Zave Smith Photography

While this blog is mainly focused on creativity and photography today I need to speak a bit about politics and a bill before the U.S. Congress.  

In an age where trying to sustain any business model whose basic product is ideas or art is becoming increasingly difficult because of the ability for people to steal your output, the United States Government is considering legislation that will make it legal, under certain circumstance, to steal this creative output.

If you care about copyrights, if you care about the ability of artist, authors, musicians or any creators of content to be able to sustain themselves by earning income from their creativity, you will be interested in the outcome of the current congressional battle.

For better information and analysis than I could ever provide, please follow this link to the website of the Stock Artist Alliance.  http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/orphan.html

Sincerely,

Zave Smith 

It is not often ones gets to walk on the roof of the tallest building in town.  Yesterday while doing a location scout for an upcoming project I was on the roof of the new Comcast Center Tower.  

If you look closely near the center of the image below, you will see a five story brick building with painted yellow brick on the first floor.  This is the home of Zave Smith Photography as seen from the Comcast Tower.

More to come in a few weeks.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith

One of my earliest memories as a child are of Passover.  I remember how big it seemed, how long it seemed and how it was a bit scary having a refrigerator filled with unusual foods that I might not like to eat.

But my mom was smart and for every strange jar of gefilta fish or box of dry matzo, there was a chocolate bar or whipped butter to help me feel reassured.

Over the next few years as I learned the customs, the song and the traditions, the Passover Seder and I became friends.

Last night during our reading of the numerology of the plagues, I thought of numerology of the seating around the Seder table.

You start at the far end, where your wiggling creates the least disturbance. For the first twenty years you are more of less a passive observer at the Seder table.  You share in the songs and the readings but you are basically along for the ride.

For the next 40 years you slowly graduate into a leadership role as you learn to help prepare the home.  You cook, you clean and you find interesting readings to share and help make the Seder fun and meaningful for all.  Your chair starts to migrate from the far end towards the top.

Then, god willing, you have 80 more years where you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.  You are no longer always in charge; this is when your contribution comes not from labor or research but from the wisdom that one accumulates from walking on this earth for many springs.

Such is the math 20-40-80; each period twice has nice as the period before.

While your chair at the Seder table might change. The Seder itself remains fairly consistent from year to year and from generation to generation.  The Seder, this ritual that we Jews have performed for thousands of years, this story of our people becoming free, binds us together as a people and as family because the desire to be free, the desire to be whole, the desire to be liberated from what ever holds us back, is the story of being human.

So on this Passover night, a night that we begin by asking, why is this night different? I ask a different question. How nice it is that this night is but a little different from all other Passover Seders.

And while the Seder is what binds us together as a people and as a family, I want to add how lucky I feel this evening; for I realize that this family is not only bond together by tradition but also by love, respect and the joy of shared laughter.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith

4.21.08

One of the great joys of being a photographer is the opportunity to work with really talented people.  For me this starts with my crew.  Deborah Holljes, Kelsey Tome, Keri Souser and Steve Boyle all bring their unique talents, hard work and dedication to each project.  Each has made my creative life richer.

Deborah has been my Producer/Stylist for 13 years now.  She has a wonderful eye for detail and color, she understands my strengths and weaknesses and will always stand up for her ideas.  Kelsey has the ability not only to make people look better with her magic hair and make up styling; she also makes our subjects feel beautiful and natural inside.

Keri and Steve contribute the technical expertise that helps turn concepts into reality.    Their positive energy helps keep the job flowing.

A few weeks ago, I decided to update our website.  I wanted to expand the gallery, add some functions that would make it more flexible and allow me to share some long-term projects that we have become involved in.  I called Michael McDonald of Organic Grid. 

Michael is a “designer’s designer”.  He has won more awards then he has walls to hang them.  His logos and websites have given his clients a sense of beauty, identity and a strong presence in their marketplace.  Michael has designed the last three incarnations of www.zavesmith.com and each one made me proud.  I told Michael what I wanted to achieve and within a couple of days he came up with some very creative solutions to achieve my goals.  You can see more of his work at: www.organicgrid.com

The people who I work with and for are often my strongest source of inspiration.  They have helped me be a very lucky man.

 Sincerely,

Zave Smith

www.zavesmith.com 

all photos on this blog are copyrighted by Zave Smith. 

While the studio’s income is two-thirds commercial assignment and one-third stock a few years ago I became involved in the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA).  These involvements lead to me becoming SAA President this January. This highly paid ($0.00 per year) position has given me a unique glimpse of photo politics at its best.  

The Stock Artist Alliance (www.stockartistsalliance.com) is an international trade organization whose mission is to be an advocate for photographers who sell stock imagery either directly or via stock libraries.  The cool thing is I am now on a first name bases with many of the leaders in the stock industry.  The bad thing is my early mornings and evenings are now taken up writing memos and returning emails from this same group.  The funny thing is that people now think that I am an “expert”. 

You can become an expert by being very knowledgeable about a subject.  You can also become an expert by being able to write a good persuasive sentence.  Academics are the former, politicians are usually the latter.  Business owners are a bit of both but know how to monetize their knowledge.  I can write an amusing argument.

The world of advertising and photography are going through huge changes.  While during the 1990s and the early part of this decade intellectual property sold for a premium while producers of commodities like steel, corn and oil suffered through a price depression. Suddenly in the last two years this price relationship has flipped and our world has returned to the historically more common situation where ideas are cheap and goods are dear.  When consumers are spending $4.00 a gallon for gas, they have less money for books or magazines.  Plus, the Internet has made it all too easy not only to share ideas but also to steal them.  Trying to understand how photographers can survive and thrive in this world is part of the mission of organizations like SAA. 

I believe that for commercial photographers a few very talented people will rise to the top and earn good money.  A few more photographers who have learned to produce a high volume of decent images very inexpensively will also earn their keep.  The vast majority of photographers who have average talent in both image creation and business systems will find a career in photography to be very difficult way to earn a living.  This paradigm currently holds true for most creative endeavors.  I have always strived to be the premium producer.  My business model has always been to work as high up the pyramid as my talent allows.

The world of a free lance anything can be isolating at times.  Becoming active in professional organizations is one way to get yourself out of your bubble.  While there are times, when your spouse is sleeping and you are still at your laptop trying to convince a corporate bigwig that changing subsection “C” of the latest contract is good for the world, that volunteer work can feel overwhelming.  It is interesting how the word, “commitment” can be so motivating.

So now you know why there are a fewer posts on the blog each month.  Its not that I am writing less, I am writing more.  It is five in the morning; time to return another email.

Sincerely,

 Zave Smith

www.zavesmith.com 

  Thirty years ago I was a very tough and brave solder in an infrantry brigrade of the Israeli Army.  Compared to this mother and child who I had the honor of meeting and photographing this week, I was a coward. From Flashes of Hope, Philadelphia:  http://www.flashesofhope.org/Sincerely, Zave Smithwww.zavesmith.com    

Two weeks ago, on a rainy and cold December day in Philadelphia, I received a call from Glenda McKinley English of GMC Advertising, asking if I could come to Louisiana for a six-day photo shoot the next week.  Since several large productions that we were involved with were entering their holiday break period, my schedule was open and the warm weather and adventure beckoned me.  

This assignment was outside of my usual lifestyle productions.  With only the help of a wonderful account executive named Randy Reves and two bags of camera gear I set out to create a collection of images for the Louisiana Department of Tourism.   Because of the tight schedule I only had one hour in each location to create a story.  One hour to discover the visual poem that would describe each locations reason for being. One hour to create a photograph that would beckon somebody off their comfortable sofa and motivate them to drive across Louisiana to discover their past. One hour to create a photograph that in a millisecond captures a viewer’s imagination and calls to them, to take a longer look.

When we arrived at each location the first question I had to ask was what was the significance of this place, why was it on the tour?  Next I would have to find a visual way to answer that question.  I would explore each location from as many angles as possible in order to find the poetry inside its story. Most of these sites were in buildings that were never designed to be museums.  Several sites were in small homes, one was in an auditorium, and another museum was retrofitted into a bank building. These buildings presented a challenge to the curators and to me since they were not designed for visual presentations.  The name of the game for me became distillation.

One such fine place was in Donalsville, Louisiana. Here there is a small home that a several retired African American Women have turned into a museum that celebrates their community’s heritage from Africa, to slavery, from reconstruction, to segregation, and on to the civil rights movement. This gem was one of 32 Heritage sites spread over 1,400 miles that we photographed during this photo safari marathon week.

Louisiana is a very flat with lots of water in the southern half.  The terrain does not vary that much from mile to mile along the interstates or even along the two lane blacktops that link small town to rural hamlet.  I spent a great deal of time trying to find views of 200-year-old buildings without showing the 21’s century paraphernalia that engulfs these historic structures.  I have often felt that you could travel to all fifty states and take the same photograph; it would be of the strip mall along the highway. While Louisiana offered its share of 21-century visual blandness it also offered many sites that were unique, historic and beautiful. 

After 5 days of driving and carrying equipment around, I woke up with a splitting headache in the middle of the night in New Orleans.  I had left my Advil in Randy’s car so I ventured out along Bourbon Street searching for an open store.  The street was still buzzing with its middle of the night partiers, drunks, crazies and middle age voyeurs when I saw the guy with the sign that advertised “BIG ASSED BEERS!” next to the guy with the “Cross” and the promise of holy salvation. I knew then that all would be well with this world.

Louisiana is a poor state and since hurricane Katrina many of the sites we visited are struggling with the issue of financing their preservation and restoration.  Yet even without finical resources the people who run these historic sites are doing an amazing job of preservation and education.  Their dedication was truly the most inspiring aspect of this journey.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith

12.28.07 

This is a formal portrait of the new boss:  Shot two weeks ago at Federal Hill in Baltimore, MD. 

This months Rangerfinder Magazine had a wonderful article about me:  Here is the link:

http://www.rangefindermag.com/magazine/Nov07/160.pdf

Or click on the PDF file,   it will take a minute or two to come into view.   160.pdf

profile: Zave Smith

a passion

for

Photography

nurturing

Zave Smith, a commercial photographer based

in Philadelphia, PA, has been in the business

for over 20 years—long enough to see a variety

of stylistic revolutions, countless changes in the market

and incredible advances in technology. What has

remained constant, however, is the importance of creativity

and personal vision in his long-term success as

a photographer. Without this, says Zave, you’re always

chasing the latest fashion and always lagging behind.

“It’s like playing pin the tail on the donkey,” he laughs,

“but not only are you blindfolded, the donkey is also

moving.”

Even on a good day, staying your own course in a

world of opinionated clients, viewers and peers can

be a challenge. For people who make their careers in

photography, the situation is significantly exacerbated

by the need to remain fresh and innovative over the

course of several decades. “For those of us who have

walked life’s road a bit and built our professional identity

on earlier successes, we have a vested interest in

keeping our reputation,” says Zave. “The crowds yell

out to us, ‘Sing “Satisfaction” again.’ How do we stop

each creative answer from being in the same key? Bank

accounts, credit cards, kids in school and a reputation

to keep intact. How do we stop thinking about the soles

of our shoes?” Zave has a few answers.

Be Fearless

It’s one thing to be innovative and creative at 20, but

how do you maintain this same level of vitality and relevance

as the decades roll by? You do it by being fearless.

“Fear is the emotion that stops us in our tracks,” Zave

says. “Fear freezes the mind and builds walls around the

soul. The bumps and scars of a creative life teach us to

be careful, but being careful is the death of creativity.”

Control Your Environment

Controlling your mind can be difficult, especially

when it comes to conquering those knee-jerk fear

reactions. Controlling your environment, says Zave, is

actually much easier. “Nothing influences me like the

people who surround me,” he says. “Positive, energized

and giving people fill my inner circle. Whiners, braggers

and the selfish are kept at bay. On the set, I want

to free my mind to focus on what is in front of my

camera and not worry about what is happening behind

it. Once in a while during a shoot, I look around and

the number of people behind me startles me. I have

forgotten that they are there. I can do this because I

know that they are paying attention to their areas of

responsibility, freeing me to concentrate on mine.”

Zave has also learned to streamline his studio environment

so that areas not directly involved in picturemaking

take up less of his time. This helps him avoid

spending undue amounts of time on minutiae.

Do the Work

Potentially creative moments arise all the time, not

just during sessions, but if you’re holding the television

remote instead of your camera, chances are you’ll miss

them. “One of the pleasures of being a photographer is

that our creative life is not client-dependent,” Zave says.

by Michelle Perkins

ALL PHOTOs COPYRIGHT © zave smith

“For example, my shooting schedule does not vary that greatly

between the times when the studio is busy with clients and those

times in between. I am constantly shooting and exploring my

visual world.”

Find a Fresh Direction

“I am a big believer in the power of the trash can,” says Zave.

“Even good ideas, if they are not working toward my current goals,

need to be put aside.” If something is not working, Zave suggests

getting up and walking away from the problem at hand. This can

free you to seek out the answers by using a different approach,

getting past the one that has you stuck. “The pressure to make the

day’s numbers can give a lot of energy to a set, but I believe that

this numbers game can lead to making pictures that show instead

of say something,” he says. “Chasing the day’s shot list forces us to

see with our head instead of our eyes.”

Focus on Emotions

“For me, inspiration can come from a model,” Zave says. “I will meet

someone at a casting and find their look, and more importantly their

personality, captivating. I will then develop shooting scripts around

what intrigues me about them. The script ideas often come from my

day-to-day life. I then set the scene and let the talent act it out. It is during

this acting that I seem to catch the spark of life.”

Zave has another handy tip for catching this spark: He has his

subjects “play the scene” from several different points of view. “If I

am after a romantic couple, I will also have the couple act as if they

are angry, mad, contemplative or bored,” he says. “By swinging

back and forth through different emotions, they will often reach

a truer sense of their feelings. Most of our emotions have many

shades, many sides—they are complicated. Powerful photography

has that sense of the complicated nature of our emotional lives.”

Work is Slow? Time to Grow!

It’s the nature of the photography business: There are busy times

and slow times. While the busy times provide a clear sense of purpose,

the slow times can be breeding grounds for self-doubt—a

real creativity crusher. “These are the times when you recall the

parental voices echoing something about going to medical school

like your brother,” says Zave.

What’s important to remember, he notes, is that we get to

choose which mind games we will play. “Instead of listening to all

those dark tapes in the back of your head, ask, ‘What if?’ ” he says.

“What if I called on a company I never talked to before? What if I

offered different services to my present client base?”

Zave pursues other creativity-affirming options as well. “One of

my favorite activities is to take elements from a recent assignment

and re-explore them to see what other visual possibilities might be

there,” he says.

“I have found that each of my slow periods has forced me

to reexamine what I do and how I do it,” he adds. “Each slow

period has enabled me to grow and reach to the next level of

my career. Sounds strange, but I would not be as successful

as I am if I had always been busy. Those times of unrestricted,

undefined exploration are sometimes just the thing we need to

recharge our creative juices.”

Find Your Passion

Photographers often strive to be perfect,

but Zave thinks that finding your passion

is much more important than complex

lighting or flawless posing. “It wasn’t until

I gave myself permission to let my personal

passions enter my professional work that

my career truly blossomed,” he says. On

a shoot Zave notes that it’s easy to get so

focused on what the client is saying that you

lose sight of why you were hired in the first

place—the visual sense you can bring to

the expression of their concept. “My most

successful shoots,” he says, “are those where

I listen to myself as much as to the client. A

true collaboration.”

To see more of Zave Smith’s images,

visit www.zavesmith.com. And be

sure to check out his blog, full of inspiring

reflections on photography, at

http://zavesmith.wordpress.com.

Michelle Perkins is a professional writer, designer and

image retoucher. She has written for PC Photo and

is the author of Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop,

The Practical Guide to Digital Imaging,

Color Correction and Enhancement with Adobe

Photoshop, and her latest book, Professional Portrait

Lighting: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers

(all from Amherst Media).This months Rangerfinder Magazine had a wonderful article about me:  Here is the link:http://www.rangefindermag.com/magazine/Nov07/160.pdf Enjoy!  

all material on this site are copy-written by Zave Smith (www.zavesmith.com) no usage or copying permitted.

Today I finished printing a new portfolio.  Looking over this new body of work a smile came over my face and for just a moment, I thought to myself, “I just got good”. 

I feel this way a couple of days each year.  Until the plight of dissatisfaction returns forcing me to create new images with the false prayer that my next picture will lead me to visual nirvana.

My best works are pictures that teach me.  This learning does not happen when the shutter is clicked.  It happens later, after living with the image awhile, after letting the print take on its own life outside of my experience of creating it.   When I am allowed the pleasure and pain of looking at the new work with a fresh eye and an honest heart.

I update my book around three times a year.  I start by compiling a folder called, “possibilities”.  I then ask myself some very hard questions.  Which of my older children to I still love?   Which of my babies are “book-worthy”?  How do all these images relate to each other?   And the hardest question of all, what do I stand for as a photographer?

I lay all the possible images on large tables and then I start to play. Every re-edit is gut retching.  Each time when I start compiling recent work to be considered for the new edit I wonder where the good pictures went. It can take me up to three weeks of re-editing and re-arranging until I start to feel that this body of work is coming together.  Once the edit pleases me, I have to ask, what will others see and understand from this new story?  

After playing with the work prints, it is time to start the real job of printing.  I find printing to be boring and exhilarating at the same time.  Boring because each print takes five minutes, five minutes times 140 printings is a lot of waiting. Exhilarating because when I get it right, the prints can be breathtaking.

After the printing, the trimming and the binding I get to sit back, go through this new assemblage and hopeful at the end of the process I will say, “I just got good”

Sincerely,

Zave Smith

Lifestyle Photography for Advertising

http://www.zavesmith.com

215-236-8998

This mornings NY Times had an article concerning Skype.  EBay bought Skype around 2 years ago for 2 plus billion bucks.  It currently has 220 million users and it brings in 90 million in gross revenue.  EBay is now taking a huge write off and admits that it way overpaid for Skype.

Over the years my accountant has often asked me, “Why don’t you just lower your pricing, and go for the volume”?  I always answered that lowering of prices is a game that nobody can win for there is always somebody who will do it cheaper”.  Instead the game that I play is quality.  Try to do it better and more uniquely than my competition.  This allows me to charge a premium and maybe stay in business.

Companies love to play the volume game.  Having one million customers is more addictive that having 100,000 clients.  Salespeople love being able to offer discounts but what are the costs?  The landscape of commerce is filled with the corpses of companies that got hooked on the volume game. 

Getty Images is the latest volume addict.  It somehow believes that selling 10 images for $49.00 is going to make them more money than selling 2 images for $600.00.  Oh, they believe that they are going to sell a lot more than 10 but to make their numbers work the increase in volume that they would need is a number that exist only in dreamland.

Luckily for Getty, its suppliers and its investors yelled stop before they drank to much volume flavored cool-aid.   Can the same be said for the rest of us?

Sincerely,

Zave Smith

www.zavesmith.com 

Once in a while a project becomes much larger, much more interesting and more difficult than you imagined when the layouts first come across your desk.  Recently we had such a project for a chemical company.  The creative brief sounded simple.  Three pictures.  The first one would be of two kids sitting in front of a pool putting sunscreen on each other.  The second image was a picture of a father and son playing with a toy car.  The third photograph would be of a family of four watching a home movie in their backyard.  There was nothing here that we had not done many times before.

Once again the devil was in the details.  The pool house had to be a very upscale home, architecturally interesting, with a pool, a privacy fence, nice landscaping and non-while vinyl siding.  The father and son and the family watching the movie turned out to be both period pieces, the first one had to look like it was shot in the 1960s’ and the second one like it came out of the 1950s’.

Once in a while a project becomes much larger, much more interesting and more difficult than you imagined when the layouts first come across your desk.  Recently we had such a project.  The creative brief sounded simple.  Three pictures.  The first one would be of two kids sitting in front of a pool putting sunscreen on each other.  The second image was a picture of a father and son playing with a toy car.  The third photograph would be of a family of four watching a home movie in their backyard.  There was nothing here that we had not done many times before.

Once again the devil was in the details.  The pool house had to be a very upscale home, architecturally interesting, with a pool, a privacy fence, nice landscaping and non-while vinyl siding.  The father and son and the family watching the movie turned out to be both period pieces, the first one had to look like it was shot in the 1960s’ and the second one like it came out of the 1950s’.

Once again changes that the client made after production began added some more challenges.  For example, after the three shots were cast, the demographics of the models changed and the whole project had to be re-cast.  Many questions arose like do we style the father and son has if it was the early or late 1960s’?  How upscale were these families?

With styling issues, the details matter.  I believe that even when an object is out of focus and in the background it has to be authentic or the shot looses something.  My producer stylist, Deborah Holljes, had to scour the whole country in order to fine the clothing that we need.

Luckily I work with an amazing crew and in spite of all these issues plus that added pleasure of working with little kids on shots that need very specific angles and gestures that shoot came off very smoothly.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Zave Smith 

 while we get to work on a campaign that is just so cool, so different, you just got to share it.  This campaign shot for Holton Teitelman And Gury is just such a campaign.

Enjoy!

All images on this blog are copyrighted by Zave Smith.  Do not use, copy, borrow or otherwise download.

We will pursue any and all copyright violations 

We are used to pulling rabbits out of hats, it is what we do.  But when on a Wednesday evening I received a call asking if we could put together a shoot in Harrisburg, PA by Tuesday, twenty photographs of kids, over two days in two unknown locations, plus a formal portrait of a dignitary, I thought to myself, “this is nuts”.

We did not have a script and only the vaguest notion of what we were supposed to photograph.   In order to save money we had to use the children of department that hired us.  The art director responsible for this project was away on vacation until Sunday night.  We did not have locations.  We did not have time to do a live casting for the supplementary models we would need to fill in where we were demographically lacking in “real” children. Harrisburg, while a lovely town does not have the normal support services that we are used to and besides, I and my producer had never been there before.

Right away, my producer, Deborah Holljes, got on the phone and rounded up our needed crew.  After a late Thursday afternoon conference call with 15 people who I never meet, Deborah and I started to put together a battle plan.  On Friday I drove to Harrisburg to scout locations and get a feel for what we might or might not be able to achieve on such a short notice.  Deborah meanwhile started putting together a cast, lists of props, wardrobe, and needed logistical supplies like lunch for 30 people in a park that we had not picked out yet.

Somehow, by Tuesday, all the people, models, supplies and gusto were gathered together and the shooting began.  Twenty kids, a park, and one photographer, it was a hell of a ride.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as we enjoyed creating them.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith 

 (all images copyright 2007-Zave Smith)

It was a warm summertime Sunday morning.  I found myself in the pews of the First African Baptist Church. This church was founded in Philadelphia, during the year 1809 with its present building dating from 1906. I was there to photograph the service for an exhibition that was going to open in just seven days at the African American Museum of Philadelphia.  This was not a lot of lead-time.

Though I had seen many depictions of Black Baptist services in film and on TV.  This was my first live experience of an evangelical nature.  I was excited to be there.  Most of my work is advertising with a few feature editorial projects mixed in.  Most of the time I am working with models and a crew, most of the time I am working from a layout and a script.  This particular Sunday it was my camera, a couple of lenses and a desire to capture the essence of an unfamiliar service without getting in the way.

Being open to opportunities for creativity has been one of the strategies that has kept my eye fresh and has helped me grow as a photographer.  Not all opportunities come from advertising work.  Occasionally visual opportunities arise from an unexpected phone call from someone with no real budget. It may be a passion for a project that is infectious or a cause that is just that will convince me to take on the work.  Often these unusual projects force me to work a bit differently than my normal routine, often these projects also force me to think and to see differently. Often, this new way of working will add to my repertoire of creative skill.  This project was no different. 

I hope you enjoy these new images.

Sincerely,

Zave Smith 

A sincere thanks to Craig Johnson of Talisman Interactive for inviting me to participate in this project and to Reverend Griffith and the Congregation of The First African Baptist Church for welcoming me into their Sunday Morning Service.

©2007-Zave Smith

I am not a doctor like my brother, nor a teacher like my spouse. I have saved no one from hell nor created a web 2.0 business. I am just a photographer. I’m not even a hell bent to save the world photojournalist. For I am just an ad guy. I create images that help sell products. Or, as one of my favorite creative directors once said, “We create landfill”.

Luckily, the pictures I create do have a certain power. Somewhere between my studio and the city dump, millions of people see my work. For a brief moment while filliping pages and dismissing come-ons for things they don’t really need, my pictures reach out catch their eye and make them smile. For the power of my images is their ability to tell the universal story of our pleasures and our pains. It is this power of affirmation that helps us all feel human again.

If the beauty of my photographs can create so many smiles in people across the globe I am doing something very worthwhile.

©2007-Zave Smith Photography

My studio is located in an industrial area in Philadelphia. Across the street an Asian man owns several food related businesses. This hard working man who barely speaks English also has his family living above the warehouses that he owns. Often times what I believe are is wife, mother and daughter can be found sitting on boxes and enjoying the views though nobody would call the views on Buttonwood Street pretty.

Yesterday I took a photograph of the little girl and gave this image as a print to the family.