Hotel, and he is just like you or me. After all, don’t we all live in relative obscurity until someone goes searching for us and comes across our profile on LinkedIn or other social media? And yet, given a choice between cutting ourselves out of a snapshot or posting a professional head shot, millions of people choose the former.

Just as amazing, millions of people choose not to have any photo at all. The basic need for a good photo in your LinkedIn profile or company’s website is a topic for another day, but for now, the one piece of proof I will leave you with is to ask yourself why all of the editors in charge of publishing Mr. Litwin’s story, chose to include a photo of him?

In case nothing is coming to you, here’s the answer: Because it attracts and holds people’s attention far better than a bunch of text.

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Met some more great crews today. All guys - still no women - away from their families. Interesting to hear about some of the obstacles they are up against, like not having enough backyard machines (those little robot looking things that can get through gates and work on the poles behind homes) which are essential for South Orange. Some more of the machines are on the way. Some crews have been delayed while they work through safety concerns. Apparently, the out-of-state utilities have stricter guidelines to protect their workers and PSE&G is pushing them to sink to PSE&G's level while working here. I'm sure no one wants anyone hurt while bringing the electricity back.

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The Faces of Power

I write this from my luxurious temporary home - the third floor guest "suite" belonging to very generous friends. We, along with hundreds of thousands of others are without electricity. Though PSE&G speaks about restoring lots of homes in the next few days, their handy chart shows that 114 people in South Orange will still be off the grid come Saturday. We may be one of those people. We may get power today or Wednesday. No one knows, and I am not optimistic. Why get my hopes up? We have generous friends, we are warm, we are together. Right now, we have everything we could need.

During the past couple of days I have taken to getting on my bicycle and riding through neighborhoods. I've seen lots of devastation. Today I started seeing work crews. Most of these crews have left their families to travel long distances to help us. Yes, one of the wealthiest corners of the country needs help.

I've started taking photos of these guys - so far I've only seen guys. It provides me with an opportunity to thank them for leaving their families to help us. And, I hope it gives everyone without power a bit of calm to know that these skilled men are doing everything they can to get us power. You or I may not be the next ones to get power, but someone is.

This particular crew is working on the corner of Midland and Richmond in Maplewood.

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Somewhere on the Cherahola Skyway in North Carolina. This photo goes with the blog post below about what it took to get this shot. Click on the photo to see the entire blog post.

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Photo Tip: Skill + Opportunity + Patience (and a little luck)

There's no debating that great photos require skill. However, they require a lot more. A technically skilled photographer with a great eye can not produce a remarkable photo of a car sitting in a an ugly, nondescript auto showroom as I'm doing now while I wait for my car to be repaired. The photographer's skill needs to be combined with the opportunity to be in a visually stunning place or the resources to make the humdrum space look magnificent. The skill and opportunity also require a big dose of patience to wait for the right expression from a subject, to wait for the sun to shed the right light or to wait for a distracting element within the frame to move over.

I recently helped a friend bring a car from Houston, TX to NJ. Along the way we drove on the Cherahola Skyway and the Blue Ridge Parkway, some of the most stunning roads our country has to offer. This drive, along with the fact that we were traveling in a Mustang convertible, provided a not-to-be-missed opportunity to get some great photos. So, I propped myself up in the back seat to capture the speed, color and twists of the road. It took some skill to set my camera to the proper settings and frame the car and the road properly. The resulting images were plenty good. But then, I received the little bit of luck that most spot photography requires. My luck came in the shape of an oncoming Mustang. I waited...and waited...then got the shot.

Above you can see the result.

The next time you are traveling, photographing your children or shooting sports, remember that whatever you may lack in skill can be greatly made up for with opportunity, patience and a little bit of luck.

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Avoiding the Tyranny of Homogeny

I think many of you would agree that Conan O'Brien's speech at Dartmouth was spectacular. I still have his mantra of "Work hard, be kind and amazing things will happen" flowing through my head. But, after seeing a NYTimes movie review this week for Conan O'Brien Can't Stop the cynic in me figured the Dartmouth speech, while excellent for it's humor, candor and life lessons, was just a PR move. That pushed it off the tip top of my list.

A couple of weeks ago, The NYTimes had a list of quotes from commencement speeches. Featured were some lines from Anna Quindlen speaking to the graduates at Grinnell College. She spoke about the commonly held belief that every generation is supposed to do better than the last - "ditch digger, to cop, to lawyer, to judge." She told the graduates that it's no longer expected because of the state of our financial mess. I remember that being said of my generation as well. And when that was said, I thought, "who cares." Who needs a bigger house or a fancier car. We should be striving to do better in so many other ways. That's exactly what Quindlen told those graduates as well only she did it far better than I could:

"But I suggest that this is a moment to consider what “doing better” really means. If you are part of the first generation of Americans who genuinely see race and ethnicity as attributes, not stereotypes, will you not have done better than we did? If you are part of the first generation of Americans with a clear understanding that gay men and lesbians are entitled to be full citizens of this country with all its rights, will you not have done better than we did? If you are part of the first generation of Americans who assume women merit full equality instead of grudging acceptance, will you not have done better than we did? If you are part of the generation that ditches the 80 hour work week and returns to a sane investment in you professional life, won't you have done better?"

She then spoke of the "tyranny of homogeny" and told the graduates that "the voices of conformity speak so loudly. Don't listen to them."

I believe that it's striving to do better that made many on Wall Street cut corners, break the law and bankrupt their neighbors. After all, lots of people were striving to do better than their millionaire parents.

So what does any of this have to do with photography? It is Anna Quindlen's definition of 'better' that prompted me to start this business. It's at the root of what propels me and it's what I seek to illustrate in my family photos. In those photos, I don't photograph a family's home, their cars or their stock portfolio. I photograph the love, joy and excitement they bring to one another, which is hopefully experienced in a fuller, healthier and more enjoyable way than the previous generation.

Here are some examples:

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School Spirit Day! If there's nothing to scroll down to, click on the header above and scroll down for more School Spirit Day photos.

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Photo Question: Do Smaller Photo Files Make You Look Thinner?

In addition to asking me to photograph their businesses and families, clients ask me for all sorts of things. The other day a client sent me a beautiful photo she had taken while on vacation. She wanted me to enlarge it and print it for her. The problem was her camera had been set to save files at the smallest size. The image was tiny and could have only been made into a less-than-sharp 4x6.

There are few, if any, reasons I can think of for setting your camera on a low setting: - You want to avoid ever having to download photos. - You believe the card that came with the camera is custom made for your camera and no other card exists that's compatible with your camera. - You think the larger files will take up more space in your house and you don't want to look like a hoarder. - You think you will look thinner on a smaller file (to answer the original question posed above, you will not) One of the great joys of photography, especially in this digital age that has photos residing on digital devices, is discovering you've taken a remarkable photo of a special moment or a remarkable place. The photo is so great that you want to hang it on the wall, frame it, print it, send it to someone, etc. You can't do that when it's on a small setting. Lastly, if you create a photo book you will also want large files. Kodak, Apple, Snapfish, etc. have pretty good quality books but the quality goes downhill fast if you are using small files. How big, you ask? With everyone so fixated on getting the highest megapixels, new cameras do not have to be on the biggest setting, unless you want a mega-picture hanging on your wall. Your camera should tell you the dimensions of the files, in pixels. You want the bigger dimension to be around 3,000 and you want the quality to be high.  can always reduce them later but to be safe, that's what I recommend. Saving large files on your camera will take up more space but they need to use your space efficiently is a great catalyst for editing - probably the most underrated skill in a photographer's arsenal and a topic for an upcoming blog post.

Below are photos from School Spirit Day at my daughters' school. It's a remarkable event that produces some of the greatest photos of kids. Although I ask, how can you not take great photos with blue skies, bright clothes, painted faces and excitement beyond belief. And yes, I shot them all on the highest file setting.

There's a place here for questions, so please feel free to ask anything you want about this subject.

A standing ovation goes to Mr. Tate and Mr. K who get the kids excited all year for this while teaching them mad skills for every sport imaginable.

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First Blog, First Post

So it's finally here....my blog. I don't use finally because I assume you've been waiting for this. It's me who's been waiting. However, I do assume a lot. I assume we all do. As we navigate family, work, relationships, reality TV, remembering when the trash gets picked up, etc., we have more and more information on which to make assumptions. In today's content-rich environment we are given lots of raw information and even lots of conclusions and opinions. In the end, it's up to us to draw our own conclusions - all of them based on...assumptions. 

What kinds of things will I be making assumptions about here...I am going to try to focus on the intersection of the two main drivers of my life - family and photography. Where I go with either of these subjects I've no idea but I find inspiration in each, I learn incredible things from each and each one can take on so many different forms, moods, shapes and sizes. Besides, if I'm going to keep this blog going, and perhaps even make it interesting, I need to focus on some things I know about. I'm not promising I won't go off in some strange direction though, so here goes....

As a photographer, my posts should include photos. The first photo in the first post...so much pressure. Do I use a client's photo? If so, which one. I'll avoid that question by posting my most recent photo of my family at a place that my family has frequented for generations, literally....

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