Costumes Anyone?

Confession: Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist

As many of you know, this time of year I’m busy working on costumes for myself. This is a fun pursuit (I know many of you are excited to see what this year’s suit is like), and I have come to realize I’m quite decent at it.

Last year I had the opportunity to partner with Jesus Prom to make several costumes for them, and I had a great time doing it. So much so that I would love to start making costumes for others as well.

So, since we’re only 2 months away from Halloween, I wanted to let you all know that I am now going to be taking on some additional commissions for this Halloween! I only have 4 slots available, so if you’re interested you need to act soon!Once you sign up, we’ll sit down and talk about what you want to be this year, and come up with a great way to make your character come to life. Do note that I am primarily skilled in making costumes that have a mascot/fantasy/sci-fi qualityto them; however, I work hard to make sure we get every detail of your costume right, and I am always willing to try new processes or genre in order to accomplish that.To sign up, all you have to do is comment here, send me an email at screamingchickenstudio@gmail.com, or get in contact with me the old-fashioned way by telling me in person or on the phone. I will keep you all updated on available slots through this post.So, if you have a wild idea for Halloween this year, and you’re tired of always going as “yourself” or a “bedsheet ghost”, give me a shot! I’d love to help out.

::Side Note:: If you just want ideas for costumes, and you want resources on where to find a specific outfit, please let me know. I’m always willing to grab coffee and talk with anybody about costume ideas. 

::Double Side Note:: I no longer have a beard. It left the band after a heated discussion between us and Mr. Schick… 

Senior Portraits: Alyssa Hill

It’s so great to have a little sister like Alyssa. She’s fun to hang out with, and she is always willing to get in front of the lens. Over the years I’ve taught her a lot about what it means for me to be her big, annoying brother, but, almost as important, I taught her how to take good pictures.

This year will be her senior year in high school, and I’m so excited for her. She’s really grown up over the years, and I’m proud to be her big brother. So, when it came time to do her senior portraits, I was excited that she wanted me to take them for her.

As always, Alyssa was a great to work with, and, even though we spent half our time shooting in a part of the Knoxville Botanical Gardens that wasn’t actually part of the Knoxville Botanical Gardens, we got some great shots. You can check them out by clicking on the gallery link above.

Spoon & The Water Hose

A while back Spoon and I went to the dog park near my house. They have a pond there, and most of the dogs at the park end up soaking wet with their fur caked in mud.

Exhibit A: Alex gets so dirty!

Unfortunately, Spoon has never taken to water like a fish…

This means that our time at the dog park consisted of Spoon running around with the other dogs until they reached the water, where she would abruptly cease forward motion in an attempt to avoid the water. For me, being a former competitive swimmer, I would expect my puppy to enjoy the water, and, this realization that I had a dog (PART LABRADOR, mind you) that didn’t like water, was sad.

She did jump in once out of pure curiosity. Her eyes told me everything I needed to know about this experience as well. “I immediately regret my decision,” is what she seemed to be screaming from the water. I gave up hope for her ever enjoying the what it’s like to be submerged in water.

Then, one day, I had her out in the back yard while my mom was watering our garden, and something strange happend: she started chasing the stream of water coming out of the hose! Not only that, she started getting wet, and liked it! This, of course, was hysterical to my mother, and she continued to let Spoon play with the water.

So, she’s not afraid of the water after all! Today, my sister was out watering the garden, and Spoon was at it again, so I got my camera out to take a few pics of her in action. You can check them out below.

Of Cades Cove and Ansel Adams

Recently I’ve been reading a book I found at a used book store on photography. It’s called The Negative, and it was written by Ansel Adams. The edition I have was published 3 years before his passing, and it is truly the culmination of his life’s work and knowledge. In it he discusses the essence of what a good negative is, and how to visualize and create images from the moment you capture them until you print them.

It’s also an incredible amount of technical jargon at first, but it’s interesting to note that, for all the technical aspects of photography, Ansel Adams felt that it was important to print an image not for what you see but for what you feel.

You see, emotion is what takes a photograph from being simply a picture to being art. Technical photography is all said and good to produce a pristine image that is well composed, but it’s not until a piece makes you feel something that you can begin to recognize the importance of photography as art. In Adams’s own words,

“As Photographers, we should study and reflect upon the details of the process; practice is essential, for when we are making photographs, we should be free to work creatively and intuitively, drawing upon our knowledge and experience to bring everything together as a performing musician must do – with no interference of technical issues with the ‘creative flow’.”

Recently I came across a great blog article on Ansel Adams where they have some great YouTube clips from a documentary about him that clearly summarize all of what I’d like to say on this matter. I highly recommend it if you have time to watch it.

Since reading his book, The Negative, I have been wanting to see one of his images in person again. I know I’ve seen a few in the past, but I wanted to see one up close for myself. Luckily, there happens to be a print of his photography he did while traveling through the Smoky Mountains at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Ansel Adams (1902-1984), Dawn, Autumn Forest, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, 1948, Silver gelatin print; printed c. 1970-76, Gift of Patricia and Alan Rutenberg and Mary Ellen and Steve Brewington, 19.25 x 14.25 inches, © 2009 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

Adams was noted as saying that the Smoky Mountains were extremely difficult to photograph, and that he wasn’t able to obtain many good images from his trip. In fact, there are very few actual prints that exist from that trip. However, with regard to his dislike for the Smokies, I must differ from Adams. I do think that the Smokies are a beautiful and easy place to photograph, you just have to know where to look.

Recently I got the opportunity to travel to just such a place in the Smokies known as Cades Cove. This is a popular tourist destination, and it’s insanely crowded year-round. However, if you time it just right, you can find some great opportunities for photography without capturing the crowds in the process.

Drawing upon what I’ve been learning from Ansel Adams, I have been applying his techniques to my work digitally. In no way am I trying to be another Ansel Adams, but his techniques are tried and true and have given me a new way to think about how I perceive photography and the art of creating an image full of contrast. Take a look.

Scanning: Leave It To The Pro’s

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Lomography? It’s an imprecise art, and it’s great practice for humbling that part of me that wants to be a perfectionist with every shot. I think one of the best things about this type of photography is that it forces you to think before you shoot. When you only have 12 shots, you want to make each image count, and sometimes I go for months between exposures. As I discussed in a previous blog entry, it also takes time and money to develop film prints, so you want them to be good from the outset. This doesn’t prevent mistakes, of course, but it does make you work harder to get that image just right.

The development process for film can be difficult and finicky. For those who have never done it, I advise you to take a class from your local community college before attempting to develop your own images. There is a lot to learn, and doing it in a classroom setting is the best way to be educated on film processing. Even then, never do color film processing by yourself unless you own your own color development lab. It’s a dangerous process, and the chemicals you work with are potentially hazardous to you and the environment.So, when I finally finished up my rolls of color film, I took them in to get them developed.

When I went to get them processed at Murphy’s Camera, they looked at the rolls of film I had in my hand as if I had brought in some alien material. Their first reaction was, “I don’t think we develop film any more.” This is quite disheartening to hear when you are at the only true camera store in town. Thankfully, they did develop film, they just hadn’t done any in quite some time. I got the film back about a week later, and then went home to scan them. Because, apparently, they can’t scan 120mm film. What I didn’t anticipate was that scanning negatives on a standard flatbed scanner would be difficult, and it wouldn’t give me nearly the results I needed to create the proper image. So, I had the images scanned, but not good quality… and I wasn’t happy with this.

I decided I would see if there was anywhere in town that could scan the images for me, and the kind people at Murphy’s referred me to a guy named Dan Silvestri. I scheduled a time to go to Dan’s studio and deliver my negatives. Dan has a great setup. In fact, if I could, that would be my dream studio one day. There is a key difference between the scanner that Dan has and my little flatbed scanner: His is way more expensive and made for the sole purpose of scanning film. Mine is a nice one, but it’s made for scanning documents at low resolutions, and it’s not meant to scan film the way his is. Needless to say, this quality came with a price, but I think you’ll agree that his scanner was worth it!

When Your Mind’s Made Up

For any of you who has been wondering about how I’ve been doing lately, I just want to let you all know that I’m doing well. If you feel as though I’ve been pretty distant lately, I’m sorry. I know my blog has gone unattended for some time now, and I tend to rectify that. I’ve been doing a lot, and I don’t think I can get it all out in one blog post. So stay tuned over the next several days as I post my stories.

Right now, I have to come out with it and tell you all that my mind is made up. I’m leaving Lexington and moving to Knoxville. This has not been an easy decision to reach by any means, andI know a lot of you have been wondering if I had already moved for some time, but, alas, I have not until now.

In addition to the work I do here at Screaming Chicken Studio, my personal business, I also work for a company called Symply Social. It’s the brainchild of my friend Aaron Sachs and my own. We are a Social Media consulting, training, and education firm committed to helping individuals and business owners understand social media and how it can best be utilized for their personal and professional lives.

I love working with Aaron and our other business partners, Casey and Brad. In just a few short months, we have managed to build a revenue generating business that is showing some real promise. Our client base is growing, and I know good things are on the horizon. Unfortunately, to take this risk, I have to move to Knoxville, TN.

This means moving home for me. Not just “home” in the figurative sense, but also in the literal sense. It’s a humbling time, to be honest. Giving up some freedoms here in Lexington to move to Knoxville and grow a business is a challenge for sure. It’s also going to be a challenge living at home for a while. I love my parents, don’t get me wrong, but when you’ve been out of the house and living independently for 7 years, it’s tough to call up Mom and Dad and say, “I’m coming home.”

This will be my new bedroom. I'll be glad to get my furniture in there. 🙂

There is a lot of peace in this decision for me. I’ve been seeking God on this issue for some time, and I’ve been praying that he would give me direction. It’s difficult to put into words exactly how he’s shown me this (that is in part why I’m splitting up this talk into several blog entries), but it has been a very clear, firm answer. Don’t worry. I’m not going to spend all of my time justifying my move, but I’ve learned a lot over the past 3 weeks, and I’ve got a lot to share with you. And, yes, some of it relates to photography. 🙂

As you may have noticed, I’m a big fan of music. Not just for the sake of rhythms and catchy tunes, but also for the sake of quality lyrics. That said, the song for which this blog is titled is “When Your Mind’s Made Up” by The Frames (and later by The Swell Season/ i.e. the Once Soundtrack). Listen to this song, and listen to the lyrics. For those with virgin ears, please forgive me for linking you to a song with the “S-Word”. Regardless, it’s still worth a listen.

You can read the lyrics here. 

Who Said It Was Impossible?

I’ve had a couple of Polaroid cameras lying around my house unused for quite some time now. As with anything I have sitting around, I have the intent of using it… eventually. I had no idea if these cameras worked, nor did I know much about the nuances of each particular camera considering I just blindly purchased them from Goodwill over a year ago.

Most people wouldn’t even bother to buy such a thing. They would say it’s impossible to buy film for such a camera because Polaroid shut down all of its film production several years ago. That is, of course, unless you get lucky and score some film off e-bay, and this, as it turns out, is often hard to find, and it’s often very, very pricy.

So, aside from being an impulse purchase of an astounding $2.5o for one camera, and $3.00 for the other, why would I buy an out-dated unusable device like this? The short answer: Because they’re cool.

It’s not just that they’re cool though. You see, film hasn’t gone out of style. In fact, I’d wager to say that it’s even making a comeback. As I wrote last week, there is a push for that “retro” look and feel regardless of whether or not the camera is actually film or digital. Even mainstream photographers are going after that “retro” look in their digital images. So it is no surprise when I began to dig a little deeper that I found out there is film still being produced for Polaroids.

The Impossible Project was started just as Polaroid was shutting down their last plant in (don’t ask me to pronounce this) Enschede, NL. Long story short, they have been preserving the tradition of analoge photography and, in doing so, have provided people the world over with the ability to still use their Polaroid cameras! You can find out more about their history and the film they produce at this link.

So, with that in mind, I finally set out to invest in some film from them, and on Monday of this week it arrived. I purchased the Softtone Edge Cut for my Spectra and the PX 70 Color Shade Push! for my SX 70 Land Camera. The first thing I did when it got in was to take some pictures to test it out. Using my trusty puppy, Spoon, as my model, I took these first two shots.

As you can see, the results were mixed. The Px 70 (left) looked cool, but it had a tear on the top of the image (the fine people at Impossible informed me later that this was common due to the thickness of the film and the camera’s rollers), and Spoon was blurry even with a flash. By contrast the Softtone was in focus, and I liked the color hue a little better on this one… granted, Spoon’s eyes were reflecting the harsh flash.

So I quickly realized that “Instant” didn’t mean “Easy”… not to say I followed that mentality as I shot, but that’s what I learned that day. Part of shooting with new film and a new camera is finding its limitations. This can be done a number of ways, but I prefer good old “trial and error” as my way of determining what will create a good shot and what will create a crappy shot. One thing I didn’t learn until I was on my last shot with the SX 70 was that the film ISO rating was ISO100… which makes total sense when you look at the images I captured (i.e. dense images that look “under exposed” without good lighting), but I wish I would have known that going into it.

The fun thing about mistakes with Polaroids, is you can find creative ways to capitalize on your errors, such as “peeling” the images. This is what I did with that blurry image of Spoon:

…and that’s just a start. The other two peels I did were not quite as good, but they’re worth a look just out of the fact that they’re peels… and it’s cool!

I’m learning a lot. It’s a challenge to determine even at what distance an image will develop and how that image will come out when shooting in different lighting. Through the magic of the internet I discovered that my SX70 should be betwen “4-10 feet away from the subject” And, try as I might to repeat to myself that this is what I should do, I didn’t listen. So I made mistakes.

Mistakes with film are more costly than a mistake made with a digital camera where you can go, “Oh! I’ll just delete this and take it again!” As with any film, I may only have one chance to get an image that I want. However, unlike most films I can go and buy within 24 hours at a low cost, this film costs much more and requires me to pay international shipping charges (it came from the Europe!). That said, there may still be some advantages to waiting 3-10 days versus waiting 2-24 hours. Let’s have a look.

Here’s my math:

• Polaroid: Each shot costs me $3.78 ($68 for film + shipping/18 exposures)

…and that’s it for Polaroid… on the other hand with film…

• 120mm B&W Kodak film: $0.28 per exposure ($4.50 per roll, 16 exposures)
• Add in development costs and you’re looking at about an extra $1.87 for a total of $2.15, which is still cheaper than a Polaroid!

Now, let’s add in the fact that Time = $$$$ and that the hourly rate = minimum wage ($7.25), and keeping in mind this is for one roll (development through digital processing):

• 10 Minutes of prep time
• 5 Minutes fooling with film in complete darkness trying to get it on a spool and off its film roll while removing tape from the… ‘doh! I dropped it! …from the reel.
• 20 Minutes of development
• 10 Minutes wash, hanging, and general cleanup
• 2 Hours (120 Minutes) dry time
• 5 Minutes separating images with scissors for scanning
• 20 minutes scanning
• 1 hour digital development for all images
• Total Elapsed Time: 4.25 Hours ($30.81 total, additional $1.93 per image)

So now we have an additional $1.93 per image for a total $4.08. And this is for a process that takes 4.25 HOURS (minimum) to complete as opposed to 4 minutes! This isn’t even taking into account what would happen if you print your film images versus scanning… Even as I type all this I realize that the point I was trying to make was moot once I added in development for film. Looking at it this way, the only real advantage with other analog films is that it’s easier to acquire.

This is exactly what made Polaroids so popular the first time around. You could capture an image and develop it instantly, saving you wait time and money. It’s funny then that over 60 years later we’re still in the same boat when it comes to Polaroid versus film… and in writing this I think I may have convinced myself to buy more film (go me!).

Now that my rabbit trail rambling is over, I think Ron Burgundy said it best when he said…

It’s onward and upward to more of the good images. I’m falling in love with the Softtone for my Spectra. The color hue is very “yellow” but it picks up blues and reds quite well. I’m still working to get some of those images up, and I’ll make sure to update you all when I get more colorful versions of the Softtone posted. For now, take a gander at some of these:

And, last, but certainly not least, the Impossible Project is doing this really cool cover thing for their PX70 films. If you order one, you’ll get a custom printed darkslide (that first piece of cardboard that ejects when you insert the film properly) like the one I got below. Honestly, this was the icing on the cake while unwrapping this film. 😀

Click to visit Impossible's Darkslide Gallery!

A Year With Spoon

A year ago today I was driving down the road on my way home from where I used to work. It was right after rush hour, and I was in thick traffic. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a little black dot flash past my car, skittering across the double yellow lines. I thought to myself, “Hey, that’s a puppy! Wait, it’s in traffic!” So I frantically found a place to pull off and see if I could rescue this poor little pup from becoming roadkill, or, worse, lunch at the Chinese diner up the road.

As I got out of my car, I saw this little black furball in the grass beside the road, and I started to move towards it. “If it runs, I’ll let it go its own way. If it comes to me, I’ll take it home.” I walked up to the puppy and it rolled over on its back. There was no way out of this one, I had just found myself a puppy.

So I got back in the car with it, wondering, “What should I name her?” I hate cliches, and I like something that’s a little more clever than, “Spot” or “Lucky”. As I got in the car, My Mathematical Mind by Spoon came on the radio. Just the title alone was enough to make me laugh out loud. In my head I was already doing the facts and figures to justify having a dog, especially considering my new roommate and landlord already owned one… It was just too funny. I looked at the little puppy and said, “What about Spoon? How does that sound?” She expressed her excitement in the only way she then knew how: She peed on the jacket I had provided to her as a blanket.

That was a good day. I told my roommate that I wasn’t sure I was going to keep her just to keep him from worrying too much. He was pretty negative at first, but I had a feeling he would come around. At one point that evening I had to go pick some puppy gear up from a neighbor. When I came home to find her in his lap, I knew I didn’t have to worry about his decision.

A year has past, and so much has happened in my life. I lost my job. I dated, broke up and reunited with a beautiful woman. I started a business of my own and helped a friend get his off the ground as well. The list goes on. Spoon grew and grew, and she’s now over 40 pounds, and still as vibrant as the day I found her.

So, in memory of our first year together, I just wanted to leave you all with some pics of my darling puppy. I know, it’s cheesy. I feel like that dad that’s always showing off pics of their children whenever they get a chance, but I really don’t care.

Click to go to Spoon's Gallery

 

 

Film and Digital Lomography

iPhone Hipsters, UNITE!

Grab your phone and download the newest app guaranteed to make your pictures look like they were straight out of 1974. I am, of course, talking about Instagram: the iPhone app that allows users to take pictures that remind us of simpler times, and, for most hipsters, times before they were even born. Yes, I know, there’s also Hipstamatic, Best Camera, Camera Bag, Inifinicam, TiltShiftGen, Diptic, and so on… But, Instagram is the only app I’ve found that integrates everything you would want in an app so efficiently and effectively. Not only that, but it’s FREE. Save your pennies for the newest Angry Birds app, kids!

That said, before I get too far into this blog, I wanted you to know one thing: I do not hate the trend towards retro photos. I love the motif, and I wouldn’t be posting pictures of my own if I hadn’t spent some time with these apps. In fact, aside from Hipstamatic, I own all of the apps listed above.

Long Live Retro

Hipsters were doing retro before retro was cool… or so they’ll tell you… and to some degree they’re right. Modern Hipsters were using Polaroids and Dianas and other Lomographic cameras  at a time when film was dying or when they simply couldn’t afford anything better for their art school photography course. However, their history is much older than the late 90’s.

Lomographic cameras have been around since the 60’s in one form or fashion. Some really adventurous photographers (I won’t call them hipsters, because what follows requires actual effort) will still use old Brownie Cameras and other gear that was long ago considered “dead” and no longer useful for photography. True “Lomo” cameras come from Russia and were developed back in the 80’s. But the term is broadened to include any low-quality camera utilizing film. Most of these cameras cost under $100 and use either 120mm or 35mm film.

Personally, I have a Diana F+ that I use on occasion. Unfortunately, there’s only one place in town that will develop 120mm film, and they won’t develop black and white. So it’s up to me to develop my own film, which I don’t mind. I have some color rolls which I still need to get to them, but for now I’m going to be happy with developing the B&W images. In a later post I’ll get into how to develop film and transfer it to a computer, but for now please just enjoy the ride. 🙂

Pinhole shot with Diana in NYC

Apps Vs. Lomography

Now we get to the thick of it. The iPhone App versus Lomography. You may be wondering, “Which is better?” And I can tell you this: they both are in their own rite. Let’s look at Lomography first:

Diana F+ Lens

The basic principle behind Lomography is simplicity in film photography. There are no focusing rings or zoom lenses on a Lomo or a Diana. Just a simple switch with distance estimates. Aperture settings only relate to “conditions”. Shutter speed is variable, but most often is between 1/200 to 1/30. You can even hold down an exposure as long as needed to get the shot. It just depends on how you set up your camera. That said, for all its simplicity, it is a very versatile camera, and it can be used to create some fascinating images.

It’s fun to shoot with as well. My Diana F+ came with a flash and color gel inserts that can be utilized on my Diana and on my Nikon D90. In fact, it’ll fit any hotshoe with a simple adapter.

Example of Diana F+ Flash on D90

While this is all good and fun, it’s not as easy as you may think. I’ve made many mistakes with my Diana F+ and its pieces. You don’t know how your pictures are going to come out until you have taken enough pictures to know what to expect. I also tend to forget if I’ve exposed a particular image or not given the time between shooting with it… resulting in a double exposure. Which creates some otherworldly images.

But that’s the fun of shooting with film! You make mistakes that you can’t correct without taking another shot. You have to work, think, and put effort into create a good image. There is a post-shoot process just like there is when you shoot RAW on your camera. You have to think about not only the composition of the image, but the exposure (again, those who shoot in RAW go through the same process). And this is where Lomography screams, “AHA! You thought you knew what that shot would take, but I proved you wrong! That exposure was way off, and your subject was further away than you thought!!!”

You see, lomography is an imperfect art. That’s why hipsters love this style of photography above most any other style. But, even with mistakes, there is a chance to make the image interesting. That’s the joy of post-processing.

Post processing is a long topic in and of itself. For now I’ll say this: I developed these images in my home, scanned them into my computer, and edited them in Photoshop CS5. In terms of being a film “purist,” I am definitely not that. Then again, who is any more? And if I was, I wouldn’t be posting my work here!

This brings us to Instagram and all the other fine iPhone apps that emulate Lomographic effects. The first question is this, “What would a real hipster think?” Honestly, they would probably think that Instagram is an app for posers who want to be cool. It’s not the original. It’s like the mp3 versus vinyl argument… it’s all a matter of opinion, but “old school” always has the upper hand with that “nostalgic” effect.

That said, how do these apps it compare to Lomography? Well, let’s think back to the history of Lomography. These were cameras that were originally priced around $2-10 and were available at about every place you could think to buy a camera. They were cheap, plastic, and unique. Its purpose was simple: take a picture. It was not perfect in its design, and it wasn’t a high quality image in terms of crispness or ability to gauge exposure. The more I describe it the more it sounds about like an app, doesn’t it?

In reality, Lomographic Apps do not really differ from Lomographic Cameras that much. Sure, true image quality is much higher on a 120mm negative than with a little 1.3mp or 8mp iPhone, but they accomplish the same effect, and they do so quite well.

The real difference comes in the simplicity of the modern era. They were both simplistic for their time, but with an iPhone app, you don’t have to spend 3+ hours developing, cutting, and printing your images. In about 5 minutes I can frame a shot, take the image, edit it, and upload it to whatever social media sites I wish to share my images with.

So why would I continue to waste my time with film? Why do I spend time taking pictures with a cheap, outdated camera when it will take me days, weeks, or even years (I’ve had rolls of B&W sitting around about that long) to develop them? I think part of it comes from my love for film and the joy of the artistic process involved with using film. I’m a sucker for standing out and doing things that seem impractical to most other people. Nostalgia gets me every time, and you can’t fight the fond and fleeting memories of times gone by when you have your hands around a plastic camera.

Verdict

The verdict is this: If you have the opportunity, and you want to expand your creative photography skills, try getting a lomographic camera. If you want look cool and not go through the effort of shooting with film, use the app.

Link to Diana F+ In NYC Gallery

Link to Instagram Photos Gallery

Too Far, Too Soon

I am fascinated with how quickly news unfolds and then dissipates in the age of Social Media.

Case and point: Kenneth Cole’s recent tweet concerning Cairo.

Let’s break this down play-by-play, and I think you’ll get a better understanding for why this is so fascinating.

[10:00am]: First, the tweet.

Clearly we know where they went wrong. They hit, “Send.” Morally, this tweet displays bad taste and capitalizing on other’s misfortune. I’m sure their mother will give them a strong talking to.

There are a few of other interesting things to note about this tweet as well.

1. It was posted to Twitter via the BlackBerry. This means that whoever is running this account is running it from a mobile device, which, while it’s not uncommon for Social Media managers to do this, proves how off-hand this tweet probably was.
2. Tweeting for a major corporation from a mobile device comes across as unprofessional and unplanned. Yes, it’s immediate access to your fans whenever you want to post a message, but that still doesn’t mean you need to do it.
3. This tweet was up for over 5 hours (taken down about 45 minutes after this shot was taken).
4. It was re-tweeted by over 100 people.

[Post-10:00am Tweets] Next we have the revolt. The followers of Kenneth Cole start becoming very upset with this turn of events, and they begin to tweet about the situation.

[12:11pm] Kenneth Cole apologizes for tweet.

It’s clear that they realized their mistake; however, they have failed to remove the tweet. This leads to more backlash…

[2:27pm] A parody account, @KennethColePR, is created & releases its first tweet.

By this time it’s clear that we have yet another attack against the corporate machine with the use of the satyristic  “Business Name PR” outfit most similar to “@BPglobalPR”. These Tweeters attack corporations in a sarcastic way to bring attention to their past blunders. With @BPglobalPR, the target was the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this past year. And if you’re wondering, yes, their twitter page still stands. By the time this article was written, @KennethColePR had 2,899 fans and 24 tweets. That’s in 2 hours.

Take that in contrast with Kenneth Cole’s account that had 8,914 followers and 1,002 tweets, and you start to get the picture that the tweet that Kenneth Cole posted offended a lot of people and news spread rapidly.

Speaking of rapidly spreading news…

[2:53pm] Mashable posts an article about the tweet.

Five hours after this tweet is posted the web and it’s hit the most popular online news stream in the world as “Angering the Internet.” That’s a pretty powerful statement when you consider how rapidly Twitter is growing and how Egypt attempted to disconnect its citizens from the Internet to slow the spread of information during the revolt.

[3:15 (approximate time)] Kenneth Cole removes tweet regarding Cairo from their history and posts an official apology on Facebook.

[3:15 (approximate time)] Kenneth Cole clearly doesn’t quell the anger of its fans. People are clearly upset at this untimely comment (apologies for the language).

I’ll admit that I’m guilty of tweeting things without thinking. I’ve said some things that have almost gotten me fired, and I’ve said things that have offended some of my close friends. Thankfully all of these situations were rectified, but that doesn’t negate the fact that I have hurt someone with an offhand comment online. I always try and learn from my mistakes, and I always try and make sure that I patch things up with the offended party. If the message was that offensive, I even delete it from my message stream so that it doesn’t have to be viewed by anyone again.

That is exactly what Kenneth Cole has tried to do in this situation. Unfortunately for them, their network is not made up of their friends, and there is no way they will be able to “cool tensions” with the offended party over a cold beer or a cup of coffee.

The difference is that they are a business and as the primary account for that business, they are the voice of an entire company. What was said online was read by at least 8,914 followers and, in the case of this tweet, re-tweeted by over 100 of them to all of their followers. This means that this one message (original and re-tweets) could have feasibly hit at least 21,514 followers (assuming each re-tweet was done by someone with the 126 fans) in the span of 5 hours. Mashable alone has 2,183,251 followers, and the weight of their tweet and traffic to that article means that the message spread even more rapidly. This is amplified by the fact that people were tweeting links directly to the post and some even screen captured the tweet so that they would have record of this historically foolish comment.

So, what can Kenneth Cole learn from this mistake?

• Having a solid Social Media PR and Branding Guide is vital to your business online. If you don’t have one in place for your company, I would highly recommend getting one.
  • The US Army has an excellent guide it uses and is available free online.

• Messages need to be approved before being posted online.
  • If your business is managing their social media internally, then make sure that your social media manager is running their messages by a superior before they post anything to the web. It’s also a good idea to check it against the Branding Guide before posting.
  • If your business is handing off management to an outside organization, make sure they know how to use a social media management platform besides the twitter home page or their mobile phone.
  • If you’re the only person between your company and the web, be sure and ask yourself, “Who would be offended if I posted this?”

• Just because you think it’s funny, doesn’t mean that the whole world will think it’s funny. See @KennethColePR for more details.
• Schedule messages at least a week in advance if possible. This gives your business plenty of time to determine if a message is appropriate or not. There are plenty of great social media management services out there that allow you to do this.
• Facebook fans are valuable, and their buying power should not be treated lightly.
  • If every Facebook fan is worth an average of $71.84, then Kenneth Cole’s fan value is $9,446,672.64 a year in additional revenue. They should keep that number in mind for every “dislike” (a -$71.84) they get as a result of this fiasco.

The sad part about this whole situation is that they didn’t think before they acted. They said something inappropriate and the backlash was immediate and severe. I’m sure this will probably be the last time that they act out in such a way. They apologized for their actions, and I don’t hold any resentment for them because they recognized their mistake fairly quickly. Regardless, as quickly as this issue has hit Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the Internet, it will probably fade out within the next couple of weeks. Most of us won’t even remember it happened by this time next year, however; I will say the next time I have the option between Kenneth Cole and another brand, I will choose the latter.