Okay this probably won’t help but I waste so much time wading through press releases these days I figured I might at least TRY to teach the PR firms marketing to me how to do their jobs.

Let’s start with the basics…

Who, what, when, where and why.

THAT IS ALL I NEED!

I won’t ever read the boiler plate so why bother? And If you truly are the “class-leading, world-champion, award-winning, kimono-opening, rising star of blah blah blah” you don’t need to tell me that. If it’s true I already know that. I’ve met MANY beautiful women in my lifetime. Upon introduction NOT ONE OF THEM has ever said, “Oh by the way I am beautiful.” If you are beautiful I’ll figure that out so stop trying to impress me and get to the meat of the story.

And cut out the adjectives and the superlatives in general. Like Joe Friday used to say - “Just the facts ma’am.” The more adjectives you use - the less likely it is I will run your story. Just saying…

If you include quotes from your CEO and he isn’t someone every single person in the world already recognizes like Steve Jobs, then I won’t read the quote or use it or care about it so skip it.

If you really want a chance to be exposed to the hundreds of thousands of photographers I interact with every year, just pretend there’s a 140 character limit on your press release plus your phone number and email. If you can’t tell me in 140 characters what it is then chances are excellent that I don’t care about it and don’t think my audience does either.

To recap:

I just want the basics. If I have to spend more than 20 seconds to figure out what I you are pitching I am moving on - forever. 

Please take note that I am actually trying to help you help me.

Thanks and close your kimono - nobody wants to see that - really!

Read Trey’s post here - http://www.stuckincustoms.com/2012/01/04/dslrs-are-a-dying-breed-3rd-gen-cameras-are-the-future/ and if you have interest the comments thereto.

I read a few of them and then grew tired of some of the negativity. You have your nay sayers attacking Trey’s post. These people (in my opinion) break down into a few different groups

1. Those who just spent a ton of money on DSLRs and feel the need to defend that decision so they are upset at Trey’s predictions

2. Those who think you need a “big” or “pro-looking” camera to get pro results or to get paid - pretty sure their portfolios would speak volumes about that statement

3. Those who would disagree with Trey no matter what position he took because they think it makes them cool to fight with a genuine thought leader in the field

4. Those who didn’t read the article carefully and didn’t notice some of the qualifiers he mentioned like - the five year time frame - or the fact that people who shoot fast action (like sports or wildlife) may still have a need for DSLRs

5. Pedants who want to prove how smart they are by picking at every little thing like whether or not these really are “third generation” cameras to which I respond “who cares?”

I am not swearing off the future purchase of DSLRs. I shoot fast action motor sports and wildlife and will need long telephoto lenses with fast frame rates to do my job. But I HAVE sworn off using them any chance I get. I’ve sold several sessions and images from my Oly EP3. Nobody cared that I wasn’t using a DSLR. Using a DSLR for any of these sessions wouldn’t have improved the results.

I think many people missed Trey’s point. This is about the future. And all you have to do to see how fast  this stuff moves is look back at five years ago. Look at the tech advances in that time. You can’t tell me that things won’t move as fast going forward.

I’m selling  the images I make with the micro 4/3 camera format right now. So in a sense the future is already here. But I am looking forward to even more future improvements in mirror-less cameras and second Trey’s opinion that this is the future. Okay - flame away :)