On the shoot I was amazed to see that in order to bounce off frighteningly high Singapore sky scrapers, and shimmy glass and steel walls, Sebastien and the two other runners in the campaign were far from extreme risk-takers.

In fact they were extreme strategists.

(I guess failure is not an option when your life is at stake.)

Their technique was fascinating to watch in action:

1. Visualise and strategise

Know the goal. Walk the route. Assess the problems. Count the steps. Eliminate risk. Repeat.

2. Focus and calm the mind.

Prior to each shoot the runners had their own unique practice. One meditated quietly in the corner. One held a headstand for 20 minutes with no arms. One practiced Tai Chi.

3. Take action

Face the challenge with calm and focus. Find the flow. Eye on the prize- no looking sideways, no distractions.

You don’t need to be flinging yourself off a wall to strategise wisely.

If you want decent representation, to be sought after by award winning creatives, to get in front of a new audience or simply a kick up the butt, it might be worth considering a version of these steps to get yourself on track.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Here’s the thing. People swam and dived in the waves around her and the lifeguards were oblivious. She was so terrified she couldn’t even move her limbs, so I dragged her, coughing and spluttering, closer to the shore, and finally convinced her to put her feet down.

It’s so easy to drown, even in reasonably shallow water, especially if you don’t believe you can swim. Panic and fear take over and paralyse you. Waves hit you and knock you back down.

And not everyone can see you’re drowning if you don’t ask for help.

You might not be in the ocean but it can feel like it sometimes.

Maybe you’re overwhelmed, stuck, or feel like you’re drowning in everything required to succeed as a photographer.

Maybe this year already feels like it’s too hard and you’re clutching at that boogie board, upside down where you’ll no doubt get a face full of surf.

I see you. It’s my special skill. (You’re welcome boogie board lady).

Marketing, meetings, producing, delivering, fitting in personal work….the never ending circle that is your life (let alone family, house and all the complexities of a goddamn pandemic which has been an ever-present threat and reality for the last 2 years) can absolutely be overwhelming sometimes, especially at the beginning of the year.

So today, the first day of February, and the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New year- the year of the Water Tiger- I want to extend a helping hand to you.

The Tiger’s strength, courage and ability to exorcise evil is thought to bring prosperity, and my goodness we need as much of all of that as possible.

The Water aspect apparently introduces open-mindedness.

Delia Lin, from the department of Chinese Studies at Melbourne University, says “people believe that in the Year of the Tiger, you’ve got the opportunity to renew everything … particularly your energy, your strength.”

So let’s renew. Next week I’ll be hosting a free workshop to help you get clarity, focus and direction in the face of all the change we’ve seen the last 2 years as well as a touch of courage and strength to get through.

Meanwhile, Gōng xǐ fā cái !

(Footnote: I have been lucky to have spent lots of time working in South East Asia over the last 20 years, and there is so much to learn from their vast and rich cultures. You can read some stories from my agent days, working as a photo rep in China, Singapore and Hong Kong here)

(They LOVED my work! They even contacted me! I am complete! )

But after the trillions of briefs failed to fly in the door (wait what?) the post review blues may set in.

Self doubt arrives fast on its heels as your Emails remain un-replied to, and the DM’s ignored.

(They probably hate my website. They’ll never hire me…They’re so rude!)

I have heard this so many times before. It’s like the seven stages of grief.

So if you could please park all your self doubt just for a few minutes and read these 4 suggestions, I promise you will feel a bit less rejected.

1. Never assume you know what they are thinking.

Your ‘worst’ meeting could have been your best. One of the ‘worst’ reviewers of a photographer who attended at CA+ last month voted the same photographer’s folio as his favourite. He just wasn’t a bursting-with-expression kind of guy. So stay in touch with everyone you meet, you just never know.

2. Don’t take it personally.

A lack of replies may have nothing to do with you. Some don’t reply to Emails full stop. Doesn’t mean they didn’t open it, or read it. Maybe they’re on vacation. Maybe they have family dramas. As a rep (and still now) I really struggled to get back to everyone who contacted me. But I always noted the ones that I wanted to keep an eye on. It’s most likely not about you.

3. Don’t ask anything of them.

Every time you ask them for feedback, tell them to look at your website, or ask them to get back to you, you are giving them a job! So don’t ask for a reply. Don’t ask what they think. They’re not stupid. If the right link is there and they want to find more, they will.

4. Don’t give up

One follow up is not enough. Neither is three, especially with social media. Stay in touch with them and keep sending updates of new work (you are shooting new work aren’t you?). Honestly, you’d be amazed at how few photographers (including your competition) give up much faster. Keep your comms visual, and inspiring, and keep going.

This is a long game, and you’re doing just fine.

Eye on the prize.

As I write this Email I’m sitting at the Sherwood Hotel in Queenstown, New Zealand. The mountains beyond the veggie garden are snow clad. Firewood is being chopped somewhere in the distance. The music is damn good.

I could have stayed at the more expensive Hilton Resort and spa. But this is my kind of place, with my kind of people.

It’s important to know who your people are, and they could be anywhere.

Over the past few weeks I’ve hosted Zoom rooms full of photographers and advertising creatives all meeting, sharing ideas and inspiration at CA+.

I’ve travelled to Napier and Waimarama to gather with creative people from across New Zealand and Australia commemorating the life of one of our much loved artists and musicians.

These experiences have reconnected me with people I’ve known and loved over the years. People from the advertising, music, photography, food and art worlds who share common ideals, interests and stories.

Your people are your best collaborators.

You can share your vision and ideas with them, and get honest, informed feedback.

They’re the ones that see your potential and understand your eccentricities and taste in fashion, music, art, politics and beyond.

Your people will probably come to your exhibitions, or cheer you along as you embark on a big project.

They may be on their own journey too, but they get you.

I was so happy to receive this Email last week, after CA+.

“Working with you this past year and being able to connect with people outside the US…. It’s the first time I felt like I found my people… and knowing they are out there…. That I’m not alone…. Wow, what a fucking power shift.”

If you’re ever feeling you’re alone on this crazy journey, perhaps look a bit further for your tribe.

They are most definitely out there.

“The story I’m trying to tell is about unity. I feel like we’ve all occupied our own spaces and built our crafts but ultimately we all have similar goals”

– Complex UK Jan, 2019

One of the best ways to do this is to procrastinate.

To delay or postpone something because it’s boring, unpleasant, or scary.

A hurdle if you will, that gives you an excuse to avoid getting to that next level.

So what are you procrastinating at the moment?

Your folio?

It will NEVER be perfect. There’s always another project that needs to be added. Save those shots for the next one. Show it online and avoid decisions about the cover and printing.

Your website?

Trust me it will never be ‘complete’. As soon as it is you’ll be sick of it. Build it so your dream clients can find what they need, and show only your most inspiring work. The rest is just bells and whistles.

Contacting new clients and reps?

They are not holding onto amazing assignments until you are ready. They are making work now. With someone else. Find an easy way to reach them, and do it now.

Taking that step into a new region or city?

They’ve never met you before. You can be whoever you want, in spite of who you think you are now. Shoulders back. Chin down (you know the drill). Zoom’s your friend.

Your next personal project?

Pick up your camera and start shooting. Anything! No one needs to see it unless you’re happy with it. Just do it.

Eye on the prize!

‘Doing it is forward. Not doing it is backward’

-Pema Chodon

Even here in the Southern Hemisphere where we’ve had relative freedom, many clients have changed how they work, and may not be in the office as often as usual.

In fact, even though many people are busting to meet ‘in person’ again, it will probably never go quite back to how it was.

I am constantly reviewing work online. Last month I was reviewing for Palm Springs Photo Fest. This week I’ll be viewing 12 live Series Project presentations and judging an international competition. Next month I’m reviewing at Creative Asia Plus.

So here are 5 things to keep in mind as you prepare your next folio or series of work:

1. Images are king. Curate your online folio with the same amount of care you’d invest into a printed folio.

2. Choose a presentation format that allows you to control the viewer experience of your images online. Make sure that design, spacing and pairings help make the right images shine. Don’t neglect this!

3. Practice presenting online so you’re comfortable with the process. Here’s a check list to run through to help you be better in front of the camera.

4. Allow the viewer to run the meeting. Let them move through the images at their pace and give them the space to enjoy the experience and ask the questions. It will be much more effective.

5. If you can meet someone in-person, don’t ditch the printed folio. It’s a rare and beautiful beast that will make the experience super memorable for your viewers, especially tactile creative teams.

In the run up to CA+, anyone who’s registered will be able to join our online hub and ask me questions about presenting online, as well as listen to me cover the above points in more depth to ensure our attendees are well versed in the process.

You’ll also get a full day pass to our inspiring speakers on 18th June.

Meanwhile, keep practicing being in front of the camera (and move that dirty laundry basket out of the background!).

It explains why I hear lots from photographers who curse their genetics and wish they were more charismatic.

But it’s not true.

Turns out the most successful people in the world, in ANY industry, have conviction. Oodles of the stuff.

In his recent podcast interview on ‘Hello Monday‘ Suneel Gupta, author of the book ‘Backable’, explained that he interviewed hundreds of decision makers and successful people, and surprised even himself with the results.

All you have to do is believe in yourself. Utterly. Whole heartedly.

If you genuinely believe you can become a renowned international advertising photographer, or a sought after artist, or an Oscar nominated film director, you can do it.

But you can’t trick yourself.

You must feel it in your gut. There must be no doubt.

How much conviction do you have in your ideas, your vision, and yourself ?

In my talks at Palm Springs Photo Fest this week I’ll touch on this, amongst more practical ways to break into new territories and smash your own invisible ceiling.

Join me as I present two of the four seminars, Target New Territories, and Cracking The Asian Market, starting Tuesday (Monday USA). You can find out more over on my events page

Sue Stubbs and I are weaving our way through a throng of mostly men, and into the bowels of a seemingly never ending warren of alleys. We try not to catch the eyes of dubious strangers and look straight ahead.

I hope we can find our way out if we need to, I think.

Five weeks earlier Sue joined 8 other photographers from around the world to conceptualise and plan a personal project to be shot in Bangkok. This was the first Series Project workshop– the brainchild of British ex advertising creative Billy Plummer, now one of the highest ranking advertising photographers in Sydney, Australia-  and myself.

Prior to creating the workshop, Billy and I realised that advertising photographers are so used to being given briefs by clients, that they’re often not strong at conceptualising their own ideas. No one was teaching them that. Why would they?

The irony is that photographers that do produce strong personal work are in demand. Ad creatives want to be inspired, and great personal work with an idea and well articulated message does exactly that.

So over those initial 5 weeks we jumped onto weekly Zoom calls, and Billy opened up the brains of our willing guinea pigs, a group of ad photographers from Vancouver, New Zealand, Paris, New York and Australia, showing them how to approach personal work in a completely new way.

When we all arrived in Bangkok, in week 6, the photographers had fully formed ideas. Treatments had been prepared, logistics had been worked out, and they were ready to hit the markets, rivers, engine workshops, Sepak Takraw courts and brothels, all with a well researched plan. For once they were treating their own work as well as they treat their clients. Bravo.

As with even best planned production for an ad shoot, there are always curve balls. When the Kathoeys (transgender individuals) who’d promised to meet Sue at our hotel for the photoshoot failed to turn up, she had to find an alternative solution.

My job in Bangkok was to critique the work produced every evening, and be available to talk to the photographers as they arrived back from an all night long mission, or needed a pep talk. To help them make decisions about what shots were left to be made. To help them flesh out their ‘why’. Whatever was needed really.

So, in the spirit of sisterhood, I agreed to accompany Sue in her search for talent in Patpong at night.

Truth be told, I’m always up for an adventure.

Up some stairs and into a bar, where naked women with tassels on their nipples dance around poles.

Nope, we say firmly to the somewhat suspect man who has insisted on making himself our guide, cigarette hanging from one side of his mouth, suit hanging off his small frame.

We want MEN DRESSED AS LADIES we say, for the third time. (We should have learned more Thai, I think.)

More convoluted turns down a back alley, and we’re in the cheaper district.

It’s almost a cliche.

A red lamp is suspended outside a small makeshift building. Kathoeys with torn fishnets loiter outside.

Inside everything is dark red. The lighting, the sticky carpet, the torn curtains.

Chief prostitute, Som Zaza, mans the bar. An elderly Australian man in a suit nurses a whisky on a red banquette seat.

This is not salubrious.

But it’s where we need to be.

Som Zaza is business-like and agrees that she and her girls can be photographed for a price. We arrange to come back the next day.

This shot above is one of the results of the shoot and others Sue made as part of her Bangkok Series project ‘Girls will be boys and boys will be girls’, and it can be seen here.

Since then there have been over 6 Series Projects, both online and on location, and the number of awards, assignments and success stories continues to grow.

If you want to inspire your clients, and stand out from the crowd with compelling personal work, you can find out more about The next Series Project here.

But no my friends. Fireworks.

The next day snow fell, gracefully muffling all noise, and I got on with visiting ad agencies with my photographers’ folios. Which, quite frankly was easier then than it is now.

In fact meeting potential clients and presenting folios has never been harder. It’s not like you can jump on a 747 and sashay into an ad agency in Singapore with your folio under your arm.

But grow your target market you must, because some of your clients are disappearing into the redundancy wilderness and you may need to look further afield.

Well I may be able to help.

On Friday 20th – Saturday 21st November you can be part of the third event introducing quality advertising and editorial photographers around the world (as well as their agents) to top advertising creatives and key decision makers in Asia.

CA+ is back, and it’s online.

The theme for Friday 20th is CHANGE and we want to put some of the top industry futurists working in the advertising, design and news industries in front of you. These are NOT talks you’ll find online.

Register by clicking on any of the red buttons on our website here to get access to 5 events including a panel discussion of amazing women in the industry, and 3 keynote speakers, plus an interview with the Director of Photography at Bloomberg and myself.

And just for today, ending at midnight NZT, you can copy and paste this code: ca+earlybird

Pop it into the payment form and it will deduct NZ 100, bringing the total to NZ 150.

Once you’re registered, you’ll also have the option to purchase reviews with up to 15 top decision makers from the 40 we have attending.

Meanwhile, it’s fireworks night here tomorrow. Even though I doubt it will be as dramatic as my Shanghai experience, last year the neighbour’s Cabbage Tree did catch fire and we had the entire Titirangi fire department outside our house at midnight but… #forestliving. Wish me luck.

I’m wishing you luck and safe-keeping through the events of the next week, whether it’s elections, lockdown, fireworks or a week of shooting.

I call it the Magic Kingdom. My hubby calls it Narnia because it’s only accessible through a hidden cave, and only when the conditions are perfect, which happens every 5 or 10 years.

The tide must be extraordinarily low (like super moon low) and the sand must be weirdly high. (Like big moving sandbank high).

I have a friend who was too scared to go through that cave. When she plucked up the courage, the opportunity had passed.

Rare conditions present rare opportunities.

• New and different businesses are thriving. They could be your best clients if you look for them.
• Business models are changing. How can you be the content maker who helps them adapt?
• Governments, states and councils are offering funding. What’s available for you to take advantage of?
• People in other cities and countries could be looking for you right now, because you have what they need. Do they know where to find you?

If you’re looking beyond your local market, or you’re based in Asia, you might be interested in this year’s Creative Asia Plus (CA+). It’s our first online folio review event introducing photographers around the world to award winning advertising creatives across Asia, and it’s happening at the end of November. You can find out more here.

A few weeks ago the hidden cave opened its doors to us and half the secret beach was exposed.

We were in like a shot and it was as magical as always. We were the only ones there.

I’m wishing you courage and bravery to seek the new.

And I’m here to help if you need it.