I'm thinking about weaning you, me and the rest of the world from the e-Promo and here's how:
My monthly email card is going out soon to my list of 7500 photo buyers. Between design, list management and email services, this gets expensive and time consuming.
The key to e-promos, as every photo rep will tell you, is consistency: Hammer the buyers with your name and a image relentlessly for a couple years and you will build brand recognition, or at least bug the hell out of them. Either way, you'll get noticed. And it does work. I don't hate it, but let's be honest here - it's just so much spam.
Life is short, and creative people would rather not spend it wading through hundreds of e-promos. True, the best get noticed, but the delivery medium is so constraining for both sides, don't you think?
Today there are so many better ways to connect on a more natural, and potentially personal level. So, I'm trying something new with this month's e-Promo. If the recipient follows me on Twitter, I take them off the e-Promo list.
Go.
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Do you hate the e-promo?
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Thanks to NikonRumors.com for featuring my motion work with the Nikon D3.
I thought it was fun to point out what could be done with existing caveman technology, coming on the heels of an announcement about the new Nikon D3s, which supposedly adds video capabilities...
Besides being an extremely popular site for - what else - obsessing over the latest rumors about new Nikon products (and Leica stuff), it's also a fun place to see what's going on in the photo world in general.
Speaking of which, I'll be giving a workshop about mixed media production for photographers at the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar in December. I'll be doing a walkthrough of the stillmotion workflow on the D3, and maybe the new D3s if I can get one in my hands by then.
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Rumored
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Just posted a snack from the first leg of the 2009 Triple Crown Bouldering Series, with footage from Brandon Ward, a a producer/director from Knoxville, TN.
Triple Crown 2009: Hound Ears Wrap-Up from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.
We'll be posting ASAP recaps after each event in addition to the regular Beta footage to keep it hype! Great job to everyone who competed and stay tuned to the Triple Crown website for results.
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It all started six months ago, post-pump at Fellini's Pizza with the usual climbing crew. We got to thinking about our old buddy Greg Kottkamp.
One of the most talented and understated rock climbers the South has seen, Greg was in medical school at the Medical College of Georgia, in Augusta. The closest climbable surface from there is one of the Atlanta gyms, 2.5 hours away. In the last few months Greg was making that insane day trip just to session with his friends for an evening study break, but now things had changed.
Word was that Greg's wife Katy, also a great climber, was doing her veterinary externship in Wisconsin, and Greg was dug in deep, diligently studying o-chem solo in his Augusta lair, with no time to flip through the latest Rock & Ice Magazine, much less get his climbing fix.
Now, Greg's a dedicated guy, and puts just as much focus on the books as on a sick redpoint, but everyone needs a break sometime. So after a couple Sweetwater 420s, we hatched a brilliant plan. Greg needed a climbing wall. A pimp wall, fit for a climber who can onsight 5.13 trad FAs off-the-couch, but also one that would integrate into his new lifestyle as a monkish med school gunner. And - the best part - it would be a total surprise.
Katy provided us with some pics of Greg's home office and the rough dimensions.
Greg's Lair in Augusta, pre-Pimped. photo by Katy Kottkamp
We knew we wouldn't have much time to install the wall once we got there, so we fabricated as much of the wall as possible, knowing we would have to be flexible with how it would attach to the structure of the room.
Chris Sierzant, owner of the Escalade Climbing Gym was our point man for the wall. Chris assembled the wood panels, which make up the climbing surface, pre-drilled and T-nutted to accept interchangable climbing holds. Kenneth McGinnis, an electrical contractor and veteran climber, also helped with the design, and would do the actual install, as well as any rewiring we would need since we would have to relocate some electrical outlets and lighting.
We chose climbing holds from Illinois-based So Ill. These guys make some of the best holds out there for training, and have some outrageous designs, including lots of anatomically-themed shapes that would be perfect for keeping Greg's mind on his studies, and body on the wall. Cooper Roberts of Big Up Productions donated some new films, and we would reconfigure the office complete with a Sony iPhone Deck to keep the psyche up. Josh Fowler was set to film the whole thing.
As the word got around, tons of people chipped in to help out. In the end, the biggest challenge was figuring out how to get Greg out of the house on a day when our crew could spend a day in Augusta for the install. Six months later, it all came together!
Below, The Crew: Clockwise from upper left: Danny Paulete, industrial sculptor and hardman, champion climber Kate McGinnis, her husband and longtime Southern strongman Kenneth, your's truly, climbing rep and idea machine Charlie Maddox, and her lesser half, Josh Fowler - a Nat Geo cameraman who can do pinchgrip pullups on a two-by-four.
We met early on a Sunday with a rental truck full of climbing goodness, with Greg safely out of town with the dogs. Greg and Katy were due back that evening, so we relied on Katy to stay in text-message contact with us during the install. Left to right: Josh, Charlie, Danny, Kenneth, Kate.
We got to Greg's house around noon, and got right to work. Moved all the furniture out and cleaned the space. Danny started crawling around in the ceiling looking for structural beams. The big question was, should we make it free-standing or could we attach it to the structure? Luckily, the room was perfect for the latter, and Kenneth and Danny were able to design an elegant, bombproof design with the panels Chris had prepped that would give us an 8' x 11' wall that overhung slightly more than 45 degrees - a perfect home training wall - and still leave space for the stereo and shelving on either side.
Early that afternoon it poured rain, so we had to continue construction inside. Meanwhile Charlie and Kate planned the post-wall layout of the new office, and we made a couple trips to the local hardware store, for a new fan, lights, a curtain to keep chalk dust contained, and other odds and ends.
Wall up, we were way ahead of schedule, with time to think about the details that would make life more bearable inside four walls (make that five now): pimp iphone deck, shelving behind the wall, new lighting, new outlets, new fan, efficient re-org...
We hit Waffle House while we waited for the increasingly shortened text messages from Katy: eta 2 hours... 1 hour... half hour... Would Greg confront Katy about all this secret texting and blow the suprise? Would the dogs come in before them and tear us apart? Would there be any beer left? Stay tuned for the video to see the conclusion to Pimp My Wall...
Todd Combs:
That's bad ass. I'm sure Greg will appreciate the stress relief.
(09.02.09 @ 04:46 PM)
Steve Bowman:
very impressive - both vision and stills
just bought a D300s and playing / we do mainly Transportation / Aviation/ Ships / Big trucks/ Trains
You should have a very ready market with a MAJOR library
worth exploring - miles of rubbish being supplied very few winners
I do have a long and good relationship with Corbis for what it is worth !!!
akornylak:
Thanks Steve - I've had a long and great relationship with Aurora Photos, which also distributes through Corbis and Getty worldwide.
(10.12.09 @ 02:18 AM)
Constantin:
Good job guys! Are you expensive? I have friends who may hire you :-)
(02.18.10 @ 07:46 AM)
akornylak:
Constantin- Thanks - probably not the most cost-effective thing to hire us to build a woody. But if you wanted to hire us to do another episode (episode 1 coming soon on video) let us know!
(02.19.10 @ 10:05 AM)
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Just kicked off a fun new series of videos for the Triple Crown Bouldering Series website called "The Beta". Each month these short pieces will introduce you to a new athlete and a couple boulder problems that will be in the 3Crown competitions this fall - the largest outdoor bouldering competition in the world. Check it out - click on the expansion icon on the lower right to view this HD video full screen!
The Beta - Controller from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.
Alex Menendez:
Kick ass clip!! I really dig it. I am just now getting involved in the sport (climbing gym in Orlando) and keep coming back to your site and links for inspiration. Please keep updating. alex
(08.24.09 @ 09:02 PM)
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Holy blackmail Batman. This could very, very well blow up in your face. "Follow me or I'll spam you to death" Rut ro.
(12.09.09 @ 07:46 AM)Fair enough, Tom, but these are folks on my regular consented mailing list. They can unsubscribe at any time but have chosen to accept my periodic promos (along with many others from Agency Access). So, not spam, not blackmail. Just offering a friendly alternative.
I should also mention that only a couple have decided to follow me instead of receiving ePromos. Too much trouble to sign onto Twitter? Maybe the ePromos are not as hated as I thought...
(12.09.09 @ 08:31 AM)