A few months ago I attended a seminar on how to improve your photography business put on by Mitche Graf who was a high end photographer for many years. The seminar was excellent, and I was able to take many great ideas away, but the thing that struck me the most was the last slide he put up on the overhead. It was a picture with dates over imposed, like:
1902 – 1984 and 540BC – 480BC
He didn’t tell us what the dates meant or what significance they held for us. He only shone a red LED on the dash in the middle of each date and asked, what are these? We all felt really intelligent and said “birth and death dates.” He just looked at us and said “that’s not the important part, this is” and he pointed his LED marker on the dash BETWEEN the numbers again. He told us that we all have a birth and death date, but it was the dash in the middle that is important. Then he asked us what we were going to do with our “Dash”
I have thought a great deal about this “Dash” theory over the preceding months and have made many decisions based upon this concept. Decisions that I hope will positively affect my photographic career my family, and my church and civic responsibilities. I want to increase the potency of my “dash” this coming year and in lieu of a formal “New Years’ resolution” I will make a “Dash improvement” statement:
In 2010 I will focus less time on the mundane and more time on the eternally important. I have been given a talent and I will spend more time with pro-bono work for non-profit organizations, especially those who influence children. And lastly, I will spend more time in art museums learning the touch of the masters.
By the way the two people are Ansel Adams and Leonidas, two of my favorite historical characters.
