CK's Epic's

The opening paragraph of Moby Dick well describes my reasons for the "Epic"

Call me Ishmael...Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

Ishmael, "quietly takes to the ship" and I quietly take to my bike. Every so often I go on an "Epic." Basically consists of my motorcycle, a sleeping bag, my camera and a .357 snub nose revolver. The idea is to get out on the road and clear you head. To be as rugged and hard core as possible. I never take my iPod. I don't rent hotel rooms. One night I slept next to my bike in front of an ATM. That was my first epic, it lasted two weeks and I covered over 3,000 miles. Great thoughts and great pictures come from an "Epic." There is something about wanting to be completely alone with the wind and the road, but at the same time wanting to share that experience. This is where the camera comes in. There is something about a little bit of sacrifice and suffering that helps me take better pictures. The camera will never be able to let the viewer of the picture feel the temperature in the air dip slightly as you speed past a creek or the smell of the road change as you leave the shadows and ride into the light, but it is nevertheless a decent substitute. For some reason I alway feel like reading short stories about sailing ships on these trips. I feel some relation to those trapped in the middle of the ocean with no choice but to finish the voyage.

Now that I'm married, my epics will most likely change somewhat... for one, I'll have a traveling companion and won't be sleeping in areas that necessitate sleeping fully clothed with a holstered gun. Though, there will still be the road, the wind and the light. I think there will be the same need for the camera. Though the pictures will serve a different purpose, one of reflection rather than explanation.

PixelPost: The birth of a Photo Blog

So all three of you that are keeping up with this blog will be happy to know that I'm going to start posting a daily photo. Justin invited me into the "challenge," which, from what I understand is a weekly or monthly theme and basically a reason to post a photo every weekday. This come right on the tails of getting my new 50mm prime in the mail and just in time to get my Lens Baby 2.0 as well. I'll most likely do a review and gallery of the lens baby because I'm so dang curious about that odd little lens. So far I did a little shoot with the 50mm which can step down to a 1.8, and I've gotta tell you, so much fun. So far, my favorite lens is my work horse 70-300mm tele... this may seem odd, but seriously, I shoot more with this than any other lens. I have to say that without the image stabilizer, its completely useless, so don't "save" money by getting cheap imitations. One day, I'll grab the "L" series telephoto, but for right now, I like this one. In any case, I'm getting a new lens tomorrow and I'm excited so check my daily picture posting often!

New Homepage

Tonight my wife and a few others had "girl's night." This gave me a little time to get a new homepage designed and uploaded and gave her an opportunity to brag about me (or so she tells me). I had some trouble getting to this point. I really like a lot of the pictures I've taken, and to be honest I couldn't really choose between a few of my favorites, so I put them all together. I think it turned out pretty well, though I'm thinking I need to have more people in there... You can check out the new page with all the fun pictures at www.corykerr.com

My List: 1-2

1. Keep your promises.
2. Don't make promises that you can't or won't keep.

I said that I would expound on My List, which is a set of rules to work by in a small business. There are 60 rules, so more stories and expounding will be coming for a while.

The first two rules are dealing with integrity, the quality of being honest. Everyone likes to think that they are an honest person, what would happen if we all where?

Before I delve into a discussion of the financial benefits of keeping your promises, I'm going to discuss human nature for a bit. I think most people are dual-natured. Everyone is innately good and seeks out a greater good for those that surround them. Everyone is also innately selfish and shortsighted; we want what we want and we want it now. Left unchecked, people generally oscillate between these two positions. So within everyone you have a shortsighted and selfish side juxtaposed to a more long sighted and aware side.

This duality leaves us as business people to fight a constant battle in our minds and hearts as we make decisions throughout the day. Everyone really knows deep down that making and keeping promises is important... but what happens when it comes right down to the wire and you have to sacrifice a little? This is what I'll call crunch time. Its really easy to keep these rules when the money is flowing and you don't have any problems. The real test is when you have to dig down into the trench, hunker down and fight a mean battle; when the income slows down and you have upcoming expenses like payroll. This is where is it vitally important to keep your promises.

If you are viewed as a person with a proven track record of integrity then life in biz is a lot easier. Your employees will trust you when you need them too. Moral will be up because people will know what to expect. Your vendors will be more apt to help you out in a bind if they feel that they can trust you. You will make more money; a culture of promise keeping in your office will give you the confidence to avoid micromanagement and your employees the confidence to put their head down and do their work. Most importantly you can go home at 5 knowing that you haven't screwed anyone that day. Feeling like a worthwhile honest person is one of the most treasured benefits of following the list.

Big family get-together-potluck-meal-thingy

I don't really have anything real special to say in this entry. I've been meaning to post something for a while now. Malia and I had the family over yesterday for a big get-together-potluck-meal-thingy.
It occurred to me that I'm building a home now. I've lived with over 25 different roommates in the last 10 years. I've moved countless times in different states and different countries. I finally made it back home to Paso Robles. In the last year I've moved back home, become an Uncle, got married, went on my first cruise, shot a few weddings and edited a few more shows.
Anywho... We had the extended family over for a Sunday dinner. It was really nice to finally be able to host one of those. I feel a little old because of it, but it was really fun to have the Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Parents, Grandparents and Brothers all spread over my lawn and living room. Quite a good day.

Rules of Small Business

I've had some experience with small businesses in the last few years. There seems to be some similarities across the board. There are books written on this I'm sure, but here is my personal list that I try to live by between the hours of 8 to 5.

Does this mean that I keep all 60 of these all the time? I hope I will someday. What this list really shows is a series of pitfalls and wrong turns usually based on shortsighted, knee-jerk, emotional reactions to very difficult situations that seem to happen on a daily basis.

I'll most likely expound on these one at a time later with a few short little stories and examples. For now, enjoy my short list of rules to live by from 8 to 5.

Note: Some of these come from a religious stand point. Even for the businessman that isn't a religious person, these principles should ring true. Truth is true no matter how you package it. It just so happens that I am a religious person so I have a tendency to package things with the occasional scripture reference.

My List (in no particular order)
1. Keep your promises.
2. Don't make promises that you can't or won't keep.
3. Never take filthy lucre.
4. Keep the Sabbath Day holy.
5. Beware of pride.
6. Never lose money on a job. no matter how rich, impressive, or powerful the client is
7. Tie money to each contract. for as to track profitability
8. Recognize and admit your weaknesses and other's strengths
9. Pay people what they are worth
10. Do not manage emotionally
11. Do not purchase emotionally
12. Do not become emotionally detached. apologize sincerely
13. Make a little money on each job
14. "by the sweat of thy brow..."
15. do not convince people to buy things/services that they don't need
16. recognize when its time to fish or cut bait. Unfortunately, sometimes no matter how much time or money is invested, the best decision is to bail with whatever you can salvage.
17. explain to people what's in it for them, no body cares what's in it for you unless they ask
18. give the client a good deal
19. never work without a contract
20. spend less than you earn as a business and as an individual
21. know enough about your services to manage your employees effectively
22. choose to take critizm as research instead of an insult
23. never stop learning
24. take care of your image in the business community by being honest and fair to yourself and others
25. don't screw people... even more than not screwing them, take good care of people and they will take good care of you. Make sure that everyone in all facets of a deal (whether it be employee/employer or business/client) is well taken care of. This is financially beneficial rule.
26. "what so-ever you sow..."
27. charge for custom work
28. people who are doing work for you for free are idiots or evil
29. do not do business with idiots
30. do not do business with evil people
31. There is no free lunch
32. there is no "one" job that will solidify your future financially for the rest of your life
33. chasing after that "one" job will alienate all of your employees and your family, give you a bad rep in the industry, deplete your funds, and eventually compromise yourself. you will also eventually break or ignore numbers 1,2,3,5,6,8,10,11,13,14,16,19,20,24,26,27,29,31,32
34. In this order innovate, research, develop, test, then and only then sell
35. work with good people
36. Fire bad employees. Do not run a charity or halfway house in the guise of a business. Part of getting good people is sifting out the bad ones.
37. let the LORD guide your business
38. be a person that you would work for
39. expect to lose any money that you put into spec deals
40. have defined lines between your personal and your business finances
41. Give incentives for work above and beyond
42. Accountability is a two way street between the employee and the employer and vise versa (The employer is JUST as accountable to the employee, if not more so)
43. Offers training programs for employees
42. an employee cannot “steal” experience
43. do not give people the opportunity to screw you
44. do not expect everyone to screw you
45. no matter how well dressed, rich, or powerful a snake-oil salesman is, they should not be given preferential treatment, deals, or spec projects.
46. do not try to “make your money back” on duplication. In following 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 27, 32, 39, 40, 43, and 45 you will rarely need to “recoup” lost costs.
47. “to be in time means to change” -C.S. Lewis. Do not lament change in yourself, your company, the business world, or technology; rather, move with it, expect it, try to predict it, and let go of the past.
48. Expect things to depreciate in monetary value. The value of equipment is two fold and has nothing to do with what you paid for it: 1. how much you can make from its use and 2. creating a professional visual image to your prospective clients.
49. Understand and heed the concept of opportunity cost. (everything that you do is at the cost of doing the next most valuable thing because of the limits of time and resources) Example: it is not cheaper to build a make shift teleprompter compared to buying one because of the expense of someone's time who could be generating income elsewhere.
50. seek to understand people's motivation for actions that they take. This will help you both better meet their needs and evaluate their integrity. This goes for everyone: employers, employees, coworkers, clients and vendors.
51. Do not expect anyone under you to do anything you are not willing to do consistently.
52. People are a company's most valuable asset, if a company treats its equipment better than its people, then a destructive cycle will begin. The self-motivated, the talented, and the high quality employees will become frustrated and discouraged; they will most likely leave, those who do not leave will give up. The company will be left with the mediocre people who feel or actually are trapped in their jobs with no way up and no way out.
53. Small business owners have a tendency to be self-starting, creative, hard working, driven, self-sacrificing, frugal people who built what they have with the sweat of their brow... unfortunately, if these qualities are left unchecked they will destroy the owner. He will become bitter, cynical and paranoid. He will start to feel entitled and start comparing his amount of effort to his employees and resent them even more (ironically at this point, he will most likely be burnt out, not having given himself a break, and will be inefficiently going through the motions at work even though he still may be working long hours)
54. Draw lines between work and home. These lines include time.
55. Go home. Do not let your righteous desire to provide for your family keep you from being with your family. In the long run, what ever meager “extra” income you brought in whilst away from or ignoring your family will quickly be forgotten while the memory of your absence will be permanent.
56. Be ok with being wrong. Let others have good ideas and recognize them when they come. These ideas may be different than how you are currently doing things. If you have a group of intelligent people who all disagree with you on something, you are most likely wrong.
57. Surround yourself with people who are loyal, tell you the truth (even if the truth is that you are wrong), and will not poison the well with a poor attitude.
58. Choose your attitude and mood. You control your mood and outlook on life, you cannot control life.
59. Do not ask, imply, or expect people to compromise their beliefs or their family relationships. An employee is the most productive when his wife is supportive of his job and employer.
60. Any way you add it up, 2 plus 2 will always equal 4. If you are not happy with your results, don't get mad at the equation, change the variables. You are the most important variable and the easiest to change.

Moalos: Justin's Photog

A long-time friend of mine, Justin Wiebe, flew up to Portland to come to our wedding. He shot some great pictures of Malia and I as well as some awesome shots in and around the Portland LDS Temple there. I always get a little lens-envy when I shoot with Webe and this time was no different when he busted out his brand new midrange "L" series. In any case, he's got some great shots that you should take a look at on his photog "Moalos."

Wedding Pics

Ok, so I know that my last post said that I've decided on a gallery... well I changed my mind yet again and I'm testing a few out... I can't say that I like the interface of this one, but here are a bunch of pictures of Malia and I at our wedding last week... Anywho, in my next post I'll put some pics up of our Honeymoon Cruise. Have fun with these ones!