For the last 6 months, there has been a low rumble in my brain to present an annual award to a photographer or photography teacher who universally inspires us all to be better photographers, perhaps even be better human beings. In my mind, it had to be a person who goes well beyond the ordinary – shares her/his knowledge openly, invites dialogue and challenges us to elevate our craft and vision.

You probably already know some them. You've attended their workshops, hung out with them at parties and chatted with them one-on-one about your photography work and or business. You've come away after each encounter feeling energized and enthused about your calling – photography. They have rekindled that fire in your belly and you know that today and tomorrow are going to be great days because of the time you spent with him or her yesterday. Ever feel that way? It's time to celebrate them.

2011 Awardee

The list of friends, and they have become just that over the years, is long. Choosing one among all of them for this first Tiffinbox Award was no easy task.

The photographer whose name I kept seeing again and again – thanks to his awesome Twitter presence, his phenomenal feat of writing 4 truly amazing books in 3 years, his workshops, his thought provoking blog posts and his positive spirit as he faced life-threatening challenges – is David DuChemin.

So, David, congratulations. On behalf of all the photographers who have been inspired by your spirit, your hard work as a photographer, teacher and mentor, I am honored to present you the 1st Annual Tiffinbox Award. You'll receive a real Tiffinbox in the mail, filled with goodies you can munch on as you embark on your next trip with Jessie.

Craft & Vision

“Gear is good. Vision is better,” is his mantra. This simple, yet profound philosophy to photography and business has been my guide for the last few years. Perhaps it has been for you as well. So, instead of buying more gear, David suggests expanding the way you photograph your subjects. To that end, David began publishing beautifully designed and written e-books for photographers. At $5 each, these won't break your bank. Want to know more, check out Craft & Vision. [affiliate]

The Giveaways

If you have been influenced or inspired by David's blog posts, Tweets or even the e-books he produces, let me/us know in the comments section below. Be as descriptive and specific as possible. How has he helped you? What steps did you take with your photography after reading one of his e-books or blog posts? Which particular blog posts spurred you into action? Feel free to show us “before & after” images via links to a post on your site.

If I receive a 100 comments under this blog post between today and August 31, I'll select 4 of the best comments to each win one of 4 of David's awesome books (yes, shipped anywhere in the world) on September 1. So, hurry!

UPDATE: I've reconsidered the 100 comment requirement and I am pulling it. The deadline will be the same. You want to win 1 of 4 David's books, then comment away. I'll read through each of them and pick 4 winners. Deal?

Here are the four books I will be giving away:

Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision
VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography
Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images

By the way, the annual Tiffinbox Award will always be presented on August 23. I'll let you figure out why. Also start thinking of whom you will nominate for next year's award.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: This morning I chose the following to win 1 of 4 David's books – @kristaphoto @LaraWhite @nine9beans and @BelindaOlsen. Congratulations! Please contact me with your mailing address by September 7. All but one book will be shipped in September. David's latest is in process of going to print. If you already own one or more of his books, please let me know which one(s) so that I don't send you something you already have.

I imagine Scott Jordan, the CEO of the stylish, yet very functional ScotteVest is on a mission to be heard and seen by everyone. Yes, including photographers.

I received a direct message from him on Twitter asking me to check out a link regarding a ScotteVest advertisement that Delta Airlines had rejected. It was a similar advertisement to the one his company published in The New York Times.

Here is the advertisement in its original form:

You can only imagine why the advertisement was rejected by Delta. It calls out a spate of US airlines that have opted to charge additional baggage fees if you decide to fly with them. And it gives travelers a very viable solution – the ScotteVest – to “beat the system.”

Let me be clear – I do not own a ScotteVest product (yet). And this isn't a paid or unpaid advertisement for Scott Jordan or his company. I have received nothing in exchange for blogging about this issue. I used to love getting on a plane and traveling. I have traveled to Europe, East Asia and to just about every state in the US. Well, the airlines industry in the US have found ways to make it intolerable (save for one airlines called Southwest).

When the “extra baggage fees” were announced, I knew I would be flying less. Not that I carry a stack of suitcases when I photograph domestic or international weddings, but the very fact that airlines in the US had found a way to essentially tax me over and above what it costs to fly with them, well, irked me to no end. Note the distinction – we are referring to these new charges for “extra” baggage not just “excess” baggage. From my understanding, one is charged “excess” baggage if and when one goes over a certain amount of weight per suitcase AND also has an additional bag to check in. Fine. We've lived and put up with that for a while and it makes sense. You can't have one person flying with 10 suitcases all filled to the brim. “Extra” baggage charges, which I am lamenting about now, is when an airline deems it necessary to charge you for ANY checked bag; weight and dimension limits also remain in full effect, of course. If you were traveling for just an overnight trip, you may be able to get away with a duffel bag or a carry-on suitcase (though there are rumblings already that those TOO may be incur a charge!!). However, if you are traveling for a week or more, you will want to carry more with you. Add traveling with children to the mix and you parents know that things become quite a production.

In my opinion, this nickel-and-diming is surely the first step towards a very slippery slope for the airline industry. I wonder if charging us to use the bathrooms on their flights, where we would be required to swipe our credit cards to open the door, would be the next logical step. I am sure some bean-counter is already salivating at the very thought. Where and when airlines should be encouraging travel, they have found innovative and asinine solutions to tax passengers, disrupt and frustrate people's lives.

In again a Twitter exchange, my friend Steven Frischling (whose blog Flying With Fish you must read), says:

So do you think Delta or any other airline will want to turn away nearly $735 million every year? No way! Airlines have forgotten that traveling by air used to be a positive experience. Now, it's more of a nightmare, especially with necessary security checks and other unforeseeable delays. So here comes an innovative company with a great product to make people's lives a little bit easier when they travel. But no, the airlines will have none of it.

Scott Jordan's appeal is simple. This is a David vs. the Goliath, he says. And I agree. This is about the little man/woman being constantly stepped on. ScotteVest products may provide a traveler the ideal solution to carrying a lot of the things one would normally check-in, but I somehow doubt every traveler will opt for a jacket in lieu of checking in a couple of suitcases. To that end, I think Delta is being just plain silly for rejecting the advertisement in Delta Sky, their in-flight magazine. By denying ScotteVest's advertisement to appear in their magazine, they have inadvertently (and to Jordan's glee, I am sure) created a maelstrom of interest in his offerings. Isn't all publicity, still good publicity?

Read Scott Jordan's official statement on Delta's decision to reject his “Beat the System – how to avoid extra bag fees” advertisement.

What do you think? Is Scott Jordan's appeal much ado about nothing or are you also frustrated by the baggage fees that airlines are charging you when you travel and want a solution you can use? As a photographer how have the new baggage allowances affected the way you travel and ultimately your business? Send a message to the airlines by commenting below!

This a guest post by Ken Jarecke, a world-renowned photojournalist and founding member of Contact Press Images, an illustrious photo agency based in New York. Please also visit and read his blog, Mostly True.

The past few years it’s been hard for me to pick up a camera. We all know that the industry, at least the editorial side of it, has been at an all time low. Sure, I’ve worked to put a good face on it, like in this piece on the New York Times Lens blog, but more often than not, my desire to make wonderful images has been absent. My heart has just not been there.

It’s not the creative side. I’ve rarely cared about the choices editors make about my work. That’s never been my motivation. Besides, I figured if I made great images, they’d get published. Somewhere. Sometime.

For example, here’s a take from the Beijing Olympics. After nine Olympics, I felt this was the best job I’d ever done. Normally, the Olympics will generate tons of tear-sheets, but outside of China, where my agency had a deal with the local English language newspaper, I managed to get only a single image published (in a French newspaper).

Frustrating to be sure, but still, not something that would stop me from making pictures.

No, I’m sad and ashamed to report that my lack of desire stemmed from nothing more than a lack of money. More specifically, the constant worry, and the ongoing struggle to pay the bills had taken its toll.

It’s sad, because I didn’t become a photojournalist to get rich (I was never that crazy or misguided). I’m ashamed because much of my money problems were the direct result of poor or stubborn decisions that are completely my fault.

In the past, I hesitated to book weddings. I made the excuse that I couldn’t book something that far in advance. What if an editorial job came up? In reality, I felt this type of work was beneath me. I felt the same about the portrait market (Yes, I know where this is being read). It’s easy to say now, but what’s more important than a wedding, or capturing a child’s life? Oh well, live and learn.

I didn’t let the magazines determine if a picture was good or not, but I sure put them in charge of what was important enough for me to photograph!

Pride and arrogance, a nasty couple of vices. As you can imagine, the only people to suffer from the choices I made was my family. Over the past few years, we’ve cut expenses, and eliminated most of the extras that come with family life, in my vain attempt to reinvent the editorial market and make things right (vanity, there’s another one).

Although I never stopped loving being a dad or a husband, the only thing I accomplished was to give my family a grouchy dad who hated making pictures.

As a photojournalist, I always try to have a backup plan. I would look at every situation with the perspective of a worse possible case scenario. Like, what would happen if I got a two flat tires in a post-Katrina New Orleans?

Practical to be sure, but it also gave me a sense of being in control. Maybe we all do this. It would explain tings like always having a pocket bulging with extra batteries.

Well, about three weeks ago, I ran into a situation that I couldn’t control. One of our children came home from camp very sick. It took twelve days for the doctors to figure out what was wrong. Plenty of uncertainty. Lots of prayers. Scary times. I don’t want to put too fine of a point on it. She spent four nights in the hospital and has been home for about a week now. She’s getting better everyday and is on her way to a full recovery.

Ironically, being in this powerless situation has seemed to heal me also. I have no cares about my reputation, or my standing in the photography world. I should be totally freaked about the medical bills (on top of everything else), but instead they just don’t seem important. I just want to be a better dad and husband (I thought I always was, but I didn’t give any thought to the huge burden I had placed on my family).

Strangest of all, I also want to make some really good pictures. Go figure.

I’m working on getting some portrait jobs… I booked one yesterday! I did my first wedding back in June. I gotta say, I really enjoyed it. The pictures were good too! I hope I have the chance to do some more.

The medical bills? Well, I hope to pay for some of them with a special print sale. I’m going to offer eight or ten prints at a special price for seven days only. They’re signed, archival pigment prints made by me.

You can see a preview here. I don’t know what the final selection will be, but I’m open to suggestions. Please check the above site on Monday to find out. The 17” x 22”s will be $300 and the 8.5” x 11”s will be $97 (plus shipping).

The two black & whites shown here are from an essay I did for Time magazine in 1990 called, “The Rotting of the Big Apple”. They’ve been very popular with collectors over the years.

The image from the Tiananmen Square student protests of 1989, shows a lone hunger striker sitting in front of Chinese soldiers. It has also been popular with collectors. At some point it was named “The Rose”. The Beijing Opera performer was made in May of 2007. It’s one that I like. I think it works well.

If you have ever considered creating a photography collection for yourself, Ken's offering here would be a terrific start. In fact, I have already told Ken that I will be buying one of his prints! Supporting each other through the valleys and peaks of life is what will make us stronger. Give it some thought, but don't wait too long because these prints are very likely to be gone soon.

UPDATE: Ken sent me this slideshow that you see below. It has all the images he has on sale through this Friday (September 10, 2010). I hope this inspires you to invest in one of his images.