I’m anticipating a good start to my weekend one day early & I hope to share some really great news Thursday evening.

If my things go as expected, it means that one of my bright ideas has manifested & will help move my photography career in a great direction.

Stay tuned!!!!!!

In other news:
- I ate two too many cookies tonight
- I totally blew my finance midterm
- I’m watching “Cinema Paridiso” (one of my favorite foreign films) this weekend.

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UPDATE:

Well, it jumped of today & my news is that………………….

I NOW HAVE STUDIO SPACE! Yes me!!!

It’s actually a shared space with the “Detroit League of Photographers” at the Russell Industrial Center (east side of Detroit), which is a hub of creativity that hosts a variety of artists.

I plan on being set up at the Russell in April, which is perfect because I have a shoot at the beginning of the month.

With this space, I can grow my business, not have to scavenge to borrow space & attract a wider variety of clients.

I’ve been dreaming of having a space at the Russell Industrial Center for the last two years but timing, opportunity, & resources were not aligned. Good thing I have some patience because this venture with the Detroit League of Photographers is right on time!

I’ll give this a try for several months & reevaluate. If all goes well, then great! If all is blah, then oh well.

Overall, I hope this will be my field of dreams. I’m building it & I want them to come. Whoever they may be.

In other news:
- I’m gonna eat another cookie tonight

I had all the best intentions of waking up at 9am today to fix myself breakfast, & prepare for my 1pm photo shoot with Detroit rock group Fluxphonic.

In my head the plan was solid! Well, it all went to hell when I woke up at 11am.

I jumped out of bed, rushed to get dressed, packed my camera bag, gathered light equipment & loaded the car. Before you know it was 1150, everything was in the car & I was on my way to the set with a very empty belly.

I totally had no time to stop for a quick bite. Oh my!

I HATE working while hungry!

Well, none of that mattered because I had to make it happen.

Then… I get to the set & realize that I left a vital lighting accessory at home. Bummer! So I improvised like one should.

The clock tics & tocs & the shoot is going great; before you now it, we wrapped about 4:15.

Before heading home, I stopped at Popeye’s for a quick meal, which I later suffered from. BIG TIME!

Lessoned learned from today:

- Set 2 alarms, maybe 3
- Triple check the equipment checklist
- Pack snacks no matter what
- Never eat a Popeye’s spicy 3 piece on a totally empty stomach

With all this said, my clients never saw me sweat or heard my belly growl (I think).

Pictured above: Fluxphonic (Steffanie Chris’tian (Left to Right) Kris Wilson, Danny Lecours, Russ Dobson)

If you’re in the Detroit area Saturday March 27, you can see Fluxphonic at the Charles H Wright Museum of African American History “Black Women Rock! A Tribute to Betty Davis”

Side Note: Who is Betty Davis?

A wildly flamboyant funk diva with few equals even three decades after her debut, Betty Davis combined the gritty emotional realism of Tina Turner, the futurist fashion sense of David Bowie, and the trendsetting flair of Miles Davis, her husband for a year.

It’s easy to imagine the snickers when a 23-year-old model married a famous musician twice her age, but Davis was no gold digger; she turned Miles onto Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, providing the spark that led to Miles’ musical reinvention on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, then proved her own talents with a trio of sizzling mid-’70s solo LPs.

See a few more out takes from my shoot with Fluxphonic here.

Melinda Anderson is not only a hot event designer & planner but a good friend & awesome client!

When I work for Melinda, I know what she expects in terms of quality. Her expactations become my goal to over deliver while knocking her socks off with awesome interior & party goer shots from her widely talked about events.

This Saturday, I will be under Melinda’s wing again photographing her “Back to the 80’s” party being held at the Detroit Yacht Club. I know this event like her others will not be one to miss!

Unfortunately for me, all of my 80’s outfit options were exhausted we attempting to find vintage wear. So now I’m forced to work & party 80’s style dressed as Teddy Ruxpin. Great! If I lose my nerves, I just bleach then slash some jeans & rock a mohawk.

If you’re in the city or nearby, you should be there!

Last Saturday was a busy but VERY productive day! It all started with a headshot session with actress Misty Mills at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The session lasted about 1 hour & it moved by quickly! The great thing about the DIA is that it has tons of windows & skylights, so the available light was nothing less than perfect. There are also great architectural backdrops that can be used without blocking any public space, which is just AWESOME.

Above is one of my favorite shots from the session! Here is another outtake from Misty’s shoot that really shows her personality, vibrancy & beautiful eyes.

Misty is actually the 2nd person who I have done headshots for & I think I’m a lot better than before. Hopefully, I can attract more of this type work to get even better.

Practice makes perfect. Right?

Misty had this to say once she got her photos back Monday Morning.

“I hate having my picture taken, but Tafari made it a comfortable, relaxed and fun experience! As an actress, it’s important I have a headshot that I can bank my career on and Tafari has a way of capturing not just your features, but your personality as well. He lets the real you shine through in your photographs and shows off what makes you unique.

As a graphic artist, I always end up worrying about the format of a picture and how it might look in the end, which makes me come off as stiff and worried, but with Tafari I never have to worry. I know that I’ll be pleased with the result every time he clicks the button on his camera.” Misty Mills

After my session with Misty, I met with event designer/wedding planner Melinda Anderson aKa MeMe of MeMe Designs to discuss this hot new project that you will hear more about in the coming weeks. And it’s going to big!

I’m so looking forward to what’s coming up!

Last night I was 1 of 5 featured photographers at the EXPOSURE.Detroit Photography Exhibit Opening & it was AWESOME!!!

The show lasted 3 hours & there was no one point when the room was not packed with fans, friends, admirers, photographers etc. I mean PACKED! Being that this was my first gallery styled show, I had no idea what to expect but I planned as much as I could. Luckily Suite Suzy was there to help keep me grounded because it was kinda crazy. Crazy but cool.

I was also happy that many of my friends made it out to the show to check out my work for the first time. I talk about my art loosely all the time but many have not seen it. It was nice getting their feedback & seeing the amazement on their faces as they viewed my work.

I displayed 9 of my favorite abstract macro pieces & they went over very well. Over the course of the evening, many commented on how sensual, colorful & unique my subject matter. I found it interesting though that so many talked about the sensuality of my presentation. One attendee stated that my piece “Wonderful Red Cliché” appeared to be two vaginas and this was before she purchased it. How awesome is that!?!

During the show, I was also able to connect with other photographers who inquired about my creative process, techniques that I use & I even gave some camera advice to some new photographers. That was pretty cool because I’m never really in a situation where I get t explain my work to others who know what I’m talking about.

After the event was over, Suite Suzy & I enjoyed a wonderful meal, then joined friends for drinks & laughs. Many of the laughs centered on some pretty unsavory topics. YES!!! I love unsavory topics.

The night was magical for many reason & I’m still on cloud nine from the love that I received from so many people.

One a funny note:
- I posted that I was wearing a beret to the opening on FB. When many of my friends showed up, they asked where my beret was. I had to explain that I couldn’t find neither my black or raspberry beret.

- Every time I gave someone a hug last night, they told me that my hair smelled of cloves. Everyone! Funny thing is that I didn’t have anything oils or other products in my hair. I’m still trying to figure out where the fragrance came from.

If you live in the Detroit area, you can see the photography exhibit through May 2010 at the Bean & Leaf Café located in Royal Oak, MI.

With the EXPOSURE.Detroit Photography Exhibit Opening, I need to restock my promo cards! The timing is perfect because overnightprints.com has a half off sale on post cards. SCORE!!!

Today I heard from a client who saw an image of her on a MSN website advertising single ladies “in your area.”

She sent me a screen shot of the page & I totally flipped out! She signed a model release for me so that I could submit it to Getty images Flickr Collection a few months ago but it had not sold. So knowing that it hadn’t sold, I KNEW it was being used without my authorization. With that in mind, I went storming around the internet for answers.

I left messages on the MSN support site, left a message, started a discussion thread with Bing via FB, & later posted something to the Flickr Getty Images contributor forum.

As you can imagine, I was quite upset. Like really upset.

To my relief, by the end of the day, I was contacted by the Bing Facebook team, letting me know that they were investigating the situation on my behalf. About an hour after that, I received a call from one of Microsoft’s managing photo editors who explained that the image in question was indeed used lawfully & that it was recently purchased from Getty Images via the Flickr Collection.

“Hi Tafari

I’m a Managing Photo Editor at Microsoft and your mail and link to: http://www.twitpic.com/vls82 was forwarded to me.. This is an image we acquired from Getty (see the info below with your credit) and is in the cue for payment. We take licensing very seriously and go to great lengths to make certain our images are licensed correctly…”

Funny thing is, somewhere along the way & during my hastiness, I forgot that the image was indeed available via Getty.

Had I paid better attention, I would have contacted Getty images & let them do the investigating for me. Sigh! These days, one can never be careful with protecting your creative properties

So since all of the drama was laid to reset, I made amends with Microsoft for my hasty reaction. With quick reactions, a couple of tweets, a FB post & no research, all kinds of hell can break loose.

Oh, by the way, my client thought that this was comical & right now, she single & still very much sexy.

See my original image here.

If you yesterday told me that Essence magazine was going to call me with a potential photography assignment, I would have cussed you out. But… Today, I would have apologized because ESSENCE MAGAZINE DID call me this afternoon.

I found the article below on one of my new favorite blogs, “Creative Silence” by way of Professional Photographers of America.

The article is so on point & spells out everything that I sometimes have to detail to SOME clients.

Whenever I have to go there over my rates, it’s a bad sign.
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Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?
Shawn, Pamela and Gavin Richter
Professional Photographers of America December 2009

In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home “photo printers,” we hear this all the time: How do professional (or personal) photographers charge $X for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drugstore? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they’re paying for time and expertise.

The average one-hour portrait session

First, let’s look at the actual work involved:

• Travel to the session
• Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
• Shoot the photos
• Travel from the session
• Load images onto a computer
• Back up the files on an external drive
• 2 – 4 hours of Adobe® Photoshop® time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs. Proof photos are also ordered.
• 2 – 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment, and ship.
• Possibly meet clients at the studio to review photos and place order. Meeting and travel time average 2 hours.

You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a personal photographer charging a $200 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them $200 per hour.

The eight-hour wedding
A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it’s not uncommon to end up with 1,000 – 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges $4,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them $500 an hour!

(Don’t forget that the photographer runs the wedding day to some extent. A comfortable, confident wedding photographer can make a wedding day go more smoothly.)

The expertise and cost of doing business
Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though a DSLR now costs under $1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don’t forget backdrops, props, rent, utilities, insurance, etc!

In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.

The chain store photo studio
Chain stores do have their place. For a very cheap price you can run in, shoot some quick photos, and be done with it. But you get what you pay for.

Consider the time and effort that a personal photographer puts into photographs, compared to a chain store. Store sessions last just a few minutes, while a personal photographer takes the time to get to know the people, makes them comfortable, makes them laugh. If a baby is crying at a chain store, they often don’t have the time (or the patience) to wait because everyone is in a hurry.

The truth is that many chain store studios lose money. In fact, Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios in 2007 because of the financial drain. What the chain stores bank on is a client coming in for quick, cheap photos…and while there, spending $200 on other items. They are there to get you in the door.

The real deal
Professional, personal photographers are just that—professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.

Maybe we need to help clients look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs $1.50 at the drugstore. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.

The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.

Conclusion
We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs, created by a Personal Photographer are so expensive.

This is my new baby & my first attempt at a mechanical 35mm SLR. For the 20 bucks I paid, it should be fun to experiment with.

I’m totally looking forward to seeing what I can create with this little gem!

And now that I have the camera, I have to get some film & figure out how the hell I’m gonna develop it. It’s not like I have dark room skills.