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10 Things every business owner should know about Facebook

Facebook logoToday I attended a seminar run by the Business Center of Wellington which talked about the top 10 Things every business owner should know about Facebook. It was presented by iMC (squared). It left me reeling considering how Facebook is set to shortly eclipse Google as the most used website in the planet. It is also a concern that Facebook may become too commercial and cause young people to look for a cooler alternative, like when people migrated away from MySpace in favor of Facebook. Like any social media, its a huge conversation- much like a global cocktail party. You can join in and mingle with people who you have things in common with, while happily ignoring most of the dross that inevitably occurs. My take away points from the talk (not necessarily their top 10) were:

  • Facebook currently has 500 million users, a number that is set to keep expanding to have more traffic than Google!
  • Its one on one conversations that drive social media- mass marketing techniques don’t work as well because its a ‘personal’ space.
  • Photos and Videos are hugely important as content and also as a means of attracting interest amongst all the text that dominates walls (good news for me!)
  • Content is King. Good content has the potential to go ‘viral’ and explode interest in individuals or brands.
  • The people who business deal with are real- its important to have a message that is both personal and genuine in each interaction.
  • To engage with current and prospective clients is work time. Much like networking in person, social networking has huge potential value and needs to have appropriate resources allocated.
  • People you may meet socially may be great resources for professional relationships in other contexts. Say you connect with someone connected with your family, staying in touch via Facebook or other social media may lead to getting hired for an assignment because you can stay in their minds eye as a current professional.
  • Advertising on Facebook is currently under utilized (perhaps not for long), their is an opportunity for companies to do targeted campaigns that reach current and potential clients better than Ad words for example.
  • Lots of Communications departments and PR folks are taking action and assigning resources. I saw a marketing staff member from a local government department that I have shot for sitting next to me. Its important for companies and agencies to make a presence in this space, small companies have a great opportunity to add extra value to their offerings that larger corporations struggle with- personalized service and support.

Booksellers NZ 98th Conference

A portrait made immediately after John Allen, Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade spoke at the Booksellers NZ 89th Conference on “Nation-Building with Books” – John stands in front of a display that was created for the conference made out of books.

John Allen stands in front of a display built by Booksellers NZ

John’s presentation really impressed me for the passion and enthusiasm that he exhibited in delivering his content. His actions were a joy to photograph because he was constantly using his body language to add emphasis to what he was saying. Both were great to witness, his thoughts on New Zealand being more globally focused really resonated with me- I think that is exactly what business in general needs to be doing to compete on the global stage. The real challenge of course is to find funds to invest in Research and Development so that business can find its unique value proposition, or in my case self fund more photography that inspires people with creative ideas in my photos that fulfills a need plus solves a problem they have.

John Allen focusing on a point he is making during the presentation

An example of really putting energy in passion to a speech with his whole body and mind

At the end of the talk, during the question and answer time, John Allen uses his hands to illistrate what he is saying

New Zealand Post Book Awards Ceremony 2010

Here is a link to a full write up of this fantastic event put on by Booksellers NZ and sponsored by NZ Post… Click the photo to view my gallery of select images from the event.

Honorable Minister of Arts, Culture & Heritage Christopher Finlayson presents the 2010 Book of the Year award to recipient Judith Binney for her book "Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921.

New Zealand Post Book Awards

Today is the first day in a 4 day shoot at the New Zealand Post Book Awards. I fly up to Auckland at 6:30am which means I have to leave the house by 5:30am to get to the airport in time for check in. Ouch! Basically I have the day free in Auckland, so will be meeting the editor of New Zealand Fitness magazine for lunch then will have time to do a location scout at the Langham Hotel where the book awards presentations are happening this evening.

I will be posting updates throughout the weekend with some selected photos. I am excited to have such a big shoot in an city away from Wellington- lots of planning and prep went into getting gear and equipment ready and pared down enough to go on the plane. Fingers crossed it all goes well…

Update: 10:30am

Well the transfers and logistics all went well. I hiked out from Lyall Bay to Wellington airport  with all my gear in a big army backpack + camera backpack on the front and laptop bag on the side. Good practice for more remote shoots that require hiking in. From Auckland airport, I caught the Airport Express bus which dropped me off at the Langham Hotel where I was able to drop off my gear.

After a scout and meeting with the folks at Booksellers, I walked out to Sale Road, which is a cafe/ bar where I have arranged my lunch meeting. On the way over, managed to see a car accident on Queens Drive – a car rear ended another. It is a gray, misty kind of day today- which must have made the chances of seeing the cars in front and stopping quickly that much more difficult.

Auckland's Sky Tower shrowded in mist

Filming wrapped on The Devils Rock movie

I was fortunate to become involved with the 15 film shoot for the feature length movie The Devils Rock this month. Filming wrapped this past Saturday, and now the post production phase moves into full swing. My involvement with the film was doing EPK, or Editorial Press Kit. I also was lucky enough to be at the right place and right time on the first day of filming to shoot stills for promotional purposes on the film.

The official stills photographer for the film was off set on the first day so the producer Paul Campion had me shoot all day images of the set and scenes in the movie being shot. There was a key scene in the film which we shot. It was interesting shooting bracketed focus. The lighting was quite dark and atmospheric so my aperture was open reducing depth of field. To counter this, Paul had me shoot different frames focusing on different sections of the set. In Photoshop, the designers would then be able to have focus on any area of the scene they needed. A great technique giving lots of options later on…

Another day of shooting stills was on location at Breaker Bay. It was great to be involved with such a big production and shoot in an area that I had previously worked by myself. There were a lot of similarities in the locations the Director of Photography chose to shoot on the beach to the ones I picked for family portraits. Perhaps a little weird, given that it is a horror film! Those spots seemed to have the best dramatic effect on the beach for me- it was nice having others use them for a different purpose to tell a much different story…

I’m still working on delivering all the stills from this shoot and will not be posting on my blog until I find out exactly what the usage terms and conditions are- it may be I hold off publishing anything until the film comes out next year. Watch this space!

Making the most of failure

Today, I rode to Wellington into a strong northerly breeze to see if the Umbrella Tree still was up. It wasn’t, so essentially a wasted trip. Still good to get out and get a ride in… On the way back, with a strong tail wind I admired the look of RNZN Cantebury that was docked up in Wellington. I ended up grabbing a shot of the bow that interested me. Nice gray day, which balanced nicely with the gray of the ship.

Photos from the “Ignite Wellington” Event up on their site

The photos I took for this event are now posted. They are running a slideshow from my PhotoShelter Account in their main page which is really cool to see. It’s great seeing the work getting out there and shared.

What is ‘Ignite’? Well, according to their website “Have you ever been to a 60 minute talk and lamented that there was only five minutes of content? Imagine if you could hear only that five minutes… that’s Ignite!”

Front page of the Ignite Wellington website as of August 11, 2010

Silver Ferns vs Samoa Netball Test match shots posted

PhotoSport (a photo agency selling to the media) had me shoot Saturday’s international netball test match between New Zealand (Silver Ferns) and Samoa. The photos are now posted for sale on their site.

You can view the shots from this link.


Netball Silver Ferns vs Samoa August 7, 2010 – Images by Mark Tantrum

End Game play showing at Downstage Theater – I shot the opening cocktail hour

The Wellington City Council commissioned me to shoot the opening party for End Game, a play put on by Capital E and showing at Downstage Theater. I worked closely with the Capital E folks in getting names and submitting the images to the Dominion Post for their weekend deadline. The Dom ran this review and also a photo in the social pages on Tuesday, August 3, 2010.

End Game Performers Kenny King, left, Amy Tarleton and Dan Weekes.

Excerpt from the Downstage website:

“As directed by Leo Gene Peters, End Game by Kate Morris and Rachel Callinan (not to be confused with Samuel Beckett’s Endgame) stages a highly technological cyberspace concept with great ingenuity in real physical space… Billed as “an ideal first Downstage experience for 8 to 14 year-olds”, End Game is a play their parents will appreciate too.”
John Smythe – Theatreview

“Alice went down a rabbit hole to Wonderland… That was 19th century fantasy. 21st century fantasy, as seen by Kate Morris and Rachel Callinan in their amusing play for Capital E End Game, has Alex playing computer games. Just like Alice he’s sucked into another world, the world of his favourite game….Another fine Capital E production aimed with pinpoint accuracy at its target audience.” Laurie Atkinson – The Dominion Post

A twist of fate propels Alex and his mother into a computer game — to face a land of mythical creatures and heart-stopping challenges. This is not going to be a typical
school day. An ideal first Downstage experience for 8 to 14 year-olds.

Well hung architecture photos…

“Shit hot”, is what my client remarked when seeing the prints hanging up on the wall in his board room. The company contracts large commercial building painting, and their portfolio of buildings is impressive. It was really satisfying seeing the images that I have been working on so closely actually printed big and filling the space. Many thanks to my assistant Erin for taking the time out of her busy schedule to help out. Hanging prints is really a two person job.

The prints are in hinge mattes, which I simply nailed through the front onto the wall. We ended up liking the silver nails showing (I had brought paint especially to cover them up). With an industrial and minimalist space, it actually suited the look. We chose to have the center of the prints at 6 feet eye level. This meant that the vertical prints and the horizontals are at different heights. We tried all kinds of variants and arrived at this solution- I think it worked really well.

Board room with architecture photos

View with the biggest wall, colour + black & white mixed together, with the two vertical prints on the other wall.

Architecture photos in boardroom

Looking the other way with the same board room table in the foreground.

View the images close up here.