For some time I have been a fan of Zack Arias and his One Light work.  The more pushed into the Social Networking sites the more I admired his attitude and mind set.  Well Zack had a personal project called GOYA (Get off Your Ass) that would force him and others around him to…Well get off their ass and shoot.  The project has not be terribly active till this winter where they did a number of GOYA challenges with their studio staff.  The concept is theme is set and those participating go out and shoot the theme in a given time limit.  The images are then loaded and a winner is chosen by readers.

Well I am proposing we hold our own GOYA challenge for us local Ontario residents.  I have a theme already in mind based on it is out of the norm of what I or most the photographers I know have been shooting all winter.

The challenge will be open to all Ontario Photographers all I ask is that we get at least 4-5 participating.  So I am calling out a few right off the Bat.  Chris O’driscoll http://www.odriscollimaging.com/ , Bill Minten Samlyn Studios, Ryan and Erika of Rowell Photography http://rowellphoto.com, George Baker and Richard Roth.  Why did all call these ones out?  Well they were first in my face book friends but share with all Ontario photographers and lets have some fun with this.

If your up for the challenge email be at info@dyimages.com

When the glee tour was announced she wanted to go and we said if it came to Canada we would get tickets and go.  Well no Canadian dates were published.  They added show on Sunday May 30 at 8pm in New York at Radio City Music hall.  Tickets had yet to go on sale.  so we agreed we would drive the 12 hours to NYC to let her go to the show.

So for the past week she has been preparing for the tickets to go on sale today (03/27/2010) at 9 am.  We had credit card ready, computer clock set to Atomic clock so we knew the time and phone in hand.  At exactly 9:00am we hit the button to buy tickets, at 9:00:12 (12 seconds after 9) the web site came back with no tickets available.  So we thought that has to be an error as no way it sold out in 12 seconds. So we kept trying while my wife was on the phone to ticket master.  Sure enough the operator on the phone confirmed no tickets available the time was 9:06am.

So that sucks but life does go on.  Yes my daughter is seriously upset but she will recover.  But that left me with the feeling that why do promoters of these events and the venues allow such blatant abuse of their system.  Well it did not take long for me to find out that Ticketmaster the only site to get tickets also owns a secondary site that allows people to post up tickets they have for sale at gross markups, while ticket master takes a fee.  So ticket master gets the service charge on the original sale, then by allowing scalpers to liquidate tickets at brutal prices makes a % on those sales.  This gives Ticket Master no reason to try and curtail the abuse or make it fair for anyone other than the speculators whos only intent is to flip the tickets for huge profits.

Well you may think that I have sites pointed on Ticketmaster alone.  Well I have to say the Promoters and Producers of Glee should not be held without fault nor the cast for that matter.  The fans of the show and the kids that buy all the merchandise are what makes the cast successful.  Yes the cast is talented but it is the people buying merchandise, DVDs, Videos and so on that make them successful because without the fan base it would just be another canceled show with a cast of unknowns.  But where is the cast, promoters and FOX in all of this?  Are they trying to force change or allow equality? No, they just go on there way and collect pay cheques.

A number of years ago Garth Brooks was doing a huge tour.  He was at the height of his career an in huge demand.  But he was all about the fans and never lost sight of the fans were what made him successful.  So he set out to foil the speculators on his own.  He employed a number of measures from wrist bands in advance, holding tickets back, releasing thousands of tickets the day of the show and even putting his own staff outside the venues selling tickets at face value to ruin the speculators business.  Most importantly he was vocal about it from the time the tour was announced, letting people know he would do what ever he could to keep the show affordable for the fans.  The fans of Glee and others should take note about what it takes to care for your fans.  Or be relegated to a reality TV series about former child stars trying to make a comeback.

So why this Blog Post on a Photographers Blog?  not even a picture to be had.  Well I would love to make this post viral, spread the word and raise awareness.  Maybe even have some of the cast hang there head in a little shame on what they could have done or at least recognize the unfairness.  So please spread this around as much as possible.  retweet, share on facebook or dig or any other Media sites.

No NO  not that kind of Senior.  High School Seniors.  You know your last year of high school before going out to higher education!!

Seriously.  High School Senior Portraits are becoming a huge deal for those graduating.  Not everyone is happy to leave high School with there Legacy being the same cloned grad photo as every other student for the past 50 years.

Seniors are edgy, modern and capture who you are as a person today.  We incorporate locations, props and wardrobe that define who you are.  This is the legacy that most 17-18 year olds want to leave behind.  Derrick Young Photography is giving away 3 free seniors sessions for Students from Simcoe County schools.  When we say free we mean free.  Free Session, Free prints and Free images for use on facebook/Twitter/my Space.  You bring your clothing of choice and some items that define who you are in high school and we do the rest.

So really what legacy do you want to leave behind?  Join the our Facebook Fan Page and and say you want a free senior portrait and what High School you go to.  We will Select 3 lucky students to get a Full Package for free