Wow. I don’t even know where to begin. It’s been far too long since I last blogged. Granted, we’ve been in Tennessee for the past 8 days, and our schedule was pretty nonstop the entire trip. But still. I know you faithful blog readers still come back to check for updates, and I’m sorry I’ve been disappointing you lately! Trust me, there will be PLENTY to blog for the next couple of weeks.
Before we left, I had been complaining about not having enough rainy days here in Utah. This whole dry climate thing is kind of foreign to us. It rained quite a bit in early June, but after that, there were literally two days of rain in, oh, almost 3 months. WEIRD. So sure enough, we get to Tennessee and it rains EVERY SINGLE DAY. We’re talking cold, windy, dark, depressing rain. So it was great the first couple of days, but when I had five photo shoots to do mostly outdoors, I kind of panicked. It was definitely one of the more challenging situations I’ve been in, having to shoot outside when it is literally pouring. On the one hand, overcast days are generally optimal for shooting, as you don’t get a lot of squinty glares and harsh shadows and bright spots, but on the other hand, worrying about getting all of my gear wet was a little nerve-wracking, to say the least. But I’m glad to have had the experience, because I definitely want to be prepared at all times to shoot in any condition.
Last Saturday, we flew into the Nashville airport late in the afternoon and met Grandmother and Grandaddy and Uncle Mike and Aunt Paula for dinner. Jamie made the mistake of announcing that the cheesy bread at this restaurant was probably the best he had ever eaten, and Grandmother spent most of the rest of dinner trying to make sure he took home a to-go box full of them. She gets very concerned about food situations, which is really funny. We talk about and eat a LOT of food on the Harris side of the family. :) Then she sent us home with a chocolate chip pecan pie, which for Jamie may as well have been the keys to the pearly gates of heaven. He had that pie demolished in two days flat. One morning I came downstairs and he was holding the entire pie pan in his lap, eating straight out of it. He consumed probably 1/3 of the whole thing… for breakfast. When I asked him last night what his favorite meal of the week was (because there were a LOT of contenders), he thought for a second, and then responded, “Grandmother’s pie.” Oh boy.
So then early Sunday morning, we got up and drove to Asheville for Leila and Vidur’s wedding at the Claxton Farm. Thankfully, this was the one day that wasn’t gloom and doom outside, because the entire event was outdoors. And it was SO lovely! When I blog it, I’ll give you all the details, but it was most definitely a fun day. I can’t thank my mom and Jamie enough for coming with me and assisting with posing and shooting and lighting and everything else. I couldn’t have done it without you guys!
We stayed the night in Asheville, then got up the next morning to do a morning-after shoot with Leila and Vidur. Of course it was POURING again, so we had to do some improvising, but I think it turned out well. Then we drove back into Knoxville, just in time for me to make my way over to Heather’s house for an awesome shoot of all her baked goods she’s selling through her business, Sprinkle Bakes. She is unbelievably talented, but again, more on that later. Then I drove back to my parents’ house, and my mom cooked an amazing dinner of steak and salad and sweet potato casserole. To die for. Sometimes Jamie and I attempt to cook for ourselves, but usually, if we’re even at home at the same time, we’ll get into some argument at the grocery store about what to eat, and Jamie will moan and groan because he doesn’t want the kitchen to get messy and - God forbid- to have to do dishes afterwards, so most of the time it’s not even worth the hassle. Instead we rely on cereal (usually about 8-10 different varieties) and 99 cent Totino’s pizzas to meet our nutritional needs. So of course we were in HEAVEN all last week with all the amazing meals we got to eat. Nothing like good Southern cooking to satisfy the soul.
Tuesday morning, we got to sleep in… til 10:30! It was NUTS! What with school and work, and then of course our precious dog who regularly wakes up before 6 am pawing at our faces and scratching the door to get breakfast, we never get to sleep that late. It was glorious, especially after such an exhausting weekend. Then I went to Starbucks and got to hang out with all my old friends and make sure nothing had changed TOO much while I’d been gone. I was so glad to see everyone again. Later, we met my parents at Fuji for dinner. Oh Fuji, how we had missed you and all your tasty shrimp-saucy-ness. Mmmm. We loved seeing our favorite waitresses there too. They know us all, and what we order every time, and they were so happy to see us. They are, hands down, the best waitresses. Ever. Then we got to follow up that with $2 pint night at Barley’s with the Starbucks gang, and I seriously have not laughed so hard in a long time. We finally rolled back into the house around 1:30 (which is LATE for us these days!), and then the next morning…. slept until NOON. I repeat, NOON. Who am I?! After being lazy for awhile, we hung out at Starbucks some more, and I got to talk to my friend Sarah for a couple of hours about photography, which was neat-o. She just recently purchased a Diana camera too, so we compared notes on that, and -jealous!- she has a ring flash that attaches to hers that I got to play with a bit later on. Super fun. Our conversation also prompted me to go to Urban Outfitters’s website (because they sell all that cool old camera stuff) and I seriously almost PEED MYSELF when I saw THIS: a tiny digital video recorder that mimics the look of the old Super 8 mm footage. (Those of you who are blog followers will know that I am OBSESSED with this look, and have wanted to get into doing it myself, but all the cameras and film are sooo expensive that I’ve never been able to.) It holds little SD memory cards, which can record up to 2 hours of footage at a time. Are you kidding me?! AND it’s only $170. I told my parents that I finally knew what I wanted for Christmas this year!
Wednesday night, we went over to my Aunt Sandra and Uncle Chuck’s house for dinner. She cooked fried chicken and green beans and mashed potatoes, and we had strawberry shortcake for dessert. Once again, we stuffed ourselves ’til we were in pain. I’m pretty sure Jamie had two full plates of food. It was good to catch up with them, and to play with their dogs for a bit, since we were without our Gretchen. :(
Let’s see…. then we came home just in time for Glee. Duh. And I worked on some editing. Then crashed.
Thursday morning, I got up early and headed downtown to do a shoot for my friend Gwen from way back in the Starbucks Turkey Creek days. Which, despite the dreadful weather, turned out pretty dang good, if I do say so myself. Gotta learn to work it, no matter what! Then I dropped by Carrie and Shane’s house so I could see my little Harper, who thankfully has not grown TOO much in the past 5 months. Now she dances like a madwoman, and she can say her name, and Mommy and Daddy, and she kept telling me to sit. It was adorable. Carrie showed me her little Halloween costume, and she’s going to be a geisha/samurai. With her hair pulled into a bun on top of her head and everything! Can’t wait to see those pictures.
Next I headed to Tomato Head (which I had SO been missing/craving the whole time we’ve been away from Knoxville. Tuscan chicken sandwich is where it is AT) to meet Erin and Sarah for lunch. So tasty. And we geeked out the whole time over photography stuff, which was equally awesome. Originally, we were supposed to do a shoot with a local band called Seeing Skies, because we know Parke from Starbucks, but that sort of fell through, and we still really wanted to shoot together, so luckily, Sarah asked one of the girls in the youth group she mentors if she’d be willing to model for us. Oh. My. Goodness. It was amazing. You can tell Tori had been keeping up with her America’s Next Top Model, because she was fierce and WORKED IT OUT. Can’t wait to share those images with you.
And THEN we went with my parents to Aubrey’s another Knoxville favorite that Jamie had really been missing. Aaron, the little boy my family has been babysitting for almost four years now, came with us. That child truly says the darndest things. He calls my parents Poppy and Lainey, and when Lainey took a french fry off his plate to eat, he informed everyone at the table that this was NOT the kind of food God wanted us to share. (Apparently He only wants us to share when Aaron is on the receiving end. :) Or when it’s something he doesn’t like.) He wanted me to taste his Dr. Pepper, and when I did, he wiped off his straw with a napkin and told me I slobbered on it. He is pretty hysterical. And it was so sweet… In the car on the way to the restaurant, he was quiet for awhile, and then suddenly he looked over at me and said, “Morgan, I’ve really been missing you when you were gone.” I nearly started crying. I love that boy.
Later that night, we met up with Amanda, a girl Jamie used to work with at the Episcopal School of Knoxville. She is HILARIOUS. And she has the worst luck of all time. For example, she had just been hit by a car…. and the driver sped off. So she was in pretty bad pain. But she’s such a trooper, and I’m glad we got to see her. Then we went over to Bryce’s (Jamie’s friend and best man) new house to hang out with him for awhile. My favorite moment of the night was when Tim, another of Jamie’s friends and Bryce’s roommate, came home with a huge bottle of Sauvignon Blanc… to drink by himself. After discussing the ins and outs of wine, we were talking about the stemless wine glasses we have that we really like, and Tim was like, “Oh! I have some of those! Like these?” And he opened the dishwasher and pulled out a plastic University of Tennessee tumbler. Oh my stars. I almost died laughing.
Friday morning, after stopping by Starbucks to say goodbye to everyone, we headed back to Nashville. We stopped halfway, in Cookeville, to meet my brother for lunch, since we hadn’t gotten to see him much, with him being at school in Mufreesboro and all. We ate at Cheddar’s and my mom and I split one of the most amazing sandwiches I’ve ever eaten. It was turkey and ham and Swiss cheese, but it was wrapped in almost a doughnut-like fried bread, with powdered sugar and a side of raspberry preserves for dipping. I know it sounds really weird, but oh man, it was GOOD. Then we drove on to Franklin, where we were going to meet my cousins Caity and Will for a photo session in the downtown area. While we waited for them to get off work, we wandered around and looked in all the neat little boutiques and shops. And I continued to sweat bullets because, once again, it was…. you guessed…. RAINING. And cold. And windy. But you know what? We totally worked with it. And I ended up getting some of my favorite images of the entire week.
Then we went to my Aunt Paula and Uncle Mike’s house for dinner- chicken casserole, rice, creamed corn, salad, and chocolate fondue for dessert- YUM. It was great to get to catch up with them before we headed to bed for the night. Saturday morning, we met my other grandparents, Nan and Pop, for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Country ham, biscuits and apple butter, scrambled eggs, grits….. more YUM. Doesn’t get any better. Then we wandered around Opry Mills for awhile to kill some time before we had to be at the airport. Theeeen we went to the airport and headed home.
Yesterday, our first day back in SLC, was glorious. The weather the past couple of days has been amazing. 70 degrees, sunshine, and the fall leaves changed almost overnight. I just want to grab onto this time period, because autumn is always so fleeting. It doesn’t stick around very long at all. And of course we were so looking forward to getting Gretchen back. Unfortunately, it appears that she shed some pounds last week, so we’ve been giving her LOTS of food to put some meat back on her bones. I hope she doesn’t hate us TOO much for leaving her behind. :) It’s kinda funny. Before we went back to Knoxville, I didn’t know how I would feel being back. I remember quite vividly my first time back home for fall break from college…. I walked in the door and burst into tears. I was overwhelmed with nostalgia and love and homesickness, even though it didn’t seem like I REALLY missed it while I was at school. But this time, that didn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong- we’ve missed our family and friends, and even some of our favorite restaurants and spots. But as a whole, I can feel that there has been a shift. For now, anyway, Salt Lake City IS our home. And it’s really beginning to feel like it. Yesterday, when we got home from church, we settled in, me on my computer editing and Jamie on his doing homework and Gretchen passed out on the couch, and we ate our Totinos pizzas, and we went to bed at 8:00 pm to read Stephen King books, and it just felt like home.
I’m sure this was FAR too much information for some of you, but I felt like I owed you something pretty big to make up for all the time lost.
And now for what we’ve all been waiting for: the sneak peeks! Enjoy you guys, and I promise I am working like a busy little bee to finish all these for you!
When I first began snapping away with a camera, I couldn’t stop thinking to myself, “Really? This is the road you want to go down? But it makes no sense.”
It’s only been in the past few days, after much soul-searching and re-searching courtesy of Seth Godin and Barnes & Noble, that something inside me has clicked. And it’s starting to make sense why, after years of busting my butt academically and churning out papers like crazy and thinking that OBVIOUSLY I would pursue some high-and-mighty “real job,” I’ve chosen to be a photographer.
In his book All Marketers Are Liars, Godin talks about how the most successful businesses and entrepreneurs are those who can tell stories about their products really well. He uses as an example Riedel, the company who makes wine glasses. They came out of the woodwork and told people a story of how different wines needed differently-shaped glasses to complement and bring out their unique qualities. And wine drinkers around the world bought it (heck, so did we… we registered for them for our wedding!), despite the fact that true blind taste tests showed absolutely no difference in taste when wine is consumed from a fancy-pants glass intended to coax out all its subtle notes and flavors than when it is served up in a regular kitchen glass. The truth is, as Godin points out, that we, as consumers, tell ourselves stories all the time, and we want to believe stories that fall into our worldview. We believe that buying organic food and taking our vitamins and buying the latest version of software will improve the quality of our lives in some form or fashion, regardless of any actual evidence to that fact. It’s all about perception. Something that very well may not enhance our lives actually does because it allows us to believe a story about our lives being better because of it.
So he got me thinking about this whole story-telling thing, and I’m starting to see that the puzzle pieces of my life that seem like they could never fit together actually do, because they all point to one thing: I am a storyteller by nature.
Rewind to the beginning of my life , shall we? Yep, I was the classic nerd. The one who didn’t play sports and had asthma and wore glasses and… read books. Lots of books. It wasn’t possible to go to the public library too many times. In fact, I was often disappointed that I could only check out a certain amount of books… even if the maximum was like, 20. In fact, I didn’t read- I devoured. So many of my childhood memories are attached to the stories and characters who played such an important role in my life. Alice and Peter Pan and Lucy and Ramona and Amelia Bedelia and Nancy and Max. Just to name a few.
As I grew older, it became pretty clear that my gift was writing. It was something that came so naturally to me, something that I didn’t really have to work at like I did at math and science and… ugh… gym. My favorite classes were always English classes. My favorite teachers were always English teachers. Though I didn’t always particularly enjoy the assigned readings, I loved writing about them. To me, there was something fascinating about reading and researching and then formulating an idea, an opinion, that somehow brought all that together in a creative and concise piece of writing. I loved printing out the final draft onto warm white paper that smelled faintly of ink, and then carefully stacking the papers and stapling them and presenting them in a crisp, new manilla folder. Yep. NERD ALERT.
This path continued well into my college life. When I first began the process of picking a major, I tried so hard to find something that seemed more “acceptable” than English. I went through phases of considering architecture, interior design, international business…. but at the end of the day, I had to follow my heart, and my heart told me time and again that my passion was writing.
Yet I also began being pulled in different directions. As I took a variety of electives, I found other little “mini-passions,” if you will. One of these was film. I actually ended up just being a couple of credits shy of a film minor, but alas, summer school just wasn’t in the cards for me, so I opted out. But I took some absolutely wonderful film classes, with professors who were SO full of passion for cinema. It was enthralling, really, because here was the chance, again, for me to write and to engage in a story, but this time there were so many other players than me and the author. Suddenly, I was paying attention to music and cinematography and lighting and wardrobe and facial expressions and tone and color… all of these other aspects that helped to tell a filmmaker’s story. And truthfully, I found it wildly fascinating. But I knew I could never be a filmmaker. In fact, I really didn’t think I WANTED to be a filmmaker. But I couldn’t help but wonder how this love for film could play a role in my future.
And now, here I am. A photographer. A professional storyteller. And my medium is no longer simply words, and my audience is no longer simply my professors, and maybe a handful of peers. I now have this platform fueled by a blog and social media and all sorts of other technology, to reach a broader audience. A MUCH broader audience, in fact. And I now have this instrument, a camera, to bring a whole new level to my love for storytelling. And better yet, the stories I am in charge of telling are… true. But not boring true. They’re there, and they’re waiting for my voice and my eye to share them with this newfound audience. What is so wonderful about photography is that it combines all of the creative forces that I’ve always felt have pulled me in different directions, not the same one: art, music, writing, editing, interpreting. And now I have so many more TOOLS beyond just words to tell stories: light, color, music, mood, directing, etc. Something I’m beginning to learn, though, is that it’s super tempting for many story-telling artists to let the tools be the end rather than just the means to the end. I’ve seen so many films, photographs, and essays that, while technically “perfect” and rather beautifully crafted, lack any sense of authenticity and emotion and inspiration, because they simply fail to tell a story that resonates with even a few people. I don’t want to be that kind of artist. The kind that cares more about the art itself than the purpose of the art, which I feel is to reach out to others, to communicate a message, an idea, an emotion, to reflect back to others their stories in a way that sheds new light and meaning on their lives. And I know I risk sounding like some more-philosophical-than-thou wacko, but it’s the honest-to-blog truth.
I’m also discovering that many of the things I do that are considered by many to be a waste of time, or at best just an entertaining way to pass the hours, is actually just ongoing research. Jamie and I watch a LOT of movies (thanks to Netflix and Redbox!), and some people think that’s stupid. But I truly find so much inspiration in them, even if sometimes they are awful. Because it forces both of us to think about the world a little differently than we did before, and, for me anyway, to analyze the art behind the story that was told. Jamie understands by now that I need a few moments of “quiet time” when the credits begin to roll to really process what I just witnessed and experienced. And then sometimes we talk about it. Sometimes not. But at the very least, what good is a movie, no matter how silly it is, if it doesn’t mean something to you, if there isn’t the least shred of authenticity behind it?
And this brings me back to the whole English major thing. I think it’s really tragic that I’ve been conditioned to feel a twinge of embarrassment when I tell people what I got a degree in. Like it was a total waste of four perfectly good years of my life. It’s also why it took me so long to come to terms with the fact that it’s truly what I wanted to study more than anything. But you see, there’s more to it than reading some books and writing some papers. English has taught me to be an effective communicator, and that’s a skill that has become fundamental to everything I do, be it leading a shift at Starbucks or editing a batch of images and putting them into a slideshow or making casual conversation with someone I barely know or writing this blog. And (most) everything I do somehow becomes a foundation for the next stage of my life. And that stage is now this: photography. It’s not the medium I began with. I haven’t had any formal training like I have with English. It’s not something I’ve been doing since I learned how to walk. But here it is, and now, NOW it’s starting to make sense how all the random things I love and have done fit together.
Recently, AMC has been doing a series of advertisements centered around this mantra: “Story matters here.” You may wonder why I bothered to delve into this much detail about my personal history when for crying out loud this is supposed to be a photography blog. I guess I just feel like I want you to understand that behind the camera, there is a human being. A hot mess of a human being, granted, but one whose life experiences and passions have completely and totally made her the person she is: a storyteller by nature, a photographer by trade. God help me if I ever start referring to myself in the third person as a means of sounding more professional. I can’t emphasize enough that more than anything, more than beauty or knowledge or power, I crave authenticity. That’s the kind of person I want to be. And hopefully that’s the kind of person you’ll trust to tell your story. Story DOES matter here.
And I guess since photography blogs don’t generally have this much text, and since I don’t really have any recent work to share with you, and I’ll give a little sampling of stories that have brought meaning to MY life:
I will be the first to admit it.
Yes, I was also a skeptic.
A skeptic of this whole social media thing (just seemed like a big ole party of narcissism). A skeptic of self-promotion (seemed kinda shamelessly sleazy and definitely not easy for a -mostly- introverted kind of girl). A skeptic of joining forums, commenting on blogs, sending replies on Twitter, etc. (why try so hard to be part of the bigger conversation if I don’t feel like I have anything worthwhile to contribute? and won’t this only keep breaking down “real” human interaction, the face-to-face, meaningful kind?).
That was then.
This is now.
Now, after having done a LOT of research via blogs, books, forums, Facebook, and Twitter, I’ve come to find that in order to keep my head above the water, I don’t have any other choice but to participate in the conversation while simultaneously building a distinguishable brand out of… wait for it, wait for it…. MYSELF! Eeeeek! I literally have to sell myself. But why?
I thought Jasmine Star phrased it really nicely in one of her recent FAQ blog posts (must-reads, by the way):
“Isaac asked:
What in your opinion is your competitive advantage? I’m going to ask a side-question as well that is related, but what do other professionals and/or your clients say draws them to you?
I’m going to be really, reeeeally honest right now. I don’t have a competitive advantage. There are literally thousands of photographers here in Southern California. All who take good photos. Many of who shoot with the same camera I do. Most of who edit in Photoshop the way I do. All of who love the art of photography just as much as I do. What sets me apart? ME. So, if this can be a considered a competitive advantage, then by all means, I’ll rock it out. However, this also means that anyone can be their own competitive advantage…which is awesome! Everyone is truly and uniquely created and that’s precisely what photographers should leverage as they’re greatest competitive advantage.”
And I’ve been reading all sorts of stuff that basically says the same thing: Mastering and selling your art is essential, yes. I’m selling a service. However, I am also selling an experience, and that experience is, when it comes down to it, ME. And it’s taking some major adjustment to get used to this idea. I’ve always seen people who talk about themselves all the time or update everyone on what they’ve been working on or what their latest achievements are as being… well… stuck-up and self-centered. And I’ve never wanted to be, or to be perceived as being, that way. I’ve always been the keep-your-head-down-and-work-your-butt-off-and-maybe-you’ll-get-recognized-for-it type. Which is partly because I can, at times, be socially awkward. (I can hear the collective gasp as I type this… :) ) Of course everyone likes being recognized, but there’s something about the spotlight that is intensely intimidating and embarrassing for me. So to have to learn how to graciously accept praise (and humbly accept criticism) AND praise myself in a very public way is… hard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no saint. I love attention as much as the next person. But purposefully drawing attention to myself is not as easy as it might be for other people. Heck, I would LOVE to be able to do it without batting an eyelash. But it’s hard. Plain and simple.
However, I MUST do it, because that’s the only way I can build the Morgan Trinker brand. A brand isn’t just a logo… the golden arches, the Nike checkmark, the white apple…. it’s an idea, a feeling, associated with a person and that person’s business. Think Martha Stewart. Rachel Ray. Oprah. Donald Trump. Brad Pitt. For the most part, the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear these names isn’t a logo. It’s an emotion or idea you connect with what that person stands for. Luxury. Self-help. Down-home cooking. Exquisite event design. High-profile. Established. Industry leader. Favorite things. Likable. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Obviously, those weren’t very specific descriptions, but you can see where I’m going with this. We attach feelings to people based on the brands they’ve built. And a lot of times, our spending habits and entertainment preferences reflect the impact that these brands have on our thinking.
Yesterday, I tweeted about the branding success by the name of Dolly Parton. I bet you $20 bucks you’ve already come up with ten thoughts/ideas/emotions you connect to her just by reading her name. They might be positive, they might be negative, but there they are. (If you want to know MY feelings about her, check out this blog post I wrote last year in her honor.) Anyway, CNN recently did a “Revealed” series on her and as I watched the video, I was particularly struck by the discussion of “Brand Dolly”:
Narrator: “After more than four decades in the limelight, Dolly has perfected the art of being Dolly.”
Dolly: “I’m in the Dolly Parton business. And I feel like I know how to run that very well. […] I’m a very professional me. I can’t tell you how to be or tell someone else how to be. But I know how I’m supposed to be.”
Narrator: “Dolly Parton is arguably as famous for the way she looks as for the songs she sings. Over the years, her iconic image has graced the covers of thousands of magazines. […] As Dolly’s music shot her to stardom, her flamboyant image also got people talking.”
Dolly: “Well, when people look at me, they see a lot of things, like, I guess first of all, you think ‘Oh my lord, why would somebody go out in public lookin’ like that?!’ But I know I’m a bit over-exaggerated. I wear too much makeup, too much hair. How I look is just a country girl’s idea of glamour. Back in my early days, I wanted to be pretty and I wasn’t, and I didn’t have anything, so I think when I got to where I could, I overdid it, and then I became comfortable with that, and that’s just how I’ve always felt, you know, just comfortable. This is how I look and I think people now, through the years, I’ve shown them that I’m a little more than what might meet the eye. Hopefully!”
Narrator: “But it wasn’t just an image she was creating. Dolly was more than aware that her iconic look was becoming her business. Brand Dolly was born. The strength of her brand is the result of years of her hard work to maintain it. […] Whenever Dolly is in public, Brand Dolly is in action.”
Dolly: “I do protect my brand, and I do protect myself. It’s an image, and I’ve created it, and I protect it. I think I owe it to the public. I think I owe it to myself. And I’m comfortable doing it. […] I would not go out in public without being made up and my hair fixed unless my husband was dying of a heart attack or something, and then I’d have to think about it. [laughs]”
Kenny Rogers: “Dolly has become a caricature of herself, and she plays that: Know me, know what I am, then watch what I can do.”
And how true it is, that her enormous fan base is as much a testament to her music as it is her image… because both work in harmony to create Brand Dolly.
The trouble for me, I think, has been figuring out my OWN brand. Deciding who I am, what makes me uniquely me, and how that can be a leveraged as an advantage over my competition. Because there will always be the rock star photographer with more experience, more expensive equipment, more off-the-wall creativity. So the only way I can stand out is to be myself, and connect on that personal level with other people, so that this is more than a business transaction… it’s a relationship, a connection, a signature Morgan Trinker experience. And because of this, Brand Morgan must always be in action, whether working at Starbucks, walking Gretchen at the park, leaving comments on Facebook, writing blog entries, etc. I have to start being a more professional “me.”
If you, like me, are trying to figure out how to build and maintain Brand You, here are some excellent resources to get your wheels turning:
The Business of Being Creative - blog by Sean Low
Photo Lovecat- blog written by photographers Anne Ruthmann, Christine Tremoulet, and Jillian Kay
Big Pink Cookie- another blog by Christine Tremoulet, devoted to running a creative small business
Seth Godin’s Blog - You may have heard of/read some of his fabulous business books, like Tribes, Small is the New Big, and All Marketers are Liars. The books are great, but his blogs have lots of handy information as well.
Good luck to you in building Brand You…. and hopefully as time goes on, Brand Morgan will be stronger and more recognizable than ever!
…. even if neither of us achieves the status of Brand Dolly. :)
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Amanda - Ok - - - I have been dying for some blog time with you! :) I loved reading about your visit to Knoxville. Next time you are in town I would like to schedule time for a photo session for me, Ricky and the kids!! We have not had a good picture made in a long time!! Glad you made it HOME safely! Love you
Gwen - Oh my I loved looking at all these sneak peeks! Can’t wait to see more! You have a great gift my friend!! :)
Ethfun - So…you took that picture in front of Franklin High?
As in, where I went to Highschool?
your work just keeps improving.
<3
amanda - Morgan! I am in love with your photography skills! Just so you know… whenever I need to have pictures taken you are the one I am going to call! Oh and P.S. I have to have surgery on my tail bone!!! haha