Now, those of you who know me personally know my absolute love of the absurd. Strange events, odd happenings, unique places? Count me in! Therefore, to have pictures bought by a book about just such things feels like a personal moral victory about indulging my time in seeking out such things.

To be quite frank…I don’t love the pictures. They were more of snaps I took on auto settings, rather than actual thought through photos.

This totals 7 pics that have now been bought for everything from travel guides, to art institutes, to books. Woo-hoo! Now, not that I’m looking to start shooting professionally, but it’s something that I’ve come to really enjoy, that I haven’t been doing enough of. To be honest, having been a filmmaker for as long as I have, it doesn’t shock me that photography is something that comes fairly naturally to me…I see the world in pictures…I always have. BUT…the fact that other people like them? That, I’m pleasantly surprised by. Hell, I’m always pleasantly surprised when people like films I’ve done. I suppose I need to work on my ego and hubris. Especially if I want to move up in the industry.

I didn’t shoot a lot last year, in fact there are things I did that I didn’t take a single shot of. Mackinac Island – not a single picture. Frankenmuth – the first time I went there, not a single one. Toronto – yup, again, zero pictures. I’m not even sure if I shot anything of Napa or Phoenix when I was there. I am going to actually go through the 700 pictures I did get in the past 8 months, and get back to putting them up regularly.

However, there is, invariably some problem with something that crops up that is more involved. And to be honest, I often have to make some value judgements on the worth of my time on if it’s worth fighting over or not. I am not only in the middle of finishing this project, but ramping up on others, and I only have so many hours in a day.

So, for the past few weeks, I have been dealing with one of our actors business managers. She is claiming her actor was underpaid for the two week period. (let me first of all say, she was not…) However, the difference in what the business manager was claiming, and the payment already given was about 800 dollars. I did a couple of calls, and quickly realized that, although I was correct in the payment given, this business manager was about to make my life hell with calls, emails, and trying to get SAG involved. Was it worth it? I came to the conclusion that no, the $800 payment was worth it to make her go away. So, I commenced the payment, and brushed off my hands, thinking it was done.

But, no. The business manager thought that the adjustment wasn’t right, and called our SAG rep to complain. Now, let me say, that we have a great relationship with the unions when it comes to payment. We do all step ups as soon as we are notified, we don’t miss P&H payments, we are responsive to anything that is an actual problem, etc.

So our SAG rep takes a look at everything…and determines that I should CANCEL the additional payment made. We were right in the first place on the payment, and don’t owe anything additional. (which I had told the business manager repeatedly)

Well, there you go. Your client has now lost $800 I was willing to give her, because you decided to escalate.

Happy?

I am, she’s out of my hair now.

I realize that the thing I’m proudest of is being called a wunderkind by someone who was one in this industry himself. 

I forget, sometimes, that I technically become the boss to people who are much older/have more experience/have worked on more things than me. 

So, being told that by one of them made me feel like there was a level of respect which surprised me. I naturally have a high level of respect for them because of who they are and what they have already achieved. I feel lucky to be surrounded by people from whom I get to learn each day.

I “get” that I am very young to be in the position I’m in, but I have a suspicion that the fact that I have no ego about it, and am constantly willing to learn from everyone is part of what put me here. 

So, for the moment, I’m going to revel in being called that by someone who has achieved more in his 30 years in the industry than most people do in their whole career.