To Stock Or Not to Stock

The guys over at Church Marketing Sucks have an excellent post on the usage of stock photography. And they have an excellent point. What with the same stock photos turning up on totally different products, and the much overused stock cliches.

Yes, I'm guilty of using the occasional stock shot from stock.xchng or Flickr, but most of my design work makes use of my own photography, or pics taken by people in the same company or organization. Really, I would much rather not use any stock if I didn't have to. Using original photographs and media ensures that your work will not be misrepresented by another group. For example, if your church purchased a stock photo, and used it an a large marketing campaign, it would be relatively easy for a malicious group to get the same photo, and use it to take advantage of or estrange your hard-earned market.

However, the quality of your work is another consideration. If you are not a good photographer, or do not have access to one, then maybe your only choice is to seek suitable material from a stock gallery. The message and quality of your work always come first.

To stock or not to stock? That is up to you.

News doesn't like news

My family was sitting in our kitchen, eating dinner and watching the news on the local station. The show opened up with a preview of the evenings news stories. One exciting story caught our eye: the invention of a water-powered vehicle.

We sat through the entire hour-long episode, eagerly awaiting this world-changing story, only to find that they dropped it in favor of a gay Olympian and the opening of a local fair. Now what's with that?

The invention of a simple, affordable engine that runs entirely on water is pushed off the air by some queer athlete? There wasn't a single story in the entire program that was more important than a hydrogen car. Think about it... it tolls the end of the gasoline and petrol monopoly that has raised our gas prices to a dollar a liter. With a cheap engine, and fuel literally falling from the skies, the convenience and quality of life in Canada would raise significantly.

Yet another death knell for traditional media coverage. Already, you can access creative content and news reports directly from their sources... free, fast, and easy. Blogs, free video archives like YouTube and Google Video, and free photo hosting on Flickr. These keep me up-to-date on the most important matters, and the one's I'm actually interested in.

Oh, and for those of you still looking for coverage on the water-powered vehicle.

Reality

I'm just in the middle of watching through the "making of" of Narnia, and did you know, that the wonderful scene where Lucy first walks into Narnia was almost real? The actress, Georgie Henley, was put into costume, blindfolded, and was filmed as she literally saw the movie set for the first time. The director wanted to capture her expression of wonder and amazement as realistically as possible.

Experience life in person. Be there, live it, feel it, love it. Going to a sports game is always better than just watching it on TV. Gifts are more interesting than certificates. Real watches are nicer than knock-offs. Being with your loved one is always better than just chatting online.

And there's more than just being in person. Reality is about truth and trust. Being real, as much as being in the real. That means being truthful, not being a hypocrite, and standing up for your beliefs and convictions.

Enjoy, and live a fulfilled life.

Ministry vs. Money

I really believe that God has given me my talents in multimedia and design... and I always do my best to produce quality work for my church. But the problem is, many people from church come to me expecting that I will do my work for free.

Sure, I don't mind doing the occasional small church production, on top of my regular volunteer work of running the tech ministry. But when someone (or the church itself) comes to me expecting me to do a much larger project for free, that's when I have to put my foot down and say no. Especially for projects that require huge amounts of skill and time. I do have to earn a living in this world, and can't afford to work for free all of the time. Multimedia and design takes far more skill and time than people realize.

Just go into your church office, and look up how many paid staff there are. If your church expects to pay your pastor for working full-time, then they better be prepared to pay you for the same amount of work. It is unfair, unbiblical, and exploitive to use religion to pressure someone into working for free... especially if it's above and beyond their already heavy volunteer work.

So next time your church or ministry leader comes to you with some work, demand to be paid for your efforts. If they want free work, then they can round up some inexperienced and untrained volunteers from the congregation... and they will end up with an unprofessional and amateur final product.

Postcards

Celebration! Church has been using postcards (or 'rave' cards) for a couple of years now, and with great success. With a good designer they can be fun, informative, interesting, and something your church can really be proud of. Not to mention that they're almost the cheapest and most personal form of advertising your church can get. Mail them, drop them off in highly visible places, or hand them out in person.

Here's some things to keep in mind.