MOVING!

That's right folks. I'm giving up on blogger. I've whined about it long enough... the formatting here is crappy and I'm too damn lazy to learn HTLM so... hie-ho-hie-ho it's off to Tumblr I go.

MUCH more photo friendly.

Here's the link. Hope you all 'follow' me over there too

in case you missed it... THIS IS WHERE YOU CLICK TO GET MORE BLOG OUT'A ME!

(& in case blogger gets upset & someday my links stop working... http://kreddibletrout.tumblr.com)

NEW STUFF

"I am in blood stepped in so far..."

Macbeth opens in a week but that hasn't stopped me from adding a whole buncha stuff to Ye Aulde Website.

Stuff like this:

and this:

and let's not forget this:

 ...and this pretty little number:

and this:

Seriously, you wouldn't even believe how much new stuff there is over there. I mean, there's entire new sections! Lunenburg Walls is a lot of fun. Very colourful. Really, don't just take my word for it, go over and have a look!

WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?

checkitoutcheckitoutcheckitoutcheckitoutcheckitoutcheckitoutcheckitoutcheckitoutcheckitoutcheckitout!

Dusty blogs, the big move and some old scottish guy

...pardon the dust... cough!
I uh... wow... this - cough!- this dust is...
should there even be dust in the internet? This blog is...

WHERE THE HELL IS THE MAID?

So... I left this place in a bit of a rush a few months back. Needed to pack up my life in Victoria, BC & move to Toronto, ON via Halifax, NS... yeah, that's how I do things. I'm complicated.

Nutshell: first and foremost, above all this picture taking business, I am an actor. Every now and then I fall out of it. Partially from circumstance, partially from a severe allergy to the 'business' side of it. I seem to break into furious, sweaty, trembling sneezing fits & emit a smell not entirely unlike tapioca when confronted with schmoozing or schmoozers. Sadly, many in 'the business' act as though this aspect is more important than actually being on stage (or in front of a camera). This is what I'm allergic to.

So, a few years back I fell out of it.When I tried to get back in I found the town I was in didn't have enough work to support the actors already established there and, as I had landed there not acting, I had to start from ground zero. I've re-booted my acting career several times in my almost 20 years at it and I really didn't want to build from the bottom again in a city with a very low ceiling. So... as much as I have resisted it these many years, I decided to move to the big shitty (Toronto) and make it happen here. I have many peers from over the years here which means more feet in more doors. There is a lot of work ahead and this huge move, which has uprooted not just me but my loving, supportive wife, will draw me away from photography for a while. Not altogether, because I feel almost as strongly for it as I do acting (and dislike the 'business' side of it as much) but this move must take the majority of my focus.
Which it has since my last post.
Spent the spring/summer in Halifax reprising one of my favorite roles, The Sheriff of Nottingham in Shakespeare by the Sea's The Adventures of Robin Hood. This was a re-mount, re-vamped production of our 2005 creation and was phenomenal.
I just landed in Toronto where my wife and I are settling in & I've landed the next role that will ensure I spend very little time with my camera or computer: MacBeth in Hart House Theatre's November production of Beverly Hills Cop II... oh, sorry, I mean, MacBeth. 

...that was one big nut.

So... we're still around... we still have pretty pictures to look at on the Mothership Kreddible Trout Connection. Once things settle I do plan to bust out a tonne of new 'Uniquely Mounted' pieces and will be looking to do some large scale photo installations here in Toronto. I'm doing headshots fairly frequently & hope that all these things will be able to partially sustain me between acting gigs. That's the plan.

So...
...hello Toronto. I've come to act all over you.
...contact me for headshots or other photo work.
...here's me as the sheriff:

The Tao of Ego and the Tee of Me

ok... so a while ago a friend of mine (who is clearly as unstable as me) saw a self portrait of yours truly on redbubble and said in the comment section that he wanted it on a t-shirt. So, as I aim to please and as I also like to entertain myself with delusions of egomaniacal grandeur I complied.
Months passed.
I began to think he was actually a mentally stable person and just joking about the tee. This, of course, made me worry that I, in fact, was as egomaniacal as I pretend to be having actually designed the shirt. I decided to leave it up if for anything to draw ridiculous attention to it from time to time. I won't waver on my ego-mockery until it stops being mockery.
Then... one day I got an email from redbubble telling me I had made a few sales. This always excites me and I went to see what had sold. Amongst a couple of other things, the tee of me sold! At the time I didn't know it was him so I immediately began plotting my world domination. Is there another lunatic out there? Maybe a complete stranger? Will I soon have an army of Troutians all wearing tees of me? Will the Tee of Trout soon outnumber the Mask of Fox at political rallies???
No. It was Stephen, the friend who demanded the shirt some months before. I was relieved. The pressure of world domination was off. (...for now.)
The other day on facebook he posted himself wearing the shirt. (There's really not many ways to say that someone is 'wearing you on their torso' without it sounding... funny.)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, 

the first 5 star general in the Trout Army:

Stephen.

(you're a brave and mentally questionable man)

THE day THE was featured on THE redbubble homepage

My shot 'THE' was featured today on the redbubble homepage. I didn't actually see it as sometimes they rotate the homepage more than once in 24 hours, but it WAS there... look, here's the proof! Proof that, you know... I could have photoshopped in less time than it takes to load the program wherein I'd be editing the photo... but I SWEAR it's real!

That's all for today... tune in again soon & read a funny story! And don't forget to check out this entry and give me your opinions to win an original Piece Of Trout! Contest ends soon.  

Void to all employees of Kreddible Trout Photographic Industries and Subsidiaries 

and all parent, sibling and little baby companies as well as anyone named Nephi. 

(sorry Nephi)

Straving Artist Sale on NOW!

That's right folks, down here at Krazee Kreddible's we're so Krazee that we're slashing our prices by HALF in our Downtown Victoria Showroom! Our showroom, cleverly disguised as a cafe/bakery called Demi Tasse (formerly Rising Star) at 1306 Broad Street is where you'll find three of Kreddible Trout's patented Uniquely Mounted pieces for your art viewing pleasure! Word has it Mr. Trout was seen there just today with his magical PRICE SLASHING PEN, magically slashing prices! With prices this low you'll say "Man, why don't you just get a real job?" to wit I'll probably try and reduce YOUR price Mr. Smarty-Pants!

Hu-HA!

(uh...we're Kuh-RAZEE?)

These are the three pieces, they're linked to the website which has a description of each but really, they need to be looked at with your own eyes in real life to be fully appreciated. Hurry down, folks. I've been told there's a lot of talk about these pieces and with prices dropped by half... they're sure to not last long.
This sale will only last until tourist season begins so if you're in the mood for some yummy, yummy local artist fare... now's your chance! We expect the sale to end in early May but we're krazee so... you never know!

... because EVERYONE should have a nice piece of Trout to nail to the wall!

this is NOT a trap

Ok, this is not a trap, really, this is what I think I heard someone one time call 'market research'. (..shudder...)
I have a little field trip to take you on and at the end you'll be asked to give me your impressions, opinions and suggestions. This won't take too long and I promise, despite the direction we'll be going, not to try to sell you anything. If any of you forgot to get your parents to sign the paper, you have to stay here.

So, I've been searching to find an online service to use to do the back-end stuff (printing, mounting, shipping... etc.) and I think I've come across the site that I like. I like it because it offers the widest variety of options. From giclee prints on standard photo paper to cotton rag to stretched canvas, framed, unframed... the works. My only hesitation is it's functionality. It's layout. How easy it is for you, the art savvy consumer, to navigate and not get frustrated. It seems mildly convoluted to me, but then again the laptop from which I write this is really just an abacus with some wires taped to it.

So, this is the point of the field trip. Anyone who wants to click on this link will be directed to the page on my website that I'm using to test this new endeavor. You then need to click on the big white link & navigate around on the other end. Play around with all the different formats & frames & just have a ball. Then, if you'd like to be a help you can pop back here (leave a trail of breadcrumbs) & let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. I'm specifically looking to find out about ease of use. If you were looking to purchase some of my yummy yummy art, would you through this service. I know many of you know me & would just contact me direct to be all '...yeah, so I know the artist, I'll just call his personal line...' but just pretend you were a stranger.

And, as thanks, every response will be entered into a draw to win an 8x12 of the image in question (a shallow grand) or take a chance and ask Monty Trout for the 8x12 print behind door number 3! I'll do the draw on March 15th.

Now go on! (and don't go getting lost on the internet!)

Take The Trout Challenge!

New stuff over at the Mothership Kreddible Trout Connection (my website) which includes this piece & the story that follows:

Cherry Tree & The Blue Bins

Very little of my work, as I often rant and rave about, is digitally augmented. Occasionally I use the photoshop, but I try not to. I feel that it's a lie.
The reason I'm so adamant about it is that I learned to see the world through the lens, not the photo-editing software. Before digital I'd line up the shot, sometimes giving myself a cramp doing so, shot it & hope that it turned out & wasn't slightly off center or just wrong.

There was magic.

Since I sold out and went digital I've lost some of that feeling. Like I said, I still try to do as little 'post' as possible but, with digital there is another cheat that we don't talk about...
When I first got a digital I visited one of my best friends, Pam, and was excited (if somewhat embarrassed) to show her my new toy. She had been around when I was first courting my K1000 & watched my passion grow. So, there we were sitting at a cafe on Main Street in Vancouver & I was showing her some shots off the back of my shiny new Rebel XT (x-tra trout, baby... oh yeah!) that I'd taken that day. I scrolled and scrolled and amidst her always encouraging 'oohs' and 'ahhs' she had to take a jab as we passed three or four almost identical shots.

'Wow' she said, 'so you can just keep shooting until you get it right then, huh?'
'oh shaa-aa-daap!' I said and kept scrolling as she punched my arm and cackled.

...but she was right.

I used to believe that 'if I get it I get it, if I don't I don't'. Sometimes I'd take two shots just to be sure I got it but, until it came back from the developer, I had no idea.

There was magic.

The immediacy of digital is definitely helpful but it is a cheat. To me anyway. Yesterday I was reminded of the purity and faith of just taking a shot and walking away. The above was the shot. I set it up (& let the two people [who always find their way into even the most deserted streets just to look at me like I'm a weirdo for taking pictures of walls] walk by.) like in the old days, taking my time, and shot it. I looked at it on the display & began, instinctively, to raise the camera to my eye again... then I stopped.
"Hey dummy, the shot is fine. It is what you wanted anyway. You don't need to take it again.
...Uuuuse the Force...

So I walked away and gave myself a new challenge: shoot like you used to. Not always. Not religiously. Just from time to time.

It's nostalgic.

It's magic.

If anyone out there can relate, I'd advice trying The Trout Challenge yourself. It'll bring that old spark back. Now get out there and take pictures of garbage! Cos someone's got to do it!

...or, like me, you can always take the ol K1000 out for a stroll from time to time... it'll appreciate it. So will you.


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... a little something while you wait...

I'm gonna just start just ploppin random stuff all over this blog. Spend too much time pontificating on what should go here that nothing actually goes here, so...

this is a shot I call

ANTICIPATION

To an actor, the feeling of walking onto a bare stage for the first time and looking out into an empty house is second only to performing to a full one. An empty house holds promise. The seats feel alive with anticipation and are not vacant at all. You can feel them yearn for the ride you’re about to take them on. Your best monologues clamor and lurch to the tip of your tongue only to be stifled by the reverence of the moment. This silence, this anticipation, you imagine placing in the palm of your hand with Iago’s slightest inflection. The silence of ‘I got you’. The silence all actor’s live for. An empty house promises it.

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Beards, New photos, No photos & Looking to the Burrito Horizon...

Well, the dopamine has worn off and I woke from my hibernation with a beard. The holiday season finds itself in the haze of recent history and I notice the blog is a little dusty. So, consider this a feather duster.

A few updates to share.

Firstly.
The Mothership Kreddible Trout Connection (my website) has been updated. Rearranged some things and added some new stuff in the new folder called The New Stuff (was that redundant?) which will house anything shot since January 1st. It's still just a fledgling folder so please stop by regularly as it needs your encouragement.

Secondly.
This isn't news just yet, but something that might become it. In relation to Firstly I'd have liked to have posted a few examples of the photos I wrote of, but I have just been so MASSIVELY FRUSTRATED by how MINDBOGGLINGLY IMPOSSIBLE it is to arrange photos in blogger that I gave up. Unless I want all the photos in one line down the page... it's almost impossible. To expect to try to put them on in a simple grid... wow. Some posts recently have taken me HOURS to get up & they still look shoddy. This is something that has been an issue for a while now and I have just had it. Why and how the cyber-geniuses over at google haven't come up with an easier way to manage photos within the posting  is beyond me. It seems that with the last upgrade they decided to go back to 1999 technology or something. I've read forums, I've tried to manipulate them as is told in tutorials but they really seem to have a mind of their own. A lot of the writings about how to manage photos within blogger tell you it's easier to manage them within the HTML... if I knew HTML I wouldn't be using blogger now would I? Blogger is for laypeople like me.
SO... so I may be moving ship. Just the blog. Probably Wordpress or Tumblr. I toyed with Wordpress a couple of years ago and found it too convoluted & intricate for my needs so, I'm gonna see what Tumblr is all about. It looks pretty simple and I like what I've seen. We'll see. Any advice would be welcomed and if I've missed the glaringly obvious here in blogger & someone knows 'the trick' please feel free to let me know. Jeebus knows the good folks at blogger ain't answering my calls.

Thirdly. Have Trout Will Travel again! 
Headin' down to San Diego again for a quick photographic jaunt. Seems Col. J needs some new big art for his new regional office & has commissioned yours truly to do it all up for him. Flying down on Thursday after work work to run amok in the land of sand and burritos for three days and returning on Monday. I'll be documenting the city which is something I really didn't get a chance to do when I was down last spring as I was too busy preparing for Artwalk. For those of you who don't know who Col. J. is or what Artwalk is about you'll have to get in the 'it's the Kreddible Trout Photography blog Time Machine' and start waaaay back here. The linked entry was the first announcement of my incredible trip last spring called the Kreddible Trout (part of the) World Tour 2010.
Wow. Almost a year ago. There are many adventures to read following that. Feel free.

Fourthly.
There is no fourthly.

Finally.
We here at Kreddible Trout Photographic Enterprises want to wish you the very best this Valentine's Day Season and remind you that there are only 21 shopping days left til this joyous day. So remember... 

...nothing says 'I Love You' like 

a nice piece of Trout.

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If this blog were a turkey...

Man.. there's so much news in this here blog post, you'll be making blog news sandwiches for a week! Maybe even a pot of blog news soup! When you're done reading, you'll want to sit back on the couch (or sofa), unbuckle your belt, shake the pictures on the wall with one of them half-belch-half-sighs and pass out for 5 hours!

Makes you wanna keep readin, don't it?

Ok, so where to begin?

A few weeks ago I mentioned that someone from Winnipeg had ordered a print from me. There's a nifty story behind this sale. I get a message on my telephone answering service from a lady who asks me about a piece I have hanging up in a cafe here in Victoria. (Demi-Tasse, formerly Rising Star on Broad St.) The piece is one of my uniquely mounted pieces with the shot 'brownie as monolith' in it.
It's a 22x24 inch print, mounted behind an antique window. It looks a little something like exactly this:

The woman who called was asking about it and, after some phone tag it was determined that the one of a kind unique piece wasn't exactly in her ballpark but a print of 'brownie as monolith' would be. She was heading back home to Winnipeg the next day and it was decided that I'd get a print done & ship it to her. It was to be an x-mas gift and this is where it gets neat. The gift was for her father who's in his 80s who used to be a photographer, used to use a Kodak Brownie and... get this... who's name is Brownie. The photograph immediately set off the 'perfect gift' bells and the rush was on. This was sometime in late November and they wanted to get it framed & wrapped for x-mas. The busy season was on at Canada Post & there was a bit of worry as things seemed to take slightly longer than hoped, but in the end, it got there on time, was framed and apparently Brownie loved his Brownie photograph!

I've sold many prints & am always eager to get feedback, but I was quite excited to get news of this. Quite happy indeed. I'm smiling now, actually.

So, what's next?

It was a quiet x-mas this year & I decided to turn the downtime into uptime funtime cameratime! I had neglected my camera for quite a while. Hadn't really spent any real quality time with it in about a month and a half so, with all the nothing going on I figured it was time to make amends. Pulled out the camera, slapped on the makeshift macro (I won't tell you how to make one, but I will say that there is much fun to be had in disassembling lenses or looking backwards through them... electrical tape can help.) set up my lighting equipment (an old desk lamp that may have belonged to Mickey Spillane at one time) in my studio (the closet that I call an office a.k.a. The Troutcave) set up the tripod (um... it's an actual tripod) and started getting up close and personal with my camera collection:

 So, needless to say I had a fun time. They say you can get lost in macro work and it's true. Imagine suddenly having to navigate your surroundings as though you were a flea. A millimeter can be vast. You can trip over an eyelash. I actually got so into it that I used my 'live view' function on my camera for the very first time. I've had the 40D for 2.5 years and have never even looked at the silly thing. I hate live view. Photography is an intimate process. My eye through the camera is how I want to see the world. Everything else doesn't exist. But, a lot of these shots would have been impossible or else terribly painful to line up any other way so... I scrounged around for my manual and figured out how to employ the mechanism. I tell you, my camera has so many bells and whistles that I have no idea are even there... it makes me giggle. Next year's DSLRs will be coming out with 'post to facebook' functions and internal editing software. You wait. It'll happen.
What...? Oh, it already happened...? Oh.
(shudder).
So that's how I spent my x-mas vacation! Photographically speaking, that is. The wife and I cooked a bird and ate it too. Yum yum.
A bunch of the shots from the series are on ye aulde website-a-reno (click: portfolio - studies - cameras.) and I posted them on redbubble where I then made a truly swank lookin' calendar. Check ca:

Well... that wasn't really that much news after all... just a lot of me rambling... funny that...

It's kinda like I promised you a big ol turkey with all the fixins and I came home with a half-eaten happy meal and a pack of Certs.
Oh well.
How's about I make it up to you all on the next exciting episode of it's the Kreddible Trout Photography blog! where I will do up one of them 'Year In Review' things that seem so popular amongst people in the media who can afford a vacation.

Or maybe I won't. I'm not yet quite sure if I'm lying about that or not.

 ...anyway.

So...

Tune in next time to find out if he's serious about Kreddible Trout Photography's Year In Review and if he is just how in the hell he'll be consise about it without it taking the whole of 2011 to read! 

(It's a nutshell, Trout! Not a novel!)

Say 'goodnight', Troutie.
'Hi Trevor!'
... oh sweet jeebus...

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Last Big Marketing Drive of 2010!!!

(...oh, er... I mean...)

Seasons Greetings And Best Wishes To All My Loyal Followers!!!

As it is the time of year for businesses everywhere to foist out the final desperate plea for sales, we here at Kreddible Trout Photographic Industries are no different. Firstly we want to thank all 22 of you for following this silly little blog, wish you a festive and yule-tastic holiday season and remind you that Original Kreddible Trout Photographic Artworks can be purchased from my redbubble portfolio as well as through my website. Heck, you can even call me on the telephone & say 'hey Troutie, I'm an art savvy consumer and I want to purchase some of your yummy yummy art. Hook me up, yo!'
And I will hook you up. Yo.

So, to those few of you who don't have to work through it, have a great holiday season! To those of you who do have to work through it... well, y'know, double time is pretty sweet & try and enjoy it none the less!

Peace Out!
-Kreddible Trout

Arts, Crafts and the Cycle of Life

(I wrote this piece a few years ago to post on JPGmag. A conversation I had last week reminded me of it so I decided to share it here. These are the kind of blog entries that I enjoy sharing. I hope you get a kick out of it.)

Arts, Crafts and the Cycle of Life

I went to the Salmon Run the other day and have to admit I was a little disappointed to see not one single salmon do anything but swim or just lay there being eaten by birds. There was no running involved. I thought I was going to see salmon doin The Darwin.

Anyway.

Seems every year for as long as there've been salmon, they've been swimming upstream, spawning and dying. To the population of Victoria BC and some late-season tourists it's apparently quite a site to witness. The vibrant struggle of salmon fighting fierce opposing currents & predators has got to be one of the more impassioned displays of survival of the species nature has to offer. Really something to be seen. Unfortunately we had arrived at the tail end of the season and were left with a river teeming with dead salmon carcasses and scavanger birds. Lots of interesting photo ops but the majesty of nature had been replaced by nature's version of dumpster diving behind McDonald's.

The area, Goldstream Provincial Park has nature trails along the stream with information posts as you'd expect. 'The Life Cycle of Moss'... 'Dew: Nature's Perspiration'... things like that. We walked along the paths which wound creekside through the woods and soon came upon a little visitor's centre. An information lodge stuffed with stuffed birds to look at, t-shirts to buy & people with beards to explain it all to the city folks. After pushing a few buttons to hear stuffed birds making sounds that the live ones were making outside I wandered out the back where I discovered something quite disturbing indeed. It seems a macabre tradition to allow (and even encourage) children to cover dead salmons in paint and make prints on large sheets of white paper with them. Really, tables full of dead fish and paint lined the outside wall of the information centre. It looked like kindergarten of the disturbed. I was confused. I'm not a parent but I do seem to recall that when I was a child the grown ups telling me not to play with dead animals. Even if I really really wanted to. I asked someone if they do the same thing with squirrels to which the response was mild disgust. A dead fish is ok though...

A fitting homage to the majesty of nature, don't you think? These solemn creatures fight all odds to procreate, battling current, predator and time, and end up being groped by a five year old covered in paint. I heard one kid remark "This is SUCH a good idea!"

Indeed.

I've decided that this is how I want to be remembered. Burial is so passe, cremation is kinda cool but who's ashes are they really? George Carlin once said he wanted to be stuffed full of dynamite and blown up. I was favouring that idea until now. Thanks to the salmon run I have a new idea. When I die I want people to make artsy-craftsy prints of me! At my service, I want to be lain naked on a table so everyone can cover me in paint, slap a big sheet of paper on me and make themselves a print. I can be wiped down and redone until everybody has their own, artistic interpretive print of me to do whatever they want with. Hang me over your mantle. In your office to inspire productivity. You name it!

Just like the salmon.

A fitting tribute to the cycle of life and not in the least degrading.

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Just call me Mr. June.

Last week was pretty eventful. Here's the rundown:

#1

So, as I've mentioned my shot comin t'getcha has been featured in the David Suzuki Foundation's 2011 calendar and last week, in a 100% post consumer cardboard envelope, it arrived at my door.
So... yeah, like, I get mail from David Suzuki... I'm kinda a big deal y'know... oh, did you get that?... David Suzuki is what I said... yeah... I'm fantastic.
...Oh... it was sent by... oh. A person in the mail room? Hmm...
Yeah, so I know a guy who works in the mail room at the David Suzuki Foundation... yeah, I'm a pretty big deal.

Needless to say I'm pretty thrilled about it. Mr Suzuki himself signed it. Pretty cool.

...you can call me Mr. June....

I'm pretty thrilled to be in the calendar and hope that some of you out there go over to the David Suzuki Foundation website and buy one. I'm pretty certain it's going to a good cause.

 #2

On that very same day (wow it was like x-mas in my mailbox!) I also received a bunch of stickers I ordered from redbubble. A few of my own designs and some others I really like. Here they are displayed around the calendar:

Close-up of my 'nothing is real anymore' design in sticker form (though you'd be much cooler wearing the t-shirt)

#3

I was also asked by the good people at Toast Cafe in Sidney BC to fill their walls with art! I frequent the shop in my 'day job' as a landscaper to get the best coffee on the peninsula. (for those of you who don't know what 'the peninsula' is, it refers to the greater Saanich area of Vancouver Island. Here you go!) They asked me Monday & I had stuff hung by Saturday. If you're in the Sidney area & want a great coffee & a dang good sandwich you should stop in. (I hear they have some nice art on the walls too!)

#4

And finally... I sold a print to some folks from Winnipeg. Someone contacted me after having seen my uniquely mounted 'brownie as monolith' hanging in Demi-Tasse (Formerly Rising Star) Cafe on Broad Street in Victoria & asked if they could buy a print of it. It's to be a gift. There's a cute little story behind it that I'm excited to blog about when it's opened at x-mas.

And I think that about does it for the life and times of Kreddible Trout for the beginning of December. Good things. Not terribly lucrative things, but good things. I like good things.


...and remember our x-mas slogan kids:

Nothin says 'Happy Holidays' like 

a nice piece of Trout!

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The Hostile Takover of Art (pt.1)

Happy Buy Nothing Day Everyone!

This has been brewing in me for some time now, the fact that art is almost surely dead. If not 'dead' it's been buried alive and there are few of us left who seem to care & we can't find any shovels. Buried, bought and buggered by business. What better day than Buy Nothing Day to expel this little demon, eh? 

That's right kids, sit back and get ready for a rant! 

(this is how we do business here at KTP!)

Many things over the past few decades have exemplified business & marketing's hostile takeover of art but I think we can all agree that their true September Campaign was when a certain shoe company bought a song called 'Revolution' that should never have been able to be sold by someone who had nothing to do with it's creation in the first place. In 1987 Nike bought the Beatles' song Revolution from Michael Jackson and put it in a commercial to sell shoes made by child sweatshop labourers.

Profits soared.


Now, I know there had been many hugely successful marketing campaigns before that (I mean, Max Headroom selling Pepsi was just brilliant!) but this was really the first, blatant, open handed slap in art's face. Marketing stood there with that smug little smirk on it's face, 'What're y'gonna do cry about it?'
This was marketers' big risk... this was the test. As tests go it was a pretty safe bet on their part. For years they'd been preening us for the moment when they'd ram that final nail in the hippies' coffin (the previous ones nailed by the hippies themselves in the form of Pathfinders and the starting of marketing firms) & get on with business.
The test was this: if we can take a song, a piece of art, written by a group of artists who are revered to the point of sainthood, a song that was clearly pondering revolution and now has the hindsight of it's lyricist's rebellious path since it's release, a song that emulates the population's (albeit distant and homogenized) understanding of 'revolution' and use it to sell them sneakers... we've got them in the palm of our hands.

And they did.
And they do.
They needed to see just how far they could push before we'd actually rebel.  They're still pushing. Because we let them. Because alongside art, they bought our morals and integrity as well.

Seems really sinister doesn't it? It's not. It's just business.

Since then we've seen Fred Estaire dancing for soda pop and revolutionary figures being reduced to t-shirts who's wearers have only
ever rebelled by going to the Rage Against The Machine concert against their parent's will. (actual quote I overheard 10 years ago: "Man, I love Rage, I just wish they weren't so political!")


It has become so ingrained in our ideals that anyone who questions the tried and true methods of business is written off as 'an idealist'. Those who question the pervasiveness of marketing get heavily patronized in that oh so charming way business people love to. It's simply a fact. It's reality. If you dont' play along you're simply missing the point. Anything but the pursuit of money is considered a charming little idea that is nice to visit in the movies but has no viable place in 'the real world'.

The idea of creating art, simply for it's own sake, for all the reasons artists have ever created, for it's true purpose: to vent, to nourish, to beautify, to rebel, to stave off 'demons', to invite & rejoice in epiphany, to mirror-hold, to provoke change, to sway lovers, to criticize, to entertain, TO EVOKE... all these things really only hold merit if you've got a good way to sell it. If you follow the rules on how to 'get it out there'. If you don't, if you're not interested in 'the business' side of it, you're patronized.

Everything is business.
 
I've not been in business long (or arguably at all) though people have been buying my art for a few years now. I simply do not have the knack for it. I've tried. I've done research, taken courses, but everything about it just pets me the wrong way. The goal is wrong. The goal is money. I never want to sell someone a piece of my art. I want people to want to buy it. If they don't want to, I'm fine with that. The error in my business thinking (a source of pride for me) is that I don't ever want to cater my art to someone else. I'm not a service, I'm an artist. I don't want to keep abreast of the latest market trends because that's what I'm supposed to do to be a successful businessman. I want to create my art. Period. I would rather work odd jobs the rest of my life & have folks who truly appreciate my art occasionally buy it than do what I allegedly need to in order to 'be successful' in the eyes of money.

I'm such a REBEL!

In my peripheral experience in 'the photography business' I've noted one thing, this industry has admittedly and shamelessly become almost entirely about marketing. A little over a year ago I attended an intensive, five day, photography workshop. I rarely mention it and don't really put it down on my resume as the only thing I truly took away from it was that I'd rather remain an artist than become a business person. Of the... we'll say there were 250 people there, I saw maybe... MAYBE 20 people who I thought might be artists. The rest were, at best, business people with expensive cameras. At worst, marketers with even more expensive cameras. From the instructors to the students it was all about how to 'get yourself out there' and 'be seen' while the thought of art took a back seat or was left entirely out of the equasion. The question of whether or not the person's product provoked any real need to 'be seen' was never posed. My understanding of the mantra is this: you can create stunningly uninspired shit all you like, you just need to know how to 'get it out there' and you can be 'successful'. People are jumping through hoops & knocking over old ladies in order to get to the front of this shameful line. For whatever brief minute they'll be there before someone else comes along with a bigger shinier hat and a brighter, better crafted smile. The idea I heard repeatedly was that, despite the 'economic downturn' we were (are) in, some people were making a killing! More successful then they've ever been! How? Please tell us HOW? By 'marketing like they've never marketed before' was the answer. Many of them claimed that 75% of their time was spent marketing. That's 75% of their time not taking pictures. My heart ached.
The presentation that opened the entire seminar had some pointy-haired guy (who was braving this recession splendidly) go on at great lengths about how he's started wearing mismatched socks because he thinks it makes him more unique... because he saw someone else doing it. In my world, that makes you desperate, not cool. He doesn't do it because he is more unique, but because he thinks it'll make him so. So... he's a poser. His wedding photos were good, don't get me wrong, he obviously knew what he was doing with a camera & photo editing software but what made him truly successful was his marketing.

And his socks. Let's not forget his clever socks.

(... I stopped wearing mis-matched socks a few years ago.)

I could go on about this all night, but there's a reason I called this 'part 1'... I have a lot to say on the issue.


In closing, there is still a faint knowledge that we're not only allowing this to happen to our good friend art, that we've accepted it and have almost entirely lost the ability to recognize that there is anything wrong with art's direction is being diverted by greed. The knowledge is faint, but it is there. Isn't it?

All that said, you must think I'm a miserable no-fun-nick. Far from it. As you can probably figure out from my marketing campaigns of the past year, I have a great deal of fun not taking any of this seriously at all.
(Besides, most of you know me anyway as really, I've done a horrible job with my social network marketing strategies and have done little to get this blog 'out there' beyond ... hi mom... beyond a smallish circle of people whom I know personally... there's a marketing term for that that illudes me at the moment)

Again, Happy Buy Nothing Day Everyone!!! 

(If anyone buys something from me today... I'll be SO MAD at you!)

-Kreddible Trout

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Kreddible Trout Design??? You Betcha!

The other day it donned on me: I do design too! Ive been designing my own business cards for ages, have done posters for various types of events (mostly ones I've been involved in...art shows etc) & small businesses. I've done layouts & designs for this very blog!
So the heavy business side of my brain got to thinking...
'hmmm... how can I use this ability to my financial benefit? There's got to be a way...'

A couple of weeks later I stumbled upon this revolutionary idea to advertise it and start charging for my services!
(I do feel bad about having to lay a firm NO down and start charging the bake sale ladies. To be honest though, I think they've been taking advantage of my posters for cookies fees. Last time they gave me a cracker with a raisin on it... that's not a cookie ladies! Besides, they're all driving fancy sports cars now... I'm getting a bit suspicious. All that new bling... Ethyl got some gold teeth put in. I think they can afford to throw some my way.)

So please check out the new DESIGN section of the website-a-go-go!

And if anyone needs posters, business cards, layouts for your manifestos, please feel free to email me. My rates are (as always) reasonable and I guarantee service with a smile (possibly a sly grin)!

 

Also, I just posted a few shots from a recent promo session. As odd as it sounds, it was for another classical musician. The gentleman Joey Pietraroia (a fellow ex-pat Montrealler) is a real deal classical music conductor!

Here are a couple of examples, more can be seen on ye aulde website

So that's all for this installment of What's New On The Website! 

Next episode... something COMPLETELY UN-SALES/PROMOTIONS RELATED. I GAR-ON-TEE! 

(oh thank jeebus!)

another satisfied KTP customer and his cat!

My old buddy Nick (a rapidly budding new photojournalist) standing in front of his recently delivered Authentic Kreddible Trout Custom Designed Calendar titled ‘Intricate Nick’s Cavalcade of Days and Pictures’.
Of course, Nick is a kidder and, knowing my pure, unbridled, almost satanic disdain of cat pictures, decided to take a stab at my not-so-funny-bone.

HAR-DE-HAR-HAR, Mr. Nick! HAR-DE-HAR-HAAR!

15% off Kreddible Trout until Nov. 14th!

Greetings one and everyone! 

To celebrate the

post-halloween-pre-pre-X-mas-consuming-season

Kreddible Trout is offering

15% off  

everything at the redbubble branch of KTP Enterprises! 

All you have to do is enter the 

SUPER SPECIAL FAN CLUB CODE 

(located at the bottom of this blog entry) 

when filling out your order at redbubble 

and  presto-blammo 

you get 15% off! 

But only til Nov. 14th! 

...because with deals this crazy the bank will never give me that business loan I need! 

(the banks only give money to lunatics who already have money)

WE GOT T-SHIRTS!

 

AND WE GOT ART WORKS! 

... and if you look hard enough 

you can find calendars and stickers too!

So please head on over & buy some yummy yummy art!

Hey! 

Don't forget your 

SUPER SPECIAL FAN CLUB CODE:

KreddibleTrout_is_on_sale_0604

...offer ends November 14th 2010.

...and if you want to know a little secret... 

...I have another profile on redbubble... 

...it's for all the la-de-da nature & pretty flower stuff... 

...but sssshhhhhh... don't tell anybody... it'll ruin my credibility as a jaded-edgy artist...

this code will get you 15% off there: 

WilliamJoseph_is_on_sale_0951

 ...for those of you who like flowers and crap like that.

21 Days, 2 Calendars and 1 Birthday later...

Hello Folks, I know, it's been a while. I thought I'd send out an update on what the dilli-o has been going on over here at KTP Enterprises.

Firstly, the Customize Your Whole Year Calendar Extravaganza  got off to a roaring start and then put-putted to a quiet halt. Two orders flew off the shelves shortly after my announcement & then the chorus of crickets & tumbleweed began chiming again. I stormed in to the marketing department demanding to know what happened to the new BMW they promised me. After my ten minute tirade the entire marketing department (my desk plant Mertyl) sat in stunned terror until it finally piped up with 'Well sir...  seems that sliced bread was actually a pretty remarkable invention... we were a bit presumptuous on that... but... well, I do think that the sliced bread people may have put a little more time and effort into advertising it... you know, more than just one blog entry at least.'

The entire office was silent. The vein in my head throbbed in that way it does when it wants to pretend it's Donald Trump. Mertyl sat motionless.

'So....' piecing it together 'what you're saying is..' almost got it now '...one roadsign on the information superhighway is probably insufficient?'

'No.'
'What?'

'It isn't probably insufficient, it is definitely, tremendously and almost embarrassingly insufficient'

'Don't get cocky Mertyl'
'Sorry sir.'

And thus it went on. Mertyl and I spent the better part of last week trying to see eye to leaf & eventually came to the agreement that I was spending far too much time talking to houseplants and need to get out more. (Though the more I think about this the more I realize Mertyl may be trying for a power grab... I have to keep my eye on that one, Peace Lilies are known for their cunning)

So! Where was I?

Oh yes, the Customize Your Whole Year Calendar Extravaganza is very much alive and kicking and two happy customers are in possession of a whole year's worth of Kreddible Trout Photography!

The first, entitled Intricate Nick's Cavalcade of Days and Pictures and looks a little like...   

 

Followed by "Yay! The Whole Whole Year!" Screamed Keny McPuaid. For my old friend Keny.

 

 

So, to be sure you're not the last kid on your block to get an Original, Custom Designed Kreddible Trout Wall Calendar get your orders in today and remember, any of my shots (excluding portraits, weddings and nudes) from any of my online haunts can be used! So... it's kinda like a scavenger hunt! Find your favorite shot! PLUS (as if that weren't enough) yours truly will come up with some ridiculous title for the whole shebang that will be as unique and original as the calendar itself!!! It's win-win-win all around!

Email your picks to trout@kreddibletrout.com today!

Oh... and I had a birthday. Mid month I turned almost 40... and there was much rejoicing... yay!

4 Years In The Making... Published in JPGmag!

I just found out that I've been published in JPGmag! (I've been trying for this for a long time.)
Even though some of the 'older crew' know it's not quite the thing it used to be, I have a special place in my heart for JPG as it was the very first photo-sharing site I ever joined lo those many years ago!(2006)
I've made a lot of eFriends and connected with a wonderful network of photo-peers (a handful of whom I've met in real time) through the site and, despite several, shall we say... 'glitches' over the years it's still a pretty decent site. (those who know about the glitches know about the glitches, those who don't... what's past is past.)

Wow... four years, in eTerms that's a long time. Seems like several generations. (Remember the gulf spill? How many years ago was that? Thank goodness that's all over!)

Thanks JPG!

Breaking news!

This is Kreddible Trout coming to you live from the Fundraiser for the Bwera Vocational School and Cultural Center Project in Western Uganda.
reports are scetchy but mr. Trout's 'standing next to his piece with puppy dog eyes' scene has paid off with a couple of compliments.
More news to follow.

***several hours pass***

The night seemed to be a great success & my piece found a new home. Please stay tuned to their website for updates on how successful the night really was.