Bangladesh. For those of us in the west, it's a land that is far off. Over there, mostly to be forgotten and only reminded when the traditional media is quick to paint a picture of its poverty, its political strife, its annual flooding and perhaps its religious conflicts. It's all negative.

I am calling their bluff.

While I am not from Bangladesh, I've been there once. My memory is similar to Mikey Leung‘s – that the country is a vibrant place, that people are hospitable and welcoming and that there are many more things that are positive about Bangladesh than there are negative.

Yes, it took a visit to dispel the myths that I had constructed in my head. While not everyone can travel to Bangladesh (I think they should), Mikey Leung, in cooperation with Drik has produced a book, a photo essay of Bangladesh that is wholly positive. It's a called “Positive Light.”

Here is Drik's founder Shahidul Alam talking about the project:

This post is an appeal to you my readers. I am not pitching you anything. I hope this book makes you think differently about Bangladesh.

Support the production of this book here. They are looking to raise $10,000 in the next 5 days and I know they will do it. Their ultimate goal is to raise $20,000 so that the book is distributed far and wide.

Will you consider making a difference in the way a country and its people are perceived?

Think about it for a second – why do you photograph? For me, it is a way of discovering people, emotions, places and culture. Your “why” may be similar or different, but I'm sure you'll find “Positive Light” a welcome inspiration of all that is possible.

Join me!

It's almost April and taxes are due. Trust me, I am feeling your pain. Well, almost. This year, for my new portrait business, I chose to work with a bookkeeper and an account. You see, numbers and I are like oil and water. We rarely mix, so outsourcing something I didn't like to do simply made sense.

While I fought with myself and said I could take care of tracking my mileage, reconciling my books and itemizing my receipts, letting go really felt liberating. I could now return my focus back on making images.

But if you are just starting out, or you have attempted to keep your own accounting straight and you are disciplined, I have something for you that might quickly ease your frustration.

Most of us have to keep accounts somehow. Some resort to Excel spreadsheets and some use online or offline software programs. If the word: “QuickBooks” makes you shudder in fear, consider QuickBooks For Photographers, a series of step-by-step video tutorials that will walk you through the program, setting you up and bringing you peace of mind.

Jenny and Josh Solar are the brains behind this and the other programs I am going to tell you about today. Not only were they super helpful through the video series, they also resolved the questions I had after I had watched the program. The reason I am recommending this and their other programs is because they are well organized and useful from the get go. While I had off-loaded my QuickBooks work to my bookkeeper, I still went back to my desktop program to see if I could follow along and set things up as I was instructed. It was super easy and the fact that I could see the results right away made it all the more useful to me.

QuickBooks For Photographers is available for both Macintosh and Windows users. So, rest easy people!

Mastering Tax Time E-Book for Photographers is also something I would recommend to you, so that you can be prepared for next year's taxes. Right now Mastering Tax Time E-Book for Photographers is on sale for $19.00, saving you $10 right off the bat. If you are a pack-rat like me, hoarding receipts for years (but not being able to track them), you will get much relief in hearing how the Solars keep track of everything and can easily find all those pesky bits of paper when you absolutely must (that is, during tax time).

“This guide is designed to help you get organized and stay organized with all things tax related. It covers everything from bookkeeping to mileage, home office deductions to equipment lists and more!”

Lastly, there would be no numbers to plug in if you didn't have any sales, right? Well, you may have a ton of expenses, but it's always nice to run a business in the black, not red.

The Solars have a product called In-Person Sales. If you have been posting your images to an online gallery and haven't seen an uptick in sales, this 29-page guide book is for you. Given Jenny and Josh's long experience as wedding and family portrait photographers, I trust what they have to teach me about this topic. In fact, In-Person Sales is one of the books I am consulting right now as I structure my portrait business in Connecticut.

Here's the deal: If you Solar power your business and buy all three products mentioned above, I'll give three (3) of you 1/2 hour of my time ($150 value each) via a Skype video call. We can talk about your business. We can talk about specific photography issues you are encountering. We can talk about how you are using social media. I am not promising you that I know everything, so if you stump me, I'll either figure it out and let you know or will direct you to someone who does. So, come back here and tell me you bought QuickBooks For Photographers, Mastering Tax Time and In-Person Sales. I'll confirm with the Solars and then I'll pick three names out of the hat. Deal?

My photography business is Solar powered. Is yours?

Olivier Duong is a Haitian-French-Vietnamese documentary photographer living in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Check out his websites: www.f-stopeight.com (Portfolio+Blog) and www.streetpresets.com (Street Photography Presets for Lightroom and Nik's SilverEfex)

I was pretty much shy and fearful as a kid , so much so that I couldn't even look at my own brother in his eyes when I was younger! But that has changed and now I am fearless to shoot in the streets. But it looks like fear is a big issue for many wanting to do street photography, so I put this article together by drawing from personal experience and psychology.

1) Fear Is Normal

The first thing to understand is that fear is normal. You have an alert system designed to react when something dangerous is approaching or forming, and it is called fear. This is why when you are in a shady neighborhood you suddenly want to hit the gas pedal because of fear. This fear is good, it's here to protect you: if you didn't run of fear of lions, you would be history! So do not worry because you fear in the first place! It's perfectly normal.

2) Irrational Fear

Whereas fear is good, and fear of rejection normal, irrational fear is bad and can even literally paralyze you. There is a certain probability that certain things can happen to you, irrational fear makes these seem extremely probable when in reality they are extremely improbable. Let's take meteorites for example. You CAN die from a meteorite but what are the astronomical odds of this? And irrational fear of being hit by a meteor will most likely lead you to believe that the day you walk out, is the day a meteor will hit you.

In the streets there is an irrational fear of rejection, we believe that every single person will probably do something to us, get mad or do something else. Truth is this will only happen once in a while, most of the time when you are out, absolutely nothing happens. We will get yelled at once in a while, but guess what? It's statistically bound to happen, just like it's statistically bound to happen while behind or in front of a counter at a store. You will get yelled or challenged in the streets but so will you be at any kind of work, that's just life and there is no need to have an irrational fear of it.

3) What Is There To Fear In The Streets?

In order to get into conquering your fear of street photography, we must look at what exactly causes the fear. Is it the streets themselves? No, for I am sure you walk in streets without any problem, so what is it? It has to be people. You do not fear them when you are walking in the streets, and if you were invisible with your camera I am sure there would be no fear … So what is there to fear in the streets? I believe that it is the fear of people, the fear of people's reaction, and even more specific, their potential rejection. We are afraid of being yelled at or something worse.

From Seshu: One way you can show the grittiness of the street is by converting your color images into black & white, using presets for Lightroom, Nik's SilverEfex Pro or Adobe Camera Raw. Check out Street Presets [affiliate] by Olivier Duong. Applying these presets to my images takes me back to my first inklings as a street photographer in Tokyo, Japan. I spent a great many days just walking, watching, talking to strangers and photographing them, if they didn't mind. Will share some of my favorite images soon!

4) Fear Of Rejection Is Normal

Humans are hardwired for relationships: language, art, love, friendship – all revolve around relationships. So rejection actually strikes at the very core once it's being expressed, hence the fear of rejection. We all want to feel that we belong so we will do anything we can to not feel rejected. That fear is once again, normal! When you are in the streets and fear the reaction of someone, it's because you are human and can't help it. This is why some fear the streets, some fear to blog, etc.

5) Change The Channel

I do not think that one cannot fear, it's a mechanism built-in the system like pain is. So what to do? The answer is simple: Change the channel.

Your mind is like a big, huge TV screen and you are the viewer. You might not have control over what goes on in your mind but you have the remote control to change the channel. And just like a real TV screen, your mind can only be focused on one thing at a time: try to think about pot roast and at the same time the Empire State building to see how you fare. When you are in the streets and any kind of nasty images come into your mind “You're gonna get yelled at”, “He's gonna punch you”, etc, etc. These fears are irrational because of the odds of them happening … so what you do is you replace these images/thoughts that come with some other thoughts/images, and since you can only be conscious of things once at a time, you are basically overriding your fear with other things.

6) Occupy Your Mind

Here's some other things to tune your mind to when you don't like what's on in the theater of your mind:

– GPS: Think about a destination point and only think about it, your mind will be occupied on arriving to the destination and will not bug you with fearful thoughts while going there (camera in hand, shooting, of course)

– Camera: Make your mind only focus on things like composition, ISO, Aperture, Depth of Field, Camera shake, etc, and the mind will be too preoccupied for anything else.

– Future: While in the streets, think about how you will be later in your room with all the great pictures you will take. Your mind will be so focused on the prize that it will forget about the present. This is also great if you focus on an incentive (“If I get 5 good shots, I will get a new Video Game or ice Cream, etc”). Incentives work very well!

– Fear: Shift your mind from fearing the streets to fearing NOT getting any good shots!

– Music: Put your headphones on and listen to some music while chanting the lyrics in your head.

7) What's Really At Stake

Fearing the streets will cost you, it will cost you a lot. If you do not take a picture, your vision will never be made concrete and you will lose that opportunity forever. You will increasingly be miserable the more you do not shoot in the streets because you will let lots of good photographs slip through your hands … with no one to blame but yourself. Your vision should trump many things like cameras and fear. Fear is not worth loosing a photograph. If you do let your fear win, what you will be left with is regret. Regret for not having taken that picture when the time came. If you care about your vision and photography, the stakes are high!

8) It Gets Better

All I can say is it only gets better. You are a bit hyper at first, but once you get in the streets and occupy your mind and then get a knock-out photograph, you will not stop! Fear in street photography can be beaten once you realize that YOU have the remote control to change the channel. Street photography is waiting for you, don't let your fear get in the way of your vision, it's much too precious. Stay focused and keep on shooting.

Are you looking for some gritty black & white presets for Lightroom, Nik's SilverEfex Pro or Adobe Camera Raw? Check out Street Presets [affiliate] by Olivier Duong.

Couple of days back, I published a guest post by Aaron Hockley about how photographers can or should choose their social media channels carefully.

Days after that post went live, I heard Jonathan Canlas (in a conversation with Todd Reichman of A Man To Fish fame and podcast) say rather bluntly that while it's all well and good to be on Facebook, Facebook “LIKES” don't pay bills. It made me think more about how I've been using social media, be it Twitter (nearly 8,300 followers) or Facebook.

The discussion in that podcast inspired me to also look at “why” I was using social media. Was it a source of real information? Or, was it entertainment? With a Twitter or Facebook presence, was I truly “marketing” to my target audience? I wanted to know how my posts measured. Ultimately, the question is: Am I able to convert visitors to actual paying photography clients.

Now, as a photographer, I am committed to doing one thing well – making images. Marketing, while exciting, comes in at a distant second, at the utter chagrin of both my accountant and my wife.

I know, as probably you have figured out for your own business, that being “out there online” is a vital part of your day. If you don't exist online these days, it's very difficult to sustain yourself as a business. Your clients are online, and so should you. But how to parse your day into useful chunks of time – time spent that can be measured and will bring in the results you want for your bottom line?

I didn't have an answer for that question until I ran into Chris Brogan‘s new offering called Mastering The Digital Channel [affiliate]. While I haven't taken this self-paced course yet, what I really like about Mastering The Digital Channel is that one has direct access to Chris Brogan!

As a photographer you may or may not have heard of Chris Brogan. He is the CEO of Human Business Works, a company that is dedicated to helping professionals understand and run relationship-based businesses. I've enjoyed his presence on Twitter and follow him there, but despite a large number of followers, he has always responded to my questions directly and promptly.

Chris, with Julien Smith, have written two books – Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust and The Impact Equation. Independently, Chris has also written Google+ for Business: How Google's Social Network Changes Everything and Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online. If you own a Kindle or an iPad with the Kindle application, consider buying It's Not About the Tights: An Owners Manual on Bravery.

Am I fan of Chris Brogan? You, betcha! I've always enjoyed his no-nonsense, fluff-free delivery of his blog posts, or when his podcasts. He comes across a genuine guy who loves to teach.

Right about now you are probably wondering why you should consider Mastering The Digital Channel by Chris Brogan. I hear you loud and clear.

It's only natural, easy and convenient to reach among those you already know in the photography industry. But I truly believe that if you want to shake things up, you should also be looking outside your bubble.

Now, let me be clear: Mastering The Digital Channel, isn't for everyone. However, if you've been spending your time online and seeing absolutely no return, right about now you probably think social media is a joke or you don't even try to dip your toes into it for long stretches of time. I hear it from a ton of people I meet at photography gatherings. But before you dismiss it completely, shouldn't you have the right frame of mind, the right tools and the right guidance to make a truly informed decision? That's where Mastering The Digital Channel comes in.

This course is just about to launch and yes, there is a launch special. In fact, if you use the code “special”, you save $200 off.

Being online isn't “the IN thing,” it's the “right thing” to do for your business.

Learn to master your digital channel from an attentive and qualified teacher. I know you won't go wrong if you follow the steps Chris Brogan outlines in his course.

Sign up for this course now and save $200.

Full Disclosure: Like all other programs or products I mention or promote here, I do make a small commission from each signup to support the running of this website.