More Photos to Share…

I’ve had plenty of great photos pop up all over the world this month, whether it was my wire service images of the Tornado damage in Cleburne, TX, or my concert and music photos from various bands through their website and merchandise (one of them – Bowling For Soup – recently hit a million in sales for their single “1985“, so now I’m officially platinum!)  
I’ve also had a few more funs shots show up right here in Dallas.  The first is another cover of the Dallas Observer, and the second is another installment of the Perot Museum’s new ad campaign (my scan of the magazine is not the best, but it looks sooooo cool when it’s in your hands).  Both are great clients to work with, and I’m excited to share what I did with them:  

I had some more stuff run in the Dallas Morning News, and if I can track down copies of some of the European papers that ran my tornado aftermath photography, I’ll scan those, too.  Oh, yeah… and I found a newspaper in Ohio that ran some of my natural gas fracking photos here.  In the meantime, visit www.janikphoto.com to check out my other work!

Paperwork is never fun…

Just a note about the business side of photography.  It is never fun, but it is very important!  Today, I was going through my invoices and I noticed one client had paid me fifty dollars less than the invoice stated, one client is thirty days past due for payment, and another sent a check, but I had misplaced it in a pile of mail.

If I didn’t have a clear and consistent billing system, I wouldn’t have caught these issues, and I’d be out thousands of dollars!  I have a very basic, but very accurate invoice tracking plan, and I know when something isn’t right.  If you are just starting out as a pro, you may think it’s easy to keep track of your payments.  True, as you are probably only doing a few shoots a month.  You probably only have a couple clients to track.  Well, that will all change as you add more and more clients, and it can get very confusing very fast!  So, develop a plan that is simple, and one that allows you to make sure everything gets paid… because, if you don’t get paid for that shoot, you just worked for free.

More Recent Work…

Some cover photos, some news stories, some non-profit work… it all keeps me busy!  Here is a recent cover story I did for the Dallas Observer about the 35 Denton Music Festival:











New August and J Music Video…

The new August and J music video has only been out for a week and a half, and it already has over 1.3 million views!  It’s great knowing it’s been so well-received!  I shot most of the content and was director on this project.  The story line was provided by one of the band members, and all the post/editing was outsourced.  It really was a team effort, which is much different than still photography.

Fort Worth Elementary School…

I recently visited an elementary school in Fort Worth, Texas and was able to take some Architectural pictures.  I like the timelessness of the images, as if the photos could’ve been made twenty or thirty years ago.  I wouldn’t mind turning this series into a full-blown fine art project some day, capturing behind the scenes rooms, overlooked details, and everyday objects found in public schools across Texas.  

My Photos Will Make You Smarter!!!

Well, my photo might not literally make you smarter, but it will help illustrate some important political points in a newly-released textbook.  That’s right, I recently sold another image to a textbook company, and my image of Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings is now in the American Politics Today/3E Texas Edition authored by William Bianco and David Canon.

It has a print run of 40,000 copies, so plenty of Texas students studying politics will get a chance to see my work as they study.  So, not only are my photos interesting and engaging, but they also have the potential to make you smarter!  Yeah, it’s a stretch to suggest that I’m making anyone smarter… I know, but it’s still cool to know my pics are in the classroom.