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Almost Famous

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Almost Famous

The movie Almost Famous resonates with me because it captures something about the 1960’s Rock music scene that’s close to my experience of the times. In particular the rather tame analog marketing used to sell music in the 60’s has blossomed into the digital online hype of today. The aim was the same then as now. Find the right product; create the right pitch, step on the marketing elevator and ride to the top. Simple or so it seems.

Posting My Work

Here is where marketing gets personal. About three years ago I got interested in motion graphics as a way to make slideshows of my photos. Since then I’ve made more than thirty short videos. Most are posted on YouTube where they failed to reach an audience. Not much of a surprise. All combined they have less than a thousand views.

Finding Pinterest

In the middle of 2019 I discovered Pinterest. As a photographer the visual content there is very appealing. It didn’t take long to create several collections of photographs which generate a few hundred to a few thousand impressions a week.

Pinterest is an odd duck when it comes to standard content format which is vertical rather than horizontal. This is perfect for mobile users who don’t want to rotate their phones. Original content not produced in vertical format pretty much gets ignored.

When I posted links to some of my HD YouTube videos they got 40-50 views each. After reworking them from HD 1920×1080 to 1080×1920 and posting directly on Pinterest they immediately began getting multiple thousands of impressions.

Finding Success and Failure

On Christmas Eve I posted a 30 second animated New Years video which immediately took off. Within three weeks it had more than 150K impressions, 41K video views and hundreds of web site link clicks. I was absolutely shocked. Even after New Years it kept getting one or two thousand impressions a day.

That’s when I decided to post another video for Chinese New Year but it had a flaw so I deleted it. Unfortunately I actually deleted the wrong New Years video and lost my big success. In a panic I re-posted but the deed was done.

Well at least I was Almost Famous. Better luck next time.

Looking Back on 2019

LOOKING BACK on 2019
It’s time to take a whack at putting 2019 into perspective. The year is neatly divided into before my cardiac crisis and the aftermath. Almost by accident I’m living a new reality. I got older, maybe a little wiser, further in debt and much more satisfied to see the sun rise every day. That is enough self-assessment / pity for this or any year.

A NEW DISCOVERY!
After more than forty years as a software developer I finally discovered social media this year. For some reason Facebook, Twitter and the like have never really interested me. I do have a rather unsuccessful presence on YouTube but not much else. Sometime during this year I discovered Pinterest which fits nicely with photography and image making.

It works for me because images are front and center as primary content. With some effort it is possible to ‘curate’ interesting collections of visual content for any type of audience. Better yet the platform encourages people to find interesting collections and share them on. Even Black & White photography and experimental motion graphics can draw viewers. Who would have guessed?

The three images at the top of this post are linked to motion graphics animations I put together specifically for posting on Pinterest. Vertical formats are preferred which is completely different from any of the other platforms. That is an opportunity because there are many fewer content producers working in vertical format. It is also a challenge putting together interesting work. Not sure I’ve succeeded exactly but I’m working on it.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE
Best wishes for the holiday season and happy productive New Year.
kw

Cinnabar Mine

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A century ago cinnabar mining was common across the Big Bend region in Texas. Thousands of people were engaged in back breaking manual labor, digging, transporting and refining red cinnabar ore into mercury. Every part of the process is dangerous; some such as handling the mercury are deadly. Even so, honest work is a rare commodity in the wild Texas/Mexico borderlands.

Today these abandoned mines are nearly as deadly as they were when in production. They are largely ignored and unmonitored. Little grows on the contaminated land. The wind blows mineral laden dust into the homes of everyone living within miles of the mines.

A short distance from this site is the historic cemetery in Terlingua. There you get a sense of the price paid by miners to feed their families. The graves, mostly hand made by relatives or friends shelter those laid to rest. They are evidence of traditions stretching back into the distant past.

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