Hi I'm Tamara Lackey time this episode
of ReDefine show for AdoramaTV
I continue my discussion with pulitzer
prize winning photo journalist and
fellow Nikon ambassador Deanne Fitzmaurice
and we discuss the power of personal
project, something that comes up time and
time again, and how they can even spawn
some fantastic standalone companies like
the thoughtful gear company Think Tank
that she co-founded with her husband.
Check out this very cool origin story
So in 2008 I left my staff photographer
position at the San Francisco Chronicle
and I waited till the depths of the
recession.
Okay. To walk away from a perfectly good job
where they're paying me, you know good
salary, benefits, a car, equipment.
Who needs this? I'm going to walk away I'm
going to wait till the recession is in
full gear. I'm going to bail, so I walked
away and yeah scary time to walk away
especially I was thinking now I want to
hit the magazines. I want to be a magazine
photographer. All the magazines were
cutting back at the time, but what I did is
I went out and started working on a
personal project a week after I left the
chronicle, it was okay, same sex marriage,
San Francisco there is going to be
getting married in a week. I'm going to document
this, so I did, I followed this couple and
week later I went to New York meet with
editors and was showing the work and Time
magazine says, great we want to publish
this, so you know it was just something
that I went out and initiated it. You created it.
Yes and then so do you actually reach
out to the magazine and then okay?
Yes and so I talked a lot about my work
and it's so important the relationships
I build with people when that's
something that I had to figure out about
you do I engage, do I not engage as a
photojournalist. Once I got through that
barrier I realized the value of,
building relationships with people that
I photograph and how important it is
and how, how much deeper the story
becomes. Right. And also about
relationships about people around the
edges, people that you know they just
help me get the access I need to get,
that's a big part of it but also
relationships with editors that we meet
at events and following through and
being able to just contact an editor and
say hey I have this story I just did on
same sex marriage. Are you interested in
publishing it? Yeah and they know you
they trust your work, they know that you
can deliver and that just shortcuts so much
and editors want to work with people
that they know and people that they trust.
Yes. And so just to get that one on
one with editors so that they know you
and they know they can count on you and
I'm glad you bring that up because that
reliability factor. Yes. I think it's a bigger
factor than most people would guess. Yeah
Like they, it's just not worth the risk
of an unknown that doesn't have that
reliability factor so that being able to
prove that again. Oh yeah. It goes along way.
Because if you think about it, it's their jobs on the
line too, you know, if they hire someone
and they don't get the assignment right
Absolutely. Or don't deliver.
Yeah absolutely. Yeah. So when did, when
did Think Tank come about like how what
was the origination what's the origin
story of Think Tank?
Okay so it was 2005 when we started the company.
Pre-recession.
That's right, that's right, and my husband
and I, we were staff photographers at the
San Francisco papers; Chronicle and
Examiner and we were running around
shooting assignments and just trying to
figure out you know how do we carry our
equipment how do we get it on airplanes and
just all the challenges we all have. Yes
you know. So it started with your own
challenges? Exactly. Because you were traveling
so often and shooting so often. Yeah.
And whether I was, you know, running up
and down the sidelines of a 49ers game.
Right. I can't carry a shoulder bag
but I need lenses okay and you know
some kind of a belt system and you know
and then getting on airplanes and how do
we do this? There's no way I'm going to
check my bag. Right you and I were
talking about a year ago.
the Nikon Ambassador summit maybe that's
like six months ago, at the Nikon
ambassador summit about the, having to
put your bag up top. Oh yeah. You have
this amazing strategy for where you
stand in line behind people right?
What was it? There are so many tricks of
the trade and yeah I mean this is crazy
but sometimes I'll have a really heavy
case with me and I'm thinking okay
I might be able to get this overhead but
I'm not certain. Right so I will position
myself in line behind a big guy sometimes.
Oh look I just happen to be here.
Or just hope, or better still,
ahead of a big guy because
if you're behind. They could keep going.
They could keep going. Yeah.
So better still ahead.
And do you just go; om, om? Yeah exactly.
You know we're just trying to figure out
the bags to do this, we just came out
with an airport advantage which is
for commuter jets, I was just showing it to you. Yes, yes.
And it's a lightweight and it's small
enough that you could put it overheas
on regional jets. Right. Om yeah
but the way we got things going, you know
it's kind of funny, you know sometimes it
feels like it's the worst thing in the
world, something happens to you and Kurt
was really not connecting with his
editors at the paper and you know
sometimes, how that happens right?
And he says okay I think I'm done with this
newspaper thing I'm going to start
something new. All these photographers
are looking for a way to carry their
gear in their trunks because you would
run around and you would shoot maybe
three assignments a day, two or three and
you know, your jump in your car and your
lenses are clanking around, in the
trunk. Right. Going around corners
clank, clank and we're just trying to
figure out something and Kurt had always said;
if we could come up with this
organizer for the trunk? Right. So he went
ahead and he designed one that he was
really thinking, I don't want to do this
newspaper thing anymore, because you know,
it's like, you know sometimes you
just forced into doing this thing. Yes
and so he designed this thing and gave
it to all the photographers at both
papers and we said okay you know this is
great but now what next? He started to
figure out how to market this. So we end
up going to a trade show and ran into
somebody who actually became Think Tank
Okay. Yeah so, so it's really two
photographers Kurt and myself,
teamed up with two bag designers okay
Doc Murdock and Mike Sterm and you know they
know how to design they know how to
manufacture and we come up with all
the problems. We're like you know the whiny
photographers. Right, right. yeah
Hey I need this now, I need that and so
it's been a great collaboration and we
have an amazing team and so now we have
20 people on the team
and we have probably 250 different bags.
Yeah and it's a beloved brand, it really is
like photographers feel like they can count on it,
back to counting on something, but you
know the name. Right.
The dependability factor. Yeah exactly that's
obviously part of the drive there too
was to create a really good quality product.
Yeah exactly I think people respect the
company because the bags are designed by
photographers and also just about the
quality and the customer service. Yeah
So it has been really great how it's been
embraced by our community, but you know,
always try to figure it out and always
try to bring the best things forward.
Thank you so much Deanne for your time and
for creating such cool products. Check us
out here next time on AdoramaTV and do
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